monday, november 06, 2006
An Interview with Gaston Acurio: Part II
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit down with famed Peruvian chef Gaston Acurio and talk about food. Peruvian food, in particular.Acurio insists that Peruvian food is on the verge of international acceptance and he has specific plans to be on the forefront of that wave.
In this portion of my interview (Part I interview can be found here), Acurio discusses how he has exported his different restaurants from Peru, how he comes up with a concept and how he intends to bring his businesses - and Peruvian cusine - to the United States.
What is the underlying philosophy behind the Astrid y Gaston chain?
You don’t want to set too many rules. You want to have the same philosophy but every place has different rules. Every Astrid y Gaston has to have a different atmosphere. They keep some Peruvian aspects like ahi’s and different traditions but then fuse them with local ingredients and dishes and traditions as well. All the restaurants have a point in common but they each need to be inspired by their own place.
There has to be a feeling of ownership of the restaurant by the people who live where it is located. So we established the brand so that there cannot be two in the same place.
How did you manage the financing?
The first one cost $45,000 to open in Lima but over the next five years we invested more than $400,000 into it. The first one we opened outside of Peru, the one in Chile, cost $350,000 to open.
The financing was easier after the success of the first restaurant in Lima. I think that if I had accepted a proposal to open Astrid y Gaston elsewhere I would have failed. I would have gone with a mixed up approach and we would not be open right now. But now I can go with what we have to anywhere and do well.
What was your strategy when you decided to export the concept?
When we decided to go outside of Peru we had a problem because we were not a trademark at that time.
So, if someone asked "Where are Astrid and Gaston? I want to meet them." And the restaurant would have to tell them, "You can't. They live in Lima."
That would lead to people being disappointed because they would feel the experience wouldn’t be the same because we are not there. So we realized we needed to have ambassadors.
Ambassadors?
We would send a chef, a Peruvian chef we had trained, to be the head chef there. He would set it all up and become the face of the restaurant in that country. He would need to find new ingredients to integrate into the menu and try to establish a new style that would draw from the country the restaurant was located in.
The key is that people would identify the restaurant with this person not just with us here in Lima. They don’t need me. They are the stars.
How did that change the business?
That worked very well but we still had a problem. People would still feel the other restaurants were inferior to the one in Lima. They would say, "This is nice but Lima is better." And we want them all to be equal.
Our staying the restaurant put all the others into a second-tier category. So a year and a half ago Astrid and I moved to this location [his current office/kitchen in Barranco] and the restaurant is now run by its own head chef.
Now we work from here creating the concepts for the entire business but the restaurant itself is being run by its own chef.
How have you developed your different concepts for restaurants?
Every concept we have developed has come from our own dissatisfaction when we went out to eat. We were not happy with what we found here. The passion we have for the food goes further than most of the places we found in Peru.
So we said "let's do the cevicheria of our dreams. Lets do the sanguicharia of our dreams."
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I want people to get lost in the concept. When they leave the restaurant I want them to say, "I never knew this type of eating existed before." And, if we succeed in bringing that idea to the world outside of Peru, then the market will be open for other Peruvian restaurants to open.
Where did the idea for La Mar came from?
La Mar was that idea for the type of cevicheria we wished we could go eat at. We said, lets build a cevicheria in the style of the classic type of cevicheria but offer the highest quality food and service.
So we wanted it to be open, we wanted music. We wanted some of the chaos... but have it with a unified design, with top-quality products. And lets make it a cevicheria that we can do here but we can also do anywhere else in the world.
How did you turn that concept into reality?
We built La Mar and I spent one year with it completely finish but we did not open it. We were creating the concept, doing the manual operation, training the staff.
We needed to create a system so that anywhere in the world, you could take our system, add the fresh ingredients, the fresh fish and whoop – you would have the best ceviche in Lima.
So this is the ‘perfect’ cevicheria?
For me, it is the way we should think a cevicheria must be. For me, the cevicheria must be done right. It is a base to start. Everyone can do whatever they want but we have to start right. If we had plastic chairs, for example, it would not work. The food is so sophisticated you have to have a sophisticated atmosphere to match it.
This wonderful food you can find anywhere in Peru – if you know where to look – must have the space to be honored. In Peru you go into the cevicheria with that expectation of what you will be getting, outside of Peru we have to set that expectation for people who are trying it for the first time.
What is your strategy for breaking into the US market with the concept?
We want to open some of the South American stores first so we can properly prepare the people we will need for a US restaurant. The cooks, the wait staff, the managers, everyone. I think we are starting on the west coast and then try to open others after that.
My dream is to have 50 or 60 La Mar’s around the United States. I would love to have that.
[Editor's note: Currently, there are plans to open the concept in San Diego, California; Miami, Florida, San Francisco, California and Washington D.C. ]
Why have you not made the jump to the US before now?
That’s because we have not had a philosophy toward the cuisine before - a basic idea for the food to follow. And that is what we are building with La Mar. La Mar is a concept, a model. It is a model to follow for opening more in the future so you can keep the quality, keep the philosophy.
How are you going to ensure the dishes will taste ‘authentic’ since many of the ingredients are not available in other countries?
I am exporting the bases for my restaurants. We have worked for four years to create ahi and ricottos that we can use them in all our sauces in all our restaurants. They have the authentic taste and they are made by us. Then, when we open a restaurant in another country, they will have this base to cook with and we make sure the taste is right.
How does that fit in your plan to popularize Peruvian food?
The next step is to start to sell these sauces, first in the restaurant and then generally. But it is not the time. My plan is to be ready when more and more Peruvian restaurants begin opening around the world and then I’ll be ready with my industrial division to start making these products for the market as it grows.
How are you targeting locations for your restaurants in the US?
We are not looking for places that have large concentrations of Peruvians. We are coming to the United States because we want to sell Peruvian food to Americans. We need the local people so we can establish a loyal customer base that we have a strong relationship with and who comes back time and time again.
What type of costs you are anticipating?
We are looking at it costing $500,000 to open the ones here in South America and at least $1.5 million for the first one in the United States. Although the costs are so much greater in the US you can sell three times as much as you do in Lima.
How does the success of Astrid y Gaston help what you are trying to do with La Mar?
People may come because it says "Gaston" and after that it’s my problem to keep them coming back. If it is good or not is my responsibility. People will come to try it. It will be packed on the first day. But after that it is my job to bring them back.
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If you are looking for more information on Gaston Acurio or his restaurants you can find my review of Astrid y Gaston and La Mar in the food section of Klephblog.
I have also taken a look at his cookbooks Una Aventura Culinaria and La Cocina de Gaston Acurio on my cooking blog, Kleph's Kitchen. (Acurio says his new cookbook series will debut on Nov. 9 and he has plans to roll out an English-language version next year)
In addition, the excellent blog Peru Food has a collection of various interviews, articles and videos of Acurio. I appreciate the link to this interview they were kind enough to include as well.
more: Food | Interviews | Peru
| comment posted by: Sandra on november 6, 2006 @ 10:39 am |
Hey Hola como estan !! los felicito por el excelente reportaje a gaston me encanto de veras fue super detallado , pero me gustaria atreverme a preguntarle como contactaron a gaston y donde lo entrevistaron? |
| comment posted by: Ben Wood on november 6, 2006 @ 2:02 pm |
I am soo excited to read this article and I will be even more excited to see a restaraunt like La Mar open near me. I'd like to do anything I can to help this happen... if only I had a 1.5 mil to invest in one. Peruvian food is going to conquer the US. Eating Ceviche right over the ocean in Paita was truly the most amazing culinary discovery of my life. I actually have photographic evidence of this but I'm not sure if I can link the photo here: |
| comment posted by: kleph on november 6, 2006 @ 8:12 pm |
Thanks for the comments. I have had ceviche on the seaside in the north of Peru, Ben, and it is - by far - the best way to enjoy it. In fact, most of the fish you purchase in Lima is caught in that region, put into ice trucks and driven down to to the capital overnight. |
| comment posted by: Mario navarrete jr on november 8, 2006 @ 1:47 pm |
la idea de gaston acurio es buena...y creo que esto se lograra con mas de una persona. |
| comment posted by: Carmen on december 9, 2006 @ 4:57 am |
Kleph muchas gracias por brindarnos esta entrevista, la he disfrutado como si todos los proyectos de Gastón fueran míos. Es la emoción que me invade al tener a un peruano haciendo las cosas tan, pero tan bien. |
| comment posted by: LuzMarina Williams on december 16, 2006 @ 1:42 am |
I am sooo excited to read this interview, I am a proud peruvian and I am sure this fantastic food will conquer the americans taste. I am agree that is a religious and spiritual experience to eat a ceviche, wuau!! what a wonderful exquisite food!! |
| comment posted by: Hugo Coz on december 29, 2006 @ 6:17 pm |
Primero que nada un articulo muy interesante. La comida peruana es sin duda una |
| comment posted by: melissa on march 10, 2007 @ 5:29 am |
Hola, Hola!!! well done, such an interesting interview. I can not believe how I missed this ;) |
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