Andina
Andean highlands — quinoa, cuy, rocoto, papa seca, chicha — Cusco-Puno-Arequipa.
Pachamanca
Pachamanca is an ancient Andean cooking method using hot stones in an earth oven to cook meats and vegetables.
View page →Andina (Peruvian highland) cuisine reflects 5000+ years of agricultural civilization in the high Andes — domesticated by the pre-Inca and Inca peoples. The cuisine uses ingredients impossible elsewhere: quinoa (the Andean grain, 5000+ years old), 4000+ potato varieties, cuy (guinea pig, sacred Andean protein), papa seca (sun-dried potato, the original preserved-food), chuño (freeze-dried potato), llama and alpaca meat, ají amarillo, rocoto, huacatay (black mint, the iconic Andean herb), and chicha de jora (fermented corn beer). Cusco, Puno, Arequipa, and Cajamarca are the culinary heartlands.
Signature dishes are uncompromisingly Andean: Rocoto Relleno (Arequipa stuffed rocoto pepper), Cuy Chactado (fried guinea pig under a stone press), Olluquito con Charqui (pre-Columbian tuber-and-jerky stew), Chuño Phuti (rehydrated freeze-dried potato with eggs), Chiri Uchu (Cusco's 8-component Corpus Christi ceremonial cold plate), and Mazamorra Morada (purple-corn pudding). The cuisine is hearty, calorie-dense, mineral-rich — what the body needs at 3500m altitude. Lima fine-dining (Central, Mil) showcases Andean ingredients in modern preparations; the rural Andean kitchen makes the same dishes daily.
The Pantry
See all 80 ingredients›
Sauces & Condiments
How They Cook
Techniques that define this cuisine
Kindred Kitchens
Cuisines built on the same signature ingredients
Other regions
Siblings within Peruvian — each its own tradition.
