Gastón Acurio was on stage yesterday at Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España 2022 to take part in the homage event. Today Peru emerged again in the shape of Héctor Solís, chef at Lima's Fiesta restaurant, who made a stand for the country's flavours and homing in on one in particular: the "murique" grouper. “I use two groupers of about 15-20 kilos each at the restaurant every day. It's a product that enables us to make a whole range of recipes: stews, casseroles, rice dishes and ceviches", the chef admitted.

The grouper fiesta began by breaking the fish down into sections, and continued with three recipes extracted from it (rice, the fish's neck in garlic, and a "sudado" preparation), and another Arequipa dish: "chupe" chowder. “Although I'm from the north, I see Peruvian cuisine as a whole entity, so I don't mind cooking a "chupe" from the south", explained Solís. But he did use the grouper's head as the base for the "chupe". That makes four dishes from the grouper. “It could be more”.

One, “which can be used to go with all of them”, was the paella. This was a long-grain "soppy" rice cooked with a lot of garlic, onion, oil,  yellow chilli peppers and pumpkin, and the fish head at the end of it all. On top of the warm rice, the neck, the eyes and other parts of the grouper.

Another: grouper neck in garlic, a dish he can only make twice a day because he works with two groupers each day. This part, which goes into the frying pan for 15 minutes, and then five minutes in the oven, "used to be discarded, but it's much appreciated now". He then added a garlic sauce with yellow chillis.

The “fiesta” ended with the "sweated" steak, which Solís cooked using the loins of the grouper over a pot with tomatoes, onion and algae. He added wine vinegar and "chicha de jora, the Peruvians' beverage, Peru's first beer", as described by Solís and Ignacio Medina, the journalist presenting the talk.

The chef expressed his thanks to Gastón Acurio, whom he brought on stage, "for all he has done for Peru. This is the gentleman who opened the doors to show people what we do. Thank you, Gastón”.