Page 57 - Women Who Cook_3

In 2008, a young woman scarcely out of her teens completes internships at world-famous El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, The Ritz in Naples, and moves back home to Lima. Determined to work with rising star Virgilio Marínez who is
on the cusp of opening his own restaurant, she marches into the construcion site and asks him for a job. She gets it — in more than one respect — and ends up running the kitchen at Central, No. 6 on The World’s Best Restaurants ten years later.
Today, Pía León and Marínez are partners in business and partners in life. Last year, they designed and built a stunning muli-level culinary complex and private residence in Barranco, where they work and live with their young son, Cristobal.
The complex houses world-renowned Central Restaurante; Mayo, a classy cocktail and tapas bar; Mater Iniciaiva,
the couple’s culinary research center; and Kjolle, León’s prized kitchen and creaion, named ater a yellow lower that lourishes in the Andean highlands. At Kjolle, “My diners will see Peru; ingredients are 100% Peruvian and it’s a freer concept, less structured and bit messier, than Central,” León reveals. Equally revealing, The World’s Best Restaurants named León Lain America’s Best Female Chef a few months ater Kjolle’s debut.