Virgilio Martinez, Peru
Known for his unique, colorful, and daring dishes, Virgilio Martinez brings cuisines from all over the planet to highlight his South American ingredients. Martinez fell in love with culinary cultural identity when he was extremely young. Fascinated by the Chinese, Japanese, and Italian restaurants that were in the heart center of the capital of Peru, Martinez knew that he wanted to cook from the time he was a child. He moved to Canada to attend law school, which he then dropped out of and studied at Le Cordon Bleu in London. He traveled across Europe and Asia cooking before he decided to open his own restaurant in Peru.