Peruvian chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino at La Mar restaurant in Lima, last August.Manuel Measure / Getty Images
Photo courtesy of Pedro Miguel Schiaffin
Pedro Miguel Schiafino had emotions on the surface last Sunday.
He had spent the day before emptying the premises occupied by Amaz, his second restaurant in Lima, and it was not an easy task.
He tells me that it was a very thoughtful decision, that it was inevitable in the current context and that he faced it with a certain distance, but I see him much more affected than when he did the same with Malabar in April.
Four months have elapsed between the two closings and a lot has happened in between.
The day-to-day of the hospitality industry today is the story of a pandemic that opens and closes roads at every turn.
The closure of Malabar floated in the conversations for a year before, after some attempt to redirect the proposal, but Amaz, the restaurant that turned into a showcase of its culinary vision of the Amazon, has precipitated its end at the hands of the coronavirus.
No one would have bet on that last January.
The inflexibility in the rent and the absence of a foreign clientele that covered 70% of the demand, led to the outcome.
"There is no way we can sustain a restaurant at a loss for more than three months, and this is going to go much longer," explains Pedro Miguel.
"It's not easy, but I think our new path makes a lot of sense."
In just six months, Schiaffino has found the end of one time and the beginning of another.
He liquidated the projects that occupied the previous fifteen years, with which he established himself among the most outstanding chefs in the region, and started a journey that should ensure the prolongation of his career.
I don't know if it was chance or if this Lima chef is a forward, but he had been betting on a different future since the middle of the previous year.
Determined to tackle small concepts and closeness, he found a path that would open his way in the midst of the virus.
The oldest is La Pulpería, a small wine and produce store in Miraflores.
Then came Boa, an Amazonian concept framed in the elementality of a food court, with the aim of providing the employees of the offices in the area.
The proposal is revealed too articulate and for the new rules of the game, and works to redirect it.
In addition, there are Pesco, which sells and brings you home fish and shellfish -fresh or frozen- bought directly from artisan fishermen, and Despensa Schiaffino, specifically the production and sale, also at home, of some frozen stews, preserves, sauces and breads.
A partner and two employees in each business define dimensions that are based on sanity.
“Boa, Pesco and Despensa were born now, coinciding with the pandemic, but they are not a response to it and they are here to stay.
I think that what I'm doing has a future ”.
Covid-19 forced Boa to rethink, it has consolidated the Grocery Store and has launched Pesco to stardom;
in three months it has covered the forecasts set for the end of the year.
Pedro Miguel is committed to a future that collides with the reality that prevails in haute cuisine.
“It was a mistake to make a kitchen dedicated to tourism in Lima,” he says, for him and for other chefs who face similar realities.
He is also blunt when he speaks of delivery, "it does not help haute cuisine, the structural costs are very high and sales do not compensate".
He prefers a simpler model, “close, based on the local product, but with less investment”.
"Nothing will ever be the same," he concludes.
"I do not see", he insists, "that anyone has grasped this formula, which are small businesses where the husband and wife work together, have a collaborator or two more and see everything, the market, the purchase, the service, the kitchen and the bills.
It is much simpler, creates less stress and has much more impact on local cuisine and Peruvian gastronomy;
he is an incredible model ”.
Still, live the change with mixed emotions.
He misses the rhythm of the kitchen and the connection with the customer.
“I find it hard to understand that I don't have a restaurant, but on a professional level I feel fine.
On an economic level, we are handling the instability of the moment, but the projections are positive and I will be able to be calmer ”.