Fire as the Main Ingredient
A look at Jaime Pesaque's Sapiens
Of the restaurants I tried during my most recent visit to Lima, Sapiens stood out the most for me.
Sapiens defies easy categorization. Its approach to food captures the Peruvian spirit but aspects of the menu feel more Spanish or Argentinian. In reality, it’s a totally unique offering built on traditions around the world.
Head chef, Gerson Moncada, generously offered to tell me more about the creative process that he and founder, Jaime Pesaque, employed in conceptualizing this unique offering. I will tell Sapiens’s story in two parts. This post will introduce the restaurant and the menu while the second part will delve into the creative process.
Cuisine of Fire
“Cocina de fuegos” (kitchen of fires) is probably the simplest description of what Sapiens is. Of course, virtually all kitchens feature fire in some form or other, but Sapiens eschews the modern convenience of gas stoves for a more primal source of fire.
Sometimes, Sapiens is lumped into the category of “meat restaurants” which is mainly comprised of steakhouses. While many dishes on the menu at Sapiens feature meat, other dishes also highlight a variety of fruits and vegetables in a way that no steak restaurant would. The best way to think about the menu is to consider fire as the main ingredient. Sapiens’s menu employs multiple methods of cooking with fire and also uses all parts of the fire including the ashes and embers.
At Sapiens, Chef Moncada and Chef Pesaque custom-designed the kitchen to use various methods of cooking with fire. Meat, fish, vegetables, rice, and desserts all use a different grill that allows the fire to be applied differently. Having recently visited Uruguay, I see parallels between Sapiens’s use of multiple types of grill and Francis Mallmann’s concept of seven fires.
The kitchen is designed to be versatile yet efficient. For example, even the vegetables hanging above the grills have a purpose. Over time, they are dried by the heat and capture the smoky flavors from the grills. Every few days, the vegetables are used to make stock.
The Menu
The menu at Sapiens is relatively compact but covers a lot of ground. It features beef including Argentinian and American steak, fish, pork, duck, scallops, octopus, and vegetables. The menu is crafted so that it allows all of its ingredients to really shine.
This is one menu that rewards those who choose to read the menu carefully. There are a lot of interesting clever twists that set menu items apart. If you just want to order a random sampling or rely on the waiter’s recommendations, I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful experience as well.
This post will focus on Sapien’s creative use of fire, but there’s a whole charcuterie section of the menu. They prepare all of the charcuterie all in-house and you can look through the glass of the charcuterie room to see how they do it.
I recommend ordering a few items from the entreé and special courses section of the menu.
Many Influences
The story of fire stretches back all of the way back to the dawn of humanity. Heat remains the essence of cooking, but nowadays, a lot of the fire is hidden away. Even in open kitchens, a lot of what you see is the final assembly of the dishes while the fire is tucked safely in the back. Sapiens brings fire to the forefront of its cuisine.
The idea of fire as the main ingredient is simple yet it feels revolutionary. When I think back on my experiences with Peruvian cuisine, my mind fills with images of fire—not fire in a destructive way but rather as a creative force. I think about the breath of the wok in a Lomo Saltado, the quiet fire of Huatia in which potatoes are cooked in the earth, and the finishing flourish of the blowtorch in Nikkei cuisine.
Sapiens bring together ideas from the Argentinian parilla as well as Spanish techniques of cooking rice and noodles on an open fire. In addition, Chef Moncada draws on ideas collected from his own travels. Part two will go into more detail.
Our Experience at Sapiens
The innovative menu and techniques at Sapiens deliver an experience unlike any other meal that I’ve had in Peru. Because of the diverse influences, there were familiar dishes like empanadas and paella, but the way they were incorporated was unique.
Let’s start with the empanada. The empanada is definitely one of the best empanadas I’ve had, and we’ve had many. The texture was multi-faceted and the taste was intensely meaty. I didn’t have time to ask about the empanadas during my interview with Chef Moncada, but one day I’d like to better understand what made their empanada so good.
The char on the Caesar salad took it to a completely different place than the ordinary salad. It whet our appetitive for what was to follow. It takes a lot of finesse to cook an ingredient as delicate as romaine.
On our first visit, we split a Lomo Saltado and a Hamburger (pictured above), typifying the Peruvian and American ways of preparing beef. I consider both good tests of a restaurant. Sapiens more than delivered on both fronts.
On our most recent visit, we decided on the Fideuà as the main course since we had just had a lot of paella recently in Valencia. Fideuà is similar to paella but uses noodles in place of rice.
We ordered the chocolate ganache dessert which we thoroughly enjoyed. On a future visit, I’d like to try grilled fruit desserts featuring grilled chirimoya and another featuring grilled orange which I’ve never seen on another menu.
Finally, I would like to come one day with enough people (at least 4) to try the Lomo al trapo—beef tenderloin seasoned, wrapped in cloth, and then cooked on coals. That’s an attribute of a great meal—you’re already thinking about the possibilities of the next visit.
Stay Tuned for Part Two
In the next part, I go behind the scenes and interview Head Chef Gerson Moncada about the creative process behind Sapien’s menu and how his travels influence his craft. I even get a chance to see what it’s like inside the kitchen of many fires.
Sapiens is located at Av. Pardo y Aliaga 689 in San Isidro, Lima.
Grilled chirimoya just made my bucket list.
They make an excellent lomo saltado