50 WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANTS SEPTEMBER 2019
then drive an hour and a half into the
Sacred Valley—the restaurant itself is
over 11,800 feet above sea level. Moray’s
stone concentric circles were likely used
for agricultural experimentation by the
Incas, and it is that agrarian legacy—
along with the agriculture of the entire
Andean countryside—that inspires chef
Virgilio Martínez’s menu and ethos.
Built around a stone courtyard, Mil is
sparsely decorated with strung-up dried
native herbs and simple wooden furni-
ture, allowing the dramatic mountain
light streaming in through the windows
to provide the dining room’s tranquil
mood. The menu is served as a series
of eight “moments,” all featuring the
bounty of Peru’s various ecosystems.
The Plateau course arrives in a flurry
of small dishes: local leaves and lettuces
sprinkled with elderberry flowers;
dusty-pink lamb tartare slightly sweet-
ened with cabuya nectar; a cream made
from custard apples.
One course, Diversity of Corn,
demonstrates the wildly different
flavors inherent to different varieties of
corn; another course, Central Andes,
does the same for potatoes. The meal
finishes with a dish showcasing the
chocolate Mil makes on-site, which was
undoubtedly the best chocolate I have
ever tasted.
This is one of the least pretentious
restaurants I visited, despite its incred-
ibly high level of ambition. What you
are left with, upon departing Mil, is a
deep sense of calm—along with a pro-
found appreciation for Peruvian history,
cuisine, and culture.
BRAZIL IS EVERYTHING you imagine it to be: vibrant, leafy, sensual,
lush. No establishment captures that buoyant, colorful spirit better
than Maní, Helena Rizzo’s fantastic restaurant in São Paulo’s artsy
Jardim Paulistano neighborhood. The walls are splashed with art,
and the patio’s filtered light casts exactly the right glow on the
happy, stylish patrons. This is a deeply fun place to eat.
Rizzo worked in some of Europe’s most celebrated kitchens—El
Celler de Can Roca in Spain, Sadler in Italy—before returning to
her home country of Brazil to open Maní in 2006. Her cooking
combines local ingredients with European techniques. You might
start with her take on a ceviche, which features cashew fruit and
cachaça and is topped with a granita made from cajuína, a nonal-
coholic beverage made from cashew apple juice. Quenching and
bright, it sets the stage for the riot of flavor to come. Plump crayfish
top a chilled deep-purple soup made from jaboticaba (a fruit that
tastes like a cross between a grape and a particularly sweet plum)MANêWHERE TO STAY
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The elegant Explora Valle Sagrado lodge overlooks an ancient corn plantation and is the ideal base to explore Peru’s Sacred Valley.(From $1,836 for 3 nights; explora.com)S
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SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
A view of the
Andes at Mil.