Female chefs are rising in every continent. Pía León has never shied away from a challenge. The chef constantly pushes herself to the limit, yet never once mentions the sacrifices she makes, such as free time, missing out on friends’ birthday parties or even receiving recognition. But the asceticism of this Peruvian has paid off, as you can see in her resume since she was the first woman to work at Central. She was to take the culinary world by storm. In 2018, just a few months after opening her first restaurant, she was awarded the title of Latin America’s Best Female Chef. León is in the limelight, which she shied away from for so long, although she has more than earned it with Kjolle, ranked number 21 among Latin America’s best restaurants.
A lot in Pía’s life is about eating, about food and discovering new things. Her mother runs a catering company and took Pía into the culinary universe. Everything she absorbed and picked up in her childhood she raised to a professional level at the Institut Le Cordon Bleu in Lima. After that, the Peruvian was offered an internship at the Ritz Hotel in New York. Back in Lima she had already set her sights on the next famous address, Avenida Paz Soldan 290. This is where Astrid y Gastón work culinary wonders that have made Peruvian cuisine famous beyond its borders.
But León loved the challenge, and knew exactly what and where she wanted to go: to Central, which at the time was making its way to the culinary Olympics. The encounter with Virgilio Martínez was a fateful one. León was 22 at the time, but she already had more experience, will and strength on a level that not many people could match. Martínez and León have become the perfect couple over the years, both in private and business terms. He is the creative mind, she focuses on peace and order.
But when Central was bursting at the seams and the entire complex had to move, the chef realized the time had come; she was ready to start her own restaurant, Kjolle.
“I was always afraid that Kjolle would not be able to keep up with the Central,” admitted León at CHEFDAYS 2019 in Graz. But the restaurant does credit to the Peruvian cuisine and its namesake. In the indigenous Quechua language, the word Kjolle means tree. Thanks to Malena Martínez, Virgilio’s sister, the kitchen teams in Kjolle and Central can work with ancient techniques. “Malena is in charge of Mater Iniciativa. She travels to Peru to find products, not only on the coast, but also in the Andes and the Amazon,” says León. “Together we rediscover products that only a few people use or know about,” explains the cook.
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