Executive chef of Azotea in Turin since 2022, he crafts a personal Nikkei cuisine: Japanese technique, Andean memory, and a focus on “forgotten” ingredients—after formative stops between Peru and Europe, from Gastón Acurio to Villa Tiboldi and the helm of Carlina Restaurant until January 2022.
Born in 1988 in Cusco, he grew up in the Andes with a food culture that became identity, ritual, and geography. Early experiences led him through family kitchens and then into labs and restaurants across Peru and Europe: in Italy he honed pastry and hot line work, while in Peru he trained under Gastón Acurio, learning brigade organization, mother sauces, and acidity as a matrix of flavor.
His Italian path includes the Piedmont countryside: at Villa Tiboldi he worked under the consultancy of Davide Palluda (L’Enoteca, 1 MICHELIN Star), strengthening his relationship with vegetables, herbs, and elegant acidity. Turin then became home base: at the Carlina Restaurant (NH Collection Piazza Carlina) he led the kitchen until January 2022, weaving a Piedmontese lexicon with South American inflections.
In 2022 he embraced Azotea. Here his Nikkei found full form: razor-cut raw preparations, instant marinades, citrus and ají in dialogue with measured fermentations, and rice treated as a neutral canvas. The menu alternates crudi and precise cooking (tiradito, ceviche, yucca, yuzu kosho) and lives alongside a cocktail program designed in tandem with the kitchen. With “Chakana” (2024), a tasting inspired by Andean cosmology, Azotea narrates territories and symbols through dishes and pairings, projecting Turin into a contemporary Latin American horizon.
His family story—maternal great-grandmother from Japan—and a life “with a suitcase in hand” explain a cross-pollination that’s not a stylistic exercise but a mother tongue: Andean memory, Japanese rigor, seasonal selection, and the recovery of marginal products. In the dining room, the experience is completed by cocktail-led pairings, themed evenings, and guest collaborations, consolidating Azotea as a place of dialogue between kitchen and mixology.
