A thirty-year-old former cabin crew member is in charge of the logistics for trips, hotels, transport, and reservations for all travelers visiting Central and Kjolle, in Lima, MIL in Cusco, and MAZ in Tokyo. She lives in Lima, wakes up early, takes her dogs out, prepares her breakfast, and arrives at Casa Tupac (the space where Kjolle and Central meet), where she completes her tasks punctually, and ends the day in the afternoon with a beer and a kiss from her girlfriend. This is how her days go, this is how it is 5 days a week, just like many of us, thirty-something young people who work with passion and vocation to turn the ideas of Virgilio, Pia, and Malena into reality.

Casa Tupac

But not everyone lives the same day-to-day. There is a team in Cusco that also does their part with a different routine; they live in Urubamba, a small district of approximately 24,000 inhabitants, which belongs to the department of Cusco in Peru.

Their mornings start early; they wake up before 6 am to catch the transport that drives them between mountains to MIL for 25 minutes.

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Traffic of sheep on the way to MIL Center

They have breakfast, lunch, laugh, and disagree, all together, like a family of 25 that was not chosen but works with their particularities and affinities in a unique place, with unique communities and realities.

To elaborate on a detailed description of how charming it is to work in front of Inca ruins, interacting with local communities, and that the day does not get interrupted by an evacuation drill but by an offering to the Apus (mountains in Quechua) to begin the planting season, with local children coming to gather vegetables from the bio-garden is charming, but quite far from the daily life of those of us who work in restaurants without being cooks.

Kitchen, Security, and Mater team of MIL Center during planting season

So, what is it like to work in the best restaurant in the world and motivate yourself with an office routine?

Liliana, the logistics girl, dusted off her drawing pencils and began illustrating with plants; until then, normal. But afterwards, where do you find the courage to show your drawings to Malena, one of the directors of Mater, the research center of the best restaurant in the world!!! The team encouraged her, the Director of Art and Culture and I supported Liliana to trust her talent and to present her drawings; she did it, and now these will be part of Cacao Mater and a project developed between the I+A cooking experimentation team and the garden team of Casa Tupac.

Cacao leaf illustration for Cacao Mater

Fortunately, this is not an isolated case. Edward Quillahumanan, a cook at MIL, wrote an article for the nearly 200 people who make up the restaurant teams.

The anthropologist of Mater, Silvana Kovalski, embroidered cacao leaves used in the experience at Central. And Rosana Alegría, Commercial Projects Assistant, leads the reuse of plastic materials at Casa Tupac.

Upper right corner, embroidered cacao leaves

We walk the streets of Barranco, travel around Lima by bus, bicycle, car, or scooter; to get to work during the stipulated hours, having coffees between white walls but with the window open to look beyond, to propose, to risk, to succeed or to fail. Perhaps in Central or wherever we are, we have the perfect task, maybe we work in the perfect place, or perhaps we do not understand why or for what is the perfect, because it confronts us or scares us. Maybe we just need to leave timidity behind and take a leap, to understand that a YES is recognition and a NO is an opportunity.

IG: @monasantanaleon

Photography
Gustavo Vivanco @gustavovivancoleon
Camila Novoa @camilanovoaok
Erick Andia @erick_andia_photo