Lima's Maido, the World's Best
Where Japan and Peru Meet

← Back to Latin America News

One more piece of news that is neither politics nor economics. On June 19, 2025, in Turin, Italy, "The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025" named Lima's Maido the world's best. Its genre is Nikkei cuisine — where Japanese technique meets Peruvian ingredients.

What Nikkei cuisine is

Maido opened in Lima in 2009, pairing Japanese cooking technique with Peru's abundant ingredients. The handling of raw fish, the sense for dashi and soy, layered with produce from the Amazon, the Andes and the Pacific. Not sushi, not Peruvian food — a third taste born at the seam between them. That is Nikkei cuisine.

A flavor born of migration

Behind Nikkei cuisine is the history of migration. From the late 19th century, many Japanese emigrated to Peru. As they adapted home cooking methods to ingredients at hand in an unfamiliar land, a cuisine grew that was neither Japanese nor Peruvian. Maido's win is a moment when more than a century of that accumulation was honored at the top of the world. A way of using a knife, brought by migrants, became a food culture over time.

When food crosses borders

Traveling in Latin America, I've felt many times how food crosses cultural walls fastest. Even without a shared language, sharing a plate closes the distance. Maido's dish is delicious proof that two distant places — Japan and Latin America — have been bound by the tie of migration. As a Japanese person who has walked through Latin America, this world's-best feels a little like pride. One more reason to go to Peru next time.

A way of using a knife, brought by migrants, became the world's best dish over a century.

※ This article is the author’s commentary based on public information. Please confirm the latest figures, dates and procedures with governments and primary sources. Quotations are kept minimal and sources are cited.