When The 50 Best Restaurants ceremony landed in Lima, the city didn't just host an awards night — it threw a week-long, whole-city celebration. Asador Etxebarri took the No.1 spot for 2026, but the real story for travellers was everything happening around the podium: guest-chef dinners, street parties in Barranco, food fairs on the Costa Verde, and a packed programme of talks, runs and studio visits.

The collaborations started before the ceremony itself. Argentina's Leo Lanussol cooked a Nordic-inspired dinner at Rafael Osterling's Rafael, and once the weekend hit, the guest-chef circuit kicked off properly. Mexico City's El Tigre Silencioso and Tulum's Arca cooked at El Mercado; Prateek Sadhu of Naar brought Indian Himalayan flavours to Clon in Barranco; Quito's Nuema team took over Shizen in San Isidro; and Barcelona's three-Michelin-starred Cocina Hermanos Torres joined James Berckemeyer at Cosme. After dark, Miami's Panamericano Bar ran a surprise cocktail takeover at Sapiens, and Florence's Locale Firenze crew worked the bar at Rocco while Osterling himself DJ'd.

For anyone wanting to taste the whole country without leaving the capital, the Perú, Mucho Gusto fair on Magdalena's Costa Verde gathered regional dishes, Amazonian fruit drinks, wines and chocolate from across Peru — with awards recognising everyone from Ica producers to sustainability projects in Ucayali and Áncash. Wine writer Pepe Moquillaza also ran The Language of the Land, a wine-and-pisco programme tying bottles to the people behind them.

There was an intellectual side too. PUCP hosted forums on regional gastronomy and women in Latin American food, with speakers spanning the Andes, coast and Amazon, while The 50 Best Talks drew Joan Roca, Massimo Bottura and Søren Ledet alongside voices from Ghana to India. A sustainability session at Limaná — which holds the top three-star Food Made Good rating — tackled sourcing, waste and working conditions.

Barranco emerged as the week's soul. The Matutina photography exhibition at Casona Ofelia explored breakfast rituals and the everyday table (free entry, running until 22 November), and Off the Menu opened sixteen studios and workshops across twelve stops, letting visitors meet the ceramicists, furniture makers and photographers behind the city's dining rooms. The Chefs' Feast at the Pedro de Osma Museum then served a cross-section of Peru — anticuchos, picarones, Amazonian and Andean dishes from Bruto, La Nueva Palomino, El Chinito and more — before the neighbourhood took over its own streets on Domeyer, with locals and world-famous chefs dancing shoulder to shoulder.

Many visiting chefs didn't stop at Lima either, heading on to Cusco, Arequipa and Tarapoto, or across to Colombia, Chile, Brazil and Argentina — a nudge that Peru's food story goes far beyond its famous capital restaurants.

For travellers, this week shows what Lima does best: world-class dining that bleeds into street parties, regional food fairs and open studios, often free or low-cost. If a future edition of the awards returns, time your trip around it — or simply visit any week and eat your way through Barranco, Magdalena and San Isidro.