Event to feature films on Peruvian culture and culinary heritage, along with a discussion with chefs Gastón Acurio and Ferrán Adriá
As part of a campaign to provide international visibility for Peru’s natural and historical riches and its potential role in international commerce, the Peruvian government will present its new country brand, “Marca Perú” at an event hosted today by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The IDB event will be attended by Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno, Kurt Burneo, IDB executive director for Peru, Claudia Cornejo, Peru’s tourism vice minister and Harold Forsyth, Peru’s ambassador to the United States. Also participating are internationally known chefs Ferrán Adrià, of Spain and Gastón Acurio of Peru.
The invitation-only event, which will begin at 6:00 p.m., will include a screening of “You'll Remember Peru,” a promotional spot by Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa that recounts the experience of a man who receives a memory stick of his visit to Peru 20 years ago containing striking images of the South American country’s culture and life. Also presented will be the documentary "Peru Knows: Cuisine as an Agent of Social Change," which highlights the economic and social importance of the country’s culinary industry for more than 80,000 young Peruvians.
Peruvian chef Acurio and Spanish chef Adriá will engage in a discussion with President Moreno on the creative industries and their effect on a country’s social and economic development.
The event is one of several organized by the IDB and its Cultural Center to promote the region’s creative industries. In addition, the Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund and its operations department for the Andean countries support the Peruvian cultural programs “Sinfonía por el Perú” and “Lima Milenaria” as well as activities to foster the participation of small-scale producers and small and medium-sized enterprises in the culinary industry.
"Peru has made gastronomy a vibrant creative industry, which attracts not only the participation of youth, but has also become a hallmark of the country’s international identity and its ancestral heritage," said Iván Duque, chief of the IDB’s Cultural, Solidarity and Creativity Affairs Division. Creative industries contribute to job creation and economic growth, while transmitting cultural identity, he added.