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Fiesta Gourmet Restaurant
Celebrates 23 years steeped in Flavour
Reflecting the glory of Chiclayo cuisine, more than two decades ago - in 1983 - the typical Restaurant "FIESTA" was opened in Chiclayo, on Avenida Salaverry, where it continues operating to this day under the command of Doña Bertha Cruz Solís and her husband Don Alberto Solís. The family carry the culinary vocation in their veins. It should be remembered that in the 1950s Don Moisés Solís Albújar, the family's legendary patriarch, ran the celebrated "Sala Bolívar".
Text: José Summer Trigoso (*)
 Doña Bertha worked hard to present the very best of Chiclayo cuisine: "chinguirito", "chirimpico" (kid prepared as a "cau-cau"), the traditional stingray tortilla, "humitas" (corn paste) stuffed with chicken breast, blood pudding, pig's trotters, cebiche and emblematic dishes like rice and duck and kid stew. It was tough at first, and the entire family worked to get the business off the ground, bringing to the project the determination expressed by the traditional waltz: "with soul, heart and life".
They created a culinary revolution: the famous Creole corral duck was presented filleted (skinned and boneless), prepared with fine rice from the most recent harvest. The Creole kid of Batangrande, raised on carob, was offered boneless and prepared as a stew, with a delicious cream of "loche". The menu included other variations, such as "guitarra a la vizcaína" and a host of traditional regional desserts prepared using ancient ingredients: fig preserve, quince and "mamey" jelly.
 In the late 1980s they were invited by the most exclusive 5-star hotels in Lima to participate in the capital's gastronomic festivals. The experience they gained led them to incorporate the modern techniques of international cuisine.
On June 6th 1996, FIESTA RESTAURANT GOURMET was opened on Avenida Reducto in Miraflores (Lima), with cooks who had been specially trained in the ovens of Chiclayo. The term "gourmet" accurately expressed the challenge assumed from the first by the restaurant's owners: to offer first class food, excellent service, good wines and a bar. To the traditional regional dishes they added a careful selection of the best of Peruvian national cuisine (such as shrimp soup, shrimps "a la piedra", "sancochado", "tacu-tacu" stuffed with lobster, "ají de gallina" and "picante tacneño") as well as international food.
In 2004 a FIESTA restaurant was opened in Tacna. And today, under the leadership of Doña Bertha and Don Alberto, the Solís family share the responsibility of managing three restaurants with their characteristic attention to detail: Angélica in Chiclayo, Héctor and Ana Bertha in Lima and Luis Alberto in Tacna. Soon they will be opening another restaurant in Trujillo, followed by a branch in the Chilean capital of Santiago.
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