LIMAQ

Hi, I’m Chuck Cutler-Gutiérrez. I came to Western North Carolina from Lima, Peru for an artist residency and fell in love with the land and people. Peruvians are proud of our culture and a large part of that culture is our food. Since ancient times we have cooked our fish with lime on the coast, delighted in the exquisite fruits of the jungle, and honored the Apus, the mountain gods who keep our crops safe and our earth fertile.

My family is from all over Peru, from the hot north where my grandfather used to run among the carob trees playing with his brothers, to the mountainous south of the Andes, where my passion for powerful stews that raise the dead originated. And like many Limeños, my people also came from distant countries to escape their destinies or create new ones on the cliffs of Lima, which the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the area called Limaq.

Now I am carrying on the tradition and creating my destiny in the exotic Blue Ridge Mountains. And like the mountains I grew up loving and thanking, these mountains provide for their people. One of the things I love most about my new home is the incredible variety of food grown locally and the remarkable people who grow it. At first I didn’t know how I would fit in a place so different and so far from my home. Happily, it has been a joy to discover new flavors that harmonize so beautifully with the foods I grew up eating, and we can not wait to share these exciting dishes with our community. The LIMAQ team is excited to be a steward of Peru’s rich culinary history here in WNC.

This is where you come in.

My dream is to make LIMAQ a reality and my spouse and I are devoted to making this family dream into a family business. We have a space, we even have a kitchen, but there’s so much work to be done and so much food to be bought! We need chairs and plates and paint and toilet paper! And that means we need you! Every dollar, every penny, will go towards bringing amazing vegan Peruvian food to WNC! And it will stay in our community, too! From local produce growers and craftspeople to our friends who own small markets that sell precious ingredients from Peru, we believe in supporting the community that supports us! We hope you’ll be part of our community, too.

LIMAQ is a celebration of everything Lima is. A beautiful, warm, gritty, chaotic capital city in a country as vast and diverse as it is beautiful. Moreover, LIMAQ is an invitation to join the celebration.