CHICHA restaurant

Peruvian cuisine: the original fusion food

Peru has one of the great cuisines of the world. It is the original fusion food, having absorbed influences from almost every continent over the last 500 years and melded them with ingredients and dishes that provide a direct link to the Incas. While it is best known for ceviche, the marinated raw seafood dish, Peru’s food is remarkable for the diversity of its ingredients, from wonderful fresh fish to astounding varieties of potatoes, corn and chilies.

Like chefs, we took Peruvian ingredients and cooked Andean textiles and iconography into a distinctive brand: a laser-cut wood bilingual menu, sustainable (and beautiful) take-out containers, and fabric patterns for tablecloths.

Peruvian patterns

How could we not take the textile testimony of ancient Andean societies and incorporate it into this brand, if the menu is filled with their national recipes? Duplicating intricate Pallay patterns (“design” in Quechua) by laser-cutting wood resulted in a gorgeous tactile menu that looks and feels like a work of art.

Bilingual

Not only a bow to the ethnic heritage of the restaurant—and our family—but a deep understanding that Spanish is by far the most spoken (and fastest-growing) non-English language in the USA.

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Brand manifesto

The recipes for how to maintain cohesion and quality control in design are as important as the amount of aji amarillo the chef puts in the papa a la huancaina. Our style guide for CHICHA outlines every pinch, every dash needed to keep the brand consistent, recognizable and ownable.