Object 1 - Macarena Gamero

Object 1

Macarena Gamero

Grandmother Ivonne

Mom Ivette

Aunt Paola

Sister Daniela

Me Macarena

Sister Ariana

Figure 1: Tree [9]

Peruvian cuisine sits at the intersection of colonial rule, Afro-Peruvian survival, Chinese and Japanese migrations, local markets, and late-20th-century brand media. ¿Qué cocinaré hoy? lives right in that crossroads: a corporate, mass-printed book that teaches “tradition” as verbs, measures, and sanctioned swaps. Asking if it’s a boundary object is asking whether this manual quietly coordinates those different worlds—street vendors, home cooks, and a pasta brand—by turning messy history into reproducible steps. If so, heritage isn’t just a story, it’s a method you can run anywhere.

Source: Genially GIFs

Anticuchos

Figure 2: Anticuchos[10]

Ceviche

Figure 4: Ceviche[12]

Substitution lines

Chaufa

Figure 6: Chaufa[14]

Conclusion pt 1

In the microcosm of my daily life: the back end of rent, dorm coils, grocery lists, the Recetario Nicolini is the thing that actually runs. Its short verbs and sanctioned swaps let me translate memory into steps: anticuchos without a grill, ceviche calibrated by millimeters and minutes, and weeknight chaufa. In this microcosm the book isn’t a keepsake but an instrument, a compact protocol that lets me rehearse a Peruvian problem-solving ethic (make do, tune variables, always land on joy) and turn homesickness into something operational I can enact, share, and iterate until it feels like home again.

My mom's signature

Conclusion pt 2

Zoomed out to the macrocosm, the same protocol reveals the system that built Peruvian cuisine: colonial extraction and Afro-Peruvian ingenuity, Chinese and Japanese labor migrations, local markets, and late-20th-century brand media. As an industrial-domestic artifact born in broadcast and reissued for decades, Nicolini functions as a boundary object, stabilizing that hybrid history into reproducible techniques. Read this way, a corporate cookbook becomes an instrument of memory and cultural citizenship. And the macrocosm matters beyond Peru: cuisines everywhere travel when personal microcosms and household protocols meet the larger forces of history. People convert tangled pasts into methods anyone, anywhere, can use.

Tradition here is a control system: hold few invariants, let peripherals flex —> do, remix, share.

My mom's signature

Bibliography

All pictures of the recipes and recipe book come from my personal copy of "¿Qué concinaré hoy? - Nicolini": [2] Alicorp S.A.A. ¿Qué Cocinaré Hoy? 1970. 8th ed., Metrocolor S.A., 1998. [9]"Tree." Pngtree, https://pngtree.com/freepng/green-tree-plant-forest_14700227.html. Accessed 26 Sept. 2025. Books, CBC. “Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen.” CBC, 5 Apr. 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/books/secrets-from-my-vietnamese-kitchen-1.5086150. [1] Perú, Redacción El Comercio. “Teresa Ocampo: Diez Cosas Que No Sabías de La Gran Dama de La Cocina Peruana.” El Comercio Perú, 1 Dec. 2022, https://elcomercio.pe/provecho/chefs/peru-10-cosas-que-no-sabias-de-teresa-ocampo-gastronomia-noticia/. [3] Nancy. “SECRETS FROM MY VIETNAMESE KITCHEN BY KIM THUY.” Nomss.Com, 3 Apr. 2019, https://www.nomss.com/secrets-from-my-vietnamese-kitchen-by-kim-thuy-cookbook-review/. [4][5][9] Hatlestad, Kari. The Social and Cultural Origins of Peruvian Food. 2017. Portland State University Library, https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.360. [6] Aguirre‑Sosa, Joaquín, et al. “Peruvian Ceviche: Cultural Heritage of Humanity and Its Socio‑cultural Significance.” Journal of Ethnic Foods, vol. 12, no. 13, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1186/s42779-025-00273-7. journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com. [7] Seal, Rebecca, and Hannah Hughes. “Ceviche: The Surprising History behind Peru’s Raw Fish Dish.” Travel, 26 Sept. 2025, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/ceviche-surprising-history-behind-perus-raw-fish-dish? [8] Katz, Brigit. “Remains of 19th-Century Chinese Laborers Found at a Pyramid in Peru.” Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Aug. 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remains-19th-century-chinese-laborers-found-pyramid-peru-180964647/.

Bibliography : Photos

[9]"Tree." Pngtree, https://pngtree.com/freepng/green-tree-plant-forest_14700227.html. Accessed 26 Sept. 2025. [10] Client Challenge. https://stock.adobe.com/search/images?k=anticuchos. Accessed 29 Sept. 2025. [11] Delights, Peru Peru Delights. “Anticuchos (Cow\’s Heart Kebabs) - Flavor on a Stick.” PERU DELIGHTS, 11 Jan. 2013, https://perudelights.com/anticuchos-cows-heart-kebabs-flavor-on-a-stick/. [12] Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Ceviche.” Wikipedia, 13 Sept. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceviche. [13] Lizet. “Peruvian Ceviche • Curious Cuisiniere.” Curious Cuisiniere, 9 Jan. 2023, https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/peruvian-ceviche/. [14] www.thousandflavors.com, www. thousandflavors. comBy: www.thousandflavors.com. “Peru Food - Arroz Chaufa y Tallarin Saltado Chifa Chung Yon.” Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/thousandflavors/2656481773. Accessed 29 Sept. 2025. [15] Tupac, Cecilia. “How to Make ‘Arroz Chaufa de Pollo.’” Cecilia Tupac, 8 Nov. 2023, https://en.ceciliatupac.com/post/peruvian-arroz-chaufa-de-pollo.

Ceviche: Precision & Technique

Here identity lives in geometry and time, not romance about terroir. Ceviche’s texture depends on how salt and acid move through protein; the true dials are cut thickness and rest minutes. Tiradito pushes this logic further: sashimi-thin slices dressed à la minute shift curing from bulk to surface—an explicitly Nikkei sensibility. Modeling instead of cooking makes the portable core obvious: hold an acidity range, a target thickness, and a serving temperature; let species of fish and lime variety adapt to place. That’s why “Peruvian” reads clearly in an Atlanta grocery—the algorithm is compact, teachable, and forgiving where it should be. The cookbook’s minimalism—few words, clear order—invites calibration without anxiety: measure in millimeters and minutes, and the mouthfeel you remember will arrive on time.

Figure 5: Ceviche[13]

Chaufa: Workflow & Economy

Chaufa turns migration into a process peruvians run weekly. The recipe and language is algorithmic—dry rice , intense heat & quick umami—and the substitutions are sanctioned: leftovers become design. What looks like “fusion” is actually a control problem: keeping the invariants (dryness, ginger, sillao) while let peripherals shine (protein, pan, vegetables). The result is not just a dish but a way of thinking: thrift + speed + heat management. That’s why chaufa reads clearly in different markets and apartments: the steps carry the identity more than any ingredient does. The corporate tone normalizes Chinese technique as ordinary Spanish (“sillao”), turning a migrant solution into a national habit

Figure 7: Chaufa[15]

Anticuchos: Resilience & Community

This page reads like an engineering recipe of joy. The verbs prescribe a sequence (marinate → sear hot → rest). The ingredients are tools (acid tenderizes, cumin/aji panca volatilize aromatics). Historically, anticuchos convert low-status cuts into a public feast. The pragmatic, non-reverential tone is why the method travels: it compresses a long history of coercion and ingenuity into a repeatable protocol: take what you have, tune it for flavor, and make it festive. The core ethic isn’t a standard cut or a charcoal shrine, it’s a community practice that scales from street carts to family patios to diaspora kitchens.

Figure 3: Anticuchos[11]

Nicolini

Kim Thuy

Thúy literally subtitles her cookbook “simple recipes from my many mothers,” and talks about food as how love moves when words aren’t enough [3]. So repeating a recipe isn’t mechanical—it’s care in motion, a way to belong while you’re far from where you began

Nicolini is the operating manual my family actually used. It talks in short verbs and cupfuls, gives you creative freedom, and turns big cultural crossings into steps you can run anyday. Its superpower is protocol: timing, heat, and substitutions that make “home” reproducible even when the market, tools, or country change.

VS

Nicolini teaches me what to do; Kim Thúy reminds me why it matters. One gives me steps and swaps, the other gives me “many mothers” and care. Together they turn cooking into a way to carry home with me.