GASTRONOMY, MEMORY AND RESISTANCE: CULTURAL APPROACHES TO THE GENTRIFICATION OF TRADITIONAL PERUVIAN CUISINE

In recent decades, urban transformation processes driven by tourism development, market expansion, and cultural commodification have reshaped traditional food systems, particularly in countries where gastronomy constitutes a central component of national identity, such as Peru. While Peruvian cuisine has achieved notable international recognition, this visibility has simultaneously intensified dynamics of gastronomic gentrification that affect traditional culinary practices, local actors, and the symbolic meanings attached to food. Within this context, traditional gastronomy operates not only as a cultural expression, but also as a space of memory, identity construction, and resistance. The objective of this study is to examine the cultural impact of these transformations by analysing how traditional Peruvian cuisine functions as a field of collective memory and symbolic negotiation in scenarios marked by ethnographic capitalism and cultural displacement. To achieve this objective, the methodology adopted follows a qualitative approach grounded in cultural studies, using a phenomenological design that prioritises the lived experiences and interpretations of culinary actors directly involved in the preservation of ancestral food practices. Data were collected through semi structured interviews with fourteen chefs and gastronomy professionals selected through purposive sampling, and the information was analysed using thematic coding, triangulation, and qualitative analysis software to ensure interpretive rigor. The results indicate that traditional Peruvian cuisine exhibits considerable resilience despite market driven transformations and processes of gastronomic gentrification, as ancestral knowledge continues to be transmitted across generations, although frequently reinterpreted or symbolically negotiated in response to commercialisation, aestheticisation, and changing consumption patterns. At the same time, participants identified risks associated with cultural appropriation and symbolic displacement, particularly when traditional dishes are reformulated for external markets. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the gentrification of traditional cuisine in Peru should not be understood solely as a process of cultural erosion, but rather as a dynamic arena of negotiation and symbolic struggle in which culinary heritage is actively defended, re signified, and sustained, underscoring the importance of developing inclusive cultural, tourism, and heritage policies that recognise both preservation and transformation.