On June 19 in Turin, when chef Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura heard that Maido (“his” Maido) had been named The World’s Best Restaurant 2025, he cried. Not the polite tears of gratitude you usually see at award shows, but the tears of relief, disbelief, and sixteen years of weight lifting off his shoulders.
Because Maido wasn’t always destined for glory, in fact, it was nearly set for closure.
Roots
Tsumura opened Maido in 2009 at age 28. He had trained formally in the United States, then spent time in Osaka learning Japanese techniques before returning to his native Lima. He had a vision for Nikkei cuisine, the blend of Peruvian ingredients and Japanese cooking that his Japanese immigrant ancestors had been developing since arriving in Peru in 1889.
But vision doesn’t pay rent. And for the first three years, according to Tsumura in his interview with 50 Best, almost nobody showed up.
“If there was one good day, there were three bad ones,” Tsumura told ELLE Gourmet India. “Nikkei cuisine was not well-known around the world. And it was a different time when customers didn’t want to explore a new cuisine. They would come and ask for sushi.”
By year four, Tsumura had no cash to pay staff or buy ingredients. He was done. Ready to close the doors and simply walk away.
Then his father stepped in.
“One day, my father came over and just told me to persevere, and to continue believing in what you do,” Tsumura said. His father lent him money. Local Peruvians who had been supporting the restaurant told him, “Don’t close, we love what you do.”
So he stayed. It took until year seven just to break even.
Nikkei
The cuisine Tsumura is often associated with is so much more than just another fusion. Nikkei is what happened when Japanese immigrants to Peru adapted their cooking to an entirely new place. When shoyu met ají amarillo, the yellow chili pepper that defines Peruvian cooking. When Japanese knife work met the bold ingredients of the Amazon, the Andes, and Peru’s northern coast.
Tsumura calls Nikkei a “sexy cuisine,” telling ELLE Gourmet India that Peru is like the hard rock of food while Japan offers classical lightness. The combination takes Japanese cuisine up several notches while balancing Peru’s intensity. The foundation of it all, he says, is ají from Peru and soy sauce from Japan.
At Maido, that philosophy shows up in dishes that sound impossible until you taste them. Squid ramen with Amazonian chorizo. Sea snails with yellow chili foam. And Tsumura’s signature short rib, braised for over two days until you only need a spoon. The sirloin is cooked for 50 hours, then glazed in sake, mirin, shoyu, and beef broth.
The Maido Experience tasting menu runs over ten courses, pulling rare ingredients from across Peru’s diverse geography. Nitrogen-infused ceviche. Bread with pejesapo. Duck confit rice with ankake sauce and sansho pepper. Brown sugar ice cream with loche squash for dessert.
But, as he described, Tsumura’s testing process happens at the table, not in the kitchen. He sends out new dishes and comes out to watch guests take their first bite. If 80 percent smile, it works. Before that, he tries the dish himself in the dining room, far from the kitchen, checking how it travels, whether the temperature holds, and if the cutlery makes sense.
Climb
Maido first appeared on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2015. It won the top spot on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants four times. It reached No. 5 globally in 2024. Each year, build momentum.
Lima itself became a food destination, with other globally recognized restaurants like Central, which won The World’s Best Restaurant in 2023, along with Kjolle, Mérito, and Mayta. The city represents what Tsumura calls a melting pot of cultures – Asian, European, and Peruvian. Always tasty.
Fourteen years ago, Tsumura spoke at San Sebastián Gastronomika about the future of Nikkei cuisine and what it could become. In 2025, he returned to that same stage, and as he told ELLE Gourmet India, most of what he predicted has come true.
The global recognition changed everything. People began traveling 15,000 kilometers to dine at Maido. The name itself means “thank you for coming again” in Japanese, and that became the restaurant’s defining idea. Gratitude for every guest, whether they came from five blocks away or flew across continents.
Amazon
In recent years, Maido has evolved again. Tsumura has become more and more interested in the Amazon, a region he believes remains largely unexplored. He’s working on building a research center there with partners to raise awareness of Amazonian products.
The menu now features more Amazonian elements. Freshwater fish prepared raw. Ingredients sourced from the rainforest that most diners have never seen. Tsumura traveled to Colombia, learned about lulo fruit, and visited the Brazilian Amazon to study river fish. He wants to showcase what the region can offer the planet, saying we don’t even know 10 percent of its potential.
This curiosity keeps the restaurant moving forward. Tsumura leads a team of 95 people, around 30 percent of whom have been with him for over eight years. Some since the beginning. He gives them freedom to lead in their areas. When sommelier Florencia Rey joined, he told her the cellar was hers and that she could buy whatever she wanted. In 2023, she was named Latin America’s Best Sommelier.
The entire front-of-house team eats the full menu in the restaurant so they can speak from experience, not from notes the chef handed them.
Wins
When Maido was announced as The World’s Best Restaurant 2025 at the ceremony in Turin, Tsumura said he couldn’t describe it in words. All the hard work. All the difficult moments trying to make people understand what they were doing. And now, seeing what Nikkei cuisine and Peruvian cuisine have become globally.
“I think the most beautiful act of love is to cook for somebody,” Tsumura reflected. “It’s the most beautiful thing that has happened in my life.”
But he also feels the responsibility. As he shared, people now have expectations. They travel from around the world. He wants them to remember the experience as life-changing. Most of all, he wants them to come back.
Tsumura’s motivation is simple: making people happy. That’s his goal. Seeing a smile on someone’s face when they eat. Receiving a thank you after they’ve enjoyed the experience. That reward matters more than rankings or accolades.
Every Sunday, Tsumura visits his parents (non-negotiable). He sits down with his father and has a whisky. That time matters to him as much as anything that happens inside Maido’s walls.
Philosophy
Tsumura describes Maido as being about having fun, a creative restaurant that exists outside formality. The idea, he says, is to democratize deliciousness. That’s what they want to do.
It’s an approach that traces back to that fourth year when he almost quit. When his father told him to persevere and believe in what he was doing. When loyal Peruvians kept showing up and asking him not to close.
Sixteen years later, he runs what the world has decided is the best restaurant on the planet. The tears in Turin made sense because he remembers when nobody came. When Nikkei cuisine was unknown. When Lima’s food scene hadn’t yet exploded into global view.
Now, when Tsumura watches guests take their first bite of a new dish, looking for that smile on 80 percent of faces, he’s measuring something that statistics can’t capture – Joy, Surprise, Connection. The feeling that brings people back, the feeling built into Maido’s name.
That’s what survived the doubt. That’s what his father saw worth saving. And that’s what now sits at the very top of the culinary world.
