American gourmets have already had a hint of Peru's fusion thanks to Nobu Matsuhisa, whose eponymous restaurants owe much to the three years he spent in Peru in the 1980s. "Everyone who flocks to Nobu for his quirky sushi and sashimi is unknowingly chowing down on Peruvian food," says Michael Whiteman, president of restaurant consulting firm Baum & Whiteman.

The 1990s saw a reimagining of Peru's heritage now referred to as cocina novoandina, or "new Andean cuisine." Acurio became the movement's most recognizable figure, shifting his menu from French cooking towards imaginative Peruvian creations. By 2003, Astrid & Gastón was the hottest restaurant in Lima. The menu's mix of local ingredients and haute-European presentation results in dishes like the "Crispy guinea pig confit with denomination-of-origin haumantanga, duraznillo, huayro, and yanaimilla potatoes in different textures and huando-orange-scented reduction" that recently appeared on the dinner menu.

He parlayed Astrid & Gastón's success into a TV show and four other chains, including La Mar. Over lunch at La Mar, Acurio sits at a table laden with brightly colored bowls of his best hope for breaking big in America: cebiche, the Peruvian take on raw seafood marinated in citrus, hot ají pepper, and a stunning variety of other ingredients—from fat-kerneled Peruvian corn to black squid ink. "You need to have an icon for the first time. You have to start building a story," Acurio says. "Cebiche is fresh, light, has intense flavor, is authentic. It's the perfect weapon."

Whiteman agrees that cebiche should be an easy sell in a market already infatuated with sushi. "For Americans, the Peruvian raw-fish recipes are potentially far more exciting in the mouth—and exciting intellectually—than the Japanese stuff."

La Mar Cebicheria Peruana in San Francisco is the first of three Acurio is opening in the U.S. over the next year; New York and Las Vegas locations are planned for 2009. "The thought was San Francisco or New York made the most sense to open in, given the credibility those two food markets would give him going forward," says David Fukuda, a real estate consultant in San Francisco who is one of Acurio's investors.

Whether he can make Peruvian food a global brand remains to be seen. Early reports from San Francisco are promising, though—the buzz on foodie sites like Yelp is strong, and Gourmet and Food & Wine have run adoring profiles.

For all his business success, Acurio seems far more interested in food and restaurant concepts than in managing a business that spans three continents. When asked at his work space and atelier in Lima how many people work for him, he has to stop and think. "Fifteen hundred, maybe?" he says hesitantly. His business offices are in an entirely different building—by design. "I don't see operations, don't see corporate business things, don't see contracts," he shrugs. "I just come here, cook, think, promote, research, inspire."