Keeping a Peruvian chef in a Los Angeles airport with 40 frozen piranhas

Angels – The Peruvian leader Virgilio Martínez He was interrogated and detained for several hours at the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) for attempting to introduce 40 frozen piranhas into the country that he was carrying in his luggage, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Martinez, owner of a reputable restaurant in his country and who was picked up in the well-known Netflix program "Chef's Table", explained to the LAX customs authorities that he was planning to prepare the carnivorous fish at gastronomy festival L.A. Food Bowl, organized by the aforementioned newspaper.

After five hours of interrogation during which Martinez showed the authorities a copy of his own cookbook with the recipe to prepare the piranha as a typical dish of his country, the customs officers allowed him to introduce dead fish into the United States. UU

The next day he served piranhas as part of a salad at an inexpensive restaurant in Los Angeles, and then offered another dish with the head and skin of fish at another reputed local cuisine site, explained Martinez.

The chief told the customs authorities that the piranhas, common in the Amazon, were a typical dish on the menu of his central restaurant in Lima.

S addressing the La Paz newspaper, the chief explained that when customs officials opened their bag filled with piranhas, they "panicked".

He declared that he wanted to invite the piranhas to the festival of gastronomy to fight "the preconceived ideas on the piranhas due to the cinema".

According to the description of the website of the Central Restaurant, one explores "the entire Peruvian territory focused on the ecosystem and heights", with 17 dishes grouped in the menu "Tema Elevaciones" and 11 dishes in the "Tema Ecosistemas".

Customs authorities indicated that Martinez's special examination and interrogation were part of the usual process when exotic animals were found in the traveler's baggage and that the importation of live piranhas without prior authorization was illegal in California.