Quechua for “cut stew meat,” the origins of present day anticuchos date to Pre-Columbian times. When the Spanish arrived in the 16^th century they found the Incas cooking pieces of meat on sticks over flames. While the name may be attributed to the Incas, modern anticuchos are attributed to Afro-Peruvian culture.

From the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century, cotton and sugar plantations on the Peruvian coast that were sustained by the labor of black slaves brought by the Spanish from Africa. The hacendados (owners of the haciendas) periodically slaughtered cows, and then, they used to give the innards—which they considered garbage—to their slaves. Because they needed to eat, they did what they could to make the innards edible. They saw how Andean people seasoned their food with native peppers, and also had access to Spanish ingredients like garlic, vinegar, cumin and salt through the hacienda kitchens. The absence of proper stoves forced them to cook over a fire, using sugar cane stalks as skewers.

As early as 1833, carretillas, or street carts, began appearing on Lima streets selling anticuchos according to Peruvian Ricardo Palma’s Tradiciones Peruanas. Until recent decades, offal was seen as a cut for poorer classes, though that has since changed and anticuchos are embraced by much of Peruvian society.

While anticucherias are found all over Lima, only a select few have grown followings, such as Anticuchos Pascuala in Surquillo. The most famous is Doña Grimanesa Vargas Araujo, or Tia Grimanesa. Operating a charcoal grill on a Miraflores street corner for thirty years, she grew a loyal crowd that included Lima’s top chefs, local celebrities and politicians. Every night at 8PM, she began selling just 50 kilos of anticuchos until the quantity ran out — which they did every night. Some arrived an hour before the first palitos were sent out to place their order, just to make sure they didn’t miss out. Limousines with tinted windows would pull up to the curb and have their drivers wait in the line.

In 2008, Grimanesa appeared with her grill at Lima’s annual culinary festival, Mistura, and became a national celebrity overnight. She began appearing on television, and even has a potato chip flavor based on her anticuchos. Crowds surrounding her grill began to stretch around the block and clogged the street, forcing the municipality to push her off of the street. She now operates out of a brick and mortar restaurant near her old corner. The flavor remains the same.