It has no star chef as renowned as Alain Ducasse, no cooking school as famous as le Cordon Bleu, no ingredient as controversial as foie gras. But like a whispered secret, Peruvian cooking is ever so quietly gaining greater recognition around the world.

"I honestly believe that Peru is without any question the truly great cuisine of Latin America," says Tony Custer, author of The Art of Peruvian Cuisine, which has sold 60,000 English and Spanish copies, winning a Latin American book award in 2001. For a self-published, self-designed, one-off publication, that's a lot of converts, especially considering the country's culinary reputation just a few years ago.

"I was in Union Square in Manhattan and went into Barnes & Noble," Custer says. "To my astonishment, there were millions of cookbooks and nothing about Peru."

Part of the interest comes from the way the country's food closely fits with recent trends. Just like the highbrow fusion dishes of the past two decades, Peruvian cuisine mixes New World, European and Asian flavors. But unlike the dreamed-up creations of a celebrity chef, Peru's combinations occurred naturally: Native Incan and Quechuan recipes and ingredients blended with those of the arriving Spanish of the 16th century. Later, waves of Asian immigrants added new influences.

"It's extremely complex and the result of hundreds of years of fusions," Custer says.

Stronger than perhaps anywhere else in South America was the Chinese touch, according to Cheuk Kwan, director of a documentary cycle, Chinese Restaurants. His latest installment, Latin Passions, is set in Peru, Argentina and Brazil.

"Half of Peruvian cooking is actually Chinese," Kwan says. "It's an osmosis of cuisines. Chicharrones is a Spanish term for fried pork rinds. But chicharrones in Peru is Chinese barbecue roast pork. Everywhere you go you find Chinese restaurants. There are 6,000 Chinese restaurants in Peru, 3,000 just in Lima."

The strong Asian influence is most easily seen in dishes such as chancho, another type of roast pork, and lomo saltado, stir-fried beef with soy sauce.

"Those are totally wok-type dishes," Custer says. "You do one part, move it aside, get the other part going as well."

Like Chinese dishes, some Peruvian flavors are familiar from elsewhere. Chile produces far more of the Peruvian brandy called Pisco, and the marinated fish known as ceviche (or cebiche) is prepared throughout the Americas. But Peruvians, who claim the dish as their own, do it differently.

"The main difference is that we never, ever, ever put tomato in our ceviche," Custer says. "The tendency from Ecuador up is to make them sweet." It was the Japanese immigrants of the early 20th century, Custer says, who taught Peruvians how to prepare fish correctly.

Even North African influences — via Spain — appear in the country's kitchen.

"Peruvian desserts have a strong Moorish influence of the Southern Spaniards who came here," Custer says. "In salty dishes we generally don't have mixes of sweet and sour. We save up all our sweets for dessert. We have an amazing collective sweet tooth."

Now the country is using its foodie credentials to promote tourism and heighten its international profile. This week the Peruvian Embassy in Prague will put on a food festival, bringing in Adolfo Perret, the chef and owner of the restaurant Punta Sal in Lima. Similar events have been held in Paris, Los Angeles and Madrid.

"We have made food festivals around the world," says Luis Enrique Suárez-Palacios, Peru's deputy chief of mission here. "Last month it was in Helsinki. One of the things that successive governments in Peru have done was to try to improve the perception abroad about Peruvian food."

Promoting the country's image might be easiest among the Czechs, whose cooking is laden with a Peruvian native: the potato, which came to Europe directly from Peru, and which flourishes there in more than 2,000 varieties today.

It may appear familiar in many ways. But those who dare to taste recipes from Lima should be forewarned: The very thing that makes Peruvian cooking so interesting might cause it to permanently affect your own culinary repertoire.