After returning to Peru in 2001 Zegarra had a job in both the private and public sectors, but found little satisfaction. One day he was looking through his old college stuff and found one of his former college pal's recipes.

It was for tom kha kai - sour coconut soup with chicken. So he started to cook. Then he perfected it. Then, in 2003, he decided to open a Thai restaurant in Lima.

"My knowledge of Thai food is very limited compared to my roommate's," Zegarra admits, but he learns more every day at his eatery, Siam Thai Cuisine, in the capital's Surco district.

In a bizarre twist of fortune, the tsunami that put Thailand in the world's headlines boosted his business. People came to his restaurant just out of curiosity.

Dinner for two there isn't cheap. At the equivalent of Bt1,400, an upper-middle-class couple would have to make it a special, once-a-month outing.

"In fact I cater to that kind of client because they're here for special occasions," Zegarra says.

Another entrepreneur's earlier effort to run a Thai restaurant in Lima went nowhere because it depended too much on well-to-do customers.

"Peruvians want good food at a reasonable price," Zegarra says. His menu is drawn from cookbooks - he's learning Thai at home - and once he's figured out the preparation, he shows his Peruvian staff how to make the dish.

"There are no Thai chefs here," he says with a grin. "I told them what to do."

Siam Thai Cuisine offers all the standards - pad thai, tom yam kung, yum woon sen ...

"These are my favourites," Zegarra says.

Peru has plenty of lemongrass, so he makes lemongrass pisco sour to serve with the Thai dishes. It was an immediate hit.

Peruvians love spicy food. Their native dishes are full of chilli and herbs. Cabiche is chopped raw fish, marinated in lime juice for an hour, with diced chilli and cilantro. It's similar to tom yam, less the few spoons of sugar and fish sauce.

Peruvian food lacks the hybrid flavours of Thai cuisine, but it does feature a distinctive chilli sauce. In Latin America, chilli sauce is normally mixed with milk or coconut.

Zegarra has difficulty finding other Asian-style ingredients in Lima. His best bet is the city's Chinatown district, where he can buy fragrant rice, oyster sauce and other products imported from Thailand or Vietnam.

Thanks to his college memories, passion for Thai food and word of mouth, Zegarra's restaurant has become a trendy attraction, popular with expatriates and senior government officials.

"As you can see, my restaurant is hidden away among the offices, so once you're inside, nobody can see you," he says, proud to offer his patrons a little discreet privacy.

The most amazing thing about all this is that Zegarra has never set foot in Thailand, and he confesses that he knows little about the country.

You'd never know from the menu.

Cookman Redux

The Nation