Jaime Pesaque Goes Casual at New York’s Cholapink

7 Minute read

11 Nov 2026

Cholapink Tablescape. Credit: Alex Staniloff

The chef behind Lima’s Mayta, one of the world’s top-ranked restaurants, teamed up with reggaeton star Daddy Yankee for a Peruvian grill where you can walk in and eat well on a lunch budget.

Nearly 20 years ago, chef Jaime Pesaque opened Mayta on a mission to give classic Peruvian dishes the fine-dining treatment. The Lima restaurant ranked No. 45 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list this year. Diners come from all over for Pesaque’s 10-course tasting menu, which features ingredients like cushuro, or “caviar of the Andes.”

Now the chef is turning that experience on its head with Cholapink, a fast-casual spot where anticuchos run from $9 to $11 apiece. He and his unlikely partner, Daddy Yankee, opened it on Spring Street in New York City on October 28.

In Peru, anticuchos are often eaten streetside and traditionally made with beef heart. “As one of Peru's most iconic and democratic dishes, anticuchos felt central to that idea,” Pesaque says. “When it came time to build our menu, I couldn’t think of a more approachable and versatile foundation for capturing the sheer variety of flavors and ingredients that make up Peruvian cuisine.”

There are five skewers on the menu, including beef seasoned with smoky ají panca and topped with creamy huancaína and chimichurri. The pork belly is marinated in gochujang and rocoto, an ultra-spicy Peruvian pepper, and served with pineapple chutney to balance the heat. The vegan option pairs oyster mushrooms with a peanut sauce spiked with ají panca.

On the side, there’s sea bass ceviche in leche de tigre, corn and cheese with choclo and huancaína sauce, and chaufa, a popular Peruvian-Chinese fried rice. The fries come tossed in a chili rub, and the salad gets an ají amarillo dressing.

If lunch usually means grabbing a sandwich or a sad salad, Cholapink gives you a reason to stay for dessert. There’s raspadilla, a Peruvian shaved ice with chirimoya, citrus cream, toasted meringue, and lemongrass syrup, or flan with fig-honey syrup.

Pesaque wanted to bring his cooking to a wider audience. “We use many of the same ingredients at Cholapink that we use at Mayta: the chilies, the marinades, the produce,” he says. “These are all essential elements of Peruvian cuisine, whether they're served as part of a tasting menu or atop an anticucho.”

When Daddy Yankee visited Lima in 2025, Pesaque hosted him at Mayta. “He has long loved Peruvian food so there was an instant connection and a real opportunity to do something deeper,” Pesaque says. “Not long after, we spent some time exploring Lima’s street food scene together, which formed the basis of our anticucho concept.”

Pesaque says he and Daddy Yankee tasted their way through the menu as it took shape. According to Cholapink, Daddy Yankee’s go-to order includes a steak skewer with pan chapla, a classic Peruvian flatbread, and a side of chaufa. He adds camu camu lemonade, made with tart Amazonian berries.

Cholapink takes its name from the bright pink of traditional Andean pollera skirts worn in Peru. The pink walls and metal accents in the 60-seat spot are a long way from Mayta’s wood tables and hanging plants.

“We have clear stations, standards, and the same commitment to quality as we do at Mayta,” Pesaque says. “That attention to detail, the extra care taken by our staff, those principles carry over from the fine dining world for sure.”

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About the author

Liz Provencher is a New York-based writer covering food, drink, and travel. You can find her work in publications like AFAR, Architectural Digest, Eater, Food and Wine, Imbibe...

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