Sol y Luna

Acid against fat in the valley kitchen

Tom Köffers sets acid against fat as Executive Chef at Sol y Luna in Urubamba, Peru, carrying a cook’s instinct for contrast into a Sacred Valley kitchen. Tom Köffers came to the trade early, cooking for family and friends at age 12, then entering paid kitchen work at age 18 in his hometown Dusseldorf, Berlin. His account of formation is not tied to a single school or named mentor; it moves through travel, kitchens, and the “distinctive tastes” he learned from each cuisine he encountered.

That matters at Sol y Luna because the place asks for range without losing its ground. Köffers’s public work before this post includes the chef-owner structure at Surf & Turf by Soul Kitchen in Phuket Town from 2016, then the founding of Table Creatives by Surf & Turf in 2021. Those roles joined authorship to daily execution: sourcing decisions, the guest read of the room, and the plate arriving at the pass. At Sol y Luna, the responsibility widens into an Executive Chef’s kitchen program, one shaped by modern Peruvian cooking, Sacred Valley produce, and the discipline of a retreat where the meal has to sit naturally among gardens, stone casitas, and mountain air.

Andean produce, handled close to the source

The cooking here draws from Andean ingredients grown in the property’s gardens or brought in through local sourcing. Killa Wasi works in a more formal register, with contemporary readings of Sacred Valley traditions and refined Cusqueña cooking; Wayra carries the larger, more casual side of the program. The named dishes keep the geography present: Peruvian ceviche, quinoa falafel, pumpkin bisque, Andean trout, grass-fed beef, alpaca, and crispy cuy with Maras salt potatoes and uchucuta sauce.

The method is not only refinement. Pachamanca at Wayra Ranch keeps an older Andean gesture in service: meats, potatoes, and vegetables cooked in an earth oven with hot rocks. Breakfast pulls the same pantry into another rhythm, with ancient grains, unusual fruits, acai bowls, and locally smoked trout with poached eggs. Beneath Wayra Ranch, The Cava holds wines from around the world for small groups, while the bar sends out pisco sours at sunset. The point is not a single signature plate. It is a program built around the valley’s harvest, then adjusted through cure, smoke, char, broth, salt, and acid.

The room between casitas and gardens

The room at Sol y Luna is part of a larger house: a Relais & Chateaux retreat set across 25 acres outside Urubamba, with 43 standalone stone casitas, snaking paths, flower beds, bright lawns, fruit trees, and the Andes held in view. The restaurant does not have to manufacture atmosphere. It borrows from the grounds, then lowers the volume.

Killa Wasi’s indoor and outdoor seating sits near the pool, with a spiral stair and bar area that catches the pre-dinner hour. Wayra feels looser, connected to the ranch and to the earth-oven meals that bring the place back to fire and stone. Service moves in an upscale casual register, warm without crowding the table. Candle-lit paths return guests to their casitas after dinner. In that quiet, the craft has to be clear: trout, quinoa, pumpkin, Maras salt, uchucuta, pisco, and the steady hand of Köffers’s kitchen at Sol y Luna.