In the Inca Empire, people ate not three courses like the French, but twice a day: a *comida* in the morning, around mid-morning, and another in the late afternoon. No starter or dessert: they shared, sitting on the ground on textiles, bowls (*manka*) of thick stew, tubers, and grains, always seasoned with *ají* (chili). Meat was rare and reserved for festivals or nobles. Around the Sapa Inca, meals became state banquets: grains, meat, and *chicha* were redistributed to subjects and gods, for feeding the people and the Sun was an imperial duty.

Two hallmarks of this cuisine: *ají*, the yellow or red chili that flavors almost every daily dish, and the Andean art of preserving by cold and mountain sun — *chuño* (freeze-dried potato from overnight frost) and *charqui* (dried llama meat). These techniques fed Atahualpa's armies during the civil war and filled the state storehouses (*qollqa*).