Sinfonía por el Perú: Changing lives through music
Founded by world-famous tenor Juan Diego Flórez, this programme is giving thousands of kids from tough backgrounds a shot at something bigger, through music. Whether playing in an orchestra or jamming to traditional Peruvian tunes, they're finding confidence, community, and a whole new future.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Furious This Morning viewers rage 'she shouldn't be glorified!' as Peru Two drug mule Michaela McCollum recounts time on Celebrity SAS - blasting ITV for 'promoting criminality'
Furious This Morning fans raged 'she shouldn't be glorified!' as Peru Two drug mule Michaela McCollum recounted her time on Celebrity SAS while on Friday's instalment of the ITV show. The 31-year-old, who served three years in a hardcore prison near Lima when she was convicted of drug smuggling back in 2016 when she was just 19, is due to appear on our screens very soon as part of the upcoming series of the Channel 4 show. Michaela appeared on This Morning to talk about what it was like taking part in the challenging programme, which is run by Billy Billingham, Jason Fox, Rudy Reyes and Chris Oliver. But viewers watching at home blasted the channel for 'promoting criminality' and many rushed to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their thoughts. 'Literally promoting criminality it would seem #ThisMorning.' 'She shouldn't be glorified at all.' The 31-year-old is due to appear on our screens very soon as part of the upcoming series of the Channel 4 show 'I give up on this nation.' 'Why has she joined the 'so called' celebrity sas? 'Money Attention What else? Another person who's trying to be a 'celeb' that are paying to talk to! Seriously guys how low will you go in the barrel for cheap ratings?' 'FFS, a drug mule celebrity, what is with this country's obsession with promoting the stupid and evil people in society?' 'So crime doesn't pay?' '#ThisMorning This guest isn't a 'celebrity'. She's a convicted drug smuggler and should be given any sort of publicity!!!' 'She'll be presenting #thismorning next.' 'So you get done for smuggling drugs like Michaella Mccollum and that somehow now makes you a Celebrity? #ThisMorning What the f*** is she famous for other than being a criminal? #SASWhoDaresWins in what way is she a celebrity?' Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid were 20 when they became friends holidaying in Ibiza back in August 2013. They were soon coerced into sneaking £1.5million worth of cocaine into Peru. They were arrested when they got off the plane in Lima, convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to six years and eight months in the hardcore Ancon 2 prison - though they were released in 2016. Michaela has since become a mum and is a public influencer and speaker. Dermot was interested to know her thought process behind agreeing to take part in the show. He asked: 'To go back into something in the public eye, means you're going to open up a level of scrutiny and opinion. 'Did that come into your head? Michaela: 'Not really because I know that it is always going to exist. 'Any kind of decisions that I make are scrutinised so I thought whether I do the show, there will be some kind of talk about that.' When asked what it was like in prison, Michaela revealed: 'It was extreme. I was incredibly adaptable. I just got along with it. 'I think for the first part, I felt so guilty and bad and thought I deserve it. 'I'll suck it up. But I feel like it made me an amazing person. I came back when I was 23.' Olivia mentioned the backlash that she has received and asked Jason Fox, who was sitting on the sofa next to her, if it was necessary. Jason said: 'There is always going to be backlash. I personally don't think it's warranted. 'There's a reason people go to prison, pay their penance, when it's, done it's done. 'Why not give people the opportunity to see if they can move forward. Obviously other people have different opinions, that's up to them.' Michaela added: 'I am so pulled back from all of that, I don't expose myself to that. 'But I know it exists. I know people are always going to say that no matter what I do. 'I very much have stayed out of the public eye, went to university, had a normal career. I've had my normal life. 'If things pop up, like the likes of this show, I'm going to do that, I think its an amazing experience of life. 'It's going to happen whatever I do. It's going to exist.' The likes of Adebayo 'The Beast' Akinfenwa, 43, Troy Deeney, 35, Conor Benn, 27, Louie Spence, 55, Tasha Ghouri, 25, Harry Clark, 23, Hannah Spearritt, 43, Rebecca Loos, 46, Bimini, 31, Lady Leshurr, 36, Lucy Spraggan, 32, and Adam Collard, 28, will also be starring in the upcoming series of Celebrity SAS.
Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Telegraph
‘Rodent never tasted so good': My 14-course meal at the world's best restaurant
The very first dish leaves me so baffled I have to ask the waiter which bits I am supposed to eat. The only edible part, it turns out, is the tiny blob of brown foam, made from Amazonian chorizo, perched on top of a spiky bed of desiccated scales from the arapaima, one of the world's largest freshwater fish. Each the size of a credit card, the scales vaguely resemble prawn crackers; it's a shame, I think ruefully, that they are there purely for decoration. This is the first mouthful of a 14-course tasting menu at Maido, a restaurant in Lima's touristy Miraflores district (just a short walk from my home of the past 15 years) that specialises in Peruvian-Japanese cuisine, known as Nikkei. Even by the stellar standards of Peru's gastronomic boom, Maido is not just another high-end eatery. After years of bouncing around the top 10, in June 2025 it finally achieved the number-one spot at the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards. Never mind Michelin (which has yet to include South America in its star system) – the 50 Best, voted on by more than 1,000 industry insiders, is arguably the gold standard for international culinary excellence. Maido, hidden behind a cluster of Eucalyptus trunks on an otherwise nondescript street corner, can thus claim to offer the most superlative gourmet experience on planet earth. Its chef-owner, Mitsuharu 'Micha' Tsumura, is now the Leo Messi of gastronomy. And I am here to soak up his skills. The waiter recommends I pick up the hors d'oeuvre and down it in one. As I pop the foamy morsel into my mouth, it seems to simultaneously vaporise on my tongue and explode into improbably distinct flavours and textures. Seasoned with annatto (derived from the seeds of the achiote tree), Brazil nuts, the juice of a local mandarin-citron hybrid, sweet chilli peppers and yacón (a crisp tuber from the Andean foothills), the foam clearly delivers a porky flavour. But it also gives off subtle tones of smoke, citrus and fresh fruit, along with layers of umami and sweetness that feels familiar but which I cannot identify. Ethereally light, the jungle-inspired chorizo concoction somehow also manages to have a faint, satisfying crunch. What follows is a virtuoso voyage across Peru's dazzlingly diverse geography – without ever stepping out from beneath the forest of ropes that hangs over the dozen, highly-coveted tables in Maido's dining room. Although it is hard to make out, they portray the Hinomaru, the Japanese national flag. As new diners enter the dimly-lit space they are greeted by staff with a chorus of 'maido', meaning 'welcome' in the Osaka dialect of Tsumura's ancestors. Diners are then swept from the 1,500-mile Pacific coast over the soaring Andes and down into the endless rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon and their myriad exotic fruits. There are sea urchins and scallops served with basil oil, and a sauce made from another rare tuber – arracacia – blended with tumbo, an acidic fruit once used, before the Spanish brought citrus to the Americas, to make a precursor of ceviche. Then comes arapaima butifarra – slivers of a fishy cold cut in a diminutive bun, flavoured with an emulsion of sweet chilli peppers, karashi (a Japanese mustard) and honey. And Cuy San, or san guinea pig – Tsumura's haute-cuisine take on the fluffy (but, in this neck of the woods, very edible) Andean staple. A diminutive, delicately-battered leg is served with chilli peppers and greens; rodent never tasted so good. Towards the end of the marathon feast there is charqui, a kind of Andean beef jerky but made with wagyu and garnished with huacatay, a minty marigold used widely in Peruvian cooking. All of it is washed down with a New World wine pairing that runs from a semillon made from old vines in Argentine Patagonia, to two different sakes. The service is friendly and efficient but never fawning. Maido is actually the second Lima restaurant in three years to claim the top spot in the 50 Best, after Virgilio Martínez's Central in 2023 (now in the rankings's hall of fame and withdrawn from future consideration), also a 10-minute walk from my home, but in the other direction. The Nikkei emporium leads a cohort of four restaurants from the Peruvian capital in the 2025 list. London, by comparison, has just two in this year's 50 Best, the genre-defying Ikoyi at 15, and Kol, offering Mexican fusion, at 49. Like most top Peruvian restaurants, Maido achieves this at relatively competitive prices. My tasting menu with wine pairing came to 1880 Sols (roughly £390), including service. That's rather more than I am used to paying for lunch. But it's also hardly the arm and leg that many of Maido's international peers charge. The story of how Peru, a poster child for political corruption and underdevelopment, came to overshadow gastronomic powerhouses such as Paris, Tokyo and New York is rooted in a national food culture that is highly original and diverse, and genuinely includes Peruvians of all races and classes. That culture is itself the product of breathtaking geography as well as immigration from across the globe, and even, believe it or not, the brutal legacy of the Maoist terrorists of the Shining Path. Peru's natural pantry is unrivalled, thanks to its tropical location and the Andes's vast altitudinal variation. The country is home to just about every ecosystem, and therefore every crop, plant and game species on earth. Successive waves of immigrants, not all of them willing, from Spain, Italy, Africa, France, China and Japan, among others, have each left their stamp. So too distinct pre-Columbian traditions from the desert coast, mountains and jungle. No Peruvian kitchen, for example, would be complete without a wok or various uniquely local ajíes or chillies. Then a generation of young chefs, including Tsumura, trained in the 1990s at top culinary schools from San Francisco to Rome and Tokyo. Many did so to flee a national collapse partly triggered by the Shining Path's bloodletting. On their return, they began applying their new, cutting-edge techniques and ideas on Peru's extensive pantheon of home recipes. Adding some extra spice is the national propensity for breaking the rules. It's a trait that makes Peruvians both Latin America's worst drivers and best cooks. Mexico – whose wonderful food I do not underestimate, having lived there for four happy years – is a clear but distant second. Eventually, after three hours of what becomes a quickfire blur of dazzling delicacies, I emerge back into the grey light of Lima's overcast, southern winter. I'm satisfied full, there's no question, but it will take me days to fully process the experience, perhaps the way one might after visiting an exhibition by a truly great artist. The highlight dish? Tsumara's nuanced take on Peru's national dish, ceviche, titled Sea and Pistachios. Miniscule chunks of fortuno, a small local fish species, were served with diced squid and snails, floating with nuts and avocado pieces in a light, tangy chilled broth. And does Maido live up to its new reputation as the 'world's best restaurant'? I can't say. But the meal is one I will remember for the rest of my life – which is not a bad thing to say of your local.
The Independent
30-06-2025
- The Independent
Mark Wahlberg hails Scots brothers rowing the Pacific as ‘warriors'
Three Scottish brothers attempting to become the fastest people to row across the Pacific have received a second call of support from Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg. Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan Maclean are more than halfway into their 120-day Pacific challenge to cross 9,000 miles of open ocean between Lima and Sydney. Earlier in June, the Perfect Storm star had video-called them to say their record-breaking bid 'could be a movie'. In his latest call, the 53-year-old actor said he would keep in touch with the trio as they make their way across the globe, hailing them as 'f****** warriors'. He said: 'You guys are bored. You need someone to talk to. You need someone to, you know, give you a little pump up. Let me know. I'm available.' Wahlberg joked: 'Well, you know what would make me a legend? Playing one of you guys, or all three, in a movie. There've been a few actors who've played twins before, but I could maybe play all three of you, change up my look a little bit.' He added: 'You guys are doing something that's so extraordinary. It's another level. This is real man shit you're doing. You're out there with big smiles on your faces, pounding away, while everybody else is lying in bed in dreamland, nice and dry, and still waking up complaining about something. 'You're not doing this for attention – you're doing it to raise attention for a very worthy cause. You guys are real men. You're f****** warriors. It's incredible. 'Hopefully, you'll inspire other people to find something important to do to raise awareness. It's awesome, guys.' As well as aiming to set a record for the fastest row across the world's largest ocean, the brothers are hoping to raise £1 million for clean water projects in Madagascar. So far they have raised more than £125,000. Challenges experienced by the brothers so far include salt sores, relentless weather, a broken water maker and a faulty auto helm. Their 28ft (8.5m) carbon fibre boat, Rose Emily, is named in memory of their late sister. It has no engine and no sail and the brothers are powering their way across the ocean in two-hour shifts.
