Peru cuisine, a taste of home

Chef Artistoteles Brena Jaime has proved to Trinis that one does not need exotic ingredients to create gourmet food.

Chef Artistoteles was the guest chef at Krave in San Fernando at the restaurant’s Peruvian Food Festival from March 20-25. The celebrated Peruvian chef, who owns the award-winning restaurant, Nazca 21, in Casco Viejo, Panama, treated patrons to simple culinary treats with delightful presentations.

On a visit to the restaurant for dinner on March 23, the chef created a Prix Fixe menu. There was no quinoa, but white rice. There were no escargots, truffles, prosciutto, or caviar. In fact, the ingredients were things most people could find in their cupboards or fridges at home. Ingredients such as potatoes, eggs, cassava, chicken and fish. The appetizers that night were Stuffed Avacado with Aji de Gallina Salad; Classic Peruvian Ceviche; and Papas a la Huancaina. For dessert – Peruvian Lime Pie, and Crema Volteada.

For the main course there was a choice of Aji de Gallina Criolla – chicken breast in a yellow pepper sauce with nuts, parmesan cheese, served with boiled potato and white rice; Jalea Imperial Mariscos – seafood and fish in a tomato creole sauce served with golden yucca (cassava) fries; and Filete Relleno de Langostinos estylo Inca – Beef Loin topped with jumbo shrimp Inca Style in a madiera sauce with cilantro rice.

While the ingredients were simple, the flavours were not. The simple ingredients were elevated by the combinations of seasonings and textures, creating amazing flavours that were surprising yet pleasing to the tastebuds. And they were not even flavours that would be strange to Trinis.

For example, one guest exclaimed that the Aji de Gallina Criolla reminded him of dhal and rice... “but fancy, creamy dhal and rice with shredded chicken to add that umph.” The simple fried fish, shrimp, and calamari of the Jalea Imperial Mariscos were taken to the next level by, of all things, raw onions that seemed to have been pickled.

In addition to the food, chef Artistoteles also brought bottles of Pisco, a colourless brandy produced in Peru. He personally instructed Krave’s bartenders on how to create a few traditional Peruvian drinks, and one or two with a Trini twist which satisfied hard liquor and cocktail-lovers alike.

Chef Artistoteles told Sunday Newsday both TT and Peruvian food were “generous with spices and based on creative use of simple ingredients.”

When asked what he enjoyed about TT food, he said, “To be honest I loved it maybe too much! I recognised many of the flavours but they were handled so differently! Also you could taste the merging of cultures. Fantastic!”

He added that his experience cooking in and visiting TT was a pleasure, especially working with his friend and Krave’s executive chef, Dominique Beens, and his team. “For me it was an opportunity to share the cuisine I love with another country with a well recognised culinary tradition. Plus I also got to experience Trinidad and its amazing food for myself... I also enjoyed some great sightseeing throughout Trinidad, the drive to Toco was especially memorable.”

Explaining why he invited chef Artistoteles, Krave managing director Damion Persad said the main reason was because Peruvian food is one of the most talked about among foodies. “As you know, we are always pushing to connect Trinidad and Tobago to the global food scene with use of creative techniques, ingredients and platings. When chef Beens mentioned chef Aristoteles and we looked at his restaurant Nazca 21 and what he is able to do there, he seemed like a great fit.”

And the decisions seemed to have paid off as Persad said some guests returned multiple times that week, and others asked them to extend the Peruvian Food Festival. He added that some guests who visited for brunch on Sunday, the last day of the festival, expressed regret that they had not visited earlier in the week to experience more of chef Aristoteles’s food.

Persad said because of the positive reactions from all of Krave’s guests, the administration was already talking about bringing in another guest chef “and a few other possibilities that would be ground breaking for us.”

He added that, for the immediate future, the culinary team was creating a new sushi menu, and promised that the restaurant’s Mother’s Day celebrations would be “unprecedented” this year.