Peruvian-Nikkei Cuisine at Chotto Matte London

Name: Chotto Matte

Where: 11–13 Frith Street, Soho, London, W1D 4RB, http://www.chotto-matte.com

Cost: There are three 9-course Nikkei sharing menus, priced at £40, £50 and £60 per person. A pre-theatre 3-course menu is also available at £25 including a glass of Prosecco. Average spend from the a la carte menu is around £40 per person for food only.

About: Chotto Matte, opened by Kurt Zdesar (the man who brought Nobu to the UK), is one the first London restaurants serving the still relatively unknown Peruvian-Nikkei cuisine. Born from the Japanese diaspora living in Peru, Peruvian-Nikkei cooking is much more than just a trendy fad – it was born out of necessity in the early 20th century as most Japanese immigrants lacked the necessary ingredients to cook their home fare. Instead, they resorted to using the fantastic produce of Peru, from Pacific fish and seafood to the high altitude vegetables of the Andes, and the fruit of the Amazon. Today, Peruvian-Nikkei cuisine is very much part of the mainstream diet in Peru, with dishes like Tiradito and Maki Acevichado being just as popular as ceviche or causa.

I love bringing Brazilian-Nikkei dishes and flavours into my Japanese Supper Club menus and have been observing with interest the emergence of Nikkei cuisine in Europe – Chotto Matte, Sushi Samba (reviewed here) and UNI in London as well as the fabulous Pakta in Barcelona, opened by Ferran Adriá. At Peruvian restaurant Coya (reviewed here), I was surprised to see a large number of Peruvian Nikkei dishes on their menu.  Recently, Mitsuharu Tsumura of Maido, the Peruvian-Nikkei restaurant in Lima which is number 11th in the San Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants of Latin America, was hosted by Virgilio Martinez of Lima, the only Michelin-starred Peruvian restaurant in London (reviewed here).

Opened in September 2013, Chotto Matte’s menus and kitchen are under executive chef Jordan Sclare (former head chef at Aqua Kyoto and Nobu) and head chef Michael Paul. Chotto Matte is a large, beautiful restaurant and bar set over three floors.

On the ground floor, there is live music for much of the day as well as a vast, UV-illuminated mural created by Tokyo-based graffiti artist Houxo Que.

If the sun is shining, and you are lucky enough (as we were) to get one of their coveted outside tables, it is a fantastic place to while the hours away, sipping Pisco Sours, munching on some freshly made sushi and most importantly - people watching!

What We Ate: The kitchen has a number of stations, including a sushi and ceviche bar as well as a Japanese Robata grill area serving barbecued dishes. There is also a bar menu of small eats (tostaditas) with a variety of toppings for those who fancy a few snacks with a drink.

We started with some delicious and wonderfully blistered Padron peppers with sweet den miso and sea salt (£4.50). Den in their menu refers to dengaku miso, a paste made from miso, sake, mirin and sugar commonly used for grilled aubergines (nasu dengaku), one of the favourites in my Japanese Supper Club.

We also had a cone of cassava and sweet potato crisps, with an accompanying yellow tomato salsa and guacamole (£3.25).

To follow, we had two Nikkei dishes which were for me the highlight of the meal. First came a Nikkei sashimi of yellowtail with cherry tomatoes, jalapeño chillies, black salt, yuzu juice, crispy purple potato and truffle oil (£9.95). This was a magnificent dish.

Next we had the seabass ceviche - seabass sashimi, with sweet potato, Peruvian crispy corn, coriander, lemon juice and chive oil (£7.25). This was delicious, with intense chlorophyll colour from the chive oil, and a satisfying crunchy texture from the cancha crispy corn.

To accompany these fish dishes, we had the Paperthin Vegetable Salad - beetroot, daikon and butternut squash cut very thinly and teased into rolls, served with broccoli, quinoa, physalis fruit and lime, and red onion (£4.95). This dish was very refreshing, and I really enjoyed the richly flavoured vegetables, although I thought the sauce was a little sharp and would have been improved by a touch of sweetness.

The next course was grilled octopus, marinated in rice wine vinegar, from the Robata grill, with yuzu and smoked purple potato purée, and antecucho sauce (£9.95). This was utterly delicious - wonderfully tender octopus with a smoked flavour from the grill, and also from the antecucho marinade which is made from smoked dried aji panca.

To accompany it, we had Yuca Frita  - cassava chips with smoked aji panca dipping sauce (£3.25). The cassava was nice and crisp on the outside, but a little too firmly textured inside for my liking.

We also had  Ensalada Peruana -quinoa salad with aji amarillo sauce, pomegranate, coriander and Peruvian crispy cancha corn (£3.25), which was delicious with a combination of sweet and crunchy elements, and heat from the aji.

Alongside this, we had Mazorca de Maiz - a dish of Peruvian corn with chilli butter and coriander (£4.25). This was a more refined version of a dish we ate often in Peru – the corn was soft and a little sweet, and given a lovely lift by the chilli and fresh herbs.

We then had the Pollo Peruana - grilled chicken with crispy cancha corn, onion, coriander and edible flowers (£11.75). This was a well-made dish, with toasted crunchy skin, succulent tender flesh, and perfect seasoning.

We also had a selection of blowtorched sushi - tuna with yuzu butter, salmon with black garlic butter, turbot with antecucho butter, and aubergine with dengaku miso sauce and white sesame seeds (£10.50). I was very impressed by the sushi - the rice in particular was well made and fresh, as was the choice topping for the Nigiri sushi and the richly flavoured, savoury butters.

For dessert, we had the chicha morada brûlée - pineapple in chicha morada (black corn) syrup, with vanilla ice cream and coriander. This was like a very good pineapple crumble dish from school days, with the Peruvian twist being the intense purple colour and savour from the black corn, which is ubiquitous in Peru.

To finish, we had the Trio Nikkei - white chocolate foam, miso mousse, lime and lemon sorbet, and taro. This was a very refined combination dessert, beautifully presented. The miso mousse was reminiscent of dulce de leche, with a refreshing lemon and lime sorbet, and a good texture from the crumble. This dessert was clever, well-conceived, and a good ending to the meal.

What We Drank: Cocktails are priced between £8 and £10.50, Champagnes start at £49 per bottle.  Entry level whites are £23, and include an organic Torrontes from Michel Torino, and an Argentinian Viognier from Casa Montes. Reds start at £23, including a Peter Lehmann Art Series Shiraz, and an Argentine Malbec, Dona Paula.

We had a couple of very well made Pisco Sours (£8.50), and a glass of Organic Torrontes, Michel Torino Cuma 2013 (£23 per bottle). With the chicken, we had a glass of Argentine Chardonnay from Pulenta Estate VIII 2012 (£29 per bottle).  For dessert, we had a Mio Sparkling Sake - a 5% alcohol wine, this was refreshing, off-dry with gentle stone fruit flavours (£13 for a 300 ml bottle).

Likes: Great service, cool setting and some mean Pisco sours. The highlight dishes for me were the Nikkei sashimi of yellowtail and the seabass ceviche. Desserts are spectacularly good.

Dislikes: None

Verdict: Chotto Matte is a great place to discover Peruvian-Nikkei cuisine in the heart of London. A facet of Peruvian-Japanese cooking still relatively unknown in the UK, it is rapidly gaining momentum thanks to places like Chotto Matte. Highly recommended.

Coya - Discovering Peru in the Heart of London's Mayfair

Name: Coya Restaurant

Where: 118 Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 7NW, http://www.coyarestaurant.com

Cost: Set lunches are £26.50 or £29.50 for 3-4 courses, with a tasting menu for £75. From the a la carte menu, antecuchos, ceviches, tiraditos and small dishes cost from £4.50 to £16.50. Main courses are priced from £12 to £72 (for a rib of beef for 2).

About: Coya Restaurant and Bar sits on Piccadilly, facing Green Park in a prime but until recently rather quiet area of Mayfair. The modern Peruvian restaurant is in three sections in the basement of a fine Georgian building, with the members-only Coya Club on the ground floor. The restaurant is sleek and features a stunning Ceviche Bar, an Open Charcoal Grill area and the Central Kitchen.

Opened in January 2013 by entrepreneur Arjun Waney, who also owns Zuma and Roka, Coya is the first in the group to offer Peruvian-inspired cooking.

Head chef Sanjay Dwivedi spent sometime in Peru, travelling and learning the ropes at Lima's famous Astrid y Gaston Restaurant, and has managed to put together an impressive menu. Besides being the head chef for the Rolling Stones, his track record of cooking at Michelin-starred Zaika, The Ivy and Le Caprice is admirable.

Whether Sanjay Dwivedi’s cooking at Coya is as authentic as one would find in Peru is open for interpretation – a lot can be argued about this man’s cooking but anyone who has eaten his food would most certainly agree – his dishes are well thought-out and bursting with flavour!

Peru, like Brazil, has had many influences from other cultures including Japan and China, and its cuisine reflects this. I was pleased to see a great number of Peruvian-Nikkei and Chifa dishes on Coya’s menu and having the Zuma and Roka connection may have facilitated this.

Designed by David d'Almada, Coya’s attractive dining room blends antique Peruvian furniture with contemporary decor and colonial furniture, and discrete low-level lighting.

What We Ate: We opted for the tasting menu for £75 per person.  This started with a beautifully presented platter of 3 ceviches, 1 tiradito and a beetroot salad over crushed ice.

The classic Peruvian ceviche was “Lubnia Classico” made from sea bass with red onions, sweet potato, white corn and a well flavoured leche de tigre (literally translates as “Tiger’s Milk”, this is the marinade juices of lime and raw fish).  We also had ceviche “Dorada Criollo” with sea bream, cream of aji amarillo (Peruvian yellow chillies), crispy corn and coriander. These were as good as anything we had on our recent trip to Peru, and fine examples of their kind.

Alongside, we had a Chifa take on the Peruvian’s national dish “Ceviche de Atun Chifa” made with prime yellow-fin tuna, soy sauce, sesame-seeds and shrimp cracker. Chifa is the Peruvian word for Chinese-Peruvian cuisine/restaurants and this ceviche encapsulated the blending of these two cuisines.

We really enjoyed tiraditos in Peru – tiraditos are the Japanese-influenced adaptation of ceviche using raw fish sliced sashimi-style, rather than in the traditional cubes, and with little or no raw red onion. Coya’s Peruvian-Nikkei “Tiradito de Cobia” used cobia fish (from the seabass family), with dashi, truffle oil and chives. Deliciously creamy, it had wonderful umami elements from shiitake mushrooms, yuzu-ponzu sauce, dashi, soy-milk and truffle. I really loved this dish.

Accompanying the ceviches and tiradito, we had “Remolacha” - a deliciously refreshing salad of golden beets, aji amarillo (yellow chilli), goat's cheese, hazelnuts and pomegranate seeds.

Following on, we were served 3 dishes from Coya’s open charcoal grill including “Anticucho de Pollo” (barbecued chicken skewers) seasoned with aji amarillo and garlic, these were very well-cooked and succulent.

The “Anticucho de Setas” (barbecued forest mushrooms) had a lovely smokiness from the aji panca and cumin used in the marinating sauce – these were meaty and very moreish.

The 3rd charcoal grilled dish was “Pulpo al Olivo” (Josper grilled octopus) served with pureed Peruvian olives, potatoes, and grilled charred cherry tomatoes – it is always a joy to eat well cooked octopus (something I hardly make at home) and Coya’s was no exception – it was meltingly tender and beautifully seasoned.

Accompanying our grilled selection, we had “Ensalada de Maiz” (corn salad) – this contained soft white corn, crispy corn (chanca), and sweet corn, red chillies and finely chopped onions as well as plenty of contrasting textures and flavours.

My favourite dish of the meal, the “Arroz Nikkei” of lobster, lime and chilli was to die for. Made with short grain rice (the preferred rice in Japanese cooking), this was wonderfully creamy, with generous chunks of lobster meat and intensely flavoured bisque containing dashi, mirin and soy sauce, lifted up by a refreshing zingness from the chilli and lime. Truly sensational.

The “Lubina Chilena” or Chilean seabass had been marintated for 72 hours with white miso, sake, pisco and aji amarillo – this was sweet, delicate and delicious although the aji was not very pronounced in the flavour profile.

We also shared a “Solomillo de Res” (Beef) – this was a lightly spiced beef fillet seasoned with aji rocoto and heady star anise served with crispy deep-fried garlic. It was beautifully tender, richly flavoured and cooked medium rare just as ordered.

Accompanying our mains, we had a generous portion of sprouting purple broccoli, griddled in chilli and garlic butter and a sprinkle of sesame seeds which was spot on.

For pre-dessert (love the idea of pre-desserts!), we had “Chicha Morada”, the ubiquitous purple corn of Peru used to make one of their national soft drinks. I tried this whilst in Peru but felt it was rather sweet and lacking in acidity. Coya’s chicha morada dessert was a delightful combination of flavours and textures of granita, jelly and ice cream made from this corn - it was refreshing (rather than cloyingly sweet) having been flavoured with rhubarb, orange shortbread and various spices including star anise, clove, and cinnamon.

The dessert was a sharing platter containing, not one but 3 different puddings – “Parfait de Arabica” was a coffee parfait, coated in Kiwicha (similar to quinoa), over caramelised bananas, chocolate and Zacapa 23 year old rum. We also enjoyed “Caramelo con Chocolate” and “Frambuesa Sorbete” – these were salted caramel ganache with peanut brittle and raspberry sorbet with jelly & fruit, and a deliciously alcoholic pisco raspberry sauce. I really could not think of a better ending to this meal!

What We Drank: Cocktails range from £11.95 (for a Pisco Sour) to £14.50.  The house white is an Argentine Torrontes for £28 per bottle, with red wines also starting at £28 for a Chilean Carmenere. All the wines on the menu are either Old World or from South America.

We kicked off with a well-made Pisco Sour (£11.95) which went down well with the guacamole and tortillas we were served on arrival.

To accompany the ceviches and lobster rice, we enjoyed a couple of glasses of an excellent Chablis (chardonnay) by Domaine des Marronniers 2011 (£65/bottle).

With our mains, we had a glass of 2011 Argentinian Barda Pinot Noir from Bodega Chacra (£55/bottle). This was soft, with red berry fruit, gentle tannins, and somewhat sweet on the finish.

Likes: the Nikkei tiradito was exceptional as was the Nikkei lobster rice and the desserts. The ceviches were fresh and bursting with flavour. Excellent value tasting menu.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: Few restaurants have excited me as much as Coya lately – Sanjay Dwivedi’s cooking and his understanding of Peruvian flavours have truly impressed me. The tasting menu at £75 is great value and I cannot wait to return. Very highly recommended.

Peruvian-Nikkei Cuisine Comes to London!

Name: Lima Restaurant

Where: Lima (Peruvian) - 31 Rathbone Place, Fitzrovia, London W1T 1JH
                 Maido (Nikkei) - Calle San Martín, 399 (esq. calle Colón), Miraflores, Lima, Perú

Cost: Set lunches and the pre-theatre menus in Lima (London), available on weekdays, cost £20 for 2 courses, or £23 for 3 courses, plus £4 for a glass of red or white wine. From the à la carte menu, starters cost from £9 to £14, mains from £20 to £29, and desserts are all priced at £8.50.

About: Lima opened in 2012, the third restaurant of Peruvian chef Virgilio Martinez, whose Central Restaurant in Miraflores, Lima I visited recently (to be reviewed soon).  After a degree in law, Martinez studied at Le Cordon Bleu in London, and trained at restaurants in New York and Catalonia, and was executive chef at Astrid y Gastón in Lima before opening Central in 2010. Central quickly hit the San Pelligrino's 50 Best Restaurants in the World list, and in the latest 2014 list is ranked number 15.

That's quite a pedigree, and so perhaps it is not surprising that within months of opening, the menu devised by Martinez and delivered by Robert Ortiz at Lima was awarded a Michelin star. The menu at Central focussed on authenticity, local ingredients and seasonality, and this is also the philosophy at Lima, where a number of dishes developed at Central are also featured.  Most of the produce at Lima is from the UK, but it is supplemented by a range of native products from Peru's hugely diverse landscape.

Virgilio Martinez & Pia at Lima, London

This special event was to introduce Peruvian-Nikkei cooking to London. Nikkei is the cooking of the Japanese diaspora, adapting the produce these migrants found in their adopted countries to traditional Japanese culinary techniques, creating their interpretation of Japanese dishes with a local twist. This cuisine is very dear to me because as a Japanese-Brazilian, it is what I ate growing up in São Paulo, cook at my home in England and occasionally serve as part of my Japanese Supper Club menu in Islington.

Nikkei Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura at Lima, London

Nikkei cooking can be found wherever there is a Japanese migrant community; these communities are significant in Brazil, where the largest Japanese community can be found outside of Japan, and also Peru, home to the 2nd largest community.

It is in Lima that arguably this style of cooking has reached its highest expression, pioneered by Nobu Matsuhisa and his colleague Toshiro Konishi, followed by the next generation of outstanding Nikkei chefs like Mitsuharu Tsumura (known as Micha). Micha's Maido Restaurant (Latin America's 11th Best Restaurant 2013)  in Lima is another wonderful spot I visited on my recent trip to Peru which will be reviewed shortly. Micha has written an entire book on Nikkei cooking published last year "Nikkei es Peru" and is undoubtedly an authority on the subject.

Nikkei Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura at London Lima

I met and interviewed Toshiro Konishi and Micha while I was in Lima, and so was very excited to see Peruvian Nikkei cooking featured in London, and to have the opportunity to see him and Virgilio once more on home ground, as well as Virgilio’s partner and head chef Pia.

Arturio Gaston of Astrid & Gaston (pictured left)

What We Ate: The menu was structured with Pia, Vergilio and Micha’s dishes to show a wide range of Peruvian native ingredients, as well as Nikkei techniques and flavours by Micha.

  

To kick off proceedings, a platter of appetisers was served, which included Micha’s octopus with botija olive tofu and black quinoa, porcon mushroom with squid and wakame, and a steamed bun with fish chicharron (deep-fried battered fish) and zarza (or salsa) criolla made from onion, lime and coriander.

Pía cooked langoustine and huarango tree, a native tree from the desert in South Peru and whose sap tastes sweet like maple syrup, while Virgilio presented a dish called 'corn diversity', one of his creations at Central with four types of Peruvian corn including choclo (soft white fresh corn) and chulpi (dried and crunchy), presenting myriad flavour and texture contrasts.

We were then presented two takes on Peru’s national dish, ceviche.  Micha’s version was one of the most beautiful interpretations I have encountered, served in a striking purple sea urchin shell, combining rock fish and clams, sea urchin, tobiko eggs and yuyo (an Andean cooking herb), and topped with tempura(ed) samphire.

Virgilio's ceviche was also outstanding, with scallops, chia seeds and tumbo (a Peruvian passion fruit). This was refreshing and zingy, with delicious acidity.

Micha’s selection of nigiri-zushi came next - scallops with an emulsion of maca, cushuro and chalaca - featuring some uniquely Peruvian ingredients, like cushuro  (aka Andean caviar), a freshwater alga that grows only above 3000 metres. Rich in protein, it looks rather like the spherified chlorophyll beloved of molecular gastronomy, but is a naturally occurring foodstuff. Maca is another native of the high Andes, grown for its nutritious and allegedly healthgiving root - some even joke that maca is the Peruvian natural Viagra!

Silverside fish, with nori and leche de tigre emulsion was another Nikkei nigiri-zushi. Leche de tigre (tiger's milk) is a typically Peruvian sauce used in ceviches and tiraditos, which in its purest form is simply the juices of the lime and fish marinade.

The last nirigiri sushi featured very tender skirt beef with ponzu dressing (Japanese citrus dressing) topped with a fried quail egg. This was deliciously flavoursome, and visually quite stunning.

The main courses, titled 'Diversity' included a wagyu short rib nitsuke with potato cream and purple corn from Micha. Nitsuke refers to the Japanese technique of simmering fish or meat traditionally in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sugar and sake. The short rib was yieldingly tender and delicious, and served with an intense and glossy reduction. Purple corn is ubiquitous in Peru, and is used to make the hugely popular chicha morada (a purple corn soft drink).

Virgilio’s main course was a dish of avocado, Andean pseudocereals and tomato tree. Grown between 2000 and 4000 metres, Andean pseudocereals including quinoa and amaranth, are noted for their high anti-oxidant content, and worked a treat in this dish, imparting a nuttiness and crispy texture to the creamy avocado, making a fabulous dish.

To wrap up our Nikkei lunch, we were served two desserts - Micha’s ice cream of bahuaja nut (native to south-eastern Peru, and similar to Brazil nut), with crispy bahuaja nut and mango while Virgilio served 'Hoja de Coca' Jungle, or coca leaf jungle – both were creative, using intriguing and unusual Peruvian ingredients that were a delight to discover in this part of the world.

What We Drank: Lima serves probably the best Pisco sours this side of the Atlantic, and we enjoyed a couple of those as aperitifs. We also drank some fine Clos des Andes 2007 by Bodega Poesia, from Mendoza in Argentina.

Likes: Sophisticated Peruvian-Nikkei cooking, with some truly unusual and delicious native ingredients from the Amazon and the high Andes. The sea-urchin ceviche was truly outstanding and for me the highlight of the meal.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: Lima is a wonderful restaurant, fronted by Virgilio Martinez, one of the most talented young chefs in the world.  I cannot think of a better place to introduce Peruvian-Nikkei cooking to the UK and to discover on our very doorstep why there is such excitement about Peruvian cooking throughout the world right now. Highly recommended.

Nikkei Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura and Hosting Chef Virgilio Martinez at Lima, London