Martin Morales: Founder
1970s - I fell in love with Peruvian cuisine: I started cooking in Lima when I was 11 and my parents divorced. I was the only one at home who really wanted to cook. I used recipes from my great aunts Carmela and Otilia, and my Andean Grandmother Natividad.
1984 - Peruvian food made me popular: Upon moving to the UK from Peru, my main honey to attract friends was my cooking! Started working as a waiter and barman at various venues around Leicester.
1992 - I want to open the minds of Brits to Peruvian and Latin culture: music, concerts, food. I produced my first event whilst studying at Leeds Uni: Descarga night - Cuban jam session, Brazilian capoeira dancers and Latin food. I was also the DJ.
1993 - 2006 - DJed in New York’s Central Park Summerstage, and also in Tokyo, Moscow, Marrakesh, Rio De Janeiro, Barcelona, Stockholm, Glastonbury Festival, Roskilde and in over 2000 club nights and festivals around the world. DJing was my hobbie.
1997 - I created The Global Kitchen club night in Bath serving food and music from around the world.
2000 - 2010 - I worked for EMI, signed superstar artists like KT Tunstall, was contacted by Apple to help start iTunes and had an amazing 3 years there, then ran Disney’s music and events business and launched High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and more.
2000 - Frustration: Why can’t we eat great Peruvian cuisine in the UK? London can’t be a culinary capital without it having what we think is the best cuisine in the world. One day I will open a Peruvian Restaurant.
2009 (Sept) - Lightbulb Moment: Lets go for it! Let’s open a Peruvian restaurant business. Sod everything else. Stop talking about it and do something about it.
2010 (Sept) - Commitment: I leave Disney, we sell our house and I take no pay for as long as it takes. We are serious about this; we have a family and small kids but we believe in our mission to bring Peruvian cuisine to the UK.
2010 (Oct) - We start a Twitter account ‘@martinceviche’: A small revolution starts; interest snowballs and likeminded people come out of the woodwork.
2010 (Oct) - Rene Redzepi, the World’s Number 1 Chef sends me an email: “Martin, for me Ceviche is one of the best foods of the world, I utterly love it. Fresh, spicy, textural and healthy. What’s not to love about it? When are you opening?”
2010 (Nov) - Door knocking, get used to it: I knock on the door of every restaurateur I admire. Surprisingly, most open it, encourage me and give me 100% support. I am very grateful to Sinclair Beecham, Jillian MacLean, Stephen Wall, Jean-Michel Orieux, Nick Jeffrey, Russell Norman, Mark Selby and many more.
2010 (Dec) - We do our first Tasting: will people like our cuisine, will they like our ideas?. Watch to see what happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJEGbejg8zI
2011 (Mar) - The Struggle: The economy plots against us and many more new companies, start-ups and entrepreneurs with new ideas. The government offers no help, banks are no longer lending and our own finances begin to look weak. We may go bankrupt.
2011 (Mar) - Don Hernan Couturier: The Peruvian Ambassador invites my wife Lucy and I to his house for lunch to offer his support. My 4 year old son Felix almost destroys his 200 year old painting whilst shooting plastic arrows at the Ambassador’s London residence.
2011 (Mar - Aug) - The Angels: We relentless pitch to wealthy individuals for investment; this is TV’s Dragon’s Den on rocket fuel. Every ‘no’ feels like a Tyson punch to my stomach. Every time I pick myself up, dust myself off and carry on. It feels like a lifetime. We do another tasting for investors. Watch to see what happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqDjTlOUvgM
2011 (Apr) - Peruvian Cuisine is now officially the one to watch: As per M&C Report: “Peruvian is the new Korean, which is the new Vietnamese, which is the new Mexican, which is the new South Indian”.
2011 (June) - We do a Pop Up Restaurant: Our customers love it, our team loves it, we have fun and do great work..and we begin to finally secure our funding. Watch this to see how it went: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7XD3rc7wjU
2011 (June) - The Evening Standard on June 10th: “Martin Morales is doing for Peruvian Food what Thomasina Miers has done for Mexican with Wahaca”. Some fantastic people start to join our investor team including the manager of one of the world’s greatest rock bands.
2011 (Aug) - The Markets Take a Tumble: investors wobble and the manager of one of the world’s greatest rock band’s drops out from investing with us as suffers heavy losses in the financial markets. My worst day this year so far, Aug 11, when I received his email.
2011 (Aug) - We confirm the key members of our team: Investors included. Am I the happiest man in the world? Yes and no. We are not there yet.
2011 (Sept) - We have spent 12 months looking for the right site; our possible home. And at the end of September, we find it!
2011 (Oct) - We prepare all our team to get ready for the possibility of getting our new home in Soho. Ceviche is a close reality.
2011 (Dec) - Yes, we got the keys! We will be at 17 Frith Street, Soho, London. We are so excited! We will open in March 2012.
Alejandro Bello: Head Chef
I have loved Peruvian cuisine for as long as I can remember. So much so that I spent 5 years at a gastronomic research institute, where I worked as lecturer and head of cuisine, and where I mastered the delicate subtlety of the Ceviche in it’s wide ranges and complexity. A dish that, from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Mexico to the southern coast of Chile by way of the Caribbean has adopted many idiosyncratic flavours but remaining loyal to it’s identity as a fresh, delicate and luscious dish.
But it is in Peru where Latin American cuisine and in particular Ceviche reaches it’s highest expression in terms of flavors, produce and technique. This has been recognized by Escoffier and become an obsession for me. I have taken on a crusade to reassert the place that Peruvian cuisine deserves in the culinary spectrum since my first foray as a Peruvian food restaurateur running a Ceviche Bar.
I believe I am an alchemist of the flavors of Latin America and a perfectionist of technique and presentation. I came to London with the idea of introducing the British public to the most refined elements of the Peruvian gastronomy. I knew that the opportunity was there but that it would be not without challenges. Whilst the discerning British clientele will immediately embrace the heartwarming flavors, it will also reject a proposal lacking two key ingredients: authenticity and refinement.
That shared vision is what sparked the flame between my mature and refined culinary proposition and Martin’s enourmous experience running businesses, his creative and business acumen, his drive, ambition and passion for honest Peruvian food.