Lima defies easy culinary categorisation. Peru’s capital, set above the towering cliffs of the Costa Verde, overlooks a sweep of Pacific coast from the gritty port city of Callao to the fishing village of Chorrillos. A city, a port and a gateway to Latin America, Lima doesn’t have a distinct geographical cuisine, it has dozens of them. Regional ingredients and cultural heritage, both ancient and modern, all mingle together, creating new combinations of flavours.
Ceviche, Peru’s national dish, is a good starting point when trying to understand the enormous complexity of Limeño food. The recipe has undergone multiple transformations since early Peruvians marinated fish in what’s thought to have been the juice of the tumbo — a relative of passion fruit — to preserve it. During the period when the city was the capital of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1821), colonialists gradually introduced limes and onions into the recipe. In the 1970s, Japanese chefs in the city adapted the dish and shortened the marinating time from hours to
