Culinary alchemy with lime juice and chilli

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Daniel Galvez Estrada is a surgeon after watching the way his hands work with such precision when he’s preparing fish for the dishes he serves up at the Peruvian restaurant Yakumanka at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Geneva. Especially since this chef studied medicine for three and a half years in his native Peru before he embarked upon a career in gastronomy. He was never too thrilled about his original path: ‘When I finally told my psychiatrist father that I’d decided to quit my medicine course and train to become a chef instead, he kicked me out of the house on the spot,’ says Daniel. ‘He has since become my biggest fan and is so proud of what I do now.’ And rightly so! After all, it was the great Gaston Acurio who sent his son to head up the kitchen in Geneva. Acurio is the figurehead of Peruvian cuisine and the brains behind the Yakumanka concept. Without him, there wouldn’t be a cevicheria in pretty much every town in Europe and North America. ‘I was so nervous before my first meeting with Señor Acurio,’ admits Daniel. ‘Luckily, I found out that there’s a lovely person behind his professional image and the high standards he expects of his staff.’

Originally set to work beside Acurio for three months, the young chef ended up learning from the best for four whole years. ‘The way you cut the fish for a ceviche varies depending on where you are,’ explains Daniel Galvez Estrada, who has invited me into his kitchen for a quick masterclass. ‘It’s squares around the capital city Lima, but rectangles in the north. And the fish is left to marinate in the leche de tigre for longer up there too.’ Leche de tigre is a creamy liquid with freshly squeezed lime juice as its main ingredient. The fish is left to soak up the goodness without any heat being applied. Our chef adds flavour to the lime juice by blending it with garlic, onion, celery, ginger and salt. The carefully filleted fish is chopped up and placed in the lime juice mix with some crushed ice. ‘Leche de tigre must always be ice cold,’ points out Galvez Estrada. As the finishing touch, he adds coriander and aji limo chilli peppers which are medium hot with a citrus flavour. ‘If I added those final ingredients earlier, they would turn the leche de tigre red or green. I only pop them in the mixer for a couple of seconds. A good leche de tigre is pale and milky with a subtle tang. It should definitely be acidic but not overpoweringly so.’

Words Alex Kühn