A Drink With… Martin Morales, Ceviche

Ceviche in London is the only restaurant in Europe to feature a Pisco-only bar. Becky Paskin caught up with its owner, Martin Morales, as he was about to board a plane to Peru.

Martin Morales, owner of Ceviche has a strong bond with his beloved home spirit Pisco (photo courtesy of Paul Winch-Furness)

Where did your love for Pisco start?
I’m Peruvian so as a baby I grew up watching all these people drinking Pisco sours around me. I came to the UK when I was 11 armed with my ceviche recipes and a bottle of Pisco later down the line.

What was your first memory of drinking Pisco?
I was 14 at my Great Aunt Carmellas house in downtown Lima. She was a great host and entertainer. She used to hold these banquets all the time because she was this glamorous spinster, but she was also a chef. She loved entertaining and was single all her life. She lived for the night in her younger years.

What is it about Pisco that you love?
Pisco is light and luxurious and uplifting.

What makes a great Pisco?
Peru has many bad Piscos and still makes bad Pisco sometimes, but in the last 15 years there’ve been some phenomenally great quality ones. They are made from pure grape juice, with no stems or corruption happening from other ingredients that a certain other country uses. It’s very, very pure.

Pisco is generally drunk as part of a Pisco sour. With Pisco being a beloved Peruvian icon, what does the cocktail mean to Peruvians?
The Pisco sour is the national drink of Peru – we drink it every year on National Pisco Sour Day. It’s more than an aperitif although its been used like that for many decades. It brings people together; it’s the drink people celebrate with as well. It’s the drink we Peruvians take to heart.

What’s the best Pisco sour recipe you’ve found?
At Ceviche we’ve tried everything to improve upon the Pisco sour. We try infusing the Pisco with other ingredients like berries, and add different acids to our sour mix. But no matter what we try, we find people always go back to the classic sour recipe.

You’re opening a second restaurant in London soon aren’t you?
We are looking at opening in Shoreditch, East London in the summer. The restaurant will remain funky and cosy but certainly Pisco will play an important part with a larger, dedicated bar area.

And before the restaurant opens you’re releasing your first cookbook?
Yes, in June. There will be a very big drinks category in there with around 10 Pisco recipes for our traditional Pisco sours plus lots of variations. There’s a recipe for a physallis Pisco sours that is a regular special at Ceviche, which is very good too.

Physallis Pisco sours sounds interesting. How do you come up with these cocktails?
We’ve been running a group called the Pisco Disciples. It’s a collection of some people from the trade, Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley from Caskstrength Creative, some drinks journalists and mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana. We try different Piscos and see what we can come up with. It’s not a lab as such but a group of people experimenting with flavours to see what can happen. Watch this space because there may be new cocktails coming from that group of people, or even a new Pisco.

We’re talking just as you’re about to board a flight to Peru. What will you do there?
I’m visiting four distilleries to try their Piscos. I’m also visiting Cusco where I work for a charity called Amantani, which builds houses for small children and girls who have been through a lot of distress. I’ve been working with them since before Ceviche started, but the restaurant gets involved in a lot of fundraising for the charity. We use ingredients from the land, and these people are from the land. Being involved with Amantani ensures we have a greater mission than just putting bums on seats and plates of food and drink down people’s throats. This is more important in a way.

For tips and recipes from the experts on how to make the perfect Pisco sour, click here.