i8tonite: Chef’s Questionnaire with Peruvian Brothers Giuseppe and Mario Lanzone and Ceviche

(Editor’s Note: We decided to re-run last week’s story as we had some technical glitches…besides, the Lanzone Brothers are attractive enough to see every week. )

As Washington, DC food entrepreneurs, Giuseppe and Mario Lanzone are certainly no strangers to hard work. Mario is a full time bartender at Napoleon Bistro & Lounge and spends his summers captaining yachts in the Mediterranean. Giuseppe competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics for the United States rowing team and currently coaches rowing at Georgetown University. He applies the same Olympic intensity and drive towards he and his brother’s Washington, DC food truck, Peruvian Brothers. In fact, the duo spent two full months hunting down the perfect bread that most accurately inspired their Peruvian taste buds – now a custom Peruvian Brothers recipe on the menu at The French Bread factory in Sterling, Virginia.

The brothers were born and raised off the coast of Lima, Peru, in a close-knit community of La Punta, where family and the ocean reigned. The flavors that dominated their childhood are the tastes they crave the most, inspiring the Lanzone brothers to team up to represent the tastiest part of their Peruvian heritage.

The history behind the Peruvian Comida Criolla cuisine is as appealing and complex as the unique combinations of flavor. With roots in Andean-Spanish-Afro-Peruvian and Asian influences, Comida Criolla boasts powerful flavors that are sorely missing from the streets of D.C. Recipes passed down in the Lanzone family, as well as Mario’s own original spins on traditional Peruvian favorites, give their menu an authentic taste with a unique twist.

To sample their authentic Peruvian fare, follow the Peruvian Brothers truck via @PeruBrothers on Twitter and Facebook, and find them online at http://peruvianbrothers.com/

Chefs Questionnaire

Giuseppe Lanzone = GL

Mario Lanzone = ML

How long have you been cooking?
GL: Since I can remember
ML: For the past 15 years

What is your favorite food to cook?
GL: Breakfast
ML: Peruvian food

What do you always have in your fridge at home?
ML: Eggs, milk, avocados
ML: Milk, eggs, vegetables, ice cream

What do you cook at home?
GL: Omelettes with whatever meat and cheese I can get my hands on
ML: Meat stews, stir fries and ceviche in the summer

What marked characteristic do you love in a customer?
GL: When they are cordial
ML: When a costumer assumes they know what they want because they’ve been to our food truck many times

What marked characteristic do you find unappealing in a customer?
GL: When you say hello, and they answer by saying nothing or by saying that they are just looking at the menu
ML: Some of them are just never happy

Tupperware, Rubbermaid, or Pyrex?
GL: Pyrex, it’s cleaner
ML: Pyrex

Beer, wine, or cocktail?
GL: Dark beer or a good whiskey
ML: Cocktail

Your favorite cookbook author?
GL: Any book with good ideas is my favorite book
ML: Ceviche by Martin Morales

Your favorite kitchen tool?
GL: Meat slicer
ML: My really sharp knife

Your favorite ingredient?
GL: Rocoto pepper
ML: Yellow Peruvian Pepper

Your least favorite ingredient?
GL: None, really
ML: Cumin by itself

Least favorite thing to do in a kitchen?
GL: Clean the floors
ML: Wash dishes

Favorite types of cuisine to cook?
GL: Peruvian, of course!
ML: Peruvian

Beef, chicken, pork or tofu?
GL: Beef
ML: Pork

Favorite vegetable?
GL: Beets
ML: Onions

Chef you most admire?
ML: Gaston Acurio
GL: My brother

Food you like the most to eat?
ML: Peruvian and Thai
GL: Italian and Peruvian

Food you dislike the most?
ML: Indian
GL: none

How many tattoos?
ML: One on my arm. I got it about 10 years ago. It has faded away.
GL: none

Recipe: Ceviche

8 lb fresh fish fillets (tilapia works well)
Fresh lime juice
Cilantro
Garlic
Salt
Aji limo pepper
Red onion
Baked sweet potatoes
Corn

Cut the fish in small cubes and put them in a large bowl with a couple of ice cubes to keep the fish cold. Then add minced aji limo pepper, salt, pepper, garlic, cilantro, thinly julienned onion, and one cup of freshly squeezed lime juice. Mix for a couple minutes and add a squirt of evaporated milk. Plate on a butter lettuce leaf and accompany with corn kernels and thickly sliced baked sweet potatoes.

The End. Go Eat.