i. Biography
Martin Morales has led Ceviche in London since 2012, when he founded it as a platform for Peruvian cooking. That move reads less like a brand exercise than a form of custodianship: a decision to place a national cuisine in a London market without sanding down its edges. Born in Peru, Morales has built his food work around carrying Peruvian flavours, traditions and purpose into a city that can flatten what it imports. The through-line is responsibility. Peruvian cooking sits at the centre of his work because he has chosen to present it with care, clarity and pride. The core discipline here is representation. Morales speaks from inside the cuisine rather than around it, and that position shapes the work at Ceviche in London, founded in 2012, as a practical platform for Peruvian cooking on its own terms. The restaurant name may be immediate, but the brief is broader: make room for a full culinary culture and keep its identity intact. In that sense, the project is as much about accuracy as it is about hospitality.
Signature
Martin's signature dishes include Don Ceviche and Ceviche: Peruvian Kitchen. Read together, they mark the span of his output: one tied to the restaurant's name and identity, the other extending that identity into print. The emphasis in both cases is Peruvian cooking as something authored and stated plainly, not borrowed for surface effect. That logic matches the wider project Morales set in motion in 2012, when he founded Ceviche as a platform rather than only a dining room.
In Their Words “I realised that if I didn’t do something, someone else would and I couldn’t stand the thought they’d misrepresent it...I saw it as my responsibility to become London’s ambassador for Peruvian cooking.” The quote is direct about the stakes. Morales frames the work around representation, not mood or branding. The phrase “if I didn’t do something, someone else would” gives the line its pressure, while “I couldn’t stand the thought they’d misrepresent it” makes the concern plain: accuracy mattered because the cuisine itself was at risk of being handled loosely. When he says he saw it as his “responsibility to become London’s ambassador for Peruvian cooking,” he states the role in civic terms. The point was to give Peruvian cooking a place in London without losing its shape.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Martin
What is Martin Morales known for?
Peruvian cooking.
