Raphaël Express
250 City Centre Ave., unit 232 (on the second floor in the back of the building, in the Kitchen Ottawa), 343-463-3590,
raphaelperuviancuisine.ca
Open:
Wednesday to Friday 3 to 9 p.m., Saturday 2 to 9 p.m., Sunday 1 to 8 p.m.
Prices:
starters $17 to $26, mains $22 to $36
A long journey of more than a decade and across thousands of kilometres has taken Lizardo Becerra from the globally renowned Central Restaurante in Lima, Peru to the Michelin-starred Villa Crespi lakeside resort in Northern Italy to the kitchen in Ottawa’s City Centre complex where he now works.
Your taste buds should be thankful for the Peruvian expat’s travels. The knowledge and experience he’s accrued are deliciously apparent in the elevated Peruvian fare he serves to go from his new business Raphaël Express.
The one-month-old kitchen takes its name from Becerra’s three-year-old son. The chef, who is 33, has called Ottawa home since 2012, when he moved here to be the Embassy of Peru’s executive chef. A few years later, he joined the kitchen crew at the Andaz Ottawa ByWard Market. After the pandemic led to the layoff of that boutique hotel’s kitchen workers, Becerra formed his plan to go into business for himself.
For years, Peruvian cuisine has been a darling for globe-trotting foodies, and not simply because Central was repeatedly named Latin America’s best restaurant and cracked the top 10 of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants rankings. Peru’s rich biodiversity, multicultural history and unique staples are the basis of a singular, thrilling cuisine.
This month, I ordered dinner twice from Becerra’s website and then made the trip to the back of the City Centre complex to pick up his food. As modest as Raphaël Express may be, it’s a worthy culinary ambassador for Becerra’s homeland.
My first meal began with samplings of Becerra’s raw-fish starters. Ceviche is a star of Peruvian cooking, and Becerra makes his with Pacific rockfish, its clean-tasting white flesh firmed by its citrus cure and complemented, as is the Peruvian tradition, by caramelized sweet potato and toasted chulpe corn. A container of ominously orange “tiger’s milk” came on the side, and just a bit of that concentrated liquid added a distinct fiery kick to the fish.
Just as appealing but different was Becerra’s tuna tiradito, which starred pristine pink slabs of albacore tuna, flanked by crisp ribbons of fried plantain and wedges of sesame-crusted avocado. A potent citrus-oyster-ponzu sauce added a salty jolt.
Becerra’s causa is his only vegetarian appetizer. But the mashed-potato-based item was wildly colourful and flavour-packed, thanks to its layers of diced beets and avocado and its twinned olive and mustard-like sauces.
A lighter appetite could happily go for Becerra’s butifarra sandwich, made with thick-sliced homemade ham and packaged with more of that mustardy sauce and a pickled onion relish on the side. The sandwich, ceviche and causa bundled together are the prime components of Becerra’s Peruvian picnic for two.
Delving into Becerra’s main courses, I was most taken by his Peruvian fried rice, flecked with more of that ham and bits of portobello mushroom and then topped with a battered chicken cutlet and fried egg. The dish was simultaneously humble and excellent.
Chef Lizardo Becerra of Raphael Express Chaufa Chijaukay fried rice and egg on top.The influence of Peru’s Chinese immigrants is also in the DNA of Becerra’s beef tenderloin lomo saltado, a refined and thoroughly captivating take on what can be a simpler stir-fry in Lima. For those who eschew red meat, Becerra offers versions of this dish made with tofu or chicken.
Jalea could be called Peru’s take on fish and chips. Made with more of that B.C. rockfish, Becerra’s tasty jalea was impeccably greaseless and its planks of yuca had an extruded look to them. The dish’s pickled onions, punchy rocoto pepper sauce and soothing tartar sauce were super additions.
The only main course that struck me as more ordinary was the duck leg with cilantro rice, which was fine but paled in comparison to the more boldly flavoured items.
Becerra makes two desserts. I preferred his tangy passionfruit cheesecake to his “Peruvian-Italian” tiramisu. It interestingly incorporated lucuma, a South African fruit, but was also a touch heavy.
When I spoke to Becerra this week, he acknowledged that customers have told him his food can be pricey. That beef tenderloin dish is $36, while the cheesecake and tiramisu are $13 and $14, respectively. But I think Becerra makes a compelling case for his prices with the quality of his ingredients and the standards and technique evident in his dishes and their accompaniments.
During my run as a restaurant critic, I’ve been consistently pleased with the few Peruvian meals I’ve had, which were served at the Gatineau restaurants Petit Peru and Amazonas. I’m glad Raphaël Express now joins them to expand the options for exciting Peruvian dining in the Ottawa area.
While Becerra only makes food to go at the moment, he says his goal is to open a dine-in restaurant once the pandemic subsides. “When things are getting better, I’ll go to a brick-and-mortar space and make something nice,” he says.
We now have another very good reason to be rid of COVID-19.