Peru Sabor; Quality Authenticity & Passion

We caught up with Harry from Peru Sabor just before the British St Food Awards in Reading!

Here is Peru Sabor’s story in Harry’s own words

I started Peru Sabor in 2013, as a part-time project while I was still a chef at the Fresh Olive Company. After being classically trained as a chef and I have been a cook for over 25 years here and aboard  – I loved the creative outlet street food provided, being amongst exciting new markets like Urban Food Fest and Blue Collar, and being able to push the boundaries with the food I could offer.

When I started, people didn’t know Peruvian food and didn’t understand what we sold.. one customer asked for a sausage roll! I changed my set up and added more theatre – with bigger and more open kitchen customers could see directly in and see the flames as I cooked. Sales increased, and I started to build up a following in Windsor and in Reading with Blue Collar – they filmed one of their events, and our stall is the one at about 20 seconds in, where you can see us cooking on open flames and serving to customers:

I’m still obsessed about perfecting my dishes and prep between 4 and 5 hours each day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings: cutting, marinating and vac-packing the meat and preparing the vegetables and salad ingredients, as well as making all my sauces from scratch. I don’t use any preservatives, so everything has to be freshly prepared each week. I source my chillies from Peru ( Yellow Peruvian Chilly & Rocoto for the sauces;  Aji Panka for the marinate base) & as well as the Organic Quinoa that I use for the salad.

At around 3 am every Wednesday, I travel to East London to buy my meat from Smithfields market & get my vegetables at the International Western Market in Southall. After that, I’m straight to Reading to set up for the market. It would save time and money to shop more locally at Bookers or a local butcher, but I genuinely believe that the quality of produce makes the additional hours worthwhile. I’ve been featured on Channel 4, BBC Radio 4 and at the Pride of Reading Awards and we’ve had regulars that have come to us every week since we started.

I’m really proud and passionate about what we do and would to love to share that with you. It’d be great for you to try our dishes and to be involved in the Awards would be really special, particularly as they’re in Reading.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you our traditional Ox Heart Anticucho and The special & iconic dish “Lomo Saltado” is a popular traditional Peruvian dish, a stir fry that typically combines marinated strips of beef steak with onions, tomatoes, fries and other ingredients; and typically served with rice. This dish originated as part of the chifa tradition, Chinese cuisine of Peru, though its popularity has made it a part of the mainstream culture . and  I  only do this on special occasions.

To find out more about Peru Sabor, follow them on Instagram  and Facebook