Ceviche, Peru's flagship dish, entered the Guinness World Records book when 1,000 sailors, naval police officers and technicians from the Institute of Public Higher Education in Naval Technology (CITEN) simultaneously tasted three varieties of ceviche, prepared with three different species of fish.
The event was held on Saturday, October 19 and took place at the Callao Naval Base docks. The official adjudicator from the Guinness World Record, Carlos Tapia, supervised and certified the preparation, distribution and tasting procedure for the ceviche.
Chefs and students from the San Ignacio de Loyola University (USIL) were in charge of preparing the three varieties of ceviche; the classical version made with charela and lemon juice, the cachema one in yellow pepper paste and tonguefish soaked in rocoto paste; while the Navy personnel were in charge of the orderly distribution of the dishes.
This feat was made possible thanks to the strategic alliance of USIL, the Peruvian Navy and CMO Group, with the objective of positioning ceviche in the world and supporting the Peruvian government's proposal that Unesco should declare it "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity".
Three thousand servings of Ceviche
The event started the night before with the selection of the fish, which was cut into pieces. On arriving at 7 a.m. on Saturday, the onion was julienned and the corn and sweet potato garnishes were boiled to complete the traditional Peruvian stew. The lemon juice was squeezed minutes before starting the event.
The director of the USIL Culinary Arts course, Martín Cárdenas, supervised the chefs and students in the preparation of the three thousand portions; these were given to the tasters, without affecting the freshness and flavor that characterizes Peruvian ceviche.
A detail
The initiative seeks to promote ceviche as one of the country's flagship dishes and encourage tourism, as with quinoa salad (2015), rocotos (2016), olive salad (2017), Causa Rellena, the chocolate and Aguaje Mazamorra tasting (2018) and the pisco and artichoke salad tasting (2019).