Spicy and alive with flavor

Full of enthusiasm and what the Italians would call “brio,” or “alive and vigorous,” young, macho executive chef Javier Angeles Beron captures what is best in Latino cooking at his Olney, Md. restaurant, Aroma: captivating flavors and seductive aromas É hence, the name, Aroma.

Peruvian by birth and proud of his family’s food heritage, Angeles Beron keeps faith with his Peruvian roots, noting that Peruvian cooking encompasses various distinctly different regions: the jungles, the mountains and the coast, as well as having Chinese (there’s a large Chinese population in Lima and pre-Hispanic influences). He talks expansively about how food and cooking formed the core of his family’s life.

“In every family activity, whether it was a birthday or an anniversary or a Saint’s day, it was a festivity of food,” he says, recalling how all his family members would shop and cook up their favorite dishes to show what he or she could do. Even everyday meals were special, he says. “One of my uncles is an outstanding cook, and we used to do Peruvian barbecues every weekend at his house.”

It’s surprising, then, that Angeles Beron is the only one in his family who chose cooking as a career.

“I guess I got the food part. I’m the only one who moved to this business,” he says. “My mom is supportive and is always saying, ‘Let’s open a restaurant.’ É. If I move back she would be so happy to do a restaurant with me,” says Angeles Beron, who not only has Aroma restaurant but also a Latino food company called Andina Catering.

After moving to the United States to further his restaurant career, Angeles Beron worked at several D.C. restaurants, including his first job at Clyde’s of Georgetown, a real eye-opener where he discovered he didn’t really understand American food.

“Americans want to eat fast and have big meals,” he says. Next, he moved on to several smaller local restaurants before enrolling in L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg to train in the techniques of modern American cooking.

Now with several years of restaurant experience, he has learned that most locals know little about his indigenous cuisine and may spurn purely traditional dishes.

“One of the first chances I had to put up a menu, my food was too traditional, and the owner said that that would not work there,” he says. “I was brokenhearted … Some people don’t understand your culture. But my cooking is an expression of my culture.”

So at his Aroma restaurant, Angeles Beron has become a pragmatist, dabbling in fusion food that’s a combination of many Latino flavors.

“Sometimes Peruvians find it a bit offensive because I break the rules,” he says. “I don’t have to do things that follow the Peruvian culinary Bible. They [Peruvian patrons] say ‘The food is not like my grandma used to make.’ So I call this a Latin restaurant with Peruvian techniques.”

A few months back, his parents came from Lima for a visit, and, of course to eat at Aroma. His mom told him that with his skills, he could have a good cooking future in Lima. But for the time being, it looks as if this young chef is content with his Olney restaurant, and perhaps with expanding his Peruvian/Latino concept to other eateries. Then, who knows, maybe it’s back to Peru.

Q&A with Chef Javier Angeles Beron

Do you have a signature recipe?

Not really. I do like my arroz chaufa (Chinese) and my lomo saltado (Peruvian).

Do you cook at home?

I don’t cook for myself. I go somewhere for good Italian food like lasagna and a glass of wine.

What is your comfort food?

Chinese food that is sweet, spicy, gingery, garlicky, those are my kinds of flavor. I can eat rice in unlimited ways or pasta. … I eat very light, simply. My friends think I eat fancy every day.

What is your favorite dessert?

That’s tough, but probably tres leches (sweet cake soaked in milk) and alfajores (a buttery cookie sandwiching a spread of dulce de leche). In Peru we make them cooking with pork fat. I can’t do that here, so I use regular butter. People don’t like pork fat here.

Where’s your favorite place?

Ay ya É I guess the beach, where I grew up in south Peru. That’s San Bartolo. Dad had a beach house there. He had big barbecues and had parties all the time. My dad is a barbecue guy with seafood, fish É and mom made a ceviche every weekend. Also Amsterdam, Mexico city, I like to travel. A city has to have a spirit, and food.

From the Chef’s Kitchen

Aji de Gallina

(Pulled Chicken in Pepper Cream Sauce )

An aji amarillo is a typical medium-hot Peruvian chile that turns from yellow to medium orange as it matures. Look for the aji amarillo chiles at Hispanic markets.

Serves 6

1 (1 1/2) pound chicken

3 cups whole milk

5 slices white bread

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

5 cloves garlic

5 aji amarillo chiles

Salt to taste

6 cups cooked rice for serving

6 hard-boiled eggs for garnish

6 cooked potatoes, cubed, for garnish

Parmesan cheese for garnish

Cook the whole chicken over medium-low heat in water to cover until the meat falls off the bones. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, soak the bread in the milk for 10 minutes. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté the garlic and chiles; season with salt.

Pour the bread and milk into a large saucepan, and cook the mixture for 20 minutes over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and chiles mixtures, blending it well. Add some chicken stock, and cook until the mixture is thick and creamy. Pull the chicken meat off the bones, and add the meat to the bread mixture; cook for 10 minutes more. Serve the mixture with rice, and garnish with the eggs, potatoes and Parmesan cheese.