On a busy corner in Barranco, Lima’s bohemian district, chef José del Castillo has built something that feels less like a restaurant and more like a living archive of Peruvian home cooking. Named after his mother, Isolina serves the kind of hearty, deeply traditional dishes one might still find in a family kitchen—causas layered with yellow pepper and seafood, sharp ceviches, ají de gallina rich with walnuts and spice. On the menu, they are described as recipes “from the notebooks,” the kind passed down rather than reinvented.
“He does it with the talent of a masterful cook,” says chef Rodrigo Oliveira, the subject of last week’s installment of Food Chain, our series where each profiled chef recommends the next. Oliveira’s recommendation brings us this week to one of the world’s most touted gastronomic capitals.
