The Culinary Adventures of Chef Ricardo Zarate

Chef Ricardo Zarate (Photo by Ryan Tanaka/Used with permission)

In a city filled with restaurants serving food from all over the world, one very determined chef cooks Peruvian aji amarillo peppers and beef heart anticuchos with such passion that elevate ingredients to cult status in the local culinary landscape. Just the mention of Ricardo Zarate's name here in Los Angeles and foodies beam huge smiles and launch into tales of eating oxtail risotto at Mo-Chica in Mercado La Paloma, his memorable grilled octopus at Test Kitchen, and buttery mussels at his newest location - Picca. As a champion of flavors and ingredients from Peru, Zarate will fill your stomach and steal your heart literally with his anticuchos de corazon.

With construction underway for a new Mo-Chica location downtown, we asked Zarate to share with us some of his earliest memories of family meals in Lima, Peru. From a young age he was destined not only to love food but to grow up to be a daring and talented chef, who brings his taste memories of his homeland to California and beyond.

LAist: Growing up in Lima as 11th of 13 siblings, can you describe how family meals worked at your house?
Ricardo Zarate: We ate our main meal at lunchtime. My father and brothers would take a break from their jobs. We ate Peruvian food everyday. Everybody in my family had to cook. It was a duty. Cooking for such a large family was an experience. We were 15 people including my mom and dad. Then also we have cousins and other friends would visit. We cooked for lunch and dinner together. The pots in my house were huge. For me I thought it was normal because I grew up in that environment. Later on when I left my house and my country I found out it was not normal to cook for so many people everyday.

When did you start really taking on some of the cooking yourself and start to realize that for you it was more that a chore?
Zarate: I jumped into it at a very young age. My oldest brother hated cooking, but he had to do it so I would offer to cut the onions for him, if he paid me. I don’t know how old I was, maybe 6 or 7 years old, but I remember having to stand on a little chair to be able to reach the table. When I was cutting onions I would put a plastic bag on my head with sunglasses to cover myself so I would not cry.

One time all of my family, to be able to survive, we left the country to go to different parts of the world to look for a better future. Family members went to Japan, Canada, Italy, England, and America. When everyone was going to leave my mother was crying and crying. When it was my turn to leave to go to London my mother wasn’t crying. I asked her, “Why are you not crying for me?” and she said, “Don’t worry, you are never going to feel hungry.”

She told me about a time when I was little she heard in the middle of the night that someone was cooking and went to the kitchen. She found me on a chair at the stove turning on the gas, frying an egg, putting on a bowl of rice. Then I ate it and went back to bed. She watched the whole thing to make sure I was safe.

Choritos: steamed mussels with pancetta and aji amarillo butter (Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist)

How did you learn to cook?
Zarate: I always liked cooking. When I was invited to a friend’s house the first thing I would do is go straight to the kitchen and start talking to the mom. I learned a lot that way. When I tasted something I would ask how it was made. I was always very into food. When it was my turn finally to cook for my family, I was already writing menus. I used to put a one on the refrigerator to tell my family what they were going to eat for the week. All of my brothers must have thought I was crazy.

Then I started taking small courses: how to make bread, how to make panettone and other things. There is not one single Christmas in Peru that you do not eat panettone. It’s the Italian influence in Peru. I kept taking classes until one day I found a culinary school called Institute of the Americas. After graduation, I wanted to learn more. A friend who had opened a small bar who used to live in London he told me that I should go to London. Then my life changed.

How did the time in Europe influence your food?
Zarate: Most of my culinary education I learned in London. It was the first time I was in a professional kitchen. For me it was so exciting being part of that life. For the majority of the time I was in London, I was cooking Japanese food. I learned a lot about Japanese techniques, how they appreciate the food. The Japanese mentality has so much respect for food. I learned how to respect the ingredients and how to use the ingredients in a good way.

Had you ever eaten Japanese food while you were growing up in Peru?
Zarate: Yes, but the funny part is I did not know. At a friend’s party, I tried octopus with soy sauce. So when I saw the dish, I tasted it and I loved it and asked my friend’s mom for the recipe. She told me that I needed to buy wasabi. I asked, “What’s wasabi?” She sent me to a specific market to buy wasabi and shoyu sauce. I went home and cooked the octopus, sliced it, and added the soy sauce, sesame oil and chiles. This was more than twenty years ago. I was about 11 or 12 years old. At the time I did not know it was a Japanese dish.

Then when I was 16, a guy approached me to tell me he was doing a big catering business for the government. When I asked him how many people were going to be at the event, he said 600an they were paying $3000. I said, “I’ll do it!” Making $3000 at that time in Peru was like being a millionaire. I went to buy live octopus. They were taking the octopus off of the boat. Never in my life had a killed an octopus. We put it in a big bag. We took a taxi and put it in the back. Somebody stopped us to tell us some of the octopus tentacles were squirming out of the taxi. We get home and prepared the whole meal at my house. All of the people who helped me were my neighborhood friends. We bought uniforms. I paid everyone. It was fun.

Chicken anticucho with rocoto pesto at Picca. (Photo by Julie Wolfson/ LAist)

His teenage culinary adventures and the time he spent working in top tier kitchens in Europe led to opening Mo-Chica and now Picca and Zarate earning himself a growing legion of fans as well as a Food & Wine Best New Chef award. Every bite of Zarate's food may prompt an intense desire to visit Peru. For food adventurers in Los Angeles, the chance to taste this food and the many influences that fill each dish are more than worth the trip downtown to Mo-Chica in Mercado La Paloma and to West LA to Picca. If Zarate has his way, everyone will know and love the unique combination of flavors from Peruvian peppers and potatoes to ceviches and sweets.