1. M
exican food has been part
of American cuisine since
the invention of the taco.
In popularity, it ranks in
the top three, along with Italian
and Chinese. Mexican restaurants
represent 8 percent of the total
national restaurant landscape,
according to CHD Expert, which
collects and distributes global
foodservice data. In fact, in 2014,
Mexican food edged out the ham-
burger as the third most common
menu type.
But Mexican food has come a
long way since tacos and burritos,
changing its image from a cuisine
of convenience that comes in cans
and jars to a culinary adventure
with traditionally cooked torti-
llas, increasingly creative fillings
(think fish, pork or duck) and
homemade condiments like salsa
and mole.
Americans’ familiarity with
Mexican food coupled with their
increasing yearning for travel and
adventure has opened the doors
for Latin cuisine as a whole to
slowly but surely emerge onto the
U.S. food scene.
Fifteen years ago, all-you-can-
eat Brazilian and Argentinian
steakhouses, called churrascarias,
began to open in chain format
in urban areas like Chicago and
Miami. In 1998, Texas de Brazil
opened its first location in Texas
and today boasts locations across
the country and overseas. Al-
though Spanish tapas restaurants
were introduced to Americans in
the 1980s, they piqued in popu-
larity over the past 10 years as
Americans began to reject over-
sized portions and waste in favor
for more health-conscious eating
and farm-to-table sourcing. A
truly Americanized yet successful
version of Mexican food, Chipo-
tle Mexican Grill, which opened
in 1998, grew to 500 locations
by 2006 and then exploded with
1,900 locations in 2013, according
to a 2015 CNN Money report.
From fine dining to convenient
eating, Americans have embraced
Latin food, albeit on their own
terms. While the cuisine is often
Americanized to fit the average
U.S. palate, its sheer popularity
is a testament to the special rela-
tionship that the two Americas
share. And the romance of Latin
Cuba is normalizing
relations with the United
States, Brazil is hosting
the 2016 Summer
Olympics and South
America is beefing up its
culinary image. While
Mexican food paved the
way for America’s love of
Latin, Peru and countries
like it are poised to steal
the spotlight.
By Dayna Fields
A little Latin
Peruvian Scallop-Mango
Ceviche from Dole Foodservice.
12 | Chef chefmagazine.com
passion

2. chefmagazine.com March/April 2015 | 13
food is attracting more Americans
every day.
Passport to Peru
If you want to know what’s next for
Latin cuisine in the United States,
look to its epicenter: Miami.
“You feel like you need a pass-
port to come to Miami,” says Chef
Ana Machado, assistant profes-
sor of culinary arts at Johnson &
Wales University’s North Miami
campus. “Here in Florida, south
Florida especially, it’s extremely
influenced because of its prox-
imity to the Caribbean, a lot of
Spanish-speaking countries and
Latin America.”
Machado says her students are
exposed to a “very strong Latin
influence” in the city both on and
off campus. Machado herself hails
from Brazil. Classes she teaches
include Global Cuisine, Food
Science & Sensory Analisys and
American Cuisine Today.
Machado says wherever Latin
food is headed, Florida, Texas
and southern California are go-
ing to see it first. And this is
what she sees: “In Miami alone,
it seems like every other week,
there’s a new Peruvian restaurant
opening here,” says Machado.
“In the past five years, Peruvian
cuisine has really become the
forefront of Latin cuisine.”
That may be due in large part
to the Peruvian government’s
push to promote the country as a
global culinary destination. Every
year since its inception in 2008,
Peru hosts the biggest food festival
in Latin America, called Mistura,
which means “mixture” in Portu-
guese. Both Peruvian and inter-
national chefs gather in the coun-
try’s capital city of Lima, which is
known as the Gastronomic Capi-
tal of America. This year, the 10-
day festival, sponsored by the Pe-
ruvian Gastronomy Society, runs
Sept. 2-11 in the Green Coast of
Magdalena del Mar.
Peru’s microclimates and ge-
ography is as diverse as its agri-
cultural production, as it offers
tastes of the Amazon, the Andes
mountain range and extreme al-
titudes. It grows more than 4,000
kinds of potato, more than 55 va-
rieties of corn and it’s the leading
exporter of quinoa.
The national dish of Peru is
ceviche, which is increasingly
common to see it on American
menus at contemporary restau-
rants, says Machado, in part be-
cause it aligns so well with Amer-
ica’s growing taste for fresh, local
and healthy ingredients. “There is
no way to call it ceviche unless all
ingredients are fresh,” Machado
says. “You have to use the lime
juice squeezed out of a lime, not a
lime-juice bottle.”
Ceviche is raw fish or seafood
marinated in citrus juice, mainly
lime or lemon. It’s served cold
and often includes tomatoes,
onions, chiles and cilantro. Like
Peru’s potatoes, its variations
are endless. It’s a great dish for
chefs to showcase their local fish,
Machado says, because its simple
preparation lets the seafood shine.
Whether you’re located on the
East Coast, West Coast or in the
Great Lakes region, choose a fish
that is familiar to your clientele,
and consider introducing cevi-
che in the form of an appetizer.
“Ceviche would definitely be a
good way to explore Latin food,”
she says. “You must use freshwa-
ter fish from the lakes. Choose a
comforting fish, and then add the
new flavors.”
Dole Foodservice offers a
unique chef-ready recipe for Pe-
ruvian Scallop-Mango Ceviche.
It’s part of Dole’s International
Flavor Pairings, which highlights
a different international cuisine
each year. In 2013, the program
featured Latin America.
A growing demand
The U.S Census Bureau estimates
that Latinos will make up about
30 percent of the Ameri-
can population by 2020.
If you’re not exploring
ways to introduce Latin
influence to your menu,
you may be alienating a
major demographic. Con-
sumers spend more than $39
billion at Mexican restaurants
each year, and that booming
demand signals there’s a mar-
ket beyond Mexico.
Chef Zachary Garza is execu-
tive chef at NaoLatin Gastro Bar,
a restaurant specializing in Pan-
Latin regional cuisine. Nao also
serves as a real-world educational
experience for students at The
Culinary Institute of America’s
San Antonio campus. Garza is a
Texas native, but both of his par-
ents are from Mexico.
“I think Mexican food opened
the doors for other regions in
Latin America to be seen in the
same light, and people get excited
about discovering it,” he says.
“I also think that having South
America in our backyard helps a
lot. We’re all one new world now,
and we’re all connected, so travel
to those countries are more inter-
esting perhaps or more accessible
to Americans now.”
Travelers are eager to have the
flavors and foods from their trips
abroad available in the States
when they return. South and Cen-
tral America are increasingly seen
as safe and close destinations for
tourists to visit. Travel and food
TV shows are also heavy influenc-
ers in these trends. And with the
United States normalizing rela-
tions with long-estranged Cuba,
there’s even more media coverage
of new Latin cultures.
“Why have we not seen a re-
surgence of Italian food or Scan-
dinavian food? First, you have
countries like Peru and Argen-
tina that have made a concerted
effort institutionally, through
the government, to sort of na-
tionalize the cuisine and make
i t a point of
pride, and they do it because
it drives tourism,” says Garza.
“And, frankly, it’s kind of a glob-
al trend right now. It’s a group of
cuisines that was so cloistered for
so long that now it’s just new and
exciting.”
Cuisine from Peru and Ec-
uador are fairly similar, he says,
but Peru’s deliberate marketing
strategy is why people are talking
about Peruvian food, not Ecua-
dorian. Brazil has also elevated its
international spotlight, hosting
the FIFA World Cup in 2014 in
Rio de Janeiro, the same city that
will also host the 2016 Summer
Olympic Games.
“I think that we’re in the na-
scent stages right now. People
are really just starting to be-
come comfortable with the fla-
vors of Latin America,” says
Garza. “The interest has been
sparked, more people are asking
questions and guests are excited
to try something new. Just like
with Italian, French and Ger-
man maybe 20 years ago, I defi-
nitely think we’ll start to see it
go more truly regional.”
Ceviche is an easy Latin starter
dish for any chef to explore, Gar-
Chile Mojito from Dole Foodservice.

3. za agrees. He serves it with redfish
or black drum, both native to the
Gulf Coast region.
Yet Garza highlighted an even
simpler best-seller that is com-
mon to all Latin countries plus
the Caribbean: rice and beans.
Throughout history, these two
ingredients provided for an ex-
ceptionally nutritious yet cheap
source of nourishment, and every
country has its own version.
Garza touted congri, or arroz
(rice) congri, as a traditional and
popular Cuban side dish. Its sig-
nature preparation calls for stewed
black beans and white rice that’s
cooked in the beans’ liquid, yield-
ing a black-tinted rice. Vegetables
like sauteed onion, peppers and
garlic and spices like cumin, oreg-
ano and bay leaf are added as well.
At Nao, Garza serves congri
with Caribbean-style pork chops
that are grilled crispy after being
marinated in mojo, a popular
Latin sauce that usually consists
of minced garlic, onion and pars-
ley mixed with sour orange juice,
lime juice, olive oil and a hit of
cumin. “The flesh is cooked to
about medium, and at the same
time, we’re frying up this rice
preparation so it gets a little crispy
on the edges, served with congri
and mojo on the side,” says Garza.
“For middle Americans and the
Midwest, it’s rice and beans and a
pork chop, who doesn’t love that?
It’s universal.”
A growing love for Latin
Latin food will follow the same
path as Mexican food, accord-
ing to both Garza and Machado.
In 10-15 years, Americans will be
able to distinguish from Peruvian,
Chilean or Brazilian food. “But
we’re not to that point yet,” says
Chef Abraham Salum, owner of
Salum Restaurant in Dallas.
Salum was tapped by U.S.
Foods to serve as a panelist for its
inaugural Talk Shop Live session
at the company’s Food Fanatics
Live event in Dallas on March 30.
As a chef who was born and raised
in Mexico City—although he is
half Lebanese and half Italian—
he offered insights into how chefs
are developing menus and getting
inspired by Latino culture.
“I’ve seen an incredible change
in the past 15 years where more
and more Latin ingredients are on
menus, and not just Mexican,” he
says. “I find it’s becoming more of
a global cuisine.”
For example, dulce de leche is a
dessert that is common to Ameri-
can menus nowadays. Pisco, a
brandy produced in Peru and
Chile, is seeing rapid popularity
on cocktail menus.
“Argentina, Colombia, Brazil
and Peru are the top [cuisines] of
South America,” he says. “Peo-
ple [in the States] don’t know as
much about them, but they’re
starting to.”
Salum noted an influx of Peru-
vian restaurants during his recent
trip to Mexico City, all of which
were serving ceviche. Like Mex-
ico, Peru has many different re-
gional cuisines that emerge from
its many different landscapes.
While the coastal areas dwell on
seafood, the inland territories
capitalize on beef, beans and po-
tatoes. “They have a wonderful
culture of food, and Peru has had
a boom like we had in the United
States about 10 years ago with cu-
linary schools popping up every-
where and everyone wanting to be
a chef,” says Salum. “They have so
many different types of corn and
potatoes than what we have. They
have one corn that’s almost black,
and then aji amarillo—these long
yellow peppers they use for sauc-
es. Their variety of food is abso-
lutely incredible.”
Sauces are key to Latin cuisine,
Salum notes, as they are often
used as condiments to help en-
hance the food and further season
the dish. In Mexico, for example,
freshly made salsa is a table main-
stay. In Peru, Huancaína sauce is
found in nearly every restaurant.
It’s made of the aforementioned
aji amarillo along with queso fres-
co, olive oil and evaporated milk
as well as garlic, onion and salt.
“In Mexico, we have moles.
There’s like 400 different varieties
of all kinds of colors—green, yel-
low, red, pinenut mole,” he says.
“The sauces are used to comple-
ment, to accompany, certain
meats or vegetables.”
Other ways to give customers
a taste of Latin America can be
found at the bar. Cuba’s mint mo-
jito has already earned its stripes
with Americans, and Peru’s pisco
sour is slowly gaining traction.
However, Salum recommends
exploring mezcal, a distilled al-
coholic beverage made from
the agave plant. Or put a con-
temporary spin on a classic, like
Dole Foodservice’s Chile Mojito:
muddled diced apples in a shaker
combined with spiced rum, fresh
agave sour, club soda and a splash
of pineapple juice.
Welcoming some Latin influ-
ence into a restaurant can be as
simple as hiring a Spanish guitar
player or as dramatic as bringing
in Argentine tango dancers. There
are myriad ways to give customers
a taste of Latin America without
taking them too far out of their
comfort zone. And by introduc-
ing new cultures and experiences
to their clientele, chefs can use
food to give the world a little
more love and understanding.
“When [Peruvian] restaurants
open, and people taste different
things, and they want to keep
trying things and explore with
food,” says Salum, “for us, it’s like
a dream come true, and I think all
chefs think the same thing.”
Corn husk-wrapped bay of fundy salmon, chorizo serrano broth, braised
kale, black beans and pickled onions by Chef Abraham Salum in Dallas.
Chef Abraham Salum, of Salum
Restaurant in Dallas.
14 | Chef chefmagazine.com
A little Latin
passion