Every year, Food & Wine releases its list of "best new chefs" that are serving up delicious food while running restaurants with healthy work environments.
This year, two Miami-area chefs made the cut — siblings Nando and Valerie Chang.
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"The most impressive item in Miami’s Design District, essentially a large outdoor mall packed with luxury stores, is not the $30,000 watch at Bulgari or the $5,000 purse at Dior — but a $28 plate of squid at Itamae," reads a review by Food & Wine Restaurant Editor Khushbu Shah.
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Itamae, a Nikkei-style restaurant run by the Chang siblings, is located across from the famed Fly's Eye Dome in Miami Design District's Palm Court Plaza.
Nikkei cuisine refers to a fusion of flavors that pay tribute to Japan and Peru. Eater describes it as Peruvian ingredients — like tropical fish, quinoa, aji amarillo peppers — molded by Japanese techniques.
According to Shah, "At Itamae, nothing is subtle."
She says Chefs Nando and Valerie are "unapologetic and unrelenting" in their approach to Nikkei cuisine, which she says is "laser-focused on sourcing the best seafood they can get their hands on and serving it with sauces saturated with flavor."
Shah calls their bigfin reef squid "a shock to the system" and "to call it a roller coaster of flavor would be an understatement."
Itamae does not serve food for those who favor gentle flavors, Shah says, "but rather for those who prefer an adrenaline rush with their food."
MIAMI
The restaurant was first opened by the siblings' father, chef Fernando Chang (also known as Papa Chang), in 2018. The siblings say the original menu centered on classic sushi restaurant fare like miso soup and kani salad.
Shortly after Itamae opened, Nando and Valerie say they were on a mission to change nearly everything about it.
“My poor dad,” Valerie tells Food & Wine. “We know he is very proud, though.”
The siblings grew up as part of a Peruvian-Chinese family in Chiclayo, Peru, and moved to the U.S. when Valerie was 10 and Nando was 14, according to Food & Wine.
“I am very happy that our life led us to Miami,” Nando tells Food & Wine. “It was a thing of destiny for us. I think Miami has so many stories and so many wonderful people living in it, and I, for one, I’m glad that Itamae was made here.”
Read more about the dynamic brother-sister duo here.
