Vietnamese Flavors from Berlin to Paris
I’ve never been to Vietnam, and I don’t know any famous Vietnamese chefs, except for Nguyen Thi Thanh, the lunch lady. In Venezuela, I grew up around Chinese and Japanese people to some extent, but I don’t recall connecting with people or restaurants from other Asian countries in the ’90s and early 2000s. My only […]
Boston’s Decadence
My friends from New York often tell me that I have a liking for Boston because it has a “European feel.” I’m not quite sure how to take that. Boston’s old colonial-style brick buildings, take you back to scenes of HBOâs âJohn Adamsâ when it was the USA’s capital and the Boston Massacre occurred. But […]
Exploring Amazonian Gastronomy
If we had to pick just two ingredients to represent the entire Mediterranean culinary landscape, probably âbread and olive oilâ would top the list. Its a straightforward storyline there: different neighboring cultures sailed the Mediterranean, exchanged products, and shared culinary wisdom. Let’s say, from Spain to Lebanon. But what about the Amazon? We often hear […]
Dewakan Dinner: Last Waltz in Kuala Lumpur
Finally, the big night at Dewakan. We arrived at the restaurant with our luggage; we would head straight to the airport afterward. Darren Teoh, a Malaysian-born chef with a rich Chinese-Indian family background, leads the restaurant. Darren has placed Dewakan on Asiaâs 50 Best Restaurants list in 2019, a first for a Malaysian restaurant. After […]
Kuala Lumpur Blues
I land in Kuala Lumpur, and man, it’s a wild switch from Singapore. I take a cab from the airport and head downtown, cruising through these lush green expanses dotted with banana trees. There’s something about KL that takes me back to my roots in Caracas. Malaysia and Singapore split paths in 1965. While Singapore […]
The Hawker Nation: A Singaporean Food Odyssey
Leaving Bilbao, I stupidly lost my suitcase. I had to rush to security where they were already inspecting the 12 cans of anchovies from Getaria that I had in my luggage. They let me go with a jest, “Here’s the joker. We’ve solved the anchovy smuggler case.” That left me feeling a bit paranoid. I […]
Pot Luck on a wall in Berlin
The plan was to get to Berlin by 11 PM so we could be on stage and start our show at 11:30 AM. But the airline canceled my flight. I had to sleep for just 3 hours in a cheap hotel on Schillerstrasse in Munich, surrounded by brothels, in order to catch a train to […]
Monday Lunch at Ibai
It was a regular Monday morning at the office, back in 2018 when Diego Prado came up to my desk and asked, “Do you have cash, like, a lot of cash?” Diego Prado is the most generous person I know when it comes to spending large amounts of money at a restaurant. He’s a risky […]
An Amazonian Private Chef’s Chronicle: Pt. 2 – Dancing with Death
Growing up in Caracas makes you tough, street-smart, and quick. Even more so now than when I was coming up. They say that the need for resources is the mother of invention. Training in Venezuelan restaurant kitchens is like getting a master’s degree in these qualities. My first job was at a French restaurant, and […]
An Amazonian Private Chef’s Chronicle:
My last trip to Venezuela, my home country, was in 2013. At that time, I had the chance to visit Autana-tepuy in the Amazonas state. We embarked on a boat journey where the guide and his two assistants took charge of cooking for the entire group. It was the first time I contemplated what seemed […]