Chef Pushkar Marathe

STAGE & ELA CURRY KITCHEN

ushkar Marathe says Stage has its roots in India, but the flavors are from all over, a menu that reflects a global map, whereas Ela Curry Kitchen focuses specifically on India’s map. Born in India, trained in Switzerland and with a résumé that spans the world from the Middle East to the Caribbean, Marathe tributes all those cultures and people he worked with as influences that helped him create his own cooking style and his interpretation of Asian cuisine today.

“My heritage will always be with me; that’s a part of me,”he explains. “So marrying that knowledge and my upbringing with the global cultures is really what America is about. The real sense of the new American restaurant is that there should be no cultural boundaries.”

Marathe used a butter chicken tomato sauce base with cumin and turmeric to make mac and cheese, an American dish with his twist. He uses spices to add dimension to dishes, to enhance flavors without changing their integrity. The skill comes in balancing each flavor, like his bang bang cauliflower, for example. The dish is spicy, tangy, sweet, salty and with a slight crunch that will make all your taste buds happy. His famous chicken liver pâté is a testament to this as well; Marathe took inspiration from a north Indian dish called liver masala and added his take to the renowned French dish by adding yogurt, cardamom and cumin and then torching brown sugar to add sweetness.

As the second-most-populated country in Asia (and the world), India’s food is often overlooked in terms of Asian cuisine, he says, and so his goal is to take patrons on a journey of flavors they have never experienced before. He notes the impact Asia had on the global food scene dating back to the Silk Road spice route that introduced the western world to spices like cinnamon, cumin, turmeric and nutmeg—all ingredients featured on his menus.

“This is an art; I love what we do,”he says.“I love watching people eat. The smiles on their faces are the biggest accolades I can ever get.”

Marathe’s favorite dish: chapati, or unleavened Indian bread that’s eaten with curry. He says when you’re making this fresh, you don’t keep count—you just eat until you’re satisfied. It’s made from simple flour ingredients, but it’s a magical experience.“It represents my upbringing, my childhood”—so his mom trained the cooks at Ela to perfect this craft.

Tips

• Start small and simple.

• Indian cooking is not about recipes; it’s really a practice, and it’s all about simplicity.

• Start to use Indian spices by adding them to dishes you already know, like tomato sauce. That will help you get used to those ingredients.

• Go to Indian grocery stores and get better acquainted with ingredients.

Chef Danny Kou

Kousine Peruvian Asian

anny Kou’s life goal is to share his culture’s flavors with the world. Peruvian-born of Chinese descent, his life has always been a blend of cultures and flavors. His grandfather immigrated to Peru from China in the 1940s and established one of the first Chinese restaurants in Lima. By the time Kou was born, his father owned and operated six restaurants, so continuing the family business was second nature to him. But before opening his two South Florida restaurants, Kou cut his teeth in California kitchens and refined his skills at Gastón Acurio’s esteemed La Mar restaurant in San Francisco as its executive chef.

Five years ago, when Kou was ready to open his own concept, he decided to equally spotlight his Peruvian and Chinese heritages with Kousine Peruvian Asian, his take on both cuisines. He opened his first location on Fort Lauderdale Beach and chose Boca for his second location, a city he was very familiar with thanks to childhood vacations to visit family and friends who lived here. Peruvian Chinese cuisine, known in Peru as chifa, has a tumultuous history of Chinese immigrants arriving to Peru as inexpensive laborers after slavery was abolished in the mid-nineteenth century. They brought their food with them and cemented it into the Peruvian culinary scene with ingredients like rice, soy sauce and ginger. They also introduced the wok to Peru. These days, many dishes are prepared

Tips

• Find the best quality fresh fish—sushi-grade for ceviche.

on the deep cooking pan, including classic dishes called the lomo saltado, or stir fry, and arroz chaufa, or fried rice.

“The two cultures, they go very well (together),” he explains.“So, it’s been natural for me to develop my dishes.”

• Invest in a wok to develop the technique. To make a stir fry: Make sure it’s very hot, add a little oil (sesame or canola), sear the protein (one minute each side for beef). Vegetables always go at the end. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken stock, red wine vinegar and finish with butter.

• Watch the heat; don’t get burned.

Kousine’s signature dishes include the causa, similar to a layered terrine, made with whipped potato prepared in a yellow pepper and lime juice sauce and topped with avocado, tuna tartare mixed with sesame oil and Peruvian rocoto pepper sauce and finished off with jumbo shrimp. Another dish he’s proud of, the Kam Lu Wantan, is a stir fry dish made with barbecue pork, shrimp, beef and chicken mixed with Chinese vegetables like bok choy, bean sprouts, snap peas and pineapple that’s then tossed in a homemade tamarind sauce served with fried wontons. The sauce, a secret recipe that was passed down to Kou from his grandfather, has been a staple in all the family’s restaurants since Peru.

• Go to a Latin grocery store and check out the products for yourself.

Kou’s favorite dish: ceviche.“I could eat classic ceviche every day. I feel like I have more energy, and it’s so light.”