Ricardo Zarate
By Leslee Komaiko
For dineLA.com
Ricardo Zarate worked at a series of Japanese restaurants including Sai Sai, Zu Robata and Wabi Sabi before opening Mo-Chica in Downtown Los Angeles, where he cooks an elevated version of the food he grew up with in his native Peru. Next up: Pica in West Los Angeles, still several months away, and perhaps another Mo-Chica in or around Silverlake. And let’s not forget Test Kitchen, the more or less impromptu sensation Zarate opened this summer with three partners, where chefs without a roof and chefs who simply want to experiment or play, take turns at the helm for day long or couple day shifts.
You must be a very busy man.
I have a lot of plans. Getting involved with Test Kitchen, it’s very consuming. It’s like every two days changing the chef. It’s a lot of logistic jobs. And it never stops. We are four people involved. My job is to coordinate when chefs come in that they have the best experience.
How did Test Kitchen come about?
We never planned it to be honest. The main plan was to open that restaurant upstairs, Pica. Like an anticucho bar. The situation right now is that construction takes like four or five months. We have the whole location. It’s a very beautiful building with an existing kitchen in the basement. Test Kitchen is in the basement, where used to be the restaurant [Spark]. On the mezzanine is the most beautiful space. I chose that one to be Pica. In the meantime we were sitting at the table saying, “What are we going to do? Wait for four months while we apply for permits?” The first plan was I was going to cook for a while and practice. Then we started building up the concept and saying, “Why don’t we invite another chef?”
It seems like the perfect concept for the time.
It’s getting a lot of attention. I believe that’s how it happens, when you never think about it.
And when Pica opens?
The plan was to close Test Kitchen. It was going to be temporary. We’ll close Test Kitchen by the end of November or something like that, then bring another concept downstairs. I’m going to have my restaurant and on the third floor there will be a private bar.
So what’s the status of Pica?
I’m still planning my menu, trying to recruit my staff, having meetings with a designer.
Tell me about the concept.
Anticucho: in the native language of my country it means skewers. We decided because of the size and location to do small bites, like bar food, but Peruvian style. When you come in the first thing you’ll see is two grills and an open kitchen.
What will you grill over?
You know my background. We’re going to use the robata. It’s very practical.
We’ll use binchotan charcoal.
Why?
I worked 12 years with Japanese techniques. These grills are amazing. They really keep the flavor of the meat or whatever you cook.
And when do you think Pica will open?
To be very realistic, the beginning of January. Even if we’re ready in December I wouldn’t be very happy to open in December. I rather start in the new year. December is a busy month. But the focus is on other things. If you open a restaurant you won’t have much attention. January is more relaxed.
Let’s go back a bit. You are from Lima correct? From a big family?
I am one of 13 kids. I am number 11.
At what point did you think you might do this professionally?
Since I was very young I always loved cooking. I remember one time my mother told me she was so worried because she came to the kitchen because there was noise. I had pushed a chair up to the cooker. She saw me frying an egg. I had turned on the gas. I put on the pan. I was on top of a chair because I could not reach. I don’t know what age I was.
Was cooking an acceptable thing for a young man to do?
I was bullied. People said I am gay. Any time there was a party in Peru, I would go straight to the kitchen and talk to the mom about how they make the food. I was learning. My friends thought I was hitting on all the moms.
[At home] we have turns cooking. When my mom started becoming old, she kind of retired from cooking. At one point I was cooking and I remember when it was my turn, I was making a menu like Monday through Friday and I was sticking it on the fridge. I was young. I would come from school and organize myself and make the dinner or make the lunch. I was into that.
Did you ever think there was something else you might like to do?
I always wanted to study history because it was my favorite course. I realized later on that food has a lot to do with history.
Even the name Mo-Chica, yes?
In Peruvian culture, Mochica is very strong and meaningful. The Moche is the culture. The Mochica is the people. They left a lot of knowledge to the Incas.
Speaking of Moche, at one point there was talk about you doing a project under that name Downtown.
That has been tabled for now. I wanted to do it in a hotel. The union was involved and it will be impossible to make a business like that.
Isn’t the area near L.A. LIVE (where Moche was going to be) oversaturated anyway with restaurants?
The place where it was going to be located was fantastic. The concept for that place was more like fine dining, closer to a Nobu but Peruvian style. Downtown is not like six years ago. It’s crazy. It’s happening right now.
How has the economy affected Mo-Chica?
Like every other restaurant. As a small business, I’m doing okay. I’m happy and lucky to have all this press. They support me. Otherwise I would not be there.
Los Angeles is changing. Before, it was all about where you can be seen. The place needed to be really good looking. Very Los Angeles, nothing like San Francisco or New York. People now are all about the food. This is amazing. This is why a lot of chefs are starting to come up. It’s not about big names, but what is the food. The economy is contributing and the trend of Twitter and Facebook.
How do Twitter and Facebook contribute?
You create a following. You keep in touch. You let them know what you are doing.
Before you needed to pay a big PR company to do the job. Still you need PR to push it.
And how do you feel about the blogs?
I know quite a few of the bloggers. There are good bloggers who really understand food. And there are the ones who don’t. If they don’t like it and they don’t have sense, it’s very dangerous. Bloggers have a lot of influence. They can fill you up if they like you or they can destroy you.
On your site there is reference to an article proclaiming Peruvian food the next big thing. But that hasn’t exactly happened yet.
I think it’s going there. It didn’t happen here. But you know about San Francisco—
No.
There are a lot of Peruvian restaurants. One is huge, called La Mar. They make like 400 covers. The other one is this Gaston Acurio. This guy basically is all over the world right now. It’s really happening.
Still, if you asked a dozen people on the street their favorite Peruvian dish I’m guessing they would be hard pressed to name one.
I’m here for that.
I have a sensitive question. I am curious how, if at all, you think being Latino affects people’s perception of you. For better or worse, I think often there is an assumption that with a Latino chef at the helm, that they have risen through the ranks. Maybe they started as a dishwasher etc. But you went to culinary school.
In London I lived for 12 years. There are not many Latino people there. When I arrived here I was kind of blinded. There is a different perception for Latino people. I came with a different mentality, a different vision, but I have a lot of problems. If I am in the kitchen (it happened to me at Test Kitchen), I am the host chef so I am helping. The dishwasher guy was busy so I jumped in to help. This other chef came in and talked to me with this broken Spanish: “plato por favor.” I was like, “You don’t need to do that to me.” But it’s changing for the Latinos today. They are upcoming. It’s a very strong community. I think it’s going to happen. Maybe one way will be the food.
And related: do you feel like you need to be a model or mentor to other Latinos?
One of my projects I have been working on very slowly is in a community in Peru outside Lima called Nuevo Ayacucho. I am working with a friend of mine close to this place. They have a tiny ecological restaurant with no electricity. Maybe I offer myself to go teach there. I want to educate them to cook. Here my hope is to do the same. I have chefs, Latino chefs. What I say to my sous chef is, “The only reason I am teaching you is for you to do better than me.” No secrets. I teach them everything. Later on my challenge is to do better than them.
Do you get out at all?
As much as I can. Last night I went to Animal. I love it. I was trying to analyze it.
I went with a couple other chefs. It’s very simple. No decoration. No even name in the door. All the focus is on the food. [Sounds of child in background.]
And you’re a dad?
My son is four years old, my baby nine months.
Are they into food?
My son yes. When I cook at home he is jumping in and trying to help me.
If your son comes to you one day and says, “Dad, I want to be a chef,” what do you say?
I throw him out the room. It’s tough. I will probably put him in a kitchen for one week and then ask him again. It’s a question I ask myself all the time. I wish not. I wish he will do something else. The hard part for a chef is not cooking. Cooking is beautiful. The hard part is opening a restaurant. It’s expensive. Dealing with investors and how many times they screw you up. For a doctor, you don’t need to open your clinic right away. But the only way to make it as a chef is you need to become a business person. You need to own your own company. Chefs reach an age and you can open for someone else but you end up having nothing.
Mo-Chica, 3655 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, 213.747.2141, www.mo-chica.com
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