Through the coronavirus pandemic, Diego Oka, govt chef at Miami restaurant La Mar by Gastón Acurio, determined to discover ways to make pottery. He purchased a potter’s wheel and seemed for YouTube tutorials, primarily instructing himself how you can make plates, bowls and different dishes, drawing on his personal Peruvian and Japanese heritage for inspiration. Oka shortly realized that as a substitute of enlisting artisans to create crockery for La Mar, the place he has labored because it opened a decade in the past, he may design and create it to his precise specs.
“One of many components I actually take pleasure in about opening a restaurant is deciding on the china and the way the restaurant goes to look,” Oka tells Observer. “To know what plates are going to reinforce the fantastic thing about the dishes.” Up to now, Oka offered his concepts to different folks, who made the dishes. That modified in the course of the pandemic.
“I really like artwork. I really like design. I really like structure,” he says. “At first of this 12 months, I used to be beginning to inform folks from my workforce and administrators within the lodge: Why don’t I do the plates?”
Issues shortly spiraled, and shortly, the Mandarin Oriental, the place La Mar is situated, had cleared out one of many visitor rooms to change into a pottery studio. Over the previous six months, Oka has created 400 items, which will probably be on the core of a brand new eight-course tasting menu expertise at La Mar referred to as Amano by Oka.
Oka designed the pottery to enhance the meals, with every plate showcasing his cooking in a exact manner. The 300-seat restaurant will yield 20 covers every evening to Amano, which takes its title from the Spanish part “a mano,” or “by hand,” beginning on October 17. Not solely has Oka hand-crafted the plates and bowls, however he has personally chosen new glassware from Japan and wood placemats. On the finish of every meal, friends will probably be given one among Oka’s spoons to take residence. These considerate options are important for Oka.
“I’m all about particulars in all the pieces that I do, in issues that I purchase, in issues that I watch,” he says. “Uniqueness is within the particulars. These touches make this expertise distinctive. I don’t wish to copy a tasting menu from one other restaurant or from one other nation. We don’t wish to flip La Mar right into a fantastic eating, elegant restaurant. We wish to have enjoyable and to have a unique expertise within the restaurant.”
Equally to La Mar, the tasting menu itself will embody Nikkei delicacies, celebrating the fusion of Peruvian and Japanese meals. Dishes will embody a potato course that makes use of the normal pachamanca technique of cooking beneath soil, and a Korean-influenced model of carapulcra. A key inclusion is Oka’s tackle tiradito, Peruvian ceviche with sashimi minimize fish, which can have fun land and sea. Unusually, the dessert will probably be savory, incorporating white asparagus, crimson onions, vinegar, olive oil, basil and quinoa.
It’s the primary time in La Mar’s 10-year historical past that the restaurant has supplied a tasting menu, so Oka needed to push the boundaries and check out one thing new. He admits that he does fear what diners will assume, however feels he has to attempt anyway.
“In any profession, it’s a must to belief your self first, and it’s a must to make certain that it’s going work,” Oka says. “I’m my worst critic. I attempted and plated issues so many occasions. I belief my intuition and my eyes and my feeling rather a lot.”
The friends have constructed belief in him over the previous 10 years of coming to La Mar. “Possibly some folks will say, ‘Oh, my God, that is so horrible,’” he laughs. “However normally, to create these varieties of feelings could be very good. I may go very protected, however I feel that’s not enjoyable. That’s why I needed to go a bit of bit farther, to see the response of the visitor attempting one thing completely different, unusual and new that in the long run may be scrumptious for them.”
Launching Amano by Oka, which can run for so long as diners wish to e-book in, has been an enormous endeavor. Oka has needed to retrain a few of the workers for the brand new type of service, and he’s understandably nervous about how his pottery will keep intact within the kitchen and dish washing station. There are 25 of every dish, which leaves house for some breakage, and Oka plans to proceed creating in his lodge room studio.
“We’re a high-volume restaurant, so the logistics of washing that many dishes is hard,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ve sophisticated everybody’s lives by introducing this tasting menu, however we’re all having enjoyable. It began as a quite simple factor, and now it has change into large. We’ve a really outdated workforce right here, and this job is extra work and it’s a unique type of service and cooking that they’ve been used to doing for therefore a few years. However all people is so excited. It’s like opening the restaurant another time.”
For Oka, who plans to attend a pottery workshop in France within the coming months, the method has additionally sparked his creativity. It’s given him a brand new manner of expressing himself, in addition to creating one thing that lasts past a single meal.
“For a few years, I’ve been making artwork that disappears in minutes, and now I’m doing artwork in minutes that might final for years,” he says. “A chef shouldn’t be solely somebody who cooks scrumptious meals. Being a chef entails many issues—management, motivation, group, creativity and customer support. I really like going to the tables to speak to folks and to create new experiences for them. I prefer to be concerned in all elements of the meal, from creating the cocktails to deciding on the wine to plating the dishes. And now I can say I additionally make the plates.”
He stresses that the chance to design and launch Amano by Oka didn’t come by probability. He requested for it, urged by a private motivation to maintain pursuing new and alternative ways of presenting his meals.
“Whenever you attain the extent of being in cost and being the boss, normally there’s no person to inspire you,” Oka says. “So it’s a must to be taught to inspire your self and search for your personal motivation. That’s why I really like what I do now, as a result of I can search for issues that I’m actually keen about. And I don’t try this as a result of I’ve to. I do it as a result of I prefer it.”
Amano by Oka will probably be obtainable from October 17 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with two seatings per evening: early seating between 6:00 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., or late seating between 9:00 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. The tasting menu expertise begins at $260 per particular person. It’s obtainable to e-book now.
