Tiny, cheese-filled arepas, fried octopus, plantain raviolis, all beautifully plated, are just some of the options available in Washington DC’s highly acclaimed restaurant Seven Reasons. Named America’s Best New Restaurant by Esquire and Washington DC’s number one restaurant by the Washington Post, Seven Reasons celebrates the culinary traditions of Latin America, uniting dishes and flavors from Venezuela, Peru, the Amazon, and the Caribbean.
Less than one block from the White House sits the fast-casual restaurant Immigrant Food. The restaurant serves unique bowls combining cuisines from all over the world (like the Mumbai Mariachi bowl, with elements from Mexican, Indian, and Greek cuisine, for example) while advocating for pro-immigrant organizations and celebrating the success of immigrants in America.
The two restaurants have more than the staple Venezuelan Polar beer in common: Venezuelan born, executive chef and co-owner Enrique Limardo is the culinary mastermind behind them both.
Enrique was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Before devoting himself to the culinary arts, he studied architectural and industrial design (which undoubtedly transfers onto his creative plating and beautifully decorated restaurants). In 1997, he began his gastronomic studies La Casserol du Chef and continued his studies in Spain, at the EUHT Sant Pol de Mar in Barcelona and at the Luis Irizar Culinary School in San Sebastián, Basque Country. He got the opportunity to work alongside some of Spain’s most distinguished Michelin-star chefs, was appointed as Mas de Torrent Relais & Chateau’s Sous Chef, and worked with British Chef Paul Owens at The Cliff in Barbados.
“Then I realized I wanted to do my own thing,” he said. He opened his own acclaimed restaurants, Paprika and Yantar, in Caracas, but Venezuela’s spiraling conditions made it increasingly difficult to source ingredients and slowed down the business. But his luck turned when he was offered a private chef position from one of his wealthy regular customers. For the next four years, Enrique traveled to Dubai, Hong Kong, New Zealand, France, and Italy, picking up cultures, tastes and spices along the way. In 2009, he was named the best chef in Venezuela by the Venezuelan Gastronomy Academy.
His next opportunity came when he moved to Baltimore, Maryland to assume the role of Executive Chef at Alma Cocina Latina, where he remained from 2014 to 2019. In 2016, he was named the best chef in Baltimore by Baltimore Magazine.
In Washington DC, which attracted him for its dynamic food scene and endless diversity, Enrique opened the successful Seven Reasons and serves as the culinary director of the chicken joint and whiskey bar Chicken+Whiskey.
The street foods of Caracas and the beaches of Margarita, as well as his travels, inspire his culinary creations. “I learned how [the] Spanish make great food in Basque but I still have my roots from Venezuela — I pulled from different things which became [part of] my style now,” he said. “Sometimes I’m inspired by nature or go to a museum or remember something from my country, then I picture it and start building it to represent that landscape,” he added.
Enrique jumped at the opportunity to open Immigrant Food when it was brought to him by co-owner, former political consultant Peter Shcecter last year. “I just fell in love with it. It represents something that I am,” Enrique said of the project. He looked “through every single country, every single ingredient, every single spice” and “put all of them on a massive paper, and started to cross them historically,” starting with El Salvador and Ethiopia, the two countries with the largest immigrant populations in DC, to come up with Immigrant Food’s unique menu, he explained.
Guests of the restaurant are welcomed to dine as well as sign up to volunteer or contribute to several local immigrant-service organizations. When the restaurant closes in the evening, the space is lent to these organizations to host workshops, English classes, legal clinics, or whatever is needed.
As Immigrant Food’s website puts it, “Enrique’s story highlights how new value gets built in the United States,” and contributes to their mission to create dishes in the image of America at its core: diverse, nourishing, and welcoming.
Photo: Immigrant Food/Facebook