Photo Credit: Once
People hoping to dine at his West Hollywood restaurant Rosaliné have to make reservations weeks, sometimes months, in advance. Even celebrities get turned around if they miss their reservations. You can bet that if Chef Ricardo Zarate is in the kitchen, this is the demand and intrigue his food creates. He’s set out to achieve the same effect with his new restaurant Once inside The Palazzo at The Grand Canal Shoppes.
Through Once, Zarate introduces Peruvian culinary excellence to the Las Vegas Strip, a first of its kind for the famous boulevard.
He introduces the foundational and authenticity of Peruvian cuisine woven with Japanese influences formally known as Peruvian Nikkei. How? The four James Beard-nominated chef is originally born in Lima, Peru making him the authoritative voice on what makes up true traditional Peruvian cookery.
Once introduces dishes such as “Chicharron Karaage” featuring jidori chicken, the highest quality of poultry, tossed in rocoto aioli, cashew roasted pepper sauce, and zesty lime.
Another standout shareable includes the unexpected “Ceviche Mixto” combining sea bass, shrimp, scallops, squid, and the citrus marinade that cures the seafood known as “rocoto leche de tigre”.
The influence of Japanese immigrants in Peruvian cuisine is most noticeable in the “tiradito” dish introduced by Once as “Red Snapper Tiradito”. It features raw fish sliced and presented in sashimi style with yuzu ponzu and cured in aioli leche de tigre.
Dining at Once takes you on an excursion to Peruvian and Japanese cuisine bliss not just by way of taste but sight, too. The interior design is an ode to Zarate’s beloved Peru with rustic accents and signature foliage. You can almost smell the Peruvian forest. Should you find yourself dining here, take note of the figurines on every corner of the restaurant. Chef Ricardo Zarate tells me, they are blessed by the local shaman of his town to bring him blessings, good fortune, and good energy. But when you’re as talented as he is, spiritual endorsement or not, you’re bound to succeed.
