Nando Chang was born in Chiclayo, Peru and is the chef of Itamae AO, a Nikkei restaurant in Miami, Florida. It is the reincarnation of Itamae, the beloved Nikkei restaurant that began as a family food hall stall and later restaurant in Miami’s Design District. Nando’s sister, Valerie Chang, who I interviewed on this podcast more than a year ago, opened Maty’s, a Peruvian restaurant in Midtown Miami in 2023, and it has gone on to be nominated for pretty much every major media award for U.S. restaurants since then. The plan from the beginning, however, was to install a more intimate version of Itamae in an adjacent space.

The new Itamae, Itamae AO, is tasting menu only. Nando talks about why he won’t call it an omakase, his thoughts about fish butchery, and how he got into fish aging, but also how he understands its limitations. We also discuss Nando’s rap career, which included an album called Ceviche, with a track titled Sushi Chef, and how it’s still very much a part of his life. He talks about how he was influenced by other chefs cooking Nikkei food, such as Llama Inn and Llama San’s Erik Ramirez in New York, and getting to know Maido’s Mitsuharu Tsumura in Lima and how it helped him confirm many of his views about Nikkei food and where it is going.

I have probably said this before but there’s often this idea of Nikkei food when it gets exported abroad that it is just ceviche and sushi on a menu together. That’s a very limited view of this style of cooking, which, to me, is much more about freedom than limitations. The Chang family, who are Chinese-Peruvian by the way, have understood this very well since they started opening restaurants in Miami. Nando talks a lot about not just doing what everyone else is doing, but doing things that make sense to him. I think it’s a good example to follow for other Peruvian chefs, or any chef trying to find their voice in the kitchen.

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