With his goatee and rugged build, Orlando Amaro, executive chef at the new Station 4 restaurant, looks more like an athlete than a chef. But playing sport is not how Amaro has spent most of his life. He’d rather stand in the kitchen facing a line of cookpots than to do almost anything else. Venezuelan-born Amaro grew up in a culturally diverse setting and in a family in which food played an important role. For one, his Italian grandmother was a pastry chef and his mother was a fine home cook. When he was still young, he began cooking for his family and friends, forging a love for all things culinary. “I grew up in the kitchen with breads, croissants,” he said. “I love the kitchen.”
When the time came for Amaro to attend college, his father and he faced an impasse. “My dad wanted me to be a lawyer,” he explained. “I wanted to cook. Now my whole family loves good food and we share food every Sunday. Now they support me.”
| IF YOU GO |
| Station 4 |
| » Where: 1101 4th St. SW |
| » Info: 202-488-0987 |
| » Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday to Thursday; 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday |
Looking for a permanent career path, at the age of 20, he moved to Mexico to attend the Culinary Institute of Mexico in Puebla. “Twenty-five years ago in Venezuela, there were no culinary schools,” he said. After graduation, he interned in Cancun and Acapulco. After that, the Hilton Hotel group hired him as an executive sous chef, sending Amaro to cook in various Venezuelan kitchens and elsewhere.
But perhaps of all his culinary trials and experiences, the two different stages he spent working in the kitchen of Spain’s celebrated chef, Ferran Adria, may have been the most formative. While there, Amaro learned fine dining practices and applications. He also got an insider training with some of Adria’s cutting edge culinary techniques, such as immersion circulators, hydrocolloids, methocells and modified starches.
Moving to the United States about eight years ago, Amaro took full advantage of his new living situation, learning some regional American cooking from the ground up: he lived in Louisiana, Texas and Florida. Now in Washington to help open his friend’s restaurant, Station 4, Amaro feels that today he is cooking for the American neighborhood. “They are my guests,” he said, of the many patrons who file through the restaurant doors. “The want fried chicken, burgers and crab cakes. I can play with foams, but people here don’t like that. They want to see the food.”
In addition, he makes all the cakes, pies and charcuterie for this new restaurant. “Sometimes I make some dishes from Italy and from Spain,” he said. “But I support local farmers. The best goat cheese in the world comes from the kitchen at Cherry Glen Farm in Maryland.”
It’s no surprise then that Amaro is happy right where he is, cooking at this new restaurant in Southwest near the waterfront. “I don’t know about anything else,” he said. “I just know my kitchen.”
Q&A
What is your comfort food?
That’s simple. I want to open the fridge and eat whatever is there — rice, salad, pasta, which I can eat every day. Soups, ciabatta bread.
What is you signature dish?
My charred octopus. It’s a Spanish recipe. (see attached recipe)
What are your must-have ingredients?
Mediterranean and Indian spices and Middle-Eastern foods. I love curry, and star anise, cloves, cinnamon sticks, kosher slat. My food is infused with speces.
What’s in your fridge?
Celery, carrots, romaine lettuce; gouda, manchego, and goat cheese; and I love meat and fish.
Where’s your favorite place in the world?
La Boqueria in Barcelona. It is the best fresh market in the world. Everything is live. I could spend the whole day there. It is open all day every day. It is amazing.
Recipe
Charred Octopus
1 pound octopus, tenderized
2 cups dry white wine
2 yellow onions, peeled and quartered
4 bay leaves
4 tablespoons kosher salt
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 sprig rosemary
Start preparing this dish 1 day ahead of serving. Rinse the octopus well in several changes of water, place in a large saucepan with the wine, onions, and bay leaves. Add water as needed to cover.
Bring the mixture slowly to the boil, cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 45 minutes, drain, and rinse very well. Scrape away the excess skin, cover, and
refrigerate overnight.
To serve, prepare a charcoal grill. Take the octopus, and remove the legs from the top. Whisk together the olive oil and the lemon juice in a shallow bowl. Add the octopus and turn to coat; set aside.
When the grill is hot, place the rosemary sprig on top of the grate. Put the octopus pieces on the grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until lightly browned. Brush once or twice with the marinade.
