{"id":25266,"date":"2021-07-03T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000021002"},"modified":"2021-06-28T14:14:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T21:14:12","slug":"peru-was-born-in-me-waiter-turned-chef-strives-for-authenticity-with-casa-chaskis-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/peru-was-born-in-me-waiter-turned-chef-strives-for-authenticity-with-casa-chaskis-restaurant","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Peru was born in me\u2019: Waiter-turned-chef strives for authenticity with Casa Chaskis restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agust\u00edn Romo tosses arroz chaufa over a flame in a kitchen the size of two king-sized beds, illuminated only by a small window.<\/p>\n

He opened Casa Chaskis in 2018 in West Long Beach, a Peruvian restaurant influenced by the Andes Mountain region, with dishes such as tallarines verdes (green noodles) and lomo saltados (stir-fried beef).<\/p>\n

But this master Peruvian chef is actually Mexican, born in Jalisco and raised in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our dirty little secret,\u201d he said, with a smile.<\/p>\n

Romo, now in his 30s, said he fell in love with the food and the culture while working as a waiter years ago as a teen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might not have been born in Peru, but Peru was born in me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Romo worked as a waiter at Wakatay Peruvian-Nikkei Restaurant in Gardena, he was first drawn by the smells of the food. He then began watching the cooks saut\u00e9 in woks, typically used in Asian cooking.<\/p>\n

Growing up with Jaliscan parents, seeing Latin food cooked so differently fascinated him. Peruvian gastronomy has been heavily influenced by an influx of Asian immigrants to the region over centuries.<\/p>\n

When Romo first tasted papa a la huanca\u00edna\u2014a simple, saucy egg and potato dish\u2014\u201cit was love at first bite.\u201d<\/p>\n

After persistent begging for a teacher, Romo said, Ana Hiroko Narita, a Japanese Peruvian chef at the restaurant, agreed to take him under her wing. He\u2019d called her T\u00eda Hiroko (no relation) as a name of endearment. What followed was a lot of trial and error.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d cook the food all wrong, such as seco de cordero (lamb stew), he recalled\u2014and T\u00eda Hiroko would tell him so. She\u2019d actually burst into laughter, he said, and \u201cit motivated me more.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019d sit down with him and review how to fix his mistakes, such as using the correct bread or the duration of marinating different meats. \u201cI wanted my food to come out exactly like hers,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to be just like her.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, eventually he improved\u2014and she approved.<\/p>\n

His first business venture was creating packs of Peruvian spices for amateur cooks, dubbed Chaskis Peruvian Seasonings. But after learning that people preferred to eat instead of cook, he delivered boxed lunches in Long Beach and Santa Ana, which is where the name \u201cchaskis\u201d comes from. Also spelled \u201cchasquis,\u201d it means \u201cthe runners\u201d of the Inca who would deliver messages during the 13th century.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Agust\u00edn Romo holds a bowl of vegetables he picked from his kitchen garden at the back of Casa Chaskis, a Peruvian restaurant in West Long Beach, on Thursday, June 17, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Romo\u2019s box lunches then evolved into food pop-ups. Simultaneously running a restaurant in Santa Ana, he still had ambition of having his own business. So, after saving enough money, he opened up Casa Chaskis on the Westside in December 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery chef dreams of having their own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now, Romo\u2019s trying his best to honor the Peruvian culture and be as authentic as possible.<\/p>\n

For starters, he\u2019s precise. Rather than pinching seasoning over the food with his hands, he\u2019ll use a measuring spoon. He saut\u00e9s his ingredients, such as rice and beef, with a skillful force of his wrist, spilling little to nothing out from his saucepan.<\/p>\n

He also keeps his menu small, specializing in \u201csimple, classic, home-cooked Peruvian food.\u201d Vegetarian options are included.<\/p>\n

One challenge he confronted: Peruvian chefs can\u2019t easily find fresh ingredients at any supermarket, he said. To his dismay, it\u2019s all frozen.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould you imagine making tacos with frozen, chopped cilantro?\u201d he asked in comparison to making Mexican cuisine. Using frozen ingredients is \u201cdisgusting\u201d and \u201chas no flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a remedy, some of the produce he uses is grown in his newly debuted kitchen garden, a piece of land situated behind his restaurant’s parking lot. He grows citrus fruit, lettuce, kale, bell peppers and corn. In the patio section of his restaurant, he grows Peruvian herbs, such as huacatay (black mint) and ajis amarillo (yellow peppers), a star ingredient native from the Andes in Peru.<\/p>\n

In love with culture, he taught himself about Peru\u2019s history and regions, he said. His favorite is the Andean region, which he reflects through the decor of the inside of his restaurant, from miniature alpacas to Andean style of hats with ear flaps called chullos. They also have a word of the day scribbled in chalk in Quechua, the indigenous language of Peru.<\/p>\n

He said the biggest compliment a patron can give is a customer assuming he\u2019s a Peruvian native.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so delicious,\u201d said Brian Michalkow, who came to eat at the restaurant on a recent weekday for the first time.<\/p>\n

He learned about the restaurant through word of mouth. \u201cIt\u2019s that good,\u201d Michalkow said.<\/p>\n

Casa Chaskis is located at 2380 Santa Fe Ave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agust\u00edn Romo opened Casa Chaskis in 2018 in West Long Beach, a Peruvian restaurant influenced by the Andes Mountain region, with dishes such as tallarines verdes (green noodles) and lomo saltados (stir-fried beef).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":71630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[871],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[25587],"class_list":["post-25266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-restaurants","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25266"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=25266"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=25266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}