10 October 2008 2,606 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Chef Miguel Aguilar, a native of Lima, first came to the United States as a championship surfer, but because his family was here, he decided to stay.

With a family of exceptional cooks – his great grandfather owned a restaurant in Lima – it wasn’t surprising that this passionate surfer also had an intense interest in cooking and an expertise at making ceviche. At Mesa Grill, Chef Bobby Flay noticed a very motivated waiter, and gave Aguilar his first break in the kitchen, putting him on the line as a cook. He went on to work at Restaurant LULU in San Francisco, Dos Caminos, as a sushi chef at Ono in the Ganesvoort Hotel and eventually designed a Peruvian influenced menu at cocoroco.

Kión is the fulfillment of a dream for two long-time friends, operations manager Mario Martinez and executive chef Miguel Aguilar. From the merging of Japanese and Peruvian flavors, to the melding of a lounge atmosphere with comfortable dining, Kión brings together diverse elements to create a unique experience. With food that is seriously delicious, yet fun; festive cocktails; and a long list of sakes all served in a sparkling setting, Kión – Peruvian for ginger root — is a place to entertain and to be entertained.
Fresh fish and seafood is central to Peruvian cuisine and Aguilar’s ceviches are made with the freshest ingredients, marinated for just minutes in lime or other citrus and seasoned with chiles. Ceviche mixto is a mixture of shrimp, squid, snapper and fluke, salmon juzu is salmon lightly marinated in juzu cilantro served in a cut out cucumber and topped with salmon roe.

Aguilar’s innovative blending of Japanese and Peruvian preparations can be seen in his ceviche rolls, which combine the Peruvian lime-marinated fish in sushi rolls with rice and nori.
His approach to sushi is Peruvian-influenced too. He adds Peruvian touches – chiles, fruits, and seasonings – to make unique and beautiful sushi rolls.

For example, the Rainbow roll is topped with banana chips and combines hamachi, salmon, tuna, fluke, crab ceviche, mango, and cucumber with avocado. The Dragon roll – tempura shrimp, avocado and flying fish roe – arrives in the shape of a dragon. And the Godzilla roll, a combination of barbecue eel, cucumber, asparagus, has a spikey spine of avocado.

Hot items include tapas such as Jaleita, mixed seafood tempura served with salsa criolla, Causa, a Napolean of shrimp, crabmeat, ceviche, avocado and spicy potato, Zappallitos Picante, roasted zucchini stuffed with lobster, crab and goat cheese, and grilled whole prawns served with chimichurri sauce and meaty Peruvian entrees such as Seco, tender, braised lamb shank in a cilantro stew with roasted potatoes in a fresh herb butter and garlic sauce, and Filete, pan-seared filet mignon with a fried quail egg topping and blue potato gnocchi.

Fusion(fyu-zh&n)noun – merging of diverse, distinct, or separate elements into a unified whole.
Chef Aguilar redefines fusion at Kión with peruvian japanese cuisine in a setting that blends dining and lounging.