© J. Adrian Wylie

An Ambitious Combination

Lena and Chef Gabriel

by Sally Mitani

posted 10/7/2012

When chefs audition for jobs, they cook. When Gabriel Vera cooked for a group of five owners and investors of what was then just a rough idea for a Latin American-themed dinner restaurant, "I started with broiled sardines topped with tomato tapenade, rutabaga foam, and fennel cream. Then I made a compressed watermelon salad, followed by braised palomo--that's

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