Diego Oka is a legend.
If you are from Miami, or have not been living under a rock for the past 12 years (when he relocated from San Francisco), you have heard of the man behind La Mar by Gastón Acurio.
Spicing up Miami’s culinary scene since taking the helm at La Mar in 2014, this born in Lima and of Peruvian-Japanese heritage chap, Oka has spent more than two decades cooking his way around the world…with stops in Bogotá, San Francisco and Mexico City along the way.
Inspired by his grandmother’s kitchen in his childhood home (she lived with the fam), he always learned that creativity doesn’t stop at the plate. A ceramicist who created AMANO by Oka, an intimate eight-course tasting experience served on ceramics he handcrafted himself, we learned would be an industrial designer if cooking weren’t in the cards.
When he’s not cooking, creating pottery or championing the next generation of Latin American chefs, you’ll find him representing Miami and Peru on t…
