Food

Corporate Chef Raheem Sealey shares his approach to menu innovation at Kyu

Menu Talk: The chef blends Asian flavors with smoke to create a unique dining experience at Kyu’s three locations.

Raheem Sealey is the corporate chef of Kyu Restaurant, which has locations in Las Vegas, Miami and New York City. 

Sealey is based in Miami, where he moved from the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix in 2009. He attended culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and worked in a variety of restaurants, including Caribbean concept Sugarcane and Zuma, which sells modern Japanese food in a stylish setting. He also spent time at Pao by Paul Qui which, similar in a way to Kyu, also offers Asian-inspired cuisine from a wood-fired grill. 

Sealey eventually landed at Kyu in 2016 as a sous chef and has been there ever since. There he offers items like smoked brisket rubbed with a shichimi pepper-based spice mix and served as a lettuce wrap, yakiniku baby back ribs and whole roasted cauliflower in green chile vinaigrette.

He discusses his menu development process and shares that the restaurants will soon have a crispy duck salad and a grilled pork chop with sweet chile sauce and smoked eggplant relish. Sealey also suggests a trick for catering to customers who don’t like cilantro.

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Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.

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