Creating Special Moments

Chef Cesar Zapata’s entry into the world of food was serendipitous. 

While most nine-year-olds went to Little League practice or played video games with their friends, Zapata was left in charge of preparing the family meals while his parents each balanced two full-time jobs. Having left their home country of Colombia, his family migrated to Paterson, New Jersey in search of a better life. 

“I was always interested in cooking, so my mom used to leave me directions, or recipes — certain instructions on how to do rice or soup,” Zapata says.

Zapata’s passion for cooking grew, and at 18 he began working in restaurants.

“I loved the restaurant business — taking care of people, creating special moments — that just really caught my attention,” he says.

A move to Houston, where Zapata was introduced to Texas-style barbecue, Mexican cuisine and the seafood of the Gulf, was enough for the young chef to know he had found his career path. He enrolled in culinary school at The Art Institute of Houston and, following graduation, landed jobs in the kitchens of prestigious spots like The Four Seasons and The Setai Hotels and began weaving his family recipes with the culinary diversity he discovered in Houston.

“Houston has one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the country…so, I always said, ‘the day I have a restaurant, I want to do something that has Asian because I just love Asian food, especially Vietnamese,” Zapata says.

An opportunity with the Four Seasons Miami led him to South Florida. Zapata went on to open Miami’s first pop-up restaurant with his partner Aniece Meinhold in September 2011. Phuc Yea — a fusion of Cajun-Vietnamese cuisine — was an instant success.

“On the first day of opening, we ran out of food by 9 o’clock!”

The buzz the tiny restaurant (only 5 tables) created set the stage for Zapata’s foray into restaurant ownership with The Federal, an American comfort food eatery showered with accolades like “Best  Biscuits in the US” from Food & Wine and TripAdvisor’s “2013 Certificate of Excellence.”

With the longing to return to a more eclectic restaurant coupled with fans’ insistence to bring the cuisine from the popup back, Zapata and Meinhold opened Phuc Yea in the heart of Miami’s trendy Upper East Side (MiMo) District. 

“It’s our baby. We’ve always dreamt of doing Phuc Yea in a bigger, scaled restaurant and we went for it.”

Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find a table on any given night. Phuc Yea, which began as a Vietnamese-Cajun concept, has progressed to include South Florida ingredients, something Zapata, now 43, likes to refer to as “New Style Vietnamese.” Of course, there’s still plenty of Texan influence (hickory smoked short ribs comes to mind), along with dishes showcasing Zapata’s Colombian roots and inspired from Meinhold’s family, who is Vietnamese.

The restaurant regularly offers inspired-Vietnamese-Latin specials, like Colombian empanadas with nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) or Sancocho Pho, a Colombian-style meat stew but with pho ingredients like noodles and spices. Then there are classic comfort dishes with a unique spin that diners can’t get enough of like the Special Phuc Yea Pho, PY Noodles (signature house noodle, fresh egg noodles, garlic butter, oyster sauce and parmesan cheese) and the Caramelized Chicken Wings.

“I wanted to create something comforting for us Americans and incorporate the Vietnamese flavors,” Zapata says about the wings. “People love them!”

Despite or, possibly, because of his success, Zapata remains grounded and focused on always giving back. He serves on the National Advisory Board of No Kid Hungry, does charity work for Diabetes Foundation and helps raise money for FIU in the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. During the height of the pandemic, he donated meals to people struggling to find something to eat. The work keeps him connected to his community and serves as a reminder of his origins and how far he has come.

“Once I started doing charity work, especially with No Kid Hungry, when they started talking about all those kids, it just brought me back to the challenges we had growing up in this country and I realized that I was one of those kids,” Zapata says.

While food was available to him growing up, the uncertainty of what the next meal would be or were it would come from, is something he recalls well. 

“Not having the proper nutrition, not being able to sometimes have breakfast or school lunch because our parents sometimes just couldn’t afford it. Or having sardines for dinner, or rice and eggs.”

His philanthropic role has taken him to Washington D.C. where he’s spoken to senators about ways to end childhood hunger in the U.S. He carries the advice his mother once gave him, “Just don’t forget us, the poor people, or how you came,” close to his heart, and as he’s risen to become one of Miami’s most venerable chefs, he continues to give back.

“If it’s true to me, I try to dedicate as much time as I can.” 

INGREDIENTS

1 quart sugar

1 pint fish sauce

1 lime (juiced)

1 cup sweet chili sauce

2 tablespoons sesame seeds (toasted)

1 teaspoon Thai Bird chilies (chopped)

1 teaspoon ginger (finely diced)

¼ cup lemongrass (chopped)

¼ cup of water

Wings

2 lbs. fresh chicken wings

canola oil for frying

INSTRUCTIONS

 1. In a pot, add sugar, ½  cup of water and lime juice.

2. Cook at medium heat until sugar achieves a caramel color. 

Do not stir or move pot (avoid crystallization).

3. Turn off heat, let cool and slowly add fish sauce. 

(Note, sauce may foam up, so be careful!)

4. Add remaining ingredients then simmer for 10 minutes.

Wings

1. Transfer the wings to a colander in the sink, shaking them occasionally, to let them drain well before you fry them, at least 15 minutes.

2. Pour enough of the oil into a wok, Dutch oven, or wide pot (even better, use a countertop deep fryer) to reach a depth that will completely submerge the wings, about 2 inches. Set the pot over medium-high heat, bring the oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also cook the wings in an air fryer if you prefer.*

3. Add the wings to the oil and fry, prodding the wings to move them around a bit after 4 minutes or so and then every few minutes, until they’re evenly deep golden brown and completely cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes.

4. Transfer them to paper towels to drain, let the oil come back to 350 degrees, and continue doing the same process until all wings are fully cooked.

5. Add the ¼ cup of the fish sauce mixture in a nonstick wok, set it over high heat, and bring it to a boil. Cook until the mixture has reduced by about half, about 45 seconds. Toss wings in fish sauce caramel.

6. Transfer the wings to a serving plate, garnish with sesame seeds, fresh scallions and cilantro.