The chef
Enrique Limardo
A Michelin-starred chef from Caracas who changed how America cooks Venezuelan food — and who now, privately, will cook you a menu that exists for one night only.
He began studying cooking in Venezuela in 1997 and finished in Spain, in the kitchens of Joan Roca, Ramon Freixa, Xavier Pellicer, Joan Pique and Carles Gaig. He came back with classical European technique and no interest in using it to cook European food.
In Washington he built Seven Reasons, then Imperfecto, Saga, Quadrant and Surreal — five restaurants in six years, a Michelin star, a James Beard nomination, and a national argument that modern Venezuelan cooking belongs in the same room as anything else. Critics have called him the person who brought it to the United States.
What has not changed across any of it is the posture. Seven Reasons Group has always described its work as excellence without the stuffiness — serious food, made by people who are visibly enjoying themselves. That is worth knowing before you invite him into your kitchen.
Atelier Limardo is the only way to commission that work privately.
Photographed at Imperfecto and Seven Reasons — Chef Limardo's restaurants in Washington, DC.
Bringing the fun back to fine dining.
- Michelin Star2022
- James Beard Award, semifinalist2023
- Best Restaurant in Washington, DC — The Washington Post2019
- Best New Restaurant in the Americas — Esquire2019
- Trained under Joan Roca, Ramon Freixa, Xavier Pellicer, Carles GaigSpain
The restaurants
Five in six years, all of them in Washington.
Seven Reasons
Best Restaurant in Washington, DC — The Washington Post, 2019. Best New Restaurant in the Americas — Esquire, 2019.
Imperfecto
Mediterranean and Latin.
Saga, Quadrant and Surreal
The three that followed.