Prado Restaurant, Los Angeles

Chef Javier Prado personifies the American dream. In 1972, he traded the familiarity of his Mexican hometown for the bright lights and chatty celebrity wax statues of Los Angeles. He was initially without money, family, or friends, but soon landed a job working in the Beverly Hills Club restaurant. It was there that he met Chef Jon Bernadoux who took Javier under his wing, teaching him his craft until 1989 when Javier swung open the doors to Prado Restaurant.

At Prado, Javier fuses the flavors of his mother's Mexican cooking with classic Caribbean and New Orleans cuisine. The aromas of spicy black pepper sauces and Jamaican spices stretch out onto the quaint sidewalks of Larchmont Village, teasing the palates of frequent visitors and curious passersby alike. Inside, Javier makes good on the promises of those aromas, completing a spicy fusion menu underneath 18th century-style pastel ceilings painted in celestial scenes. Diners pair selections from the ample wine list with appetizers of jamaican tamales, entrees such as pollo negro—a grilled chicken breast slathered in a spicy black-pepper sauce beneath fresh gems of pineapple—and combination feasts such as the latin sampler platter, which grants tastes of the Caribbean-tinged carioca chicken, mesquite-grilled steak argentina, and spicy shrimp negros.