PROFILE Watch: A chef’s mission in Dominican food and a mean mangu | Let’s Go, South Florida

 

Chef Danny Peñalo’s big-flavored, Caribbean food is rooted in the Dominican Republic. But his elevated style is the result of culinary training and years spent working the island’s international hotels and resorts. 

It was his father, who was living in the United States, who noticed his son’s gifts. “He went over there, tried some of the food and he really liked it. He said, ‘We don’t have this stuff in Miami,’ ” said Peñalo, who was born in Santo Domingo. So Peñalo sent over the best thing he could — himself. 

In 2013, the chef moved to South Florida and opened Yarumba in Miami Gardens, with help from his family. 

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