Erik Ortolani is known for his own brand of Italy-meets-Japan cooking at Ito, which opened on Crown Street three years ago. Ravioli stuffed with scallop and prawns, slick in a umami butter and topped with fried Japanese firefly squid. Yellowfin tuna with bonito bread. Silky saké rigatoni. Daikon-filled olives, fried and served with yuzukosho mayo. Japan influences his next project, too: Amé, a Nikkei restaurant opening in a 1927 heritage-listed building in Darlinghurst.
The venue is the latest from ESCA – the team known for Aalia and its adjoining wine room, Besa, Nour, Joji and Henrietta – and it sits on the busy corner of Oxford and Foley streets. The distinct cuisine is from Peru, where the large Japanese population married their kitchen techniques with Peruvian dishes and ingredients. The hospitality group’s co-founder Ibby Moubadder has wanted to spotlight Nikkei dishes for years; with Ortolani leading the kitchen, though, it’ll stray from the traditional.
“[Amé has] a very strong identity,” Ortolani says. “It’s not really similar to anything I’ve seen around in Sydney. It’s very focused, very sushi-forward, with skewers – anticuchos.”
His menu is a few tastings away from being locked in, and it’s been one of his career’s biggest challenges. The chef is drawing on his experience cooking in Japanese kitchens, his heritage and a research trip to Peru earlier in the year. “I’m Italian, so I tasted a lot of Peruvian cuisine back in Milan. There is a very big Peruvian community, so I wasn’t completely foreign to the flavour profile … To be honest, I came back with more questions than answers – so it broadened my horizons a little bit.”
What we can expect is sashimi topped with fried quinoa, and beef tataki dressed with Ortolani’s riff on salsa criolla. Perhaps a rendition of causa, the layered citrusy dish of potato, avocado and white fish, which Ortolani enjoyed in Lima – and surely a comprehensive line-up of grilled anticuchos. What will definitely return is the guava kakigori Ortolani made at Ito’s Nikkei pop-up last year, the South American fruit zipping through the Japanese shaved-ice dessert.
Joji’s Kihoon Kim is trading kitchens, joining Amé as head chef – lending his extensive experience in Japanese fine dining and omakase. “That’s a big anchor of the kitchen,” says Ortolani. “Amazing knife skills and knowledge of the products and seafood. I’m just going to shake him up a little bit – with the garnishes and the, sort of, kicks I want on the menu.”
Peruvian cuisine in general, and food from wider Latin America, is underrepresented in Sydney and Australia, despite large populations of Latin Americans living here. There’s Callao in Barangaroo for Nikkei; while Alejandro Saravia’s Morena awaits in Martin Place, and taberna Pepito’s in Marrickville. Difficulty sourcing specific ingredients (Ortolani highlights root vegetables and corn varieties) is a contributing factor, making menus tricky to execute at scale. His fix? “Japanese or local ingredients, with Peruvian accents. Obviously, the chillies are the non-negotiables to recreate the flavour profiles in Peru, but with [other] ingredients that are fresh and readily available here, rather than relying on shipping in.”
Amé is expected to open at 84 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, in late October 2026.