Latin scholar

For the adventurous diner, Chicago's Nacional 27 offers not just exotic cocktails, trendy interiors and the hottest salsa beats - the innovative flavours of executive chef Randy Zweiban's menu have made it the city's premier Nuevo Latino (new Latin) restaurant.

After two years in business, the eaterie attracts a varied crowd of all ages. Covers range from 125 to 225 on weekdays and go up to 400 on a Saturday night, when an older, more affluent dining crowd - average spend per head is $38 (£26.50) - is replaced by those in search of Brazilian caipirinhas and merengue.

Although the 235-seater establishment is a concept of the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group, the menu is the sole creation of the native New Yorker, whose cooking style inspired its name - cuisine influenced by 27 Central and South American countries.

"Nuevo Latino food is, for me, an interpretation of traditional foods and ingredients indigenous to Central and South America, and the Latin Caribbean," says Zweiban. "We take those ingredients and use the creativity of classic French and American cooking to update and create a new style."

Zweiban spent eight years in Miami, working at Norman Van Aken's New World fusion restaurant Norman's and absorbing the local Latino cultures. By the time he came to Chicago, he had a thorough grounding in Latin American cuisine, an expansive knowledge of the ingredients used and a long list of suppliers.

Zweiban and his 14-strong brigade (30 front of house) use a variety of imported produce from tubers such as boniato, Peruvian purple potato and yams to Costa Rican palm hearts, papayas and carambolas. Prominent herbs and spices include cumin, coriander, cilantro, ancho (dried poblano pepper), chipotle (smoked and dried jalapeno pepper) and chimichurri (an Argentinian condiment made from vinegar, garlic, flat-leaf parsley and red pepper flakes).

Favourite appetisers on the menu are the ceviches. The tuna and watermelon version uses diced tuna and watermelon marinated in a rice wine vinaigrette of rehydrated and puréed ancho and chipotle added to sweet rice vinegar and canola oil and sprinkled with chives.

Speciality appetisers include boniato and plantain croquetas, a reinterpretation of a classic Cuban dish, served with black bean salsa and roasted garlic allioli. The barbecued pulled pork arapes are a Colombian-inspired dish, using pork marinated for three days, then slow-roasted and wrapped in a corn tortilla. It is then served with guava barbecue sauce.

Steak is a house speciality too. Tenderloin American beef is coated with truffle butter blended with manchego and idiazabel Spanish cheeses and then melted on to the cooked steak with brioche breadcrumbs in a broiler to form a crust. It is served with chorizo, three potato hash and a Malbec reduction.

Snapper Brazileno is inspired by a coconut stew from Brazil. Julienned fennel, carrots, onions and sweet peppers are added to a reduction of chicken and shellfish stock, coconut milk and saffron. The snapper is pan-roasted with a little egg and flour, then served on boniato hash with the stew around it. It is sprinkled with roasted garlic allioli, chopped coconut and brazil nuts.

Desserts include exotic sorbets made from coconut, mango and guava, and pumpkin flan made from West Indian calabaza. The pumpkin is roasted with cinnamon, cloves and mace, puréed and folded into a custard base, and baked off in cups lined with caramel.

Nacional 27, 325 West Huron, Chicago, USA.