W hen we go out to eat for leisure we often end up at fleishig restaurants. Maybe we feel like the money spent is better justified on meat than on dairy or maybe the dishes I usually order at milchig places just seem like ones I can easily recreate at home but whatever the reason is the list of milchig restaurants we frequent is quite a short one. For that reason when I noticed some buzz about the newest upscale dairy restaurant in my neighborhood La Cambio I figured I’d get there eventually. Not urgent as if eating out is ever urgent business to begin with.
It turns out I was wrong about all of it. La Cambio is no run-of-the-mill café passing off low-end-ingredient dishes as haute cuisine. There’s nothing on their menu that I could or would think to create in my own kitchen. It’s absolutely the real deal and Chef Jose Soto (formerly of Basil which yes made it to my aforementioned shortlist) creates dishes that are absolutely unreplicable and unique. I actually feel a little bad about my milchig misconceptions now.
We walk into La Cambio about an hour before dinner service picks up and take a table by the window which overlooks busy Coney Island Avenue. With the soft blinds closed though La Cambio is in its own little world. The décor is high end with white tablecloths on the tables in the small 28-seat or so dining room. Ruby the owner is busy taking reservations when we walk in so we have a minute to admire the murals on the walls a print of the Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera and a jazzy print by French painter Bernard Ott.
We meet Chef Jose Soto whose entire persona is alive with excitement over his passion: creating delicious food by letting local seasonal and natural ingredients shine. He entered the food service industry at just 14 years old as a dishwasher at the legendary Savoy restaurant and worked his way up with mentorships from the best of the nonkosher culinary world. And working in kosher he says isn’t that much of a stretch.
