Vancouver World Chef Exchange | San Diego

Details

• February 4, 2025
• 5:00 PM
• $329.00*

Our ninth annual Vancouver World Chef Exchange! We’ve reached out to our friends in the global culinary community and have invited them to Vancouver. The result? The world’s culinary best join us for a series of delicious collaborations with our own city’s top talent. Each pairing involves MICHELIN Guide recognized teams, from Bibs through to Stars, each set to be a unique dining experience found nowhere else but here.

Callie @ SUYO Modern Peruvian

Co-Presented by Destination Vancouver
Supported by Air Canada and The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver

Join Chef Ricardo Valverde of Vancouver’s renowned SUYO Modern Peruvian as he hosts Chef Travis Swikard, of San Diego's MICHELIN Recommended, Callie Restaurant, for this one-of-a-kind culinary collaboration. This one-night-only event celebrates the blending of Peruvian and Mediterranean Cuisine.  The MICHELIN Guide describes Callie as a 'sharply designed and boisterous spot' where 'the cuisine takes advantage of the best ingredients SoCal has to offer in highly shareable dishes featuring the bold, sunny flavors of the Mediterranean.' 

SUYO, named for a South American Indegenous word meaning "homeland", SUYO specializes in modern takes on classic dishes from Chef Ricardo's homeland, Peru. Callie is greek for "the most beautiful", and Chef Travis Swikard fell for the flavors of Greece, Spain, Italy, Morocco, the Middle East, and every place along the Mediterranean coastline during his time cooking at iconic French chef Daniel Boulud’s NYC restaurant, Boulud Sud. At Callie he brings the diversity of Mediterranean cuisines together with the ingredients and terroir of the greater San Diego region, his hometown.

Expect similar flavours and a lust for the best ingredients at this unique collaboration, inspired by Chef Ricardo's recent trip to San Diego. 

• includes four snacks, two appetizers, two mains, two desserts and mignardises, and beverage pairings.  Taxes and gratuity not included.  Substitutions politely declined. There will be two seatings for this experience; 5:00PM and 8:30PM.

About Chef Travis Swikard

Travis Swikard began his journey alongside Daniel Boulud at the Michelin-starred Café Boulud.  After opening Boulud Sud as Executive Sous Chef, Travis subsequently was named Executive Chef of Boulud Sud where his childhood aspiration fully became a reality.  In 2019, after more than a decade in NYC, Swikard made the decision to move home to San Diego to open his first solo restaurant Callie.  Callie was recognized in 2022 by Esquire and Robb Report as being one of the best new restaurants in America and received a Bib Gourmand and Plate by the Michelin Guide. In 2025, Swikard plans to open his second restaurant in La Jolla.

About Chef Ricardo Valverde

Twenty-four years after moving with his family to Canada from Peru, Executive Chef Ricardo Valverde now sees the culmination of his professional career, personal experience, and heritage in the opening of SUYO. Named for a South American Indigenous word that means “homeland,” SUYO honours Valverde’s family and country of birth, and benefits from a culinary career that has included almost every position in a professional kitchen.

A young Valverde got his first restaurant job in Steveston when he was 18, and soon began to learn about the broader world of fine dining. He spent his time off exploring downtown Vancouver, spending his entire paycheque at restaurants like Le Crocodile, Lumiere, Cloud9, and Diva at the Met. 

In 2005, he broke into that world, when he began working in the kitchen at Blue Water Café & Raw Bar, under Executive Chef Frank Pabst, whom he still names as his mentor. With Pabst he honed his cooking skills, took a deep dive on seafood, and learned about the business and operations side of running a kitchen. Subsequent roles included stints at CinCin Ristorante and Diva at the Met, and most recently, his award-winning run as Executive Chef at Ancora Waterfront Dining & Patio, both the False Creek and Ambleside locations. From being named one of Canada’s Best New Restaurants by EnRoute magazine, multiple wins in the Vancouver Magazine, WHERE magazine, and Georgia Straight restaurant awards, to personal recognition including Chef of the Year from the Georgia Straight, and an “Inspiring Top Chef Across Canada” by Open Table, it was at Ancora that Valverde made his mark. More than any particular award though, he says his proudest moment to date is when he realized he’d put Peruvian cuisine on the map in Canada.

At SUYO, he’s aiming even higher. The first of its kind in Vancouver and in Canada, SUYO serves authentic Peruvian cuisine with a modern approach, introducing diners to his own versions of the most popular dishes in Peru: from ceviches and tiraditos, to causas and anticuchos. “These are dishes and flavours you won’t find anywhere else,” says Valverde . . . and he can’t wait for you to try them. 

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