by Evan S. Benn | July 2, 2025
Chef Raheem Sealey is Bringing Caribbean Flair to Miami’s Newest Asian Smokehouse
Raheem Sealey of Miami’s new Shiso is reinventing the iconic Kyu and cooking up one heck of a culinary story.
Growing up in St. Croix, Raheem Sealey remembers cooking alongside his grandmother, “Gran Doris” Gumbs, as she showed him how to slowly braise oxtails for stew and make comforting red peas soup with pigtails and cornmeal dumplings.
As Gran Doris got older and her arm strength waned, Sealey stepped up to help her with Thanksgiving and other big meals, mashing potatoes and stirring mac and cheese. She kept a home in Miami, and when she moved there in the late aughts, Sealey followed her.
“She was my heart, my mom and my dad all in one,” Sealey says. “She taught
me everything.”
He turned to her for advice in 2010 when, as a new father and new Floridian, his future didn’t seem so clear.
“I needed to figure out life real fast. I thought about going into the military or driving a truck. I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” says Sealey, now 36. “She said to me, ‘You love to cook. Why don’t you go to culinary school?’ I went to Le Cordon Bleu (in Miramar, Fla.) the next day and enrolled.”
His culinary path since then has taken him through the kitchens of some of Miami’s most lauded restaurants, from modern American (Sugarcane) to modern Japanese (Zuma) to modern Italian (Scarpetta), and from Asian-inspired wood-fired cooking (KYU) to opening his own American barbecue joint (Drinking Pig BBQ) during the pandemic.
Now he’s bringing together everything he’s learned and loved from those spots—as well as from his grandmother—into his newest endeavor: Shiso, which opened in Wynwood in March.
“The inspiration is a nod to my journey through Miami,” Sealey says, teasing menu items like smoked brisket nigiri and udon noodles with braised oxtail—just like Gran Doris taught him how to cook.
“It feels special to be able to move forward in my journey with the people and the city that I love.”
—Raheem Sealey
Sealey’s take on chicken two ways, a dish called Shiso Chicken, Please, exemplifies his approach to cooking new versions of recipes from his past experiences, both in professional kitchens and from his personal memories. Two halves of a Cornish hen, one smoked and one deep-fried, come together on a plate with a white barbecue sauce, house-made pickles and a charred-scallion waffle on the side.
“It’s a marriage of where I’ve been that represents where I am now,” Sealey says.
Another Shiso plate marries tender grilled octopus with a bold red curry, the fiery edges of which are softened by coconut milk and a cool herb salad. Sealey says the simply cooked octopus reminds him of “being home in the Caribbean,” and the curry’s alluring spice and heat have become a signature of his cooking.
Chef Raheem Sealey shared his grilled curry octopus recipe
Shiso and KYU sit three blocks from each other in Miami’s art-forward Wynwood neighborhood, which looks much different today than it did in 2016, when Sealey was part of KYU’s opening team.
“Wynwood back then was all graffiti and metal and exposed concrete,” Sealey says, of the artsy Miami neighborhood. “Today, it also has an elegance and refinement, and we wanted to pull all of that into one space in a way that feels cohesive. There are exposed ducts and brick walls, but also a beautiful open kitchen and well-crafted furniture and countertops.”
A highlight of opening Shiso, Sealey says, has been hiring friends who have helped him along the way, including a chef de cuisine who was by his side at KYU and Drinking Pig, and a sushi chef from his Zuma days.
“It’s fun to make good food with friends I adore, but my real motivation is to succeed so that those around me can succeed,” he says. “It’s a great feeling to be able to put people I’ve worked with in new positions to win.”
Sealey, who had parted ways with KYU after an ownership change during the pandemic, rejoined the restaurant group—now with additional locations in New York, Las Vegas and Mexico City—last year as global executive chef.
He says he was brought back to align KYU’s menu closer to its original iteration and to add a higher level of consistency across its kitchens.
“I hit the ground running, getting recipes back to where they used to be—the way Miami liked them—and made sure we were doing it the same in New York and Vegas,” Sealey says.
KYU hired him with the understanding that he was working on other projects, including Shiso. He says he doesn’t see the two restaurants as competitors, suggesting that diners could start their night with a meal at KYU and finish with a nightcap and snack at Shiso or vice versa. As for his arrangement at both spots, Sealey says he plans to stay on at KYU “for as long as they’ll have me.”
As with Shiso, KYU’s menu also has plenty of Sealey’s personal touches, like the Japanese sweet potato that plays a versatile supporting role to any of KYU’s signature wood-fired entrees.
Try Sealey’s Japanese sweet potato recipe
Sealey says the inspiration for the side dish came from his grandmother, who used to top her sweet potatoes with salted butter and brown sugar. At KYU, he subs salted butter for miso butter and uses deeply caramelized Japanese black sugar in place of brown sugar.
Sealey says all of his cooking is his way of paying respect to Gran Doris, who passed before he graduated from culinary school. He knows she would have been proud to see his accomplishments both in and out of the kitchen.
From his work at Shiso and KYU to time with his family—he has a daughter and two sons, and he and his wife have a fourth child on the way—Sealey says he’s exactly where he wants to be on his journey. He’s also more experienced than he was in his days as a new Floridian and new dad, and now the future seems much clearer.
“Miami is where my career as a chef started, and it’s where it took off,” he says. “It feels special to be able to move forward in my journey with the people and the city that I love.”
