Chef
Zoraya Zambrano
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Portland, Oregon, United States
i. Biography
Peruvian restaurant cooking carries its lineage through ownership as much as through dishes. Before Casa Zoraya in Portland, Zoraya Zambrano’s work had already crossed countries and rooms: G y G in Calca, Peru, named for her children Gary and Gloria; Andina in Portland, Oregon, where she served as Chef de cuisine; and then Casa Zoraya, the dining room built under her own name. The through-line is Peruvian cooking treated as a working repertoire rather than a reference point. Citrus and chile, seafood and starch, comfort and ceremony sit within a professional frame shaped by family, migration, and service. The restaurant gathers those conditions into a local room without detaching the food from its source.
Career Arc
Kitchen authority in Peruvian cooking is built through repetition, timing, and control under service pressure. As Chef de cuisine at Andina in Portland, Oregon, Zoraya Zambrano worked inside that discipline, where flavor, texture, pacing, and the emotional tempo of a dining room all had to hold together. Restaurant ownership had already been part of the craft record through G y G in Calca, Peru, named for Gary and Gloria. That earlier house tied family naming to public hospitality. By the time Casa Zoraya opened with Zambrano as chef/owner in 2018, the move read as continuity: a family-rooted restaurant in Peru, a senior kitchen role in Portland, and then a restaurant carrying her own name.
Where They Are Now
Peruvian dinner service at Casa Zoraya in Portland centers generosity without losing focus. Under Zoraya Zambrano, ceviches and pisco sours have become signatures for Portland diners: acid, cold seafood, spice, and the lift of a cocktail meant to open the appetite. Ceviche is the clearest working form on the menu. Ceviche carretillero, a wheelbarrow ceviche, pairs classic ceviche with fried seafood, fresh seaweed, and plantains. The plate works through contrast: cool and hot, crisp and tender, saline and sweet. Traditional Mixto ceviche brings leche de tigre together with corn and sweet potato, using acidity, starch, and sweetness as the balancing structure. Street ceviche layers prawns, octopus, and fried squid, keeping the energy of casual eating inside a composed restaurant format. Modern Peruvian cooking at Casa Zoraya keeps inherited complexity in view and is paired with South American wines. The Portland setting is the frame, not a replacement for the source material. Brunch extends the same Peruvian register through tamales, pan con chicharron, and salsa criolla. In daylight service, the restaurant keeps comfort and gathering at the center while staying within the room Zambrano has built in Portland.
Signature
Signature dishes include Ceviche carretillero and Street ceviche with prawns.
Accolades
Opinionated About Dining recognition from 2023 through 2025 placed Casa Zoraya in a sustained period of outside attention. For a Portland restaurant rooted in Peruvian cooking, the span matters: it was not a single notice, but repeated recognition. The career record behind that recognition is sequential and legible: owner of G y G in Calca, Chef de cuisine at Andina until 2018, and chef/owner of Casa Zoraya. Read as craft history, those roles show movement through family restaurant ownership, migration, senior kitchen responsibility, and independent ownership.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Zoraya
What role does Zoraya Zambrano hold?
Zoraya Zambrano is chef at Casa Zoraya — Peruvian.
Where did Zoraya Zambrano work before?
Earlier in their career, Zoraya Zambrano worked at Andina.
What is Zoraya Zambrano known for?
Casa Zoraya’s menu prominently features ceviches.
