The Team

Born in Cuba and coming to the United States at an early age, Efrain Veiga is a product of both societies, moving with ease between the two cultures. Today Efrain is president as well as a shareholder of YUCA Restaurant in South Beach's Lincoln Road.

The road to nationally and internationally acclaimed restaurateur was not the traditional one. During his college years at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., he found out that he enjoyed cooking for his colleagues and friends, and maybe because his Latin roots where hospitality is elevated to an art, he enjoyed entertaining guests, and dazzling them with simple but exquisitely prepared dishes.

After a brief tenure working for the United Nations, Efrain moved to Miami and soon after was named the chef of Justa Pasta, an Italian restaurant in Coral Gables which he helped establish. He started to make improvements to traditional recipes adapting them to the new tastes, climate and available ingredients.

The success and satisfaction he derived from this new-found merier convinced Efrain that his future was in the restaurant business and, in 1989, together with a couple of investors, he opened YUCA in Coral Gables, a cozy restaurant that seated eight people. The name stands for Young Upscale Cuban American and in this pun, one can truly appreciate the new concept that YUCA has brought to the restaurant business. For the first time in Florida, the main ingredients of the basic Cuban cooking were used with such skill and imagination that they were elevated to the status of haute cuisine.

It did not take long for YUCA to become nationally and internationally acclaimed in the restaurant critics circle. Not long after its one-year anniversary, YUCA moved across the street, at a new larger location, tastefully decorated, totally synchronized to the Floridian Climate. With an open kitchen, full bar and a discrete piano player for background, it became a smashing success. Major US publications wrote about YUCA; CNN had it covered several times; celebrities could be seen regularly dining there.

Now, with a new partner YUCA has opened on South Beach's Lincoln Road. The concept and the cuisine will remail the same with a menu slightly different to appeal to a different public, more ethnographically varied formula.

When asked what is the secret of his success, Efrain strongly believes that one should do what he likes most; use what he knows best; not discard one's traditions and background; be constantly creative and innovative but not stray too far from the core.

Efrain's perseverance, hard work and the belief in his dream gained him the respect not only of the Cuban community but of all those who value such qualities.