Raising the Latin-Mediterranean bar — Cvltvra opens in Miami

A high-profile Latin American chef has unveiled his first U.S. venture in the ME Miami hotel.

Chef Sebastian La Rocca has worked for celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in London and runs restaurants in Costa Rica and Argentina, but this is his first ownership. The Argentine native’s cooking show “Sabores” is broadcast from Costa Rica, where he now lives.

“Miami is the door to America. Between the mix of cultures and ethnicities, it was the perfect place to birth Cvltvra,” he says. “I want this to be the restaurant everyone is talking about.”

Latin-Mediterranean fusion tapas include spicy squash-coconut soup with poached egg ($11), Worcestershire-braised short rib with roasted ayote ($25) and dulce de leche panna cotta with caramelized popcorn and cocoa nibs ($9). Pork milanesa ($20) stems from his grandmother’s recipe.

“Cooking is all about creating memories and what my grandmother prepared when I was taking my first steps in the kitchen. She is still my biggest inspiration,” La Rocca says.

Cocktails are served in cut-glass crystal, such as the tangy, sweet La Rosita with cachaca, port, passion fruit and lime ($15).

A tropical-print wall features plants interspersed with the restaurant’s forestlike ambiance, which includes green mosaic columns, vine-ball pendant lights and wood tables. Bull skulls peer down over the open kitchen. A covered terrace affords views of the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, AmericanAirlines Arena and Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Dinner is served nightly, plus Sunday brunch. A DJ spins Fridays and Saturdays.

MIAMI CHEFS The new Cvltvra in Miami offers street-style skirt steak tacos with molcajete salsa, avocado, radishes and chicharron.