Javier Cussato and Carmen Ibarra
Atomica | Miami, FL
May 2025
Javier Cussato has been in the hospitality industry since he was 16 years old, bussing, slinging, and serving pizzas at a local Italian restaurant in Miami. In 2008, he enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu and, after graduating, moved to his hometown of Lima to explore the nuances and history of traditional Peruvian cooking. He later returned to Miami and joined the team at La Mar by Gastón Acurio in 2014. With the encouragement and support of Rising Stars alum Diego Oka, Cussato worked closely with the La Mar team, eventually moving to San Francisco to work at Lar Mar under Chef Victoriano Lopez. After almost a decade with the Acurio group, Cussato moved back to Miami where he would meet future business and life partner, Carmen Ibarra.
Ibarra got her start in hospitality picking up beach towels while working at The Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne as a teenager. She attended Florida International University to study hospitality management and began working events and catering in restaurants across Miami. When the pandemic hit, however, Ibarra lost her job and decided to shift to something that had always brought her happiness: cooking. She enrolled at the Miami Culinary Institute and went on to work at Rising Stars alums Nando and Valerie Chang’s Itamae, learning how to navigate and work efficiently in a small kitchen. After meeting Cussato, the couple began hosting their own pop-up out of their three-story walk-up and, in September 2024, they moved into their current space at MIA Market. At Atomica, Cussato and Ibarra share dishes that marry their Peruvian heritage and American upbringing, like their braised lamb neck with butter bean purée, pickled onions, and chapla bread.
