For Eileen Andrade, cooking was never an abstract idea. It was something that happened loudly and constantly, often behind the scenes of Islas Canarias, the legendary Cuban restaurant her family founded. Long before she stepped into her own kitchens, Andrade learned the rhythms of restaurant life by watching, listening, and eventually doing.
“I grew up working weekends instead of going to friends’ houses,” Andrade says. “I was expediting orders, cashing people out, doing the things that needed to be done.”
She did not begin cooking professionally until her late teens, first learning technique under a Peruvian chef who took her under his wing. Before that, she explored other interests, including fashion, before realizing the pull of the family business was not something she could ignore. “At some point, I had to ask myself if I was really going to let this fall into someone else’s hands,” she says.
That decision led to Finka Table & Tap, the West Kendall restaurant Andrade opened in her mid-20s. Drawing from Cuban, Korean, and Peruvian influences, Finka arrived before Miami had fully embraced cross-cultural menus. The early response was immediate. “People didn’t quite understand it at first,” she says. “But once we opened, it was nonstop.”
More than a decade later, Finka remains busy, supported by a loyal base of regulars and a team that has grown alongside her. Andrade has since expanded her portfolio with Amelia’s 1931, a more refined concept built around value-driven menus and careful sourcing, as well as Barbakoa, an open-fire project that helped clarify her long-term vision even after it closed.
“I know the people because I am the people,” Andrade says of her decision to focus on neighborhood-driven restaurants. “Why should you have to drive across the city for a great meal?”
That mindset has also shaped her approach to trends, from mocktails to nostalgic menu items reimagined with restraint. Andrade admits she moves in focused phases, alternating between creativity, operations, and service. “I can’t be creative all the time,” she says. “I wear too many hats.”
Each February, those hats multiply when she steps onto the sand for the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, an event she has participated in for more than a decade. “It’s my Super Bowl weekend,” she says. “It’s when I see chef friends, regulars, people who travel just to come say hi.”
Andrade remains deeply hands-on at her restaurants, from hiring to menu development to watching cameras when a shift runs late. She is focused on showing up, staying involved, and getting the details right, night after night. “I don’t like to not know what’s going on,” she says. “I want to know my staff, I want to know the food, I want to know the service. That’s the only way this works.”
