Not unlike america's earliest pioneers, who set out in covered wagons stocked with cooking pots and visions of gold at the end of the rainbow, Red Sage executive chef Morou Ouattara landed in the United States a mere decade or so ago, armed with only a French-English dictionary and a desire to learn computer science. Had things gone according to plan, Ouattara might have passed the millennial countdown moni-toring computer bytes. Instead, he spent it behind the stoves whipping up his creative meld of Southwestern and Native American cuisine, food that led Esquire to proclaim Red Sage "one of the most phenomenally successful new restaurants of the 1990s."

"The cilantro sighs, the habaneros scream," M. F. Onderdonk wrote in Cowboys & Indians, describing some of the most titillating tastes to curry favor and influence in Washington, D.C., the nation's ultimate power scene. Where else would you find Bill Clinton, Kevin Costner, and Jewel moseying down to sample BBQ bison tamales, pan-seared tuna tacos, roasted red chile pecan-crusted chicken, or charcoaled ostrich filet? And if your wagon train is delayed, and you can spare the calories, leave room for the lemon verbena parfait, a mélange of Champagne Jell-O, seasonal fruit marmalade, and petite madeleines.

Ouattara learned to cook as a young boy, growing up in a large family on the Ivory Coast of Africa. There, mother and son thought nothing of throwing together an impromptu feast-influenced by Middle Eastern, African, and French cuisine-for 40 extended-family members. He took his first restaurant experience on the American frontier to pay tuition bills, working as a dishwasher at D.C.'s i Ricchi. Within a week, he was preparing appetizers, and before long, he'd rolled into Red Sage, spatulas blazing, just in time for its opening in 1992, the year Esquire named the eatery "Best New Restaurant of the Year."

Rising through the ranks at Red Sage, Ouattara trained under Mark Miller, Zarela Martinez, Stephan Pyles, and Jean-Marie Josselin, and was named executive sous-chef in 1995. He left for executive chef posts at Belevedere Restaurant Group in Baltimore and at Morrison House in Alexandria, Virginia, before returning to become Red Sage's head honcho last year.

Now he is doing what he loves. "I realize I've been training for this job my entire life. In many ways I've come full circle."