In Miami, chefs winning awards or gaining national recognition are common occurrences, according to Amber Love Bond, partner and writer for food blog MIAbites.
“It’s hard to keep up with everything happening, but these chefs are so talented it’s worth trying,” said Bond, who noted that the overall Miami food scene has really stepped up in recent years.
Giorgio Rapicavoli, Eating House
Bond considers chef Giorgio Rapicavoli as one of Miami’s celebrity chefs. As winner of TV’s Chopped, and a guest judge on many Food Network shows, at 26 in 2015 he opened Eating House restaurant in Coral Gables and Glass & Vine in Coconut Grove.
“From as early as I can remember I always wanted to be a chef,” he said.
Rapicavoli takes his inspiration from his mother and grandmother; as a young boy, he helped them prepare big Italian meals for the family.
“My mom and my grandmother are very talented cooks,” he said.
With a nod to meals at home, Rapicavoli serves up family-style cuisine when groups take over the 50-seat Eating House. The restaurant has hosted craft cocktail events, pasta-making classes, tasting menus and live cooking demos.
“We can really customize whatever the group wants,” he said.
Frederic Delaire, Loews Miami Beach Hotel
Born and raised in France, Frederic Delaire, executive chef at Loews Miami Beach Hotel, fondly remembers summer vacations in his grandparents’ kitchen using old kitchen tools and cookbooks, which were retired after his grandfather closed his bakeshop.
“I spent time with my grandfather making crepes, pastries and melting chocolate,” he said.
Having cooked in France, Germany and Spain, Delaire came to Miami in 1999 and fell in love with the city.
Chef Delaire spoke enthusiastically about diversity at Loews Miami Beach.
“One week we’re preparing for the Loews-hosted South Beach Wine & Food festival, the next week we’re cooking for a convention group of 600,” he said.
The hotel has created Flavor Miami, incorporating food from local vendors.
“Our meeting groups want healthy, so we’ve included more Greek yogurt, granola and honey, providing Halal, kosher and gluten- and dairy-free at meals and breaks,” he said.
Maria Orantes, Pubbelly Hospitality Group
Maria Orantes, corporate pastry chef for the Pubbelly Hospitality Group, was born in El Salvador and moved to Miami as a child. She recalls sitting on the kitchen countertop and watching her mother whip up a wide variety of dishes and teaching her how to make bread pudding, a dessert on Pubbelly’s menu today.
In high school, Orantes joined the school’s culinary team and continued to develop her skills, winning many culinary competitions and a scholarship from the Miami Culinary Institute. Almost immediately after starting at the Pubbelly Group, her dessert specials sold out and Orantes moved up quickly, developing new desserts and menus for several of the restaurants.
“For big groups, we’ll do an assortment of mini versions of my desserts,“ she said, many of which incorporate the tastes of El Salvador.
William Crandall, StripSteak
Chef de Cuisine William Crandall of StripSteak by Michael Mina at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach says he’s the typical farm boy turned city boy. Born and raised in Belvidere, Ill., (population 25,000) Crandall had a love of food from an early age.
PageBreak“We had two gardens behind our house, but my grandmother had the big one,” he said. “We had tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, corn, strawberries and a plethora of vegetables.”
The Fontainebleau isn’t Crandall’s first time manning the kitchen at a high-profile hotel restaurant; he also served as chef de cuisine at Azul inside the Mandarin Oriental and the Park Hyatt Chicago, where he met his wife, Sofia.
“It’s the typical line cook/server story,” he said.
While Crandall has only been with the hotel for three months, he already has a few meetings under his belt.
“With meeting professionals we find that whether it’s a break or breakfast or lunch, it’s not just fill your stomach and go; they want themes,” Crandall said.
One group enjoyed a typical steakhouse experience: wedge salad topped with blue cheese dressing and oyster and shrimp cocktails at the table for sharing. For another group, it was finger food for a Monday Night Football theme.
“We approach large groups the same way we approach the vacationer. Everything is driven by guest preference,” he said.
Diego Oka, La Mar by Gaston Acurio, Mandarin Oriental
Diego Oka is the executive chef at La Mar by Gaston Acurio, Mandarin Oriental; his new menu celebrates the authentic and diverse flavors of Peru. Blending personal experiences and his Japanese roots, Oka draws on influences ranging from his grandmother’s cooking in Peru to the foods he discovered while living in Mexico and Colombia.
For a recent group dinner at the hotel, they incorporated a host of diverse flavors.
“We prepared all of our 45 dishes from our menu, including a 10-pound tomahawk steak with Peruvian peppers and tacu tacu (Peruvian beans and rice), big trays with five types of ceviche and anticuchos (Peruvian beef kabobs). It was a big feast and we had so much fun,” he said.
Thomas Buckley, Nobu Miami
Thomas Buckley, corporate executive chef, Nobu Miami in the Nobu Hotel at Eden Roc, developed a passion for seafood during his childhood in the English fishing villages of Brighton and Scarborough, but unlike many chefs, he didn’t learn to cook at home.
“Meals at home were very plain, so I took matters into my own hands,” he said.
After high school, Buckley enrolled in a three-year culinary arts program; he won numerous awards and competitions and supplemented his education working summer vacations for famed TV chef Keith Floyd.
When Buckley discovered Nobu in 1998 he felt an immediate spiritual connection with chef/partner Nobu Matsuhisa, who welcomed his creative input.
For meeting groups at the hotel, Buckley said, “The banquet menu is inspired by Japanese-fusion and American flavors, but guests can also handpick items to create a more unique experience.”
Clark Bowen, JW Marriott Marquis Miami
Chef Clark Bowen, executive chef at Boulud Sud at JW Marriott Marquis Miami (opening in December), was also encouraged to cook out of necessity. Born and raised in Miami, his Cuban grandmother cooked such fare as ham and yucca for him and his siblings while his mom worked full time.
When his grandmother passed away, “Rather than succumb to my mom’s cooking, I started experimenting on my own,” Bowen noted wryly.
While attending school, he worked at popular restaurants in South Florida, where he learned on the job.
While Boulud Sud is typically French, Bowen said, “We’re also incorporating small plates from a variety of different countries that people can share, like lavash and pita breads with hummus and other dips. They’re healthier and easier to digest. Much of this cuisine doesn’t include dairy, meat or pork, so it’s very easy to offer something for everyone.”
Gabriel Fenton, Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak, Turnberry Isle
Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak Miami at Turnberry Isle features Gabriel Fenton at the helm as executive chef.
“Growing up in Princeton, New Jersey, my parents were avid gardeners; we ate seasonally, so I got the urge to be a chef at a young age and knew early on that this was my calling,” he said. “Once I entered the Culinary Institute of America, I was able to get a jump start on my professional culinary career.”
Groups to Bourbon Steak can sample every cut of beef imaginable, but there are also such items as Maine lobster pot pie with brandied lobster cream, miso-glazed sea bass with Maitake mushrooms, and glazed beef short rib with celery root puree. The on-site planner can help meeting professionals decide on the menu and the restaurant can print personalized menus for the group.
Groups can also experience wine-pairing dinners and cocktail receptions with passed hors d’oeuvres in the lounge area.
“This allows the experience to feel more relaxed and turns the mingling hour into the main event,” he said.
