Interviews with NVA

Two Barstools & a Knife: An Interview, FIU & Norman Van Aken

Recently I was interviewed by three of the key folks at FIU. Here is what they introduced me by, “Happy Anniversary to the FIU podcast 2 Barstools and a Knife. One year of amazing guests and great stories. To celebrate this Milestone they are joined by Chef Norman Van Aken, restaurateur, celebrated…

Interviews with NVA

Two Barstools & a Knife: An Interview, FIU & Norman Van Aken

Turntable

Tom Waits Reads Charles Bukowski

Many years ago it was my great luck to see Tom Waits perform in a very small venue in Chicago. He was really just becoming the star he eventually would. But back then it was an insiders group that braved a nasty Midwestern storm to see his show. A single spotlight shone…

“Dear Miami”; An Open Letter from Norman Van Aken

The Editors of the New York City based company, “Star Chefs” asked me to write a letter to our city to coincide with their publication of the new issue of the Star Chefs Magazine, “Rising Stars”. It is about the emerging and vital talents of our Miami culinary community. The ceremony recognizes…

INDULGE MAGAZINE

Check out this fine article written by Tara Solomon for Indulge Magazine. Thanks to her as well as Jenny Starr Perez!…

Postcard

Cigar Snob Magazine: “If Hemingway Were a Chef”

“Between the cable networks and the blogs, the Instagram accounts and the YouTube channels, the cookbooks and the magazines, food is everywhere, and there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of opportunity to become a food celebrity. All it takes is a bit of personality, a cell phone camera, access to melty…

Postcard

FOOD & WINE MAGAZINE ON THE STATE OF THINGS

The link here will take you to an article that appears in the current issue of ‘Food & Wine’ Magazine. It was written by my friend and colleague Greg Baker. He is a long time veteran of the restaurant world. Here he takes his pen to paper to assess the landscape of…

Postcard

“Forward to the Future” by Joseph Hayes

The highly talented and ever curious journalist Joseph Hayes writing for @edibleorlando peers into what is possibly coming our way as we make ourselves bravely (like it or not) into 2021. Please hit the link to read his words and see the fine photography. Wishing you all a safe, healthy and sane…

A Word on Food™Series

A Word On Food: Sardines

Listen on WLRN

This year I am doing something different with my diary. It is my quotidian record of where life is with me. 17th century diarist Londoner Samuel Pepys has a lot to do with my habit. Having read his work during that special period of time when I was no longer attending school...

A Word On Food: Children’s Menus

Listen on WLRN

My wife, Janet and I have both been fully vaccinated, for which we are very grateful. We look forward to the months ahead and everyone that wants them gets them. Still we are precautious when we go to a place and make sure that it is safely operated. Recently we joined our...

A Word On Food: Easter Ham

Listen on WLRN

Historically lamb was the main course for Easter dinner and it still is in many parts of the world. It’s a tradition that’s about 3,000 years old and stems from the Jewish holiday Passover, which celebrates Israelites being liberated and their exodus from Egypt. The tradition held up in the United States...

A Word On Food: Tartare

Listen on WLRN

We ate a lot more raw food as an earlier species. We simply had to in order to survive. Hunting is hard work. Ask a fisherman. We were much more capable at foraging and gathering for our calories. And besides that fire was not something humans had on hand for eons …...

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@NormanVanAken

@normansorlando @npr

#fusion #newworldcuisine

“If the map of the world were a tablecloth, and I could choose a place at that table, I would sit at the Southern tip of Florida, at the nexus of North America and the Caribbean. My plate would touch Cuba, the Florida Keys, the Yucatan, the West Indies, the Bahamas, and South America. And, if time could tell, I would listen to the tales of voyagers, discoverers, traders and mystics who, in searching for “the Indies”, the Great Kahn and the riches of China, discovered something much more valuable and enduring, A New World of Culinary Treasures. Almost instantly, the cuisines of the Old World began to merge with foods of the new one; This evolutionary and inexorable fusion lies at the heart of New World Cuisine.”

— Norman Van Aken, July, 1993