
“Before the celebrity chef craze… before the start of Food Network, Norman Van Aken was starting a revolution. He was doing something unheard of at the time, taking local ethnic flavors, merging them together at restaurants where he worked.” — The Smithsonian
Norman Van Aken has been hailed by numerous sources as, “Florida’s Culinary Icon.” He is acclaimed for introducing “fusion” into the lexicon of global cookery. He is also known as “the founding father of New World Cuisine”, a celebration of Latin, Caribbean, Asian, American and African flavors thus pioneering a new, visionary way of cooking in America. He is the only Floridian Chef inducted into the prestigious James Beard Foundation’s list of “Who’s Who in American Food and Beverage”. He was a 2016 MenuMasters Hall of Fame inductee along with previous winners Wolfgang Puck and Jacques Pépin.
Van Aken is a James Beard semi-finalist for “Best Chef in America”. His original namesake restaurant NORMAN’S was a finalist for “Outstanding Restaurant in America.” The only one thus far in Florida. He founded the second outpost of NORMAN’S at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando in 2003, a semi-finalist for “Outstanding Restaurant in America” in 2019. He is a James Beard semi-finalist for his cookbook, “New World Kitchen”. The newest Orlando restaurant opened in February of 2023 within the Dellagio Town Center located in the Dr. Phillips area of Orlando and voted, “Best New Restaurant in Florida” by Southern Living Magazine.
He has received myriad accolades over his storied career and has represented the United States with international recognitions that include being honored alongside Alice Waters, Paul Prudhomme and Mark Miller as one of the “Founders of New American Cuisine” at Spain’s International Summit of Gastronomy ‘Madrid Fusión’ (2006) He represented the State of Florida at the USA Pavilion at EXPO Milano/World’s Fair. He was the first Chef to sit on the Board of Directors for the James Beard Foundation.
Van Aken has shared his cooking and career, authoring six cookbooks (Feast of Sunlight; The Exotic Fruit Book; Norman’s New World Cuisine; New World Kitchen; My Key West Kitchen; Norman Van Aken’s Florida Kitchen) and a memoir (No Experience Necessary… The Culinary Odyssey of Chef Norman Van Aken). His cookbooks have been hailed by the late Anthony Bourdain and Charlie Trotter, as well as Thomas Keller, Emeril Lagasse, Dr. Jessica Harris, Nobu and more. His memoir received a ‘finalist nomination’ by the prestigious IACP/Julia Child Award committee. His latest published book, Norman Van Aken’s My Florida Kitchen, was selected to represent the USA in the local category of the Gourmand International World Cookbook Awards. It was awarded the “Florida Book Award’s Gold Medal”. In 2020 he began donating his personal collection of papers, menus, photographs, letters, etc. to the Otto G. Richter Library at the University of Miami ‘Special Collections’. With that he has joined other famous Floridians Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, Charles Deering and Janet Reno in this culturally enriching way. In 2022 he volunteered and became the ‘Culinary Director’ for the non-profit “Get Cooking” endeavor to help food insecure families of Florida. Additionally he is a member of the C-CAP inaugural Miami Advisory Council. C-CAP provides economic mobility to 25,000 students across the country through culinary education, college scholarships and jobs. He is the co-creator of the streaming series, “Norman’s Florida Kitchen” airing on Amazon Prime and Blackstone YouTube.
Chef Van Aken has appeared on various television shows from CNN’s “Parts Unknown” with Anthony Bourdain, “Emeril” to “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” He is cited as a culinary expert in publications such as The New York Times and Saveur. He co-stars with Emeril, Wolfgang Puck and Grant Achatz in the James Beard award nominated documentary, “Love, Charlie” on the life of his dear friend, Charlie Trotter.
When he is not in the kitchen, he can be found spending time with his wife, Janet; son, Justin; and their granddaughter, Audrey Quinn Van Aken. For more information please visit; www.normanvanaken.com or www.normansorlando.com