Courtesy: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/food-drink/the-fruit-that-changed-miamis-food-scene-forever-40563426/
THE MANGO GANG The Mango Gang was born after a run on Miami Beach. The ‘pregnancy’ of course took much longer. But on a specific morning in 1992 I finished my run from 1440 Ocean Drive to Joe’s Stone Crab then back and returned panting to the steps of The…
This if from the IACP Substack known as “The Edit”. Annelies Zijderveld is the journalist there that conducted it. Good conversation and I thank her! My experience with IACP tracks back to April 1992. I remember loads of the restaurant industry’s “who’s who” in town for…
Over the past months the number of our cooking classes have been accelerating. April has been a whirlwind! And we love it. An aspect of them that is different from the years we were operating out of a brick-and-mortar place in Wynwood named, “In the Kitchen with Norman Van Aken”…
We’re on a mission to build a more sustainable, innovative, inclusive, and collaborative food & beverage industry. Lengua features an annual conference, exclusive pop-up dinners, and talks about food business, marketing, and innovation. —Nidal Barake 2026 marks the fifth anniversary of the food centric conference featuring food’s thought leaders, restaurateurs,…
It is my deep pleasure to be on the cover of ‘The Miami New Times’. Journalist Michelle Muslara penned the story which you can access via the link. It is gratifying how she understood my success has been a story married to the culture of Florida. Without that union my…
I was a guest on this podcast hosted by Amy Drew Thompson, the beloved food editor of The Orlando Sentinel and ‘Biggie’ Bencomo. Listen on your way to eat something delicious! I so enjoyed the great questions these two curious, intelligent, food and restaurant community leaders. A wide ranging conversation…
On August 5th of 1986 we drove up to Miami from Key West. I was the Executive Chef/Partner of “Louie’s Backyard”, which was by many folks reckoning the most beautiful place to dine on the Island and arguably the best. I was accompanied by my wife, Janet our pastry chef…
Hello Everyone! Stacie Archer, my partner in our non-profit, ‘Get Cooking’ and I are happy to provide and update on our progress and share this beautiful video as well! Stacie is tirelessly working to help find more ways to extend our mission. for more information on that please go to…
Outside of cookbooks the two books on cooking that transformed my thinking and thus my life as a cook were the one I’m featuring here, “Why We Eat What We Eat” by Raymond Sokolov and “Culture and Cuisine” by Jean-Françoise Revel. I also love, “On Food and Cooking” by Harold…
I hope all of you who receive my posts will enjoy this one from the legend of legends… Chef Jacques Pepin!…
As many of you know we are doing a Gala Dinner to celebrate the life, work and 90th Birthday of the Legendary Chef Jacques Pépin! This great article written by Orlando’s Ricky Ly in his blog, “Tasty Chomps”. The link will give you the wonderful details. We have a handful…
Where to begin? For now let’s start with present tense. This month I became the newest Board Member of The Trotter Project. You can copy and paste from below and put that in your browser. It will show you how the vision of Chef Charlie Trotter continues to flourish despite…
Hit the link and read this wonderful story written by Orlando based award winning journalist Faiyaz Kara! The evening just less than one month from now will be one for the books. After reading his column check out this menu and roster of Chefs. And YES there will be welcoming…
As you will see from the video I am a ‘Culinary Advisor’ for ‘The Sow Project” which was founded by Ben Vaughn. Fellow culinary advisors include Andrew Zimmern, Sophina Uong, Simon Majumdar, Dr. Audrey Elion, José Mendin and more. We are all about helping educate, feed and employment. Please see…
For Immediate Release: September 5th, 2024 The Director of Operations for the Jacques Pépin Foundation, Marissa Ain and the foundation’s Culinary Producer, Susan Wilbur have invited Chef Norman Van Aken to head up two major dinners in Florida for the program titled, “90 at 90”. The overall vison for this…
Hi All! It was my great pleasure to be the guest presenter on the fine podcast, “The Whet Palette”. Host Brenda is one of the most savvy and rigorous folks to interview me. We spoke for well over an hour. We got into my long history of cooking in Florida…
