Howdy All! I recently joined The Trotter Project as the newest Board Member. I have posted on this great organization before and no doubt will again. In the process of joining I met a very bright professional who is also part of it. Her name is Sarah Perkins. In addition…
Category: Food Culture
TWO ‘FOREVER MEMORY’ NIGHTS
From The Jacques Pépin Foundation. A recap! February 18, 2025 at Sereia in Miami, FL Diners at the beautiful Sereia restaurant were treated to an incredible six-course meal crafted by Miami’s top chefs, including Henrique Sá Pessoa, Norman Van Aken, Miguel Massens, Michael Beltran, Danny Ganem, Michael Schwartz, and Soraya Caraccioli-Kilgore. The menu of dishes inspired by Jacques…
OUR NEW TASTING MENU, “RETRO … WITH A TWIST”
At our restaurant, “NORMAN’S” in Orlando we continue with the tradition I began years ago in Key West and then continued as we grew. We recently celebrated our Second Anniversary at the new location just off Sand Lake Road. As many of you know we were located within the Grande…
PODCAST WITH CHEF MIGUEL MASSENS AND MYSELF
A podcast hosted by award winning longtime journalist and radio personality Linda Gassenheimer titled, “Food News and Views” is available here at the link. On it Linda interviewed the Chef de Cuisine 0f ‘Sereia’ restaurant Miguel Massens in Coconut Grove as well as me regarding the upcoming Jacques Pépin Foundation…
THE TROTTER PROJECT
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…
COLMAN ANDREWS: FOOD WRITING LEGEND
Somehow, I came across a book titled, “Catalan Cuisine” just at the right moment of my career. I was at a point where I knew it was time to dig deeper into the mother countries of where I was living, Key West. It might seem like a curious thing to…
MARLON JAMES ON BOB DYLAN AND CRITIQUES
I receive a newsletter titled, ‘Literary Hub’. Though I admire it, I often quickly scan it because I’m typically crushed for time. Who isn’t these days? But I saw that there was an interview with the excellent writer Marlon James on the topic of Bob Dylan. The excerpt that spoke…
The Taste of Things: A Film Appreciation
ON ‘THE TASTE OF THINGS’. A FILM TO SAVOR I saw a trailer for a film with this title, and it affected me like a delicious amuse bouche. I knew I must have the rest of this ‘meal’ from the gifted creators who brought it to movie screens. I told…
ON TOAST
ON TOAST Few things makes me take notice I’m in a different town than the one we live in than the sound of a freight train lowing in the distance. The horn, the cadence of the wheels, the bumping mechanical rumble of the boxcars all takes me on a journey…
CHEF FERDINAND METZ NEW BOOK
For many years Chef FERDINAND METZ was the President of the vaunted Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Over my ‘coming up the ladder’ years, I met and worked with many graduates of that school. They uniformly respected him. Some spoke with a mix of awe and…
My Treasure Books: “La Technique” by Jacques Pépin
TWO ‘FOREVER MEMORY’ NIGHTS February 18, 2025 at Sereia in Miami, FL Diners at the beautiful Sereia restaurant were treated to an incredible six-course meal crafted by Miami’s top chefs, including Henrique Sá Pessoa, Norman Van Aken, Miguel Massens, Michael Beltran, Danny Ganem, Michael Schwartz, and Soraya Caraccioli-Kilgore. The menu of dishes inspired by Jacques included Vichyssoise with…
On the term “Floribbean Cuisine”
Recently my work was written about on a site named, “Tasting Table”. The author didn’t interview me. We have come to a place in time when this is more the case than ever. I’m not hard to locate online so that is perplexing to me. As you will see and…
Food, Fishing, & Florida
Join The New York Times’ food editor Sam Sifton and chef Norman Van Aken in a rollicking exchange of ideas about South Florida’s culinary bounty and the environmental issues implicit in how we harvest and serve our food. Registration See Invitation…
A Conversation: Janet Dulin Jones and Norman Van Aken
“The joy of the food is evident in a taped moment he shows me on a video camera monitor. A fish merchant brought in a 100 lb. crab. Norman’s enthusiastic and lively staff are gathered in the kitchen as the huge crab is held up by a fish merchant. …
Cooking Kahala Fish on a Blackstone Griddle
Hi All! I’m looking forward to you watching me and my friend Chef Nate Lippy of Blackstone Griddles cook some Kahala Fish with Brazilian inspirations! Let me know what you would like us to cook next time he and I are doing one of these videos!…
The Fishmonger & The Sea
I had the great fortune to meet a fishmonger named Kelly Probst a few years ago. He had started a fishing business and it was clear that he was going about it in a way that spoke very clearly to what I look for in any raw product. If you…