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…
Category: Food Culture
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
Hello Friends! Over on Tik Tok I’ve begun a series that showcases my love of cookbooks. Sometimes books on food and food culture as well. Over the years beginning with a fateful single purchase I’ve assembled a library that has enriched my life and made me, in part, the chef…
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…
Coconut Grove Arts Festival via ‘The New Times’
Note: Thanks to The New Times and to Chris Malone for this article. Coconut Grove Arts Festival Recruits Emily Estefan and Norman Van Aken for This Year’s Programming CHRIS MALONE | FEBRUARY 6, 2020 | 8:00AM For decades, Coconut Grove has been a community rooted in camaraderie. The waterfront neighborhood is the oldest inhabited…
Looking For the Pope
It all began with a conversation in an espresso house in New Orleans with my two great friends Charlie Trotter and Emeril Lagasse. They said, “You must go see “The Pope” with us”. I knew they didn’t mean the Holy Pontiff in Rome .. they meant Chef Frédy Girardet in…
Pan Con Podcast, An Excerpt
A few weeks ago I sat down for an interview for a podcast named “Pan Con Podcast”. The person that the show stars is Chef Mike Beltran of Ariete Restaurant, (as well as a few other fine places in town). I first came to know Michael when he came to…
Heading East … and Back
THE ASIAN CONNECTION AND ITS REVERBERATIONS One of the most intriguing elements in this evolving cuisine has come from the cooking of the people who came to the New World from Asia and of how the products of the New World have caused culinary reverberations throughout their countries. There are…
Why I Wrote ‘My Florida Kitchen’
WHY I WROTE, ‘MY FLORIDA KITCHEN’ I wrote my sixth cookbook, “My Florida Kitchen” because I felt it was time for an update on our rapidly changing state. The last cookbook written on the whole of Florida was an excellent book written by Caroline Stuart and Jeanne Voltz titled “The…
“Who Let the Cool Chefs Write Cookbooks”. TASTE by Andrew Friedman
To my great surprise I was offered the chance to write a cookbook in 1987. A vice-president for Ballantine Books, (a division of Random House) by the name of Risa Kessler came down to Key West for a getaway from Manhattan where she lived and worked. Fate (or providence) shined…