NORMAN’s Opens on Orlando’s Restaurant Row

“Founding Father of New World Cuisine” unveils new culinary concept featuring both fine dining and inspired casual cuisine experiences under the same roof. Now open, NORMAN’S is a 7,300-square-foot culinary destination offering both fine dining and casual cuisine experiences, in addition to two private event spaces. The dramatic 80-seat Main…

Tropical Trailblazer – Miami New Times

Hi All, I am very grateful to share an article that just came out in the Miami New Times profiling my career. The beautifully written piece by long time Miami journalist and published poet Jen Karetnick also delves into my deep friendship with Chef Charlie Trotter and the recently released…

Fall 2022 Newsletter

Hi Everyone, As I write this, I realize I’m writing about another turning point in my professional life. It is more than a new chapter. It is more like a new book.  I have been in this business most of my life. There were ‘books’ before we ever opened the first NORMAN’S….

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…

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…

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…

“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…

An Interview; Norman Van Aken by Marion Kane

Introduction: NORMAN VAN AKEN: There was no Internet and almost no cookbooks on the subject of Latin and Caribbean cooking so I began to go to the little restaurants that I’d known for a number of years – eating the food, enjoying the food but now “food sleuthing.” (Laughs). MARION…

The Jacques Pépin Foundation New Cookbook Debuts!

Exciting news All! The @JacquesPepinFoundation has just released Cook with Jacques & Friends: Volume 2 and I’m proud to have a recipe featured in the Video Recipe Book. For many chefs, Jacques is a mentor who is generous beyond compare. His foundation supports free culinary and life skills training to…

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…

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…

 
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