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 Lakes, Ritz-Carlton for 16 wonderful years before that. Orlando has grown too! This Central Florida city is, in fact, thriving. We love to do our Tasting Menus to cater to those that love the kind of high end dining one associates with a sophisticated city.
I began with something that inspires me. Like writing a musical suite of songs writing a tasting menu is different than writing a single song. It is an integration of dishes that moves purposefully from light to richer. Each dish leads to the next. It is very important to us that the dishes go well with our expansive wine list. To that end our sommelier team works with our culinary team to fine tune each of the five courses.
This specific theme came from a conversation I was having with my colleague and dear friend Laura Fletcher who has worked with us for more years than seems possible due to her still young age. But she has and we are made stronger every day with her dedication and extraordinary common sense. She was telling me how she loves a Caesar Salad from time to time. I exclaimed, “So do I!” And that caused me to think how I would put one on our menu. I then widened my speculation to a host of dishes that have a significant history in fine dining. Some, like the Caesar, we still see in many forms in restaurants across the globe. But others that you will see on the menu I’ve named, “Retro, with a Twist” are gems that should not be consigned to history in that they still matter in their deliciousness. We all love “our” songs that are older. In fact we love many of them more than the ones just making the airwaves now.
When I write the menus I think of them like movie making. I want some things to be mysterious and even challenging. But I also want some to be as comforting as one can wish for. It is the yin and yang that makes it enticing.