For decades, talent scouts and filmmakers have scoured our tropical city in search of beautiful faces attached to perfect tanned bodies. It's true that Miami has more than its fair share of perfection in human form. But we also have talent and brains to go with that beauty.
Take local chefs, Robyn Almodovar and Lorena Garcia, for example. While both are clearly beautiful, they also have the skills and cunning to land them on two of the most popular cooking shows on television for the upcoming summer season.
The chefs join a growing list of Miami chefs who have appeared on television cooking shows.
Jeff McInnis (Yardbird Southern Table & Bar), Kenny Gilbert (Swine Southern Table & Bar), Andrea Curto-Randazzo, Howie Kleinberg (Bulldog Barbecue), and Micah Edelstein (neMesis Urban Bistro) have all appeared on Top Chef as contestants, while Paula DaSilva (1500 Degrees at Eden Roc) competed on Hell's Kitchen.
Lorena Garcia - Top Chef Masters
Lorena Garcia is one of 11 chefs competing on season four of Top Chef Masters.
This spinoff of the wildly popular, Emmy award-winning Top Chef,
pits seasoned chefs and restaurateurs against each other in weekly
battles for culinary supremacy.
Garcia will be competing against heavy hitters like two-time
James Beard winner and former Oprah Winfrey chef Art Smith, Chris
Cosentino (Incanto Restaurant, San Francisco), and James Beard winner
Debbie Gold (The American Restaurant, Kansas City).
Chef/author/critic/tweeter Ruth Reichl and Saveur's editor-in-chief
James Oseland are among the judges who will be deciding which chef packs
their knives each week. Top Chef Masters season four premieres
Wednesday, July 25 at 10 p.m. on Bravo.
Garcia is the owner and executive chef of Lorena Garcia Cocina at Miami International Airport,
and plans to expand her restaurant concept of healthy Latin food to
Atlanta International and Dallas-Ft. Worth International airports. The
Venezuelan-born chef moved to the U.S. to complete an associate's degree
in paralegal studies
before deciding to trade in the law books for a set of knives. After
graduating Johnson & Wales culinary arts program, Garcia traveled
the world to complete her education, working as an apprentice in
kitchens in France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and China before
heading back to Miami.
Robyn Almodovar - Hell's Kitchen
Robyn Almodovar is a contestant on the slightly edgier Hell's Kitchen.
You know -- the one that has chef Gordon Ramsay scream, belittle, and
intimidate chefs while the world watches. Almodovar is one of 18 chefs
who will volunteer for weekly verbal abuse by Ramsay as they compete for
the grand prize -- a job as head chef at Gordon Ramsay Steak at the
Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, where they will get to be abused by Ramsay on a
regular basis.
Almodovar is uniquely qualified for the
high-pressure circus of a television show. As the owner of the Palate
Party food truck, Almodovar has experienced first-hand large crowds,
rain-outs, and even a propane tank accident that had the chef airlifted to Broward General Hospital last September.
A
Le Cordon Bleu graduate, Almodovar has worked at the Hyatt Regency Fort
Lauderdale and The Forge in Miami Beach before rolling out her food
truck.
Hell's Kitchen premieres tonight at 8 p.m. on
Fox, with part two of the premiere airing tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Chef
Almodovar is hosting a watch party tonight at the Food Truck Invasion
at Arts Park in Hollywood. Dine at one of the 28 food trucks from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., the watch Hell's Kitchen at 8 p.m. with chef Almodovar from
the Palate Party truck.
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