Kris Wessel

Mother's Day in Miami: Six Chefs Pay Tribute to Their Moms

Chefs must be strong enough to do back-breaking on-your-feet labor for upwards of 12 hours a day. They play with knives and fire. And yet, they must also tap into their sensitive and creative side, working with the most delicate ingredients, using all their senses to perfect a dish. What, on earth ... More >>

Poo for a Cause

Miami's Top Ten Chefs

Chefs love talking about one another. They discuss talent. They obsess over who cooks better, who lacks integrity, who sold out, who travels looking for recipes to replicate. They talk about hype. They chat about expectations. They know what their colleagues are cooking. They have opinions about eve ... More >>

Best Chefs in America: A Peer Review For Chefs Names Miami's Finest Toques

There's nothing new about peer reviews. Many professions, most notably attorneys, scientists and physicians, frequently evaluate their peers in an effort to maintain a standard level of competence and acknowledge outstanding members of their field. With the publication of Best Chefs America, add che ... More >>

Florida Cookery: Great Food, Poor Service

SoBeWFF Southern Brunch: "Best Food of the Festival," says Schrager

People often say Miami isn't quite part of the South. Yet Magic City chefs put out the best food at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival's Southern Brunch at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel late Sunday morning, even if they didn't have the longest lines. A little more than an hour into the event Em ... More >>

FoodGossip305 & NotChowfather: Miami Twitterverse's Mean Girls

Did you notice the Mean Girls-style action going on on Twitter this weekend? Chances are you did. But if you didn't, Miami's food industry gained two new handles to look after: @FoodGossip305 and @NotChowFather. Leading the anonymous secret spiller pack in late December was @MiamiFoodGossip. Shor ... More >>

Catch at James Royal Palm to Open Next Week

Catch is set to open at the James Royal Palm Hotel the first week of 2013, making it one of the first restaurants of the new year. The restaurant is the second Catch, the flagship restaurant having opened in Manhattan's Meatpacking district in 2011. As you can tell by it's name, Catch focuses on int ... More >>

Miami Food Scene 2012: Top 12 Uppers and Downers

Top Restaurant Closings of 2012 in Miami

In 2012, many notable eateries closed up shop. In some cases, we shed a tear as we watched them go. In others, well, our bets had been placed for quite a while. (Sustain Restaurant & Bar was just a few sad, happy hours away from my late-April wager.) This past year, most losses were felt in the Des ... More >>

A Caribbean Thanksgiving: Kris Wessel Shares His Recipe for Pigeon Pea Rice

It's a muggy, hot afternoon in mid-November and Santo Domingo's congested streets are packed with whizzing motorcyclists and banged-up taxis. Sidewalks are lined with vendors selling dried-up holiday pine trees. Across the bustling Caribbean city, eateries offer a variety of catered Thanksgiving din ... More >>

Kris Wessel on Why Red Light Little River Closed

Red Light Little River is closed. Read Also: Kris Wessel: Florida Cookery at the James Royal Palm is PersonalThe restaurant seemed more like dining at the small house party of a friend who cared more about things like making beautiful food than location, location, location. Miami's Restaur ... More >>

October 2012 Restaurant Openings and Closings

Open your windows, turn off your air conditioner and enjoy this glorious weather! It's fall in Miami and as the temperature cools off, the restaurant scene heats up!Already we're seeing restaurants come onto the scene in anticipation of the arrival of snowbirds flying south for the winter, tourists ... More >>

Miami's Best Team Up For March Of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction

Miami's culinary elite will come together Thursday evening, October 25, at the Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach for the 15th annual March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction.The event, which begins at 6:30 p.m. with a special "meet the chefs" reception, sees chef chair Timon Balloo of Sugarcane Raw Bar ... More >>

Jeff McInnis on South Beach's Farm-To-Table Renaissance and What's Ahead for Yardbird, Part Two

Jeff McInnis incorporates his eclectic kitchen background into Yardbird's menu. "I use Caribbean influences in dishes from time to time depending on what's in season," he explains. And there is always a hint of French fare. After all, he says, "Classic French is the foundation of almost all American ... More >>

Kris Wessel: Florida Cookery at the James Royal Palm Hotel Is Personal

What does a chef do before opening a new restaurant in a luxury South Beach hotel?If you guessed taking his daughters on an extended road trip, you might have gotten the same email we did from Kris Wessel. If you speak with Wessel for more than 30 seconds, you'll learn that everything he does -- fro ... More >>

Miami Restaurant Openings & Closings, June 2012

Miami Restaurant Openings & Closings May, 2012And so it came to pass that in the month of June, in the year of 2012, The Bazaar by José Andrés finally opened in the SLS Hotel South Beach. And with it, the also-heralded (if less so) Katsuya by Starck.After numerous permit delays, Macchialina Ta ... More >>

Kris Wessel On His New Joint, Florida Cookery -- And On Sunshine State Cooking In General

When I spoke with Kris Wessel by phone yesterday, he was in the Atlanta airport eating a Crystal Burger while waiting for his delayed flight to board. I was curious about his new upcoming restaurant, Florida Cookery, at the revamped James Royal Palm Hotel (originally built in 1939, the hotel is ... More >>

Miami's Top Three Dining Streets

The question was posed to me in an email from some food television media type for an unspecified project:What is the best restaurant street in Miami? Think in terms of diversity or history or kitchen talent -- whatever quality makes it interesting and worth eating one's way from one end of the stree ... More >>

Top Five Restaurants For Outdoor Dining: Beyond Best of Miami 2011

Sitting outdoors at Red Light won't cost you a fortune.​Last year, we bestowed our Best Restaurant for Outdoor Dining to Cecconi's Miami Beach for its lovely garden patio with retractable roof. And, of course, we like the food there too, a factor too often overlooked in "Best Outdoor Dining" compi ... More >>

Ricochet Lounge Opens Tonight with Treats for the Senses

Courtesy of Red Light​Alan Roth and Tommy Pooch are no strangers to what's hip and hot, bringing sexy back to Miami's nighttime revelers since the early '90s. Their new midtown lounge, Ricochet, is due to open tonight, and it will bring a new nightlife experience to the area.The bar lounge has an ... More >>

Need A Job? Ricochet Lounge Opening in Midtown, Now Hiring

​Attention: job seekers There's a new nightlife venue opening in Midtown. It's called Ricochet Bar and Lounge, and it's now hiring bartenders, servers, waitresses and busboys. Unemployed people and other interested parties should email HR@taient.com. We called Alan Roth from TAI Entertainment t ... More >>

Vending Machines Replacing Lunch Ladies in Miami-Dade Schools

​The machines are taking over the cafeteria. Starting this fall, some Miami-Dade students will be getting their school lunch from a vending machine and not Berta, the hairnet-clad lunch lady. Rest assured though, Junior won't be eating just corn chips and soda pop. The high tech machines serve hea ... More >>

Area 31 Dinner Benefits Common Threads (Updated)

Foie gras fluff​Chefs E. Michael Reidt of Area 31, Sean Brasel of Meat Market, and Kris Wessel of Red Light are teaming up next week to raise money for Common Threads, an organization that teaches low-income children how to cook and eat healthy.The three chefs will prepare a five-course meal ... More >>

LoSasso, Wessel, Jorgensen, Zakarian Talk Peanut Butter & White Chocolate

Lee Klein​Maybe the most interesting thing about White Chocolate Wonderful -- labeled as "peanut butter blended with sweet white chocolate" -- is that it contains no white chocolate. Actually, it contains no chocolate at all. The ingredients: Peanuts, evaporated cane juice, vanilla, cocoa butter, ... More >>

A Miami Chef Timeline (1986-2008)

Chef Allen helped launch the modern Miami dining scene in 1986The closing of Chef Allen's last week represented the end of an important chapter in Miami restaurant history. There was a time in the mid-'90s when the main restaurant debate at gatherings focused on whether Allen Susser, ... More >>

SBWFF 2011: More and More at Best of the Best

Chocolates from Andrew Shotts of Garrison Confections in Providence, Rhode Island​What's your idea of the good life? Is it a sprawling private event held in something called "the Sparkle Ballroom" in a glamorous over-the-top Miami Beach resort? Is it top-rated bottles of rare, aged grapes all sile ... More >>

Chef in Session

What Richard Hales, Kris Wessel, Dena Marino, and Chef Jeremiah Want for Christmas

Lotus Head via Wikimedia Commons​Here at Short Order, we've spent the last week expounding upon our Christmas wishes, but what about local chefs? Here's what four told us was on their Christmas wish list. Surprisingly -- or maybe not -- most of them have little to do with food. "A line cook who la ... More >>

Chef Michelle Bernstein Schools the Lunch Ladies of North Miami Senior High

John ZurChef Michelle Bernstein showing.​On Friday, local chefs Michelle Bernstein, Kris Wessel, and Ken Lyon simultaneously ran workshops in three high schools to introduce their partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Short Order followed Bernstein to North Miami Senior High, where sh ... More >>

Red Light Treats Moms to One Very Sweet Deal

Red Light​In last week's Mother's Day roundup, I picked Red Light as one of five places to take mom this Sunday. Well, chef Kris Wessel has put together a prix fixe menu for the occasion that is almost too good to be true.For $17.95 per person plus tax and gratuity (yes, you read right), you and m ... More >>

Handicapping the James Beard Awards

Consider it March Madness for gastronomic geeks: This Monday, March 22 the esteemed semifinalist nominees for the James Beard Awards 2010 will be whittled down to the even more esteemed finalists. In the combined spirit of great cooking and great bookies, we are offering the betting odds for who wil ... More >>

Kris Wessel talks James Beard and more

Red Light Is Super Bowl Central for New Orleans Fans

Chef Kris Wessel already has a lot of friends and family in town from his hometown, New Orleans, for the Super Bowl. And more fans will start trickling in on Thursday, he told us. To rise to the occasion, he's bringing New Orleans to Miami at Red Light.Photo via Red Light's Facebook page​Festiviti ... More >>

Red Light Shines For Haiti

Photo by Lee KleinRed Light has ribs and a big heart​This weekend, Kris Wessel will be serving a Haitian-inspired menu at his Red Light Little River restaurant in MiMo. Chou chou blanc and calaloo are just a couple of the regional specialties being cooked up. But more heartwarming than these heart ... More >>

Slow Food Miami Conference in People and Pictures

Jackie SayetTHIapet!​Last night in an Upper East Side event space called the Coverings Showroom, Slow Food Miami's membership met for its annual conference.  With a musical booth buffet, orchestrated by Chef Kris Wessel of nearby Red Light Little River, the evening was less structured meeting ... More >>

Slow Food Conference Miami 2009

slowfoodmiami.com​ What do you call a cow on a unicycle, a pig stuck in rush hour, or a potato calling an insurance company? Slow food.Others seem to think the term refers to an internationally renowned "member supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life." ... More >>

Red Light Gets Happy

Lee KleinRibs recently relished at Red Light.​Starting this week, and continuing until whenever, Red Light Little River will be offering happy hour deals as such:Times: High Tide (5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.) and Low Tide (10 p.m. to midnight).Deal: $5 will bring any, but not all, of the following: BBQ ... More >>

Miami's Dining Scene Goes Big League

In 2008, our city's gastronomic curve trended sharply upward.

Kris Wessel's Red Light Shines

New restaurant means great food at peerless prices.

One Name, Many Tastes

Elia makes "Mediterranean" cuisine make sense

Side Dish

See how well you know our culinary scene

Season Opener Part II: The Comeback Kids

Get ready, this season is dishing up a lot of new restaurants

Do the Shuffle

A number of famous South Beach chefs have ditched their dance partners

Bits and Bites

Morsels from cafélandia

A Rumi Rumination

Rumors of its debut have been greatly exaggerated

Best Restaurant For A Romantic Dinner

Liaison Restaurant & Bar

Big Easy Flavor

Liaison

Side Dish

Generation Chef speaks up

Dish

New Generation Chefs?