Top Chef Winner Jeremy Ford Running the Kitchen at Market at Edition

Top Chef Season 13 champion Jeremy Ford is now also the executive chef at Market at Edition. The 30-year-old toque has been the executive chef at Matador Room inside the Miami Beach Edition hotel since the restaurant opened more than a year ago, and now he's been tasked with overseeing the kitchen at the resort's second eatery. 

The owner of both places is none other than Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the Michelin-starred chef/entrepreneur whose empire spans 20-plus restaurants from New York to Tokyo. JG served as Ford's sous-chef in the final meal service of Top Chef and has described Ford as someone who is friendly and passionate, as well as reliable and consistent.

For his part, Ford says working with JG transformed his culinary approach. Before his arrival, the Florida native trained mostly in French kitchens and relied heavily on butter. Prior to his grueling two-hour audition in front of JG, Ford was running things at Eden Roc's now-defunct 15 Steps. Conversely, Matador Room is JG's interpretation of Latin cuisine and showcases his signature style of eschewing rich meat stocks and creams in favor of light broths, fruit essences, vegetable juices, and herbal vinaigrettes. JG was in town in February for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and confirmed to New Times he would open an outpost of his wildly popular Manhattan eatery, ABC Kitchen, in the Design District. 

But whereas Matador Room is rather upscale, Market is a casual, more affordable eatery that's open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert all day every day. Modeled after an Italian market, there are various stations, including a raw bar, a cheese and charcuterie station, a dessert area, and a hot station featuring a pizza oven. It's located on the West side of the hotel in a large, airy space filled with natural light. And outdoor seating overlooks Collins Avenue.

Together with chef de cuisine Tim Ormonde, JG and Ford have recently added some items to the menu at Market, which is a combination of fan favorites from JG's myriad restaurants. JG says customers have asked that more pizzas and pastas be added to the menu, so he and his team obliged. Rest assured that favorites such as the kale salad, tuna tartare, and carrot cake haven't gone anywhere. New Times was invited to try some of Market's new dishes. Here are some highlights:
Market takes its charcuterie and cheese boards very seriously, and the result is a very tasty spread. The walnut bread is homemade, and so is the delicious strawberry and fig jam. There's prosciutto and salumi, as well as a sharp blue cheese, Italian Taleggio, and Spanish manchego. 
A salad featuring wild arugula, apples, and mozzarella ($14) is simultaneously sweet, bitter, salty, crunchy and creamy. What more could you ask for in a salad?  
Gooey cheese, a blistered crust, sausage, and crisp kale combine to make this new pizza a success ($16). 
The Parmesan-crusted organic chicken at Market ($29) is placed atop a basil-and-lemon butter sauce for an added element of decadency. It's not overly fried, which is nice, and totally tender on the inside. Another hearty new meat dish here is a veal Milanese with spring peas and mint ($30). 
Try the angel hair pasta with golden garlic, jalapeños, and ricotta ($24) and let the slippery noodles dissolve on your tongue. 

Market is a kid-friendly place, but what adult wouldn't appreciate a sundae with salted caramel ice cream, candied peanuts and popcorn, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce ($10)? 

Follow Valeria Nekhim Lease on Twitter and Instagram.