Chef-proprietors rise up in all manner of ways. Some go the academic route, attending culinary school and scoring internships under well-known chefs. Others work their way up the line, discovering a love for cooking accidentally, perhaps as an end product of part-time teenage jobs. A few (too many) jump headlong…
“Look at that!” my husband said in disgust, pointing to a boutique blazing light from a corner of South Atlantic Boulevard, the erstwhile Fort Lauderdale Strip. “Can you believe that?” I looked. The place was open and seemed to be attracting a steady business. “So?” “What do you mean so?…
I don’t know if it was a result of navigating through the closely packed tables or just innate clumsiness, but our server at Coco’s Sidewalk Cafe seemed born to bobble. He dribbled water on the floor, knocked over a glass of our wine on his tray, and tripped over the…
So you’re an inventive, creative chef, tops in your field. You finally run your own place, and you’re doing fusion things with regional ingredients no one in South Florida has ever seen before. You’re booked to the max every night with reservations. Your patrons adore you. The media, local and…
“You could really learn some food-avoidance behaviors in this place,” my friend Rick said when we walked into six-week-old Cafe Aqua, located between Euclid and Pennsylvania avenues on the newly revamped Lincoln Road. He peered at the moray eel, nurse shark, and spiny lobster that cohabit in one of the…
I’m of two minds about reviewing Japanese restaurants. On the one hand, I relish the opportunity. I adore the cuisine, particularly the raw stuff, and think that, at least in terms of sushi, Miami’s Japanese eateries offer some of the freshest fish I’ve ever had. I find making a meal…
Info: ‘Tis the Seasoning By Jen Karetnick While waiting for our table, my guests and I glanced around at the racks of wine, the gleaming deli cases displaying imported meats and cheeses, the shelves of pastries scenting the market portion of Perricone’s Marketplace & Cafe. “This place looks just like…
Howie paused momentarily at the edge of the crowd, waiting for his field of vision to clear. He danced right, then faked left, spinning away from one obstacle after another. Then he spied an opening and took off, darting through the defensive line and into the end zone, where he…
The start of the new year is a season as much for reflection as for anticipation. Past failures especially take on life all over again, a reincarnation that may prove uncomfortable for some. But it is this assessment, painful though it may be, that really allows us to look forward,…
Some say that good teachers can teach anything. I happen to think that’s true, to a point. Successful teaching does depend on imparting information in a clear and logical fashion. But knowledge of (or love for) what you’re giving lessons in is not exactly incidental. The best teacher is one…
One year, when my parents claimed to be too tired to go out on their anniversary and consume a four-star meal, my sister and I decided to supply it for them in the comfort of their own dining room. We could be as elegant as any restaurant, we told each…
I had been looking forward to reading Pat Conroy’s latest best seller, Beach Music, for two reasons: I admire Conroy’s flowery style, and the Southern-boy protagonist in this novel, Jack McCall, is a food and travel writer. Devouring page after page of well-crafted, poetic descriptions of different dishes and cities,…
Despite vultures, despite tourists, despite conventions galore, I look forward to the winter season for one reason: Important new restaurants, most of which have been remodeling, writing menus, and hiring staff for months, finally open to the public. In this city that seems to shut down over the summer, a…
“You have a great job,” acquaintances declare when they find out what I do. “You’re so lucky!” “Yup,” I agree unequivocally. Then they turn to my husband. “And do you get to go along?” “Of course,” he nods. “I wouldn’t let her go without me.” “Then you have an even…
I’m a sucker for gossip, which is the sole reason I maintain a subscription to the West Essex Tribune, my hometown paper. These past weeks I’ve gotten a good eyeful — letters to the editor and editorials about Don’s, the landmark eatery in Livingston, New Jersey. Seems that after a…
As long as I’ve lived in this town, I’ve felt guilty for not being Latin. Don’t get me wrong. It may have taken my entire adolescence, but I did learn to love my identity — my Jewishness, my femaleness, my Eastern European ancestry, my northeastern upbringing. All of those components…
I have this recurring nightmare, which always seems to hit me when I’m about to go out to a restaurant I’m almost positive will be very good: I dream I’m a P.R. flak paid to bang out praise, nothing but praise, about every joint in town. I told you it…
South Beach’s Mex Mess Cantina Mexicana and Southwestern Cafe and Tita’s became inexorably linked in my mind when they opened within months of each other last year. Both have Mexican-sounding names — the latter refers to the character from Lara Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, a lovelorn girl who blended…
This week I asked my elementary school creative writing students to compose a haiku about their favorite food. I explained to them that because haiku are so short — three-line poems with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third — every word…
After dining at the month-old Chinese restaurant Wok & Roll, I’ve spent an agonizing week. Not that the fresh fare prepared by two-time Chaine des Rotisseurs (the French culinary society) award-winning chef Michael Choi wasn’t delicious, the service solicitous — they were. Not that the geometric walls (each sponged a…
I often write about my mother, who passed on to me the fine points of fine dining. But I’ve neglected to mention the impression my father made upon me early in my childhood, which molded me into the good eater I am today. My father is a practical man, realistic,…
I’ve been irresponsible. For the past few years I’ve been throwing around the term pan-Asian to label trendier restaurants that utilize Far Eastern ingredients (usually a combination of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese). You’ve probably figured out what I meant from the context — my comments about the menu, specific…
