Chefs Club Miami & Whole Foods Market: An Unholy Alliance

"Begun in 2006 as a series of intimate, word-of-mouth chef gatherings at restaurants all across South Florida, Chefs Club Miami -- now boasting a membership of more than 30 of the town's culinary innovators and restaurant industry honchos -- is proud to announce its recent partnership with Whole Foods Market. To celebrate that partnership and the beautiful Coral Gables location's two-year anniversary, the members of Chefs Club Miami are turning out for a series of exclusive events at the store.  Free and open to the public, these Chefs Club events are the perfect way for novice chefs, foodies and burgeoning gourmets to get up close and personal with some of the area's top chefs."

Here, in case you were wondering, is a listing of "the area's top chefs": Alberto Cabrera, V & E Restaurants; Michael Jacobs of MediterAsia Catering & Consulting; Giorgio Rapicavoli of The Anglers; Giancarla Bodoni of Escopazzo; Sean Brasel of Meat Market; Sean Bernal of the Oceanaire Seafood Room; Cindy Hutson of Ortanique; Clay Conley of Azul; Andrea Curto-Randazzo of Talula; Dean Max and Paula da Silva of 3030 Ocean; Gordon Maybury of the Loews Miami Beach.

Once you get "up close and personal" with these star culinarians, you might want to ask why they are teaming with a national market that makes a WHOLE FUSS about the importance of local and sustainable food, but whose branches in South Florida DO NOT SUPPORT OR HELP TO SUSTAIN OUR LOCAL FARMERS. More specifics on this in upcoming posts, but you might think that before these "culinary innovators" hooked up with hyping Whole Foods, they might have checked up on what the chain's actions have meant to our local growers of organic produce -- but I guess there have been more important things to discuss at their Chefs Club meetings, like swapping recipes for molten chocolate cakes and such.