Miami Race Week: Take a $6,000 Culinary Ride With a Master Chef

Art Basel has some major competition in terms of the most outlandish week of the year in the 305. The Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix – which debuted last year and zooms into town May 5-7 – is right up there.

Case in point: the $6,000-a-ticket Once Upon a Kitchen event has been announced for May 5 at the Deck at Island Gardens.

The event – put on by Gr8 Experience and promises to be "the world's most exclusive epicurean experience" – will be hosted by chef Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana fame, a three-Michelin star global culinary destination in Modena, Italy. Bottura will be joined by Juan Manuel Barrientos of Miami's Michelin-starred El Cielo, Chef Bernardo Paladini of Michelin-starred Torno Subito in Dubai, and famed alchemist and molecular biologist Alex Ott, who will provide cocktail-hour concoctions.

"There will be such an extreme level of talent under one roof," Barnabas Carrega, CEO of Gr8 Experience, tells New Times. "If you wanted to fly to Italy and try to get a reservation at Bottura's restaurant... which is nearly impossible... and pair it with all the talent and creations that will be at our event, you are actually getting a great value here. This will be a multisensory experience, and there are no events that are comparable."

If the Once Upon a Kitchen name looks familiar, this isn't the first time the experience has taken place in Miami. The last Miami event, in 2019, was held at the New World Center and paired Bottura with Mauro Colagreco, Alex Atala, and Antonio Bachour. Tickets for that affair, as reported by New Times, ran between $1,500 to $5,000.

So, what is on the slate at $6,000 a pop, which could otherwise get you 16 spicy potato soft tacos a day at Taco Bell for the next year?
For starters, the event is eight hours long and will kick off with a cocktail hour by Dr. Ott. His resume is impressive. In addition to surviving a 1998 plane crash in Thailand that killed 101 people, he has worked with the Oscars, Emmys, and others on their cocktail programs.

"There will be nothing 'mixology' about this... in fact, mixology is a music term, so don't count on a bunch of handlebar mustaches and bow ties greeting you," Ott tells New Times. "This will be about the biochemical needs that everyone has on a daily basis... and we'll be ready to satisfy everyone's moods with different stations."

So, in a nutshell, and according to Ott, if you're feeling anxious, depressed, or even experiencing the effects of PMS, he will be ready to customize a multisensory elixir for you onsite. For example, his "Why We Need to Kiss" contains supreme sandalwood sourced from India, acmella oleracea from the Amazon, and sceletium tortuosum from South Africa. The concoction was designed to help evoke a feeling of a shift from a "patriarchal military society to the divine feminine for a much-needed higher consciousness," according to Ott.

As for the dinner portion of the evening, Carrega says there will be a six-course feast with plates from each of the leading chefs. Preliminary dishes include Bottura's lasagna dish inspired by "the crunchy part of the lasagna" and a gnocchi-meets-yuca dish with white truffle from Barrientos. On the entertainment front, DJ Benny Benassi will perform.

"More than anything, we're trying to eliminate the barriers between guests and talent here," says Carrega. "Count on our chefs going table to table. It will be a very immersive evening."

Once Upon a Kitchen. 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, May 5, at the Deck at Island Gardens, 888 MacArthur Cswy., Miami; thegr8experience.com. Tickets cost $6,000.