Chef Michael Bennett and SOLO on the Bay

Chef Michael Bennett - Chef of the Month

2009-04-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

Chef of the Month

Michael Bennett: The Left Bank, Fort
Lauderdale

"Food reflects your relationship to life. When you create food, you also create memories," says Michael Bennett, chef at the Left Bank in Fort Lauderdale.

Bennett came to the Left Bank two years ago after 26 years of experience, including The Doral and Epicure Market in Miami, where he became famous for his Tropical Cuisine. "My friends would talk about the dinners they had at The Left Bank, and I wanted to work for one of the best places in town," says Bennett. The unassuming burly-looking giant – Bennett is 6' 4"- has since then successfully filled the famed Jean Pierre Brehier's apron, and his modern global cuisine is creating delightful memories for The Left Bank's habitués.

Bennett's earliest cooking memories - he has been working in restaurant kitchens since he was 15 - date back to when he was nine in Fort Lauderdale. "My brothers and I would make Saturday breakfast for my folks," he recalls. While preparing omelets for those Saturday morning feasts, Bennett discovered why food works or doesn't work. "I found out why butter burns if you don't clarify it," he remembers.
"It was one of the first things I learned about cooking." Since then, Bennett has made it a point to learn not just whether ingredients and techniques work or not, but why. He encourages younger cooks in his kitchen to take the same approach. "I tell them, 'don't question why I tell you to do something. Instead, question why things work the way they do.'"

Bennett wants to provide those who work for him with a better experience than he had during his learning years in the 1970s. "Chefs then were demanding and overbearing. I became the direct opposite. I try to train the younger guys from the start to think like independent chefs, because I remember what it was like when it was my turn to ask. I try to get them to move headlong into inventiveness. That can't be taught, but it sure can be molded."

Great food, simply cooked athough he enjoyed cooking as a child, he didn't expect then to become a professional. "I thought I'd be a baseball player," he recalls. "It became so easy for me to create new things in the kitchen that I've never thought of it as a job."

While formally trained at the Culinary Institute of America, most of what Bennett has learned has been on the job. "You have to have the basics, and they sure pound them into you at the CIA," Bennett admits. But great food is more the result of creative techniques than exotic ingredients. "You can make uncommon dishes out of simple ingredients," says Bennett, who shuns heavy sauces and creams. A aster at preparing fish and seafood, he combines fresh local ingredients, like mango with an Asian lumpcrab; turns a macadamia-crusted mahi-mahi into a Mediterranean entree fragrant with goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, capers and Greek olives; and draws passionate sighs for a plantain-crusted Gulf grouper prepared with passionfruit juice and rice vinegar.

Meeting every challenge
Bennett, who moved to Broward after being hired at the Left Bank, finds that the main difference between dining in Broward and Miami-Dade is the timing. "Here, dinner starts at 6:30 and ends by about 9 p.m.. In Miami, we didn't even get busy until 8:30 p.m.!"

Being a chef is a challenge for most, but in particular for husbands and fathers. Bennett has been married to his wife Vicki since 1983, and has two daughters, 9 and 11. "My culinary profession is my life, but I'm really proud of these other things too."

A pioneer of Floridian cuisine, Bennett has received numerous awards and honors, among which Miami's Chef of the Year by the American Culinary Federation, in 1994; and in 1996, he was named one of six Best Cooking Light chefs in America by the ACF.

He is currently writing a book about cooking with South Florida ingredients, and is a correspondent for the James Beard Foundation. Over the past two years, he has written about 370 on-line restaurant reviews. The variety of his work is what he loves best, and what make the profession continually fresh and exciting for him. "The job changes every day, so much so that every day is brand new," he said. "That's what's kept me going all these years."

Shrimp and scallop "Scampi"
serves 1
Ingredients:
4 each U-10 scallops, marinated in rosemary oil
3 each U-12 shrimp, p/d, marinated in rosemary oil
2 tbs. haricot verts, cut on severe french bias
1 Tbs. plum tomato concassée
1 Tbs. black beans, cooked in chicken stock until done
1/2 cup baby spinach, disregard stems
1 Tbs. shallots, finely diced
1/2 pinch nutmeg
1 piece Brie, cut 1 " by 1/4 "
2 oz. sweet potato, cut 1 " square, blanched
2 oz. boniato, cut 1" square, blanched
2 oz. baby bliss potato, cut in half, blanched
1 oz. basic vinaigrette, simpler the better.
1 Tbs. potato flakes
1 tsp. chives, chopped
1 tsp. bell pepper mélange (2 color), brunoise
1 pinch Kosher salt
black pepper, from pepper mill
2 oz. mirin, sweetened sake
1 oz. sherry
1 tbs. shallots, finely diced
2 each passionfruit, scoop out seeds
1 Tbs. Ponzu
1 piece ginger, peeled, smashed
2 oz. heavy cream
1 piece Brie, 2 " by 1/4 "

Preparation:
Day before you are ready to use: Blanch the potatoes, cool. Mix potatoes with the vinaigrette, potato flakes, seasonings and herbs. Form into cakes with a 3 " round mold. Refrigerate overnight to solidify. Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake for 12 minutes or until the center of the cake is warm. Clean and marinate the shrimp and scallops. Refrigerate until you are ready to put the plate together. To serve: Place the cakes in the oven to heat completely. Sauté scallops and then the shrimp, just searing the edges lightly, while keeping the middle of the scallops medium rare. Remove the shrimp and scallops and keep warm. Heat and reduce the sauce ingredients in the same pan; add sherry, mirin, passionfruit pulp, ponzu and smashed ginger. Reduce by half and add the cream. Reduce again by half. Add the 2-inch piece of Brie and stir in well. Strain the sauce onto the plate when ready to serve. Serving: Drop the blanched veggies into a warming bath of water. Place cake in center of the plate (11" round plate does nicely here) and surround with the strained sauce. Garnish sauce with veggies. Quickly sauté shallots and baby spinach together in another pan. Add the seasonings, then the 1-inch piece of Brie, heating enough to wilt the leaves and melt the cheese. Place over potato cake, then pile the shrimp atop each other on top of the spinach. Use a skewer of rosemary to secure the shrimp. Place the scallops around the cake, sitting atop the veggies that are now garnishing the passionfruit sauce. Wine selection: a Riesling, late harvest Riesling, or fruity yet dry Fumé Blanc.

Chef Michael Bennett Vacation?

2007-07-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

Chef Michael Bennett, before my vacation...
Well it started out the same way...rush out of work before anyone actually noticed that I was trying to leave for my vacation.
Rushing sounds kinda funny when it is 3:45 AM. After putting in my usual 12 hour day in the restaurant, we have to setup for the Nite club that starts at 12 am 5 nights a week. So when I say that I try to sneak out at 3:45 am I am because we are open till 5 am.
Back when the air was still hot and the sun was high in the sky, I had to set the dining room because the waiter didn't show up on time. After setting the outside bar I tried to get thing organized in the kitchen so I can leave without worring that the kitchen will run out of food in the first day after I leave.
I decide to do inventory and ordering later ( I didn't know later meant 3 am) and I start to inventory food supplies. As I get the prep list done, just in time as the first order comes in over the computer, I see that I have a butt-load of prep. that I have to handle. Being the chef and manager of a 300 seat restaurant does keep one busy (20 hours a day).
After the first hour of prep. time I finally get a cook to wonder in. He has a list too. Although I know he won't be able to get his list done while preparing orders for lunch, I tell him these items have to be done for the PM staff before you leave.Just as I finish doing 90 percent of my prep. list, my partner (Michael JR.) comes in a says that he is ready to finish the renovations to our niteclub now! Well it is merciously-hot in the middle of the day upstairs since the air conditioners only keep the room barable during the day, and they haven't been turned on yet.

Since hurricane Wilma blew one of our 1o ton air conditioners off the roof, the other air units haven't been able to keep the place cool. Junior comes back and tells me the room will be cool in a minute (which really means he will be ready in a hour) and we will go up to start with the installations of TV monitors and moving the stages for our niteclub event.
So I finish the over 10 percent of the prep. list!It is now mid-afternoon and it feel like the day is half gone and I haven't started anything yet because I know the project we are about to undertake will take the rest of the evening. Just as we are planning out the placement of the monitors, the sound guy shows up and tells us he was planning to move the speaker system around to optimize what we had in the place AND, was was going to take and move some of the furniture to do it.
So not only am I going to be moving stages, but moving furniture for him too. Well, at least this guy helps out. We don't have to ask him to move the speakers, he wants to do it to make the sound better.
Getting back to my vacation I think....when the hell will I be able to leave. I dosen't look like we are ever going to be done. As a matter of fact WE DIDN'T GET DONE UNTIL THE PARTY WAS STARTING AT 11:30 PM. of course I had to get out of what I was doing to go out front and control the door.
The crowd was already there for 40-50 minutes waiting to get in and they were asking the staff when we will be opening. So I rush down stairs, without cleaning up throw on a clean (club-dress) shirt, because I am soaking wet all the way to my shoes, and jump on the entrance of the club. Security has already started to let the waiting horad in.I count the people at the downstairs bar and can tell we have been open for a few minutes because there is already 60 people drinking and talking in the Martini Bar.
After a few minutes I scury off to the front door and try to get a handle on the carniage happening with a crowd that has been kept waiting too long. I notice it is 12:00 am and we are half full downstairs already. The sound is blasting from the new system, It does sound better.
As the nite progress'es, I have to jump into the VIP line and get the security guards to actually do their job and read ID's of the guest. "Just because they are in the VIP line doesn't mean they can get in without having an ID" I tell them. The night wears on as usual. The stream of patrons never seems to end. It is now 2:00am and the crowd is finally starting to deminish.
There is about 450 people inside, and okay crowd for a Wednesday night. I walk around the second floor check on the bartenders, to see if anything is need to replenish the backup stock of liquor, check on the food servers to see if they are low on anything on the buffet line and cruise downstairs to check on the martini Bar again. Of course the bar back is running all the time, but the liquor cabinet upstairs is emptying quickly, so I grab him and give him some stock to replenish the cabinet.
At 2:30 am everything is good. Things are hapening on the dance floor that you might only see in a Bordello, but the new sound system is making the room rumble and shake. I notice that the TV monitors that we worked on all day are off. What happened? Nobody knew that had to restart the Dance Video after it ended. So I put I on loop mode and split. It is 3:00 am I am just now getting to ordering the food for the weekend (while I am on vacation).
I finish, leave the clip board on the desk and get ready to pack up all all shit from the office to take home. Clothes are packed up, laptop is loaded, my head is saying leave before someone cuts me off before I make to the back door. I sit at my desk, wondering, are the police coming today?, is the crowd getting roudy?, dare I try to leave with an hour still to go beforethe party wraps up?
I walk around the back of the building, check all the rear entraces, check the front entrances, check security out front, everything seems okay, so I move my butt into gear and get ot the car. Start the ignition as my vacation starts....
posted by MiM @ 8:55 AM
Monday, July 31, 2006

The day from Hell...
As usual, no body shows up for work on time...or at all AND it is already 11am.
We just had a big (niteclub) party last night. There was trash everywhere, broken glasses , ashtrays, liquor bottles and even a marble table was peeled off it’s base and was lying on the coral reef looking floor.
The place was a mess and nobody showed up, no cleaning lady, no server and no cooks. So as usual, I am there cleaning the front entrance real quick, go to the dining terrace and organizing the tables (that were scattered about), setting up the condiments and tableware. The brooms comes out next to brush up all the cigarettes and whatever still lying there from the 5:00 am niteclub party.
So it is off to the bar....and it is already 11:30 am...Clean off the 30 foot marble table/counter surrounding the entire terrace bar area...and people walk in.So at least I had 30 percent of the restaurant done. Well I run over to them. Give them some menus and tell them I’ll be back with some water.
I run over to the kitchen. Get the grill, fryer and stoves lite. As I return, I am bringing water to the table. Of course they have to sit way-down to the end of terrace about 150 feet more than what is necessary to have a private luncheon, since nobody else is here yet.They order, a round of sodas and salads. Four people ordering 2 salads, I know this is going to be a cheap one.
The table then orders a churrasco (to split of course) and two fried calamari (I told you cheap) appetizers. So I run back to the kitchen and start the steak, I see there is veggys from the night before ready top cook but no mashed potato so I have to run back out to the table and ask if rice or fries would be okay. In the mean time they are out of sodas, so I run back to the kitchen service area, refill glass and run back before the steak burns.
I am building up a wetness under my shirt because it is 92 degrees out even this early in the morning, and being right on the water, the humidity is already killing me. Well when I get back to the stove the pilot is out, I restart the flame and get the veggys cooking. I run back to the fry station and start the calamari. Of course there isn’t any breading to use for the calamari, so I have to go all the way to the back of the kitchen lug two 50 pound sacks of rice flour and corn flour up to the prep. area and dump them into their bins.
By this time I notice the steak smoking a little as the fat is dripping into the open flame, so I run over to the grill turned it down and flip the steak over. Running back to the fry station, I finally bread the calamari, drop them into the fryer and run over to the veggy station to get the veggys going for the steak. So I saute the blanched veggys, set them on the (warm-not hot yet) holding line and run back to the fry to pick up the calamari before they over cook.The calamari needs two sauces to finish their preparation. So I have to scoot over across the kitchen to the cold salad prep. area to get he sauces.
One is out, of course, nobody would ever fill up an empty container here. So I scurry around looking for the backup spicy marinara sauce. Find it ladle some into the squirt bottles and blast the now wilting calamari with the sauces. The steak is getting close to med-well as I hear it sizzle atop the flame. I pick it up and bring it to the expo line plate with some veggys, and oh-shit I forgot the fries that were suppose to be substituted for the mashed. So I have to run back to the fry station, drop the hand full that is left in the freeze from last night, luckily not having to run across the kitchen to the main freezer for more - I thought to myself, and go to the expo station to retrieve the steak plate.
Waiting for the fries to cook seems like an eternity. So, everything is almost done, the kitchen is finally up to it normal 150 degree ambient temperature now because all the equipment is finally up to temperature. Meanwhile, I know the guess outside are wondering what the hell I am doing. So I hurry the process, plate and tray the food and run it out to the floor and serve. I ask if there is anything I can get for them, of course they ask for salt before tasting anything. I didn’t set this table completely because it was so far from the rest of the dining room tables, people don't usually use these seats on a slow afternoon.
After returning from across the terrace they ask for more sodas, so back again I go to the kitchen service area. By now I am dripping wet-with the running, heat of the kitchen and the humidity outside along the water’s edge dining room. By this time I forgot to ring in the ticket so off I go across the terrace again thinking I don’t need to go to the gym this week with the aerobics I am doing this morning. Nah, I know someone didn’t close out he computer system as usual on a day like this. So I have to hustle all the way back through the kitchen, behind the storeroom, outside the back door and into the next entrance of another part of the building to get to the computer room.
I fix the problem quickly, because I end up doing this a lot here in the mornings. So running back through the kitchen on my way to the terrace I see the AM manager arriving~an hour late! He says, "so, what’s up"? And I tell him....So I tell SASHA about my first hour...and finish with so, this is what it is like to be in a Family restaurant biz!!!!

2007-07-09T22:06:00.001-07:00

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Read about my days there.
MB