Food & Wine 2009
is almost upon us. You know what that means. The culinary throngs descend on South Florida, feast on its tropical flesh in a media-driven frenzy, and hopefully dump enough money on our shores to keep us goin til next year.Aaron J. Michaels from Culinary Convenience told me Chef Jason Smith would be a good dude to talk to. Jason Smith is the Chef de Cuisine over at Table 8 South Beach. He talked about Billy Joel, Oprah, and Mario Batali. Here's what he had to say...
We're preparing for a party with Katie Lee Joel, that's Billy Joel's wife and Paula Deen from the Food Network. There's gonna be a cooking demo and small hors d'oeuvres party, she's doing a tuna meatball, a healthy play on the Italian meatball. We do a lot of stuff with Food & Wine Magazine and the Food Network.
New Times: What else you got goin on throughout Food & Wine 2009?
Jason: We're doing a pulled short rib grilled cheese, Oprah said it was the best sandwich in America.
New Times: Did you make the sandwich that she said that about.
Jason: That was Govind Armstrong, he's the chef/owner of the restaurant.
We're not doing the tastings, but we're doing a large a party for Food & Wine Magazine. Mario Batali will be in tomorrow for lunch. Last year I fed Morimoto, Cat Cora, Giada de Laurentis.....
We're gonna be packed, probably sold out, for Saturday. I think it's great. It's incredible for all the local chefs to get their name out.
I've been cooking 15 years, and at Table 8 since we opened the restaurant about 2 years ago. I love working with Govind. I've been to Barbados, New York, learned a lot about food, refined my palette, met and fed celebrities. The person I always wanted to cook for, Morimoto, I did last year. Morimoto hugged me. I did just a huge tasting, it was him and all his investors. We did a salt-encrusted porterhouse, I got to drink Morimotio sake and beer with him, it was a dream.
