Category Archives: Special Event

Flambé? Touché! Kevin Sbraga Schools Schwartz on the Art & Science of Modernist Cuisine

Posted on May 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Kev’s new favorite toy, a wheelable liquid nitrogen tank seen here on the floor here at SBRAGA.  Tableside freeze action? Yes, please!

Kevin Sbraga is the chef/owner of SBRAGA in Philly where he practices a modern approach to seasonal and ingredient-driven cuisine.  This winner of Top Chef: Season 7 and our guest chef tomorrow night at Harry’s May pop-up dinner arrived in Miami yesterday with two cooks.  They are ready to get cracking on prep for SBRAGA Pizzeria’s family-style menu and will head to the restaurant to begin after finishing lunch with Schwartz at La Camaronera, one of our favorite local seafood joints to share with visitors.  (Can I get a doggy bag, please?)

Knowing Michael’s love of foam and other techniques on the more scientific side of cooking, we thought it was the perfect time to set the record straight on this sometimes misunderstood cuisine and find out from a pro what Michael is missing out on.  With its most comprehensive manifesto to date taking home 2012 James Beard Awards for “Professional Cooking” and “Cookbook of the Year,” what has been coined molecular gastronomy and put on a pedestal may actually have more in common than meets the eye with the fresh, simple, pure, and down-to-earth approach to food and drink that we know and love here at our restaurants.  Read Kevin’s take in his words below, and check out our pop-up series referenced with a quote from Michael in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal at this link. Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Chef Pops, Harry's Pizzeria, Special Event

Tagged , ,

Recipe for Sustainability: While Michael Cures Sierra Mackerel for Solutions in Monterey Bay, We Watch the Seafood at Home

Posted on May 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program is helping all of us help the oceans.

Michael’s headed to California today on an invitation from the Monterey Bay Aquarium to attend its annual Cooking for Solutions event where he will be honored with a distinguished group of chefs as a Seafood Ambassador.

The focus of Cooking for Solutions is to help people connect their individual buying decisions to the health of the oceans and the soil.  The events support the aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, helping consumers make informed seafood choices while dining out or in the grocery store through pocket guides, website, mobile applications and outreach efforts.   Since 1999, it has distributed tens of millions of pocket guides, had more than 240,000 iPhone app downloads, and cultivated close to 200 partners across North America, including the two largest food service companies in the U.S.

Seafood Watch is also a resource for the decision makers on the supply side of the marketplace — restaurateurs, food service companies and retailers like us.  In fact, we recently called on their help with a question about grouper.  Our sourcing decisions are made based on longtime relationships with trusted local suppliers, first and foremost.  So when fisherman George Figueroa from Trigger Seafood came to us wanting to offer spear caught black grouper in the area of the Florida Keys, and because of the particular stigma attached to grouper, we made sure to check with Seafood Watch, too.

Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Local Ingredient, Special Event, Away Game, On the Menu Now, Fisheries Update, Wild Things

Tagged , , , ,

Who’s Your Daddy? Unleashing Animal Pizzeria on the East Coast for Harry’s Chef Pop No.6

Posted on May 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

Vinny works on Michael’s cookbook pop-up dinner menu in Animal’s kitchen (Los Angeles, May 2011.)

Tickets for Animal Pizzeria are now live on this link! HINT: Great Father’s Day gift!

After wowing us by hosting Michael for a Genuine Animal dinner celebrating his cookbook in LA last year, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo are South Florida-bound where it all began for them in culinary school to cook at Harry’s. We cannot wait to get it on.  Hope they don’t mind trading their two story kitchen clearance for our little closet!

After esteemed visiting guest chefs Gabrielle Hamilton, Jonathan Waxman, Marc Vetri, Jonathon Sawyer, and Kevin Sbraga (a mere tinsel of tickets left for SBRAGA Pizzeria on 5/22,) Michael welcomes the chef/owners of Animal and Son of a Gun in Los Angeles to Harry’s Pizzeria on Sunday, June 17 at 7:00 p.m.  Check them out in this weekend’s Wall Street Journalfor their shrimp toast!  We may even get a shout, too. : )

Jon & Vinny’s smoked fish dip from Son of a Gun at Marc Vetri’s Alex’s Lemonade Stand event in Philadelphia last summer.

As with all chef pops, seating for Animal Pizzeria is first come, first served. Making new friends is encouraged and easy when you’ve got a welcome cocktail in hand with hors d’oeuvre, four courses, free-flowing wines by The Genuine Hospitality Group sommelier and Wine Director Eric Larkee and our tap beers at your disposal.  Go home with a special gift from the guys, too. All that and tax and gratuity are included in the ticket price.  Claim your spot today, exclusively online at Brown Paper Tickets.  Ready… GO!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Chef Pops, Harry's Pizzeria, Special Event

Tagged , , ,