Settling the Score: A Wine List Tribute to the Late Pedro López de Heredia

Pepe Franco

That’s class for you.

In today’s world, influence is everything, and for a winemaker, there is still no other influence stronger nor a greater predictor of sales than a great score from The Wine Advocate.  But what if a ratings system that began benignly, serving as a useful tool for the novice consumer to make informed purchase decisions, ultimately had an adverse effect on the supply side?  Over time, this has been the trend, where producers no longer focus on what makes their wines unique and instead make wines people think they should like, with bottom line top of mind.

Disturbing as that may sound, there is hope and promise in quality over quantity, baby steps vs. knee jerk reactions, long term vs. short term — an approach to which we hold ourselves at The Genuine Hospitality Group — evidenced by the conviction of a small but mighty few, and wine director Eric Larkee does his best to make sure that you try their wines.  He is paying tribute to one such producer this week on the wine list at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, Pedro López de Heredia, who passed away recently.  Continue reading

Royal Sister Act: Allure of the Seas Now Part of the Genuine Family

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As prefaced a couple of weeks ago in Ellie’s Ship Life 101 post, we are thrilled to announce that, as of this week, the galley of 150 Central Park aboard Allure of the Seas is cooking with seasonal ingredients sourced from South Florida farms!  The sister ship to the Oasis of the Seas is like a fraternal twin, or as Wine Director Eric Larkee put it in a text yesterday, like being in an alternate universe! The Allure sets sail on Sundays instead of Saturdays, the staff entrance doors are green instead of blue, they have Rosa’s Mexican Cantina instead of the Fish Shack on the Boardwalk aft on deck 6… The same, but a little different. We’re happy to be adding to the same column thanks to a little thing we like to call efficiency and a big thing called support from savvy partners at Royal Caribbean. Spring’s Garden menu began yesterday, and the restaurant will switch to Market on Thursday.  Follow @ericlarkee and @chefmschwartz as it all happens behind the scenes! Continue reading

[VIDEO] Throwback Thursday: Harvey Cedars Fish Stew & The Making of Michael’s Genuine Food

Schwartz Harvey Cedars

RAL RMS Menu-8.5x14-Final(Dinner)042413

It’s Throwback Thursday, and we have cookbook on the brain!  We thought we would take this opportunity to help you connect the dots between all the antlers you’ve been seeing lately and a place up the coast now brought to life on the coast of South Beach in an Extra Large dish called Harvey Cedars… What do they have in common? Chef Michael Schwartz’s new restaurant at the Raleigh Hotel and his volume of recipes published in 2011.

Restaurant Michael Schwartz at the Raleigh Hotel debuted on Monday and has on its dinner menu a few of our long time favorites that we haven’t dipped in to since – gasp – the cookbook shoot!  As you can guess, one sore spot in particular is the Harvey Cedars Fish Stew, inspired by Michael’s summers with the family on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island, which you see above in a behind-the-scenes shot from January 2010 along side its current notation on the RMS menu.  Well you can’t fault me completely.  I headed the wake-up call and went to Williams Sonoma this weekend, the store that lent us that Le Creuset dutch oven beauty in the photo and purchased one of these essential kitchen tools for myself.  It was a long time coming to my coffers, and look forward to following the Raleigh Hotel’s lead and putting a stop to the insanity in my own home soon with a nice big bowl of it.

Watch The Making of Michael’s Genuine Food and find its debut in the original post here. We also stored some behind the scenes images on our Flickr for posterity. Happy Throwback Thursday on The Genuine Kitchen, and please come visit us on South Beach where the genuine cookbook is out in full, Le Creuset flaming force on the menu and – for those of you inspired to make Harvey Cedars at home, too – in stock for purchase!