5 rising food stars to be at this year’s fest
If you watch Food Network competition shows or Bravo’s “Top Chef ” series, you’ll recognize a lot of the culinary talent at this year’s Palm Beach Food Wine Festival. There’s Robert Irvine of “Restaurant Impossible” fame. There’s Jeffff Mauro of “The Kitchen.” There’s Marc Murphy of “Chopped.”
But some faces are less familiar, except maybe to inthe-know gastronomes. Here are fifive big food stars you may not know, but should.
George Mendes
This New York City chef/ restaurateur creates dishes that reflec t h i s P o r t u - guese roots. At his restaurant Aldea, Mendes’ refifined t o u c h h a s earned t h e s p o t a Michelin star e v e r y ye a r since 2010. Last year, he opened Lupulo, a Lisbon-inspired “cervejaria” ( brew pub), which houses a daytime takeout window called Bica. Mendes has been a semififinalist for the prestigious James Beard Award for “best chefs in America” four times.
Mendes is scheduled to a pp e a r a t t h e “S u s t a i n” dinner at PB Catch in Palm Beach on Thursday. That event costs $170 per person. Lee Wolen
Here’s a cook with a dream résumé. Wolen has worked in the company of great chefs throughout a career which has taken him into the kitchens of some of the world’s fifinest restaurants, the legendary, late El Bulli among them.
The Cleveland native polished his craft at Eleven Madison Park, the famed threeMichelin-starred New York restaurant. More recently, in Chicago, Wolen earned a Michelin star at The Lobby at the Peninsula, where he was chef de cuisine. In 2014, he became executive chef/ partner of Boka Restaurant in that city, helping the restaurant maintain its prized Michelin star for three years. Last year, the Chicago Tribune named him Chef of the Year.
Wolen will appear at the festival’s “Rise and Dine” breakfast at the Eau Palm Beach Resort on Saturday. Tickets are $75 each. Anita Lo
She’s the chef and creative mind behind Annisa re st aurant in Greenwich Village, where the refifined dishes reveal Lo’s Asian roots and high-end French training. (Her miso-marinated sable with crispy silken tofu in bonito broth is simply divine.) Lo is a Michiganraised, fifirst generation Chinese-American who as a college student plunged herself into French food, language and culture. She honed her French culinary techniques in top restaurants in Paris and New York, coming into her own with the opening of Annisa in 2000. Almost instantly, she amassed accolades. Then, nine years later, a fifire destroyed her restaurant. Lo spent a year traveling and rebuilding, reopening Annisa in 2010. As the chef returned with renewed inspiration, the raves returned as well.
Lo is set to appear at the “Sustain” dinner at PB Catch in Palm Beach on Thursday. That event costs $170 per person.
Jose Mendin
You may know this name if you’re familiar with Miami’s vibe-y dining scene. Mendin is chef and founding partner of the Pubbelly family of hot and happening restaurants, three of them clustered on one South Beach block. As a chef, he fuses global flflavors and ideas into “soul” dishes reminiscent of Mendin’s Puerto Rican roots.
Some of this – like the Pubbelly gastro pub cochinillo (sucking pig) with green apples and fennel and chan- terelles and soy butter jus – shouldn’t work. But it does. In many ways, Mendin is the chef who best reflflects rightnow Miami. In the 1980s, that rather fantastic reflflection came from the famed Mango Gang of award-winning chefs. Today, it’s Mendin and his “Pubbelly boys” who translate the 305 dialects most exquisitely onto the plate.
Mendin is appearing at the festival’s “Rise and Dine” breakfast at the Eau Palm Beach Resort on Saturday. Tickets are $75 each. Mike Lata
I f y o u ’ v e f l o c k e d t o Charl e s t on f or t he g re at f o o d i e s c e n e , y o u m a y have dined at one of Lata’s acclaimed restaurants. A pivotal fifigure in the city’s culinary renaissance, he’s the star chef behind FIG Restaurant and The Ordinary.
is a local favorite, serving farm-inspired Low country food. The Ordinary is Lata’s “fancy seafood” spot. Lata is a James Beard Award winner for best chef in the Southeast. He was a nominee for the prestigious award twice before. Most noteworthy perhaps: Lata is a selftaught chef.
L at a will partic ipate in three festival events, a dinner at Buccan Palm Beach, a street food competition at the Four Seasons and a brunch with Daniel Boulud at Café Boulud. All three events are sold out.