‘Father of Fusion’ ends run at Ritz
Thompson: Culinary legend will return soon with latest venture.
It was Saturday night in the ritzy enclave of Coral Gables, and the board was full of tickets. Chef Norman Van Aken was expediting orders, hands flying fast, when a gentleman strolled into the madness of the kitchen and introduced himself.
Van Aken didn’t know it, but it was the moment his Central Florida odyssey would begin.
“I just thought the guy was in Miami, having a good time, maybe an extra cocktail,” Van Aken remembers.
“‘We’re building a new property in Orlando,’ he said to me. ‘We do great hotels, but we don’t do great restaurants. Would you like to have a Norman’s at the Ritz-Carlton?’ ”
Van Aken thanked him for his interest but didn’t take it seriously. He scratched his number on the back of a ticket and went back to work.
“The next day he called and said he wasn’t kidding,” Van Aken says.
It was the earliest days of what would become one of the most acclaimed fine dining venues in Orlando for the next 16 years, an era that will end Aug. 31, when Norman’s serves its last meal at the Ritz-Carlton.
It wasn’t in Van Aken’s plans, but
when the new owners of the Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes failed to renew the restaurant’s 15 -year lease (they were granted a oneyear extension), he knew changes were likely afoot for the space.
“I’ve been doing this for many years, and the first time we lost a restaurant, it was a crushing defeat for me,” Van Aken shares. “I felt like I had a death in the family. It was very, very hard. But I think you become more philosophical as you go through the transitions of life.”
He easily recalls the days when Norman’s Orlando was just coming together, barren land where its nowlush landscaping thrives, bare drywall that became the foundation for its opulence.
“I remember walking into that rotunda-shaped room, with the big, tall, peaked roof and just spinning around in a 360-degree circle a few times, just to take it in,” Van Aken says.
He put an arm around his wife, Janet, and submitted to something akin to awe. “The splendor and the scope of it,” he says, considering his words, “It was one of those moments where you realize you’re moving into a whole other level of your life.”
Van Aken’s culinary progression in Florida, he observes, has moved in tandem with one that’s been geographic.
“I started pocketed in Key West, where my truck never drove farther than 10 miles,” he says. “And then came a point where I’d gotten as far as I could go from a professional standpoint and so went to the city of Miami — which was like another planet.”
That first Norman’s was a James Beard finalist for Best New Restaurant in 1996. Not long after, Van Aken took home the award for Best Chef Southeast, a one-two accomplishment that almost certainly contributed to putting him in the Ritz-Carlton crosshairs.
When Orlando came calling, Van Aken reasoned, it was a chance for him to understand the totality of the state.
“You can’t know Florida without knowing Central Florida,” he says.
Initially, the demands of such an operation kept him in the restaurant — he jokes there was barely a need for a car, as he never left the hotel — but that changed over time. The Van Akens began to know Orlando as a community and feel a part of it, personally and professionally. Norman’s customers — some cherished regulars, others celebrating meaningful milestones — were a large part of that growth. Graduations. New jobs. Weddings. Anniversaries.
“It’s so, so beautiful — it’s just been fantastic,” he says, noting the civility he experiences when guests ask to meet him. “The server will walk me to the table, and we’ll have a conversation and I might sign a menu or a cookbook, and nowadays, of course, photos are taken.”
And last night? Probably hundreds more.
Norman’s Orlando’s “Movin’ On Out!” Party, the Chef ’s grand farewell soiree, sold out its $195 seats in less than four hours when it was announced, and by now — it took place Aug. 3 — the Instagram feeds are likely rife with NVA selfies and the feast’s rich delights: duck pastrami, grilled quail, 48 hours-soaked Oklahoma buffalo tenderloin, guanabana cheesecake and more alongside sommelier-selected wine pairings. Superstar names abound: James Beard Award winners Dean Fearing, Edward Lee and Ming Tsai.
The lengthy, gold-bordered menu reads like upmarket culinary softcore.
Speaking with the Sentinel ahead of the celebration, Van Aken gave nods to the many local celebrity chefs who’d been called upon to contribute, among them Scott Hunnell of Victoria & Albert’s, Fabrizio Schenardi of the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World, Camilo Velasco, who worked with Van Aken at Mount Dora’s 1921, Kristy Carlucci of the Osprey Tavern and James and Julie Petrakis of the Ravenous Pig.
Without Van Aken, says James Petrakis, there likely wouldn’t be a Ravenous Pig.
In 2002 Petrakis, a Winter Park native, was working at the Ritz-Carlton in New York under acclaimed Chef Gabriel Kreuther. He had no plans to return home. Then he heard Norman’s would be opening a second location.
“Norman Van Aken was the one Florida chef I looked up to at the time. I wanted to see what Florida cuisine was all about, and that shows you how much influence he had even then,” James Petrakis says. “Florida still doesn’t get the culinary recognition it should, but Norman brought it to a national conversation.”
Petrakis never worked at Norman’s, but over the years, he got to know Van Aken from doing local events and says he learned much along the way, things he filed away and employed when opening the Ravenous Pig, oft credited as Ground Zero for the hip, new-era Orlando dining scene’s Big Bang.
“Norman had cooked in cities where food and going out was a scene,” James Petrakis said. “Yes, there were always great independent restaurants in Orlando, but they didn’t look at their venues the same way … The Norman’s experience, the thing he gives them, is something they don’t experience every day. It’s elevated.”
Orlandoans can look forward to continued elevation when the 2.0 version opens in a freestanding venue — which, as much of its business is conventionbased, will be convenient to the Orange County Convention Center.
“It’s been our mainstay,” says Van Aken, “and we want to continue to offer that, so we’ll have a few private rooms for parties and guests can also continue to expect Norman Van Aken New World Cuisine — the flavors of Florida.”
As for its atmosphere,
Van Aken sees the new restaurant as “approachably modern.”
“The Ritz — being built in 2003-2004 — it had a stately grandeur to it that was beautiful,” he says. “I loved it. I never have gotten tired of it, and I know many of the guests feel the same way, but [the new venue] is not inside a massive hotel. It would not be possible to reproduce it in that way, so we’re not going to attempt that. We’re going to go for something with a more modern sensibility to it — and very comfortable.”
He’s hoping they’ll be up and running in six months, but at press time was looking forward to his party — Van Aken was to prepare an entrée of Key West Spiny Lobster “Al Pastor” alongside Norman’s Executive Chef Andres Mendoza.
“We have fun — such a riot!” he says of his time spent in the kitchen, prognosticating much back-ofthe-house revelry for the grand-finale function.
It’s been through parties like these, Van Aken says, that he’s gotten to know so many of the Orlando chefs we so often hear about, though he’s quick to tout the neighborhood joints he’s just as happy to visit, citing Sea Thai, Hunger Street Tacos, 4 Rivers Smokehouse, Kadence, Lee & Rick’s Oyster Bar and East End Market’s Hinckley’s Meats.
He’s seen all of them — and so many more — add to the city’s vibrant culinary scene. Not surprising for the chef Anthony Bourdain called “the Jimmy Page of his profession — a man who was there at almost every important moment in its history.”
Indeed, Norman’s Orlando has been an important part of ours.
Friends and colleagues have steadily called the chef as the news of the restaurant’s closing spread. They express sadness, of course. Van Aken is both stoic and sanguine.
“We have to celebrate the things that have been given to us and treasure them,” he says.