Van Aken, friends to honor Trotter
Florida chef Norman Van Aken will host a reception in December at the swanky Orlando Ritz-Carlton to honor Charlie Trotter, a Chicago-based chef who died in 2013 and was revered as one of America’s top culinary talents and restaurateurs.
So why do we care about the legacy of a Chicago chef in Central Florida? Because artisans such as Trotter influenced the way many of our award-winning chefs have crafted their culinary styles.
The food industry is made up of an intriguing band of brothers and sisters. It can be a pretty small world when you begin to make the connections of who worked where and with whom before they made their mark in the Sunshine State.
Van Aken, for example, began cooking in Key West in the 1970s. His personal discovery of Florida helped create a blueprint for what would become known as New World Cuisine. The new perspective infused local foods with flavor in innovative ways, from rum-painted grouper to whole chili peppers stuffed with mashed plantains. The movement — which combined elements of African, Latin, Asian, Caribbean and American flavors and techniques — altered how Florida cookery is perceived.
And one of his key influencers was Trotter, a young busboy who approached Van Aken numerous times about advancement in the kitchen at Sinclair’s American Grill in Lake Forest, Ill.
“He kind of wore me down,” Van Aken remembers fondly. “But Charlie rose like a meteor and soon we went from my teaching him the basics of cooking to passionately discussing the cookbooks and chefs we were most passionate about. To this day, Charlie Trotter is with me in the kitchen every day. No one pushed like he pushed. No one focused like he focused.”
James Petrakis recalls being in awe of Trotter as a student at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
“I was struck by the way he ran his kitchen,” says Petrakis, chef/co-owner of Cask & Larder and Ravenous Pig restaurants in Winter Park. “He was in full com-
OrlandoSentinel.com mand. It was an intense brigade but everyone was key to the execution of every plate and they knew it. Trotter’s style fostered a style of leadership that has been a large part of our success.”
Greg Richie of Thornton Park’s new Soco remembers a meal he had at Trotter’s Chicago restaurant as 25 courses of excellence. Amid the sizzle and clank of the kitchen, “Charlie was quiet and focused. You could feel his energy,” recalls Richie.
Petrakis and Richie are joining other Central Florida culinary stars at the Dec. 13 reception at Norman’s restaurant at the