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Who can tell if a chef is born or made?
“I was so excited that they would ask someone like me to come to an
established club like that. But when I first saw it I thought they could use a
little funk here!
So I divided the menu into three parts:
Really everything’s already been done, but there
steakhouse, classic and adventurous.
can still be a fresh twist on it. For example, I
Michelle hasn’t always been a celebrated chef nor
Adventurous changes about every three weeks
make mac and cheese—but mine will have four or
has her life always been easy.
and might include seared fois gras with a pumpkin five different cheeses in it.”
tart tatin. But it’s important to investigate, to listen
!
“When times were hard we would have chicken
to the members and what else they really want.
As a now celebrated chef, Michelle’s life has
maybe four or five times a week. But my mother
Snapper française was always the answer.
changed but not in the important ways.
So I thought, let’s do it my way—have a little fun
“Everything is the exactly the same, except life is
would find a new way to prepare it every time. I
have to tell you, our house was always the favorite
place for my friends to have dinner.”
!
And when times got better, I’m betting that Michelle
was the only kid in the country to head off to school
with it. It was a best seller, so popular that I added a little more hectic. I know my most important
place, the most important thing in my life is family
it to the menu at Michy’s, s and the young crowd
and my restaurants are my extended family. I feel
totally got it too. No matter what your instincts
lucky that coming to Ocean Reef gives me
might be, you’ve gotta listen to the crowd.”
another place to execute my dreams.”
with stuffed cornish hens and sides of fresh apple,
!
I’m thinking “the crowd” is also listening ever more Ocean Reef has changed Michelle’s life in more
closely to Michelle. Her description of her food
ways than simply opening another restaurant or
Still, every beloved—and even every very well-fed
vision had me ripping open the kitchen cabinets
— child eventually must stand on her own. Michelle
and refrigerator looking for ingredients as soon as
earned her culinary degree from Johnson & Wales
we finished talking.
University. The rest was pretty much history. Her
!
pear and orange in her lunchbox.
Michelle Bernstein—the award-winning, Gourmet
and Bon Appetit-acclaimed, Iron Chef Bobby Flaydefeating Zagat Survey®-listed hot new chef—
wanted to be a dancer.Even in that, she wasn’t too
shabby, dancing with the Alvin Ailey Junior
Company in New York on full scholarship at 17.
But something was calling her home to Florida.
Perhaps it was her mother’s risotto with braised
fennel topped with fontina, parmesan and yet more
fennel. Or possibly the arroz con pollo with fresh
peas, and asparagus all cooked with lots of beer.
Or perhaps it was in her blood all along.
meteoric rise eventually brought her home to Miami
and her own acclaimed 4-star restaurant, Michy’s.
“I want to create luxurious comfort
But even this was a family affair.
food, menus using luxurious
!
ingredients put together in a
“My sister designed Michy’s. It’s sort of like a
comforting way.
Barbie Doll’s townhouse from the 70’s and I love it!”
!
Two years ago Michelle got the call from Ocean
Reef Club. Would she be interested in converting a
steakhouse to Michelle’s At Carysfort? Um, yes!
Coming to Ocean Reef Club has opened a whole
new door for this gifted young star.
“I used to do food that was so painstaking. But
then I realized that people just want something
that makes them happy. So I started thinking,
what food memory, what from their childhood
might make people feel good? I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel.
executing another mouth-watering menu might.
“There’s just something about it. It starts on the drive there. You look up and
suddenly everything is so beautiful. The wind’s blowing through your hair and
it seems like all your problems are escaping with it.
Then you arrive and there’s just something in the nurturing every moment of her life. Michelle’s
air—a feeling. It’s so colorful and secluded that
husband is also her partner, making sure the
you feel safe. My husband says when I really
front of the house functions as well as the back.
want to create I go to Ocean Reef. It just feels
so good being out there in the Keys that I can
And her mother? A live wire still charging so
let the brain flow—or maybe it’s just that I love
many lives.
the breakfast there!”
This season, that live wire will join with Michelle
Around and around it comes again. For
to teach an interactive seminar at Ocean
Michelle, food and family is a rich, wide river
Reef’s extraordinary Cooking School.
Michelle is, to tell the
“My cooks are terrified
truth, a little nervous
when she comes to the
about teaching with
restaurants. If she doesn’t
her mom—and excited
like something—forget
too.
about it!”
“I find my mom to be a
But here’s her best memory
little competitive this
of Ocean Reef.
year and worse--my
food never tastes as
“My in-laws, my parents
good as hers at
and my husband and I
home!”
rented a condo here. It was
three days of total bliss. I
Michelle isn’t alone with her fears. All of her
brought them all to the restaurant feeling so
staff is quaking too. It seems her mom has
proud, and my parents said it was some of
the final word at Michelle’s eateries.
my best food ever!”
There it is. The earthly trinity of love, food and family. It moves and informs us all on
some deep level.
Or maybe it’s just that those nurtured by the food-burnished love of extra-ordinary
moms have a blessing to pass on in this world.
~ Mary Hicks
All photos from chefmichellebernstein.com
written for “Ocean Reef Club Living” Inaugural Issue, 2009