The level of culinary excellence achieved by acclaimed chefs in Miami is no easy feat. Certain dishes require particular attention and effort to execute perfectly each time. These 5 chefs share the most difficult dish to prepare at their restaurants, and why!
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1300 Brickell Bay Drive / Website
“Snails are one of our most difficult menu items because it requires a lot of techniques in the preparation of it. We have to brunoise shallots. The compound butter is made with 15 different ingredients to achieve the perfect buttery flavor,” said Head Chef of LPM Restaurant & Bar, Brian Brumec. “We cook the snails separately in the butter and glaze them, and then stuff the shell with butter escargots and butter. A dish as simple as fresh herbs & garlic butter escargot requires over 30 ingredients and a lot of cooking, cutting and prep. It's a full day process for us and we make them from scratch daily.”
3900 NE 2nd Ave / Website
“Kimchi is probably the most difficult item to make at COTE. Kimchi in short definition is a traditional Korean dish that is salted and fermented. The reason that it's the most difficult is due to the fermentation,” said Executive Chef of COTE Miami, David Shim. “Even if you follow the recipes to the exact amount, somehow it always turns out slightly different. Prepared within our ‘Vegetable Fermentation Lab,’ it's like a living product so it's really hard to keep it the same but we do monitor and keep it as consistent as possible.”
1100 NW 23rd St. / Website
At LEKU, a special that is available almost every day remains the hardest dish to create. The Pluma Iberica de Bellota with Idiazabal Cheese Spheres and Bacon Reduction requires a meticulous hand.
“For starters, it’s a process to make the cheese spheres, as they are delicate and fragile. The Pluma is a cut that needs to be butchered with great majesty and cooked ever so lightly to capture flavor and juices,” said Executive Chef of LEKU, Mikel Goikolea. “The bacon reduction sauce takes over 14 hours to prepare.”
871 South Miami Ave / Website
“I put a lot of thought behind creating dishes on this menu so they can be easy to reproduce, consistently. A chef's biggest challenge is consistency with the cooks reproducing the menu. There is a lot of technique in the back end, but I’ve created dishes with processes that can facilitate the workload,” said Chef Raymond Li, Executive Chef of KAORI Miami. “I think our Charcoal Cassava Gnocchi would probably be not the hardest, but the most processes involved. The end result is a technique-driven crowd-pleaser.”
130 NE 40th St. / Website
A popular item on the summer menu, the Crispy Squash Blossoms at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink require a delicate touch. They can fall apart if fried for too little or too short of time. When fried for the perfect amount of time, the blossoms hold their shape and crisp.
Photography by: Courtesy Gather + Grow Media LLC, LPM Restaurant & Bar, LEKU, Cote Miami, David Salazar
