This delightful ‘seasonal supper’ and wine pairing was the first in a series put on by Chef Julie Frans, Essensia Restaurant at the Palms Hotel and Spa in Miami Beach. It’s become very popular to ‘educate’ us as to where our food comes from and a ‘seasonal supper’ with like minded folks was a nice way to do it!
Torrential rain did not keep us away! We started the evening with cocktails on the porch, my virgin lychee lemongrass was exotic and yummy. Each table was given an herb name, ours was Rosemary and we had a lovely fresh bunch on our table. We sat with Katy, the publisher of Edible South Florida magazine, married to Andy, a Brit and chef at Charlotte in Coral Gables. The other couple were Slow Food Miami, ‘food to table’ director, Michele Baker Benesch and her husband Scot. Michele is in her family business of designing restaurant menus and Scot is an investment manager. Scot has been to Hong Kong so had plenty to chat about. I also got to meet Gabriel, the mastermind who created Paradise Farms. I’m so excited to visit her and see if we can organize a Wok Star cooking class there.
You can see my photos getting worse because the lights got dimmed after we sat down. You can ‘feel’ Julie’s passion about using eco friendly products and produce when she gave us a run down of where our ingredients came from. I hope they’ll post photos online because none of Julie came out well.
Do subscribe (right sidebar) to my blog feed for an upcoming South Florida food review of Chef Julie in Viva Magazine. Viva is a hip lifestyle British magazine, their online magazine launched! They’re still working on adding more food shots and my full review under Food, so go back and check it out! We already had a sneak peek and looks beautiful.
Sign up for the next ‘seasonal supper’ wine series at Essensia.
Here’s our delicious menu for that evening!
Wine pairings were from Casa Lapostolle.
Seasonal Supper Menu
Pickles look colorful and reminded me of Asian pickles, delicious.
Cape Canaveral Prawns
stuffed squash blossoms, blood orange fennel pollen vinaigrette and red pepper pesto.
Carrot Ginger Lemongrass Soup
with fresh cilantro & spicy cashews.
Local Burrata Salad
roasted beets, heirloom tomatoes, baby beet greens, green & purple basil.
Jackman Ranch New York Strip
with sauteed oyster mushrooms and Truffle vinaigrette, fingerling potatoes smashed with Florida sunshine blue cheese, arugula & pecans, sauteed greens.
Oyster mushroom lasagna with sauteed greens.
Chocolate Ancho-chili mousse
with cayenne strawberry frozen yoghurt and chocolate tulle.
Gorgeous bamboo cutting board gift!