Besha RodellIt's quite unlikely you'll ever again have the chance to have Norman Van Aken cook for you for $40, but that's exactly what's happening next week at Son of a Gun. Van Aken will be cooking three course lunch on Tuesday Jan 28th, taking cues from food mentioned in his new memoir, No Experience Necessary: The Culinary Odyssey of Chef Norman Van Aken.
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Credit: Amazon
The lunch came together fairly quickly. When Son of a Gun owners Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo heard that Van Aken would be in town to be on the Jimmy Kimmel Show to promote his fifth book, they decided to see if they could convince him to cook for them, and for us as well. The three Florida natives were already friends, and Van Aken agreed to the lunch.
Van Aken is known as the chef who introduced the concept of “fusion” to the culinary world, which he talked about at a symposium on American cooking in Santa Fe in 1988. To many people, that, along with his style of blending Latin, Asian and Caribbean flavors in his restaurants, makes him one of the founding fathers of New American cooking. He is the chef at Norman's at the Ritz-Carlton in Grande Lakes, Orlando, and Chef and Director of Restaurants at The Miami Culinary Institute.
The menu on Tuesday will include carny corn dogs with honey mustard dip, oysters “Remick,” and smothered pork chop adobo with onions, oranges,and pineapple.
The lunch will begin at noon on Tuesday. The new memoir will be available for purchase and autograph. For reservations, call 323-782-9033.
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