Good Taste
Sef Gonzalez
10 YEARS AGO …
Westchester resident Sef Gonzalez had been writing a blog to document his burger excursions and comfort foods around South Florida. He organized the first food truck event in Florida and still hosts the longest running food truck roundup at Arts Park in Hollywood; owned the Burger Museum for three years; wrote All About the Burger; puts together immensely popular events; and is the go-to guy for information about comfort food in South Florida and well beyond.
“We’re a blog that grew out of control,” Gonzalez says. "In 2010, there were only 10-12 food bloggers, including Mango and Lime, Blind Mind, Chowfather, Frodnesor,” he recalls. He started doing events after following a Pizza Crawl in Coral Gables. “I suggested a Burger Crawl, but full-size burgers would have been too much.” So he did a menu at JohnMartin’s, which led to the Burgie Awards, Hamburger House Party and other events featuring mom-and-pops and restaurants in the suburbs.
Then came the food truck roundups, starting with the swelteringly hot Fall for the Arts at the Arsht Center in September 2010, followed by events at Magic City Casino, North Bay Village and a lot on Bird Road. “I didn’t know what I was getting into,” he says. “Most (food truck owners) met each other that day. Latin Burger and Wing Commander got into an argument over awnings. Chef Jeremiah was getting into it with a cop. Fireman Derek thought he ran out of pies. Richard (Hales) picked up his truck in Homestead that same day, drove it in and started cooking. No one showed up on time.”
Over the years, Gonzalez’ events – Hot Dog Fests, Wiener Bashes, Love Me Tenders, Frita Showdowns, El Main Evento and Croquetapalooza – capture the distinctive flavors of South Florida while making sure they work for the restaurants, the customers and for him and his wife, Marcela. “We want everyone to have a good time.”
Lee Brian Schrager
In 2002, Lee Brian Schrager took over a one-day wine and food festival at FIU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, relocating it and renaming it the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. The festival now attracts more than 65,000 guests annually to its 100+ events throughout South Florida.
Schrager says he don’t know any cities that have grown their culinary scene as much as Miami. “If you look at Miami 20 years ago, there were two places, Joe’s Stone Crab and the Forge. Now there are so many options, you don’t know where to go. New restaurants, small bakeries, artisan chocolate places,” he says, naming top chefs Daniel Boulud (Boulud Sud), Thomas Keller (The Surf Club Restaurant), Fabio Trabocchi (Fiola) and Michael White (Osteria Morini). “At the Best of the Best event, we used to bring in chefs … now most are local.”Schrager notes the advent of smaller restaurants, like the 24-seat Boia De. “Would it have made it 10 years ago? Owning a restaurant is expensive.”Fine dining isn’t over, he says but fussy dining is. “What people care about is good food, good service, value and consistency.”
Timon Balloo
10 YEARS AGO…
Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill debuted at the then up-and-coming Midtown district under chef/partner Timon Balloo. Reaching deep into his own Chinese/Indian/Trinidadian heritage, Balloo delivered global flavors, small plates and immediate buzz. Two more Sugarcanes followed in high-profile locations – Las Vegas and Brooklyn.
And then in late 2019, the 42-year-old chef, a graduate of Johnson & Wales who trained in Europe and worked with such South Florida stars as Allen Susser and Michelle Bernstein, opened Balloo Modern Home Cooking, a 21-seat restaurant at the end of a walkway in downtown Miami’s Ingraham Building.“It’s an extension of my family and culture, who I am,” he says. “What’s my flavor?”
Still a partner at Sugarcane, he found he was touching food less and stretching himself thin. “It seemed perfect from the outside. But I was losing my connection.”In Balloo, he has created a highly personal dining room with colorful walls, eclectic furnishings and the comforting smells of the kinds of dishes a gifted auntie might make for the family: trini spiced oxtail, and bacon and egg fried rice with Chinese sausage, coriander and lime. The fan favorite, he says, is curry roasted calabaza – “such a Miami ingredient,” he says – made with mustard seeds, garlic, ginger and fresh citrus, served with labneh and crunchy garlic, and ordered with roti. The space is as warm and welcoming as the chef himself.
As he seeks to express his own background, Balloo pays homage to the South Florida chefs who laid the foundation for South Florida’s culinary scene – Susser and Bernstein, Norman Van Aken, Michael Schwartz, Douglas Rodriguez – and acknowledges the importance of stewardship in leading a new crop of chefs. “They started the conversation,” he says. The next generation has to find the right way to eat the season and the region.
In the meantime, Balloo is in his cozy little space, unfolding chairs and opening an awning in preparation for dinner service. “I want to be true and honest,” he says.
P.I.G. (Pork Is Good)
10 YEARS AGO ...
Chef Jeremiah Bullfrog invited some chefs to cook pig in a caja china. The event, called P.I.G. (Pork Is Good) now brings chefs from South Florida and beyond to do their best with all things pig.
Other events – Duck Duck Goose, Pop Ramen, a keto-themed event – seem to be as much fun for chefs and staff as it is for the dining public.
