- National Mango Board
- From left to right: Charley Belcher, Andy Huse, Chris Ponte, and Lynn Kessel.
When I received an invitation to judge a cook-off between two talented local chefs, I jumped at the chance. Chris Ponte, (executive chef of Café Ponte) who hosted the competition at his Clearwater restaurant, would face Ferrell Alvarez (the new chef at Café Dufrain) in the kitchen. I wondered what the featured ingredient would be: Wagyu beef or black truffles? When I saw that the invite came from the National Mango Board for their "Mango Hometown Tour", I wasn't too disappointed. No other fruit seems to hold so much potential as an ingredient.
The mango isn't just the world’s most beloved fruit, it's also a potent symbol of Florida's culinary identity.
Until recently, Florida cuisine was oriented toward the Southern U.S. and the pioneer experience, with smoked mullet, swamp cabbage, barbecue, shrimp and grits, and fried chicken ruling dinner plates. Blighted by tourist trap eateries, badly fried seafood, and an unadventurous market, Florida’s food scene need a swift kick in the ass.
In the 1980s, a new wave of Florida cooking flared up in south Florida. Inspired by Alice Waters and California’s burgeoning culinary identity, Chefs such as Norman Van Aiken invented a new Florida cuisine. With an emphasis on fresh ingredients, the so-called Mango Gang looked south to the Caribbean for inspiration.
Today, Florida's food scene may lag behind the culinary hotbeds of New York City, Los Angeles, and so on, but it is light years beyond the Sunshine State's restaurant industry of yore. (Anyone remember the Kapok Tree Inn? I rest my case.) The food produced by chefs Ponte and Alvarez is testimony to that fact.
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2011.