De Rodriguez Cuba's Chef Jose Luis Flores Wins New Times Iron Fork

Latin Chef Charms Judges with Innovative Nuevo Latino Twists Using Stone Crab

On Thursday night, De Rodriguez Cuba's Chef Jose Luis Flores battled the defending champion of the New Times' Iron Fork Competition, Area 31's John Critchley, and took home the prestigious Iron Fork award. Similar to the Food Network's Iron Chef America, the competing chefs were given 45 minutes to prepare an appetizer and entrée using the secret ingredient, stone crab.

A panel of four judges including Chef Dewey LoSasso and Adrianne Calvo selected Chef Jose Luis Flores of De Rodriguez Cuba as the winner with a Fire Flores wanted to keep with his Nuevo Latino traditions, but also realized the biggest challenge of time constraints:"45 minutes seems like 10 minutes." When asked what his key to winning was, he explains it was knowing how to use the secret ingredient. "The stone crab is easy to manipulate as long as you know how to mix it with other ingredients."

The Fire and Ice appetizer was an innovation that combined a lime juice granita with a ceviche of shrimp, snapper and stone crab. One of his most impressive moves was successfully making a citrus granita in less than one hour. For the entree course, Chef Flores played off a classic Surf and Turf. For the surf, Flores presented a Peruvian inspired tuna causa, a blue potato mash with ahi tuna, dusted with garlic and onion and served with a stone crab pico de gallo. For the turf, a beef tenderloin tartare was prepared with onion, garlic and stone crab.

Flores was truly honored by the win and plans to put his Iron Fork award in De Rodriguez Cuba to share with the restaurant and its guests. "I'm proud to be representing the Latin community," Flores exclaimed. "It's always nice to see friends, family and fans coming out to support me; it means a lot."

The De Rodriguez Hospitality Group is proud to call Chef Jose Luis one of their own and congratulates him on a job well done. To visit the New Time's Iron Fork Chef, come to De Rodriguez Cuba at The Astor Hotel located at 956 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach. For reservations call 305-673-DROD (3763) or visit www.drodriguezcuba.com