Please contact us with a proposal for review.

Previously, Chef Alan Hughes was involved with Higher Ground, a  program run by Citi Church-Miami and funded in part by The Children’s Trust, teaching teenagers how to cook and to nourish themselves better by making better food choices. The program still runs and serves the area of Allapttah in Miami-Dade. More information can be found through the church’s website at www.Citichurchmiami.com.

I must say I only salt the meat and grill it beautifully; their taste doesn’t need anything else; however I have created some recipes that can go well with them. Enjoy!

Here I have a few suggestions for alternative preparations that can be used with these lovely cuts of beef

GRILLED GRASS-FED RIBEYE STEAKS WITH CHARRED TOMATOES AND BLUE CHEESE

Ingredients for 4 people

4 Large beefsteak tomatoes

Olive Oil

Rosemary sprigs

1 medium Red Onion

8 oz of crumbled Blue Cheese

Cut the tomatoes and in half horizontally, place in a sheet pan score them on the open flesh side, cut the red onion on wedges and drizzle both of  them with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Sprinkle with rosemary leaves and let sit for one hour. Light the grill with real charcoal  and place the tomatoes flesh side down first on a medium to high heat grill. Sear them for about eight minutes. Place the onions and cook until tender on both sides. Turn the tomatoes and cook an additional ten minutes or until they are very tender and watery. Place the onions, tomatoes in a bowl and toss, adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and adjusting seasoning. Serve next to the grilled ribyes and sprinkle with Blue cheese.

PAIR WITH: Brunello di Montalcino, California Cab or a slightly chilled Oregon Pinot Noir

KOREAN STYLE BARBECUE SHORT RIBS

1 6-8lbs piece of Grass-Fed  Short Rib

1  1/3 cups of Sweet Soy Sauce Base (recipe follows)

1 grated apple (with skin)

2 T garlic minced

1 cup minced scallions

4 T dark sesame oil

Pinch ground Black pepper

Sweet Soy Sauce Base

1/2 cup water

4 garlic cloves minced

6 thin slices of fresh ginger

1 T ground black pepper

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup red wine

Divide the meat in the desired size  portions and place the ribs in a ziplock bag. Combine all ingredients for the marinade in a bowl and pour inside the ziplock bag. Close the bag releasing all air from the bag. Refrigerate for 5 hours or evernight. Turn on charcoal grill and remove the meat at least 20 minutes prior to grilling.

Place the marinade in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Place the ribs on the grill and with a brush baste the meat with the marinade. Cook to your liking basting the ribs with the reduced marinade on both sides.

PAIR WITH: A california Zinfandel or maybe an Austrian Zweigelt?

PICO DE GALLO

This is a classic mexican salsa, a  relish that works well with grilled entraña or skirt steak.

* 6 medium Tomatoes diced

* 1 medium Onion diced

* 1/4 cup fresh Cilantro chopped.

* 2 to 4 Fresh serrano or jalapeño seeded and minced

* 2 garlic cloves minced * Salt to taste

Put all ingredients in a bowl add 1/2 cup of cold water, mix well. Let set a few minutes. You will find a lot of recipes in this site, where we can use the pico de gallo for cooking and a garnish.

PAIR WITH: Cerveza mejicana!! Dos Equis, Negra Modelo, Corona!!

These are some of the formats to consider when doing a booking, select the one that best suits your needs. If you have a specific situation which you cannot find in these formats simply contact us and we’ll create a plan for you.

Some of the occasions could be the celebration of an aniversary, a wedding engagement, birthdays, religous holidays, bachelor / bachelorette parties, or simply a get-together with friends.

1. Formal Dinners or Lunches: The chef will prepare a formal dinner or lunch for you and your guests including hors d’oeuvres and a five course meal. This is the most formal and elegant service, depending on the size of your event we have servers, bartenders and assitants available as well. Inquire for rates.
2. Casual Prix Fixe Menu: Choose one of the prix fixe menus below or think of something you are really craving for and the chef will prepare it for you and up to six guests. Special Offer: $300 + cost of ingredients
3. Personal Chef A very convenient alternative for people with specific dietary needs (Diabetic, Celiac, weight loss, spa) or for people that simply do not have the time to cook.The chef will prepare foods for the week, label and store them in your refirgerator and freezer. You will also get instructions on how to reheat and serve them as needed. Special promotion: $300 + cost of ingredients. This service make a great gift for someone
4. Blind Menu: The Chef will arrive and cook with the ingredients you already have in your kitchen. It is a fun process to watch, casual and ideal for a relaxed and fun group of people. Dinner or Lunch for four: $300

When booking an event:

Be accurate with the address and time of the event.

Have staples readily available in the kitchen

Please have the kitchen clean and have as much clear counter space available.

Have a cleaning person available after the event.

Gratuity not included

Kosher, Macrobiotic, Spa, Mediterranean, French, Italian, Greek, Ashkenhazi, American, Asian, Mexican, Caribbean, Cajun, Brazilian, Argentinean, Peruvian, Persian, North African, Scandinavian are some of the styles I have done in the past.

Celebrities I have cooked for include Nobel Peace prizes Nelson Mandela and Rigoberta Menchu, NY Mayor Dinkins and Mayor Ed Koch, Anna Kournikova, Roger Federer, Gabriela Sabatini, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Smashing Pumpkins, Denzel Washington and Boy George to name a few.

Engagements range from Dinner Parties, Holiday Parties, Lunches, Breakfasts, Brunches, Cocktail Parties, Dessert Receptions and Yachts to week-long engagements overseas.

I remember paying a visit at the French Culinary Institute one year and speaking to Chef Alain Sailhac, he mentioned that the school was working on the project of putting together  the school’s textbook and in his heavy french accent told me that I should contribute a recipe to the book and so he narrowed it down to a soup, a vegetable soup and to think of a recipe that would exemplify a precise technique. So I left NY thinking – vegetable soup and technique – hmmm. I was contacted by the school’s office and was sent all the paperwork, releases and such and the ball was on my court, I just needed to make the recipe and send it to them. Time went by, months passed and the gentle reminders from the school office about the deadline approaching turned into a last call of desperation on a Friday  - Chef Hughes if you do not provide us with the recipe by Monday we will not be able to include it in the textbook -

I can work under pressure and I actually love it because I probably work the best, but in Miami we were just hit by Hurricane Wilma I believe and my catering kitchen had no power; in fact I was without power for quite a few days already. I had emptied the fridges and discarded what was in it but the few remaining things that were still fresh I had placed them in the freezer and kept the freezer without opening it so I wouldn’t loose temperature. My choice of ingredient was narrowed by force to what was available and fresh in the freezer – Fennel- and so I took a few Fennel bulbs and started playing with them. Cut them in half and began slicing them thin with my knife and immediately came to my mind                - Caramelization – Such a simple technique, yet very valuable and overlooked and many times not done properly.

So there I was with my flashlight sauteeing fennel in the dark and acheiving what actually the recipe illustrates very well: How to take a vegetable, sautee it in butter and allow the caramelization process to take place, cooks often stop early in the process, they seem to be afraid to continue sauteeing, but if you are caramelizing onions, or fennel in this case and observe well you can actually see that it takes quite a while. The vegetable sort of begins being limp and whitish but eventually it becomes brown after a while. The transformation of flavor from the raw to the briefly sauteed to the actual caramelized one is immense, its like a different vegetable in taste.

This recipe is a great example of that, the soup its almost a light brown color and the complement of the toasted bread with aged goat cheese works wonderful.

The  book which is used at The French Culinary Institute as a textbook features a handful of contributors such as Bobby Flay, Dan Barber and Wylie Dufresne to name a few has been awarded Best Cookbook of The Year from a Professional Point of View by The James Beard Foundation 2008.

1. Invite your friends
2. Purchase ingredients, go wild, have fun!
3. Let the chef make a memorable meal.

A good selection of fine wines makes a huge difference so stock-up your cellar!

Special Offer: $300.00 for six lucky guests

When booking an event:

Be accurate with the address and time of the event.

Have staples readily available in the kitchen

Please have the kitchen clean and have as much clear counter space available.

Have a cleaning person available after the event.

Gratuity not included

When I walked into this kitchen and opened the fridge I found the ingredients that made me make the following menu.

Tiradito with Chipotle, Avocado, Cucumber and Sunflower Sprouts

Sardinas a la Plancha with Garlic and Parsley

Rack of Lamb with Fig Jam and Cumin-Roasted Beets and Carrots

Pineapple and Bannana with Saffron Syrup

Gather a group of friends at your place and Chef Alan Hughes will teach anything you’ve been wanting to learn, homemade pastas, proper cooking of fish, meats and poultry , tapas, french cuisine, italian, mediterranean you name it!  Or simply consult with us and we will make a specific program for you. You will learn a lot of techniques, tips and secrets to the right procedures. These hands-on intensive classes are fun and you will learn a lot! Special offer: One session class for six $400 + cost of ingredients. ($67.00 per person + cost of ingredients)

Special pricing available for a set of four sessions of classes.

Tapas made by the students

The Ultimate Crostini with baked Camembert and raw Beets

Filet of Walu from Hawaii; luscious fresh; couldn’t stop slicing it thin and eating with just a sprinkle of Maldon salt

Artichokes, fresh ones from CA; lovely…

Empanadas de Humita; Tradicionales argentinas

Tuna Wrapped in Phyllo

Poblanos, Tomatoes and Red Peppers in the smoker

Smoked Trout and Salmon Napoleon, Creme Fraiche and Sevruga

Blackberry (not ies)

Mini Rogel

Eventually we narrowed down to the 24 comissioned titles and we proceeded to test them about three to four times each until we wrote all the procedures and accurate list of ingredients. I was impressed with some of the products especially with the Corn Tortillas “de Cal” These are basically a real corn tortilla without preservatives. In Mexico, the Nixtamalization or process of treating the corn with cal (lyme) prevents, between other things spoilage, also resulting in a corn tortilla that when heated brings out this unmistakable aroma of fresh corn. These tortillas are really very good and if you happen to go to specialty stores try to get them: Tortillas de Cal La Banderita.

Another product that I liked was the raw tortilla, “Tortilla Cruda” basically an uncooked tortilla that is packaged so when you purchase them you cook them in your comal or cast iron pan resulting in a very fresh tortilla almost homemade.

I love doing these kind of projects and I am looking forward to my next recipe challenge.

Cheers!

For two consecutive Sundays you will be taught proper procedures to start a fire; the first  Sunday with natural charcoal and the second Sunday with wood.

You will learn proper techniques for cooking traditional cuts of beef such as Tira, Vacio, Entraña and Ribeye; as well as Chorizos, Morcillas, Mollejas and a slew of accompaniments, salads, Chimichurri and Salsa Criolla. We will discuss as well some Wine-pairing options and proper sequence of service. After the class we will enjoy the fruits of our labor eating an Asado al-fresco. Classes run from 11am to 3pm on Sunday April 3rd and April 10th. Cost is $ 140.00 for both classes ingredients and wine included. Limited to 7 eager students.