Fontainebleau Miami Beach

The Fontainebleau- South Beach, Miami


The Fontainebleau is a hotel on South Beach in Miami, Florida, and very recently I had the incredible opportunity to get a tour and eat at one of the many restaurants.  The opportunity was given to me through the Living and Learning Community, at Johnson and Wales.  The Dean of Culinary Arts takes us out to eat once a term, where we get to eat delicious food and expand our restaurant knowledge. The hotel has about one billion dollars put into it, to make it what it is today.  The 23 acre property has 12 restaurants, and everything is made in house.

 There is not one thing that comes pre-made to any of the kitchens.  Including their chocolate, which is actually their own unique blend created by their pastry chef- specifically for Fontainebleau restaurants.  It's called sapphire noir and cannot be purchased anywhere except the hotel.  What makes the chocolate so special?  It has no added sugar, so it tastes only chocolaty not just sweet.  With this, they make all of their own bon bons, gelato, cakes, pastries, even down to the decorating chocolate.  They have a food printer which allows them to print graphic designs on chocolate and other pastries.  Every burger sold on property has a freshly made bun prepared by the pastry department, the croissants are hand rolled everyday, the entire process is run 24/7 and it is truly amazing to see in action.

They have their own fishing team?  Yes, it's true, the hotel has their very own fishing crew.  Inside the hotel they have 6 large tanks where they keep the freshly caught, prawn, crab, and lobster.  I think the coolest part of this process, is that they have them tagged and when scanned with a phone camera, it brings up a website with their entire history including- who caught them and how long they've been fishing, the date they were caught, the boat they were on, and the size of the crab.  We were even able to hold the prawns and crabs.  They have certified people to maintain the tanks and fish, while they're held.  So, if you ever get the chance to dine here, be sure to order seafood, it's probably some of the freshest you can get!
In addition to all the other incredible features of this hotel, they also dry age their own meats.  Each meat is tagged in the designated dry aging cooler, to keep track of the aging period.  This cooler is custom made specifically for dry aging.  The cooler has fans on the floors and walls, to create proper ventilation, and moisture content.  The cooler even has designated vents for the moisture to escape through.  The chef told us that at any given time there is about a half a million dollars in that cooler alone.
The hotel also has 4 bars, not including the restaurants selling liquor.  They have an entire cooler designated to liquors, wines and beers and well as an entire warehouse- just for alcohol.  The hotel might as well own an entire Total Wines, because I think they have more alcohol then one.
  • Stripsteak by Michael Mina- fine dining steakhouse a la catre
  • Hakkasan by Chef Loo-  Named Top 50 Best in the World modern Cantonese cuisine.  
  • Scarpetta by Scott Conant- Italian cuisine, led by James Beard award recipient and AAA four diamond award winner 
  • Burger and Pizza by Micheal Mina- Nationally Acclaimed star chef Micheal Mina's casual dining restaurant 
  • La Cote- Mediterranean menu, Oceanside bistro
  • Vida- The only restaurant on property that serves 3 meals a day, including a Sunday brunch.  This is where we ate lunch with the Dean on Friday

Besides for the amazing restaurants that hotel has- let's talk about entertainment.  The hotel has 4 bars, as well as 2 restaurants with full bars, each bar also has a complete lounge- including a pool side bar.  BleauLive is the name of the stage that they have, which as had starts as big as Elvis,  Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, Tiesto, Pitbull and many others.   Lapis is the name of the full service spa at the hotel, including a gym, water treatment, a salon, massages and facials.  Fontainebleau also has their very own nightclub called LIV, where there's music and dancing.  If the rest of that didn't win you over maybe the 3 pools and amazing beach view will.  There's so much to do at the hotel, it's definitely worth the visit, and maybe don't eat the day before you go, because you'll want enough room to try everything they have to offer.  

I would like to end this post with an incredible announcement- this summer while I'm in St. Petersburg I will be starting a popup restaurant. Using all of my knowledge I learned this year in school, I will be preparing numerous courses and serving them to a select amount of people every other week.  In order for this to be possible, I will be using food cost formulas to create prices for each course and charge each guest for the evening of flavors.  I hope to have light hors d'ourves, an appetizer,soup and/ or salad, main course, and desert.  I would love to do some with wine pairings as well.  If anyone would be interested in an evening like this, please let me know!  Also, if you would consider hosting a dinner at your home, at of course no cost to you, please message me so we can discuss possible details.  I would love for these dinners to be a success.  Fun, for everyone- I would love to create these menus, while you would enjoy trying the recipes I learned in college, and at work.  I'll keep you posted on further details, please share this information on my pop up dinners with your friends and family!  Thank you so much for your continuous support!

 From my kitchen to yours,
MallaryMade



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