Tuesday, November 8, 7:00 pm
Member $90, guests $115

Although she lives and cooks in south Florida, where all things Cuban rule, chef/owner Carmen Gonzalez has carved out an estimable niche for the flavors and ingredients of her native Puerto Rico. Named one of the Best New Restaurants in America in 2003 by Esquire’s John Mariani, Carmen the Restaurant seduces diners with sophisticated Nuevo Latino fare that relies heavily on culinary idioms from the island Gonzalez calls home.

After running her first restaurant, Café de San Juan, in Puerto Rico, Gonzalez headed north to attend the New York Restaurant School (now the Art Institute of New York City). She took a post at the legendary Quilted Giraffe immediately following graduation. In 1989 Gonzalez headed south and opened Clowns restaurant in Miami, thus beginning a mutual love affair with south Florida. She later cooked at the Miami Club in downtown Miami and in 1996 became executive chef at Tamarind in the Sheraton Gateway Hotel. Seven years later, Gonzalez opened Carmen the Restaurant in Coral Gables. The accolades came fast and furious, including a Best New Restaurant designation from the Miami New Times, a place in Zagat’s America’s Top Restaurants list, a four-diamond rating from AAA, and a glowing review from the editors of Gayot, who raved about the chef’s “fabulously flavored fare…with traditional ingredients and classic island dishes given a boost by her formal French training.” Ocean Drive magazine listed Gonzalez among the Eight Best Chefs of Miami, and Wine Spectator bestowed an Award of Excellence on Carmen the Restaurant in 2004 and 2005.

In addition to her culinary gifts, Gonzalez serves her Miami community in a variety of ways. In the mid-1990s she founded Feeding the Mind, a foundation that provides scholarships to disadvantaged women who want to enter the food service industry. Gonzalez has also established Chef Carmen Cooks for a Cure, an effort to raise funds for the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Of her combined professional and charitable successes, Gonzalez says proudly, “This is what I’ve always dreamed of.”