The menu at Bistro Double U in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, like Udo Mueller , its German-born chef/co-owner, is sophisticated and well-traveled. It wanders deliciously from Italy (rigatoni with shrimp, prosciutto, garlic, and olive oil) to Asia (sesame seed-crusted tuna with seaweed stir fry, Japanese noodles, wasabi, and pickled ginger) to France (butterflied veal chop with asparagus, natural jus, and Hollandaise) to the islands (Bermuda fish chowder with sherry-pepper sauce and black rum).

Mueller came by these varied influences naturally. He grew up in Baden-Baden, just a stone's throw from Alsace-Lorraine, a region renowned for its delectable melding of French and German cuisines. He got a degree from hotel school, then fine-tuned his palate in a number of German hotels and restaurants, including the Michelin-starred restaurants La Cuisine and Zum Alde Gott . Mueller was an adventurous young man, though, and when he got a long-distance call from America offering him a job in Naples, Florida, he gamely agreed. He'd never seen the restaurant, never visited Florida, never even been to the United States.

But he obviously liked what he found, because he stayed, working at a number of restaurants in Florida and Bermuda, among them the Left Bank, considered perhaps the best French restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. Three years ago, Mueller and partner Uli Dippon opened the comfortable Bistro Double U (get it? Uli, Udo) on an unassuming street. Don't be fooled, though, by that Manhattan mantra-location, location, location. As M. L. Warren put it in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, "the quiet location and subdued decor give no indication of just how much excitement the restaurant generates." Warren went on to praise Bistro Double U's "enlightened wine list" and its "sublime" basil-flecked, gingered scallops. Writing in the New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Jen Karetnick was partial to the "exuberant ratatouille" and the roasted chicken and curry soup ("a silken delight"). Last year, New Times Magazine voted Bistro Double U Best Contemporary Restaurant, and Mueller himself has been honored four years running by the California-based American Tasting Institute as one of North America's Outstanding Chefs.