Meet our Chef of the Month
We love sharing the inspiring stories & delicious recipes from our featured chefs of the month. Get to know Chef Anthony up next!
1. Where were you born?
Fort Myers, Florida.
2. Where do you work and where are you based?
I'm a personal/private chef. I'm based out of Broward County, Florida.
3. What is your favorite kitchen tool in creating your masterpieces/dishes?
My Hand mixer.
4. Which sense is your sharpest?
My vision is my sharpest sense. I have a keen eye for food detail.
5. What advice would you offer to aspiring chefs?
Your hard work will never go unnoticed. You must stay consistent.
6. What is one culinary tip every chef should know and perfect?
Always have a sharp knife at hand.
7. What does good food mean to you?
Good food is a fuel with good taste and nutrition for the body to operate throughout the day.
8. What features are important to you when selecting your chef outfit?
The fit of the chef Jacket.
9. What's your favorite ingredient to work with?
White Truffle.
10. Favorite City to dine out in?
The city of Brickell in Miami, Florida.
11. Best Dish you have ever made?
White Truffle Lobster Macaroni and Cheese.
12. What do you like to eat most often on your days off?
Chicken Soup.
13. What's the person you would most like to cook for?
Oprah Winfrey.
14. What are some of the difficulties you’d say that chefs most often encounter?
If you want to succeed as a personal/private chef, you have to be on time. Timing is very important in the food division. It will take your career to the next level.
15. What made you decide to become a chef?
Cooking and Catering were the start of an idea to making a living in South Florida.
White Chocolate Raspberry Bread Pudding
ingredients
- 5 cups bread cubes, 1" pieces
- 4 Tbsp butter, melted
- 8 oz white chocolate (divided)
- ½ pint of fresh raspberries
- 1 vanilla bean (optional)
- ½ tsp clear vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 2/3 cup of sugar
- 2 cups milk
- ½ pint fresh raspberries
- juice from one lemon
- ½ cup sugar
Raspberry Sauce
instructions
1.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the French bread into 1" cubes. Let them sit out for a while. The dried-out bread will soak up the liquid better than moist bread. Choose a muffin tin that has 6 of the "larger" size wells, rather than the "standard" size. (The ones I used accommodate about 3/4 cup each.)
2.
To each muffin, I added some of the melted butter and divided it equally. Chop half of the white chocolate into little pieces and add it to the bread cubes. Just mix it loosely to combine.
3.
Add the bread cubes and chocolate pieces to the wells, then set aside.
4.
Make the batter. To a heavy saucepan, add the milk and sugar. Heat until the sugar is melted, but don't boil the milk. If you are using vanilla beans, add the seeds now. To do this, split the bean lengthwise and scrape out the "caviar" with the edge of a knife.
5.
Add warm milk. If you want, just split, and throw the entire bean in there. You can strain it out later. All those fragrant little vanilla bean specks are lovely in the batter!
6.
Add the clear vanilla. Once the sugar is melted and the vanilla beans are dispersed, you can turn off the heat.
7.
Stir in half of the white chocolate until melted. Strain the hot milk mixture through a fine sieve if you added the whole vanilla bean pieces inside.
8.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. To the eggs, begin to add the warm milk mixture... SLOWLY... while whisking them furiously as you add the milk. In other words, you need to "temper" the eggs, or else you will end up with scrambled eggs! NOT good!
9.
Pour the egg and milk mixture over the bread cubes. You may need to push the bread cubes down into the mixture just to get them all immersed in the liquid. Allow them to sit for 10 - 15 minutes just so the bread can soak up all the batter. The warm batter will begin to melt all those chocolate pieces. Yum!
10.
Add a handful of raspberries to the top of each of the wells containing the bread pieces. Push them down into it if you want, or just let them rest on top. Your choice.
11.
Set the muffin tin into a larger pan and add water up to about half of the wells. We are creating a water bath.
12.
Bake the bread pudding, uncovered, for about 40 - 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. It should have stopped being "jiggly" by now, and the top should be a nice golden brown. Don't overcook it, as you don't want it dried out.
like the chef's look?
find your chef uniform with us!
