If you scope out the menu and decide what you’re ordering before even stepping foot in a restaurant, you’re going to like this

Our “What the Chef Eats” series has always been a favorite of ours because we like to get information straight from the source. For the Food Issue, we figured we should squeeze as much goodness in as we could by asking a few local chefs about their go-to dishes to enjoy off their own menus.

Let’s dig in.

Portrait Chef Suzanne Perrotto of Brule Bistro.

Chef Suzanne Perrotto

Rose’s Daughter, Brulé, and The Pantry

1. What is your go-to/favorite dish to eat?

My favorite dish is the Bolognese with pappardelle pasta. The pasta is made from scratch from cage-free egg yolks, and the sausage is made in house, which is a key ingredient to the sauce itself.

2. How is the dish prepared?

Bolognese is made from a mirepoix of carrots, onion, and celery, with a traditional San Marzano tomato sauce that we make from scratch. In addition, we add our house-prepared sausage, veal and beef.

3. What should we know about the dish?

We slow roast the meat combined with the vegetables and deglaze with port wine. In addition to that, we add our Demi-glace and fresh herbs. We cook it for 12 hours at a low temperature. We finish it off with a cream reduction.

4. Do you have any not-on-the-menu changes you make to the dish?

When I have it myself, I like to add extra Calabrian chili.

200 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach
@brule.bistro

Left: Bao buns at Food Shack Jupiter. Right: Chef Frank Murgio portrait with an apron on and his arms crossed.

Chef Frank Murgio

Little Moir’s Food Shack

1. What is your go-to/favorite dish to eat?

The bao buns are my go-to.

2. How is the dish prepared?

They are prepared either with pork belly, shrimp, or chicken, seasoned with spices, pickles and carrot, jicama, sliced jalapeño and mint.

3. What should we know about the dish?

The bao bun is light and airy like eating a cloud. We also like to use the bao buns as a special.

4. Do you have any not-on-the-menu changes you make to the dish?

We have a new smoked “Sweet Charlie,” so the bao bun is a great vessel for smoked meat, especially duck.

103 US-1 D3, Jupiter, FL 33477
@littlemoirsfoodshack

A colorful bowl of soup from Oceano Kitchen in Lake Worth. On the right, a Black and White profile shot of Chef Cindy Bearman speaking to guests on the opposite side of the counter.

Chef Cindy Bearman

Oceano Kitchen

1. What is your go-to/favorite dish to eat?

My favorite dish to eat is any soup that’s on the menu at Oceano. The flavors are always complex and always perfectly balanced. I especially love the corn soup and the tomato-watermelon gazpacho.

2. How is the dish prepared?

We change our menu often and even though it might be the same soup, the garnishes and other components usually change.

3. What should we know about the dish?

Chef Jeremy [chef, co-owner, and husband] has often been referred to as “The Soup Whisperer.”

4. Do you have any not-on-the-menu changes you make to the dish?

Sometimes I add a different garnish depending on what we have in house.

512 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth Beach
@oceanokitchen

Left: Chef Vinny Trupia of Guanabanas standing outside in a tiki setting with a fish dish in front of him. Right: Photo of fish entree, drinks and another plate on an outdoor table.

Chef Vinny Trupia

Guanabanas

1. What is your go-to/favorite dish to eat?

Lemon butter fish.

2. How is the dish prepared?

Dredged in a light cornmeal breading, sautéed, finished with garlic butter and a squeeze of lemon.

3. What should we know about the dish?

All the fish at Guanabanas is sourced from the state of Florida: Jupiter, the Keys, the West Coast, Space Coast, and the Panhandle. We’ve been doing it since 2008. The cornmeal breading, we get from Missouri. It’s a nice light dish, and it lets the fish be the star.

4. Do you have any not-on-the-menu changes you make to
the dish?

Not at all. This one has been on and off the menu since we opened.

960 N. Highway A1A, Jupiter
@guanabanasrestaurant

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