Sean at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival
1. What are your three favorite restaurants outside of South Florida? Mustards Grill, Napa Valley, I like their overall comfort style. Rose Pistola, San Francisco, simple and truly solid flavors. Babbo Ristorante, New York City, Mario Batali is a culinary god.
2. At what age did you decide you wanted to be a Chef? When I was 16 I started working in restaurants and liked the environment and the artistry.
3. Best night to visit Touch? The Best Night for me is Halloween. At Touch we put 6 months into planning, designing, flyers and concept to make Miami Beach’s biggest and craziest party. For a most of us Halloween can be a bit chaotic, so to get the true Touch experience and come in on a Friday evening and enjoy while we tantalize all five senses.
4. What is your favorite South Florida ingredient? South Florida has much to offer from the freshest local fish to homegrown organic vegetables to choose just one ingredient. I love the ingredient of “ethnicity” the juxtaposition of third world items cross culturally slammed with the Americas. Dragon Fruit, to Guavas, Jak-fruit, to Local Trumpet Mushrooms, so many things from the tropics you could spend your entire life studying.
5. Who did the cooking while you were growing up & what was your favorite family dish?My mom was a wonderful cook and we ate at home almost every night. Mom made great pasta sauce from tomatoes that we grew in the garden.
6. What is your favorite dish at Touch? I like our local Sebastian Inlet clams simmered in a coconut, mango curry broth. It marries local seafood with Jamaican Flavors and Floridian Mangos to create the epitome of Miami Spice is about.
7. If told you had one day to live what bottle of wine would you open? 1982 Chateau Margaux 1st cru
8. What is your favorite reality show? There once was a show with Sylvester Stallone about boxers (The Contender) that I really enjoyed. Since there wasn’t any politics every episode had a competition with a clean cut winner and a clear beaten up loser.
9. What do you like to eat at home? Anything from the grill, I love that flavor. I guess that sums up my cooking style in a nutshell.
10. What is your favorite ethnic food? Mexican, they can create good flavor from the cheapest ingredients in the world, anyone can take the most expensive foods and finish with a good dish but it takes a true artist to take the cheapest items and make a delicious meal.
11. What famous celebrity would you like to cook for? Lance Armstrong, he truly is a Hero. Lance’s game superseded his words.
12. Funniest 10 minutes as an Executive Chef? I didn’t think it was funny at the time but everyone at Touch did. Recently, I had so many events in a week and between the restaurant and catering I lost track of the date, so I actually worked 2.5 days on a catering between the scheduling and ordering and getting everything prepped a week earlier then I needed to because I was thought the date was 7 days later then it was really was.
13. When I am not at Touch I like to….race my motorcycle on the track, true Zen
14. What I like about South Florida is…..the weather, except for the hurricanes we live in a paradise
Click below for two of Sean's favorite recipes.
Achiote Shrimp with Caribbean Caressed Rum Reduction
Tobasco Ceviche
Touch Restaurant is located 910 Lincoln Road Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 532-8003
