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Chef Brian RutherfordBistro Mezzaluna 713 S.E. 17th Street Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316  954-522-6620www.bistromezzaluna.com |
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Chef Brian Rutherford - Mr. October, 2011
With his piercing blue eyes and infectious grin, Chef Brian Rutherford is our Hot Chef for the month of October 2011!
"Executive Chef Brian Rutherford is the cool driving force behind Bistro Mezzaluna's culinary stability.", says lifestyle entertaining specialist and freelance writer Christine Najac. "Chef Rutherford has taken 'bistro fare' to a level of wonderment and pizzazz. He makes the ordinary, extraordinary with a little bit of flash and a whole lot of ingenuity."
Chef Brian discovered his love of cooking as a teenager in the Philadelphia area. He started cooking in a mom-and-pop style Italian restaurant, studied hotel management at a local college, and then graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York in 1989. He went on to apprentice at the Gypsy Rose Hotel in Philadelphia, then further honed his skills at the city's renowned Striped Bass Restaurant.
The promise of great opportunity and golf year round soon lured him to South Florida. In Boca Raton he worked at Prezzo and Max's Grill Mizner Park. He then moved to Miami, where he and his partner Jack Penrod developed the highly popular Pearl Restaurant and Champagne Lounge.
At Bistro Mezzaluna Chef Brian has acquired a reputation for his simple elegance as well as his food preparation. As Executive Chef he enjoys creating menus that combine the classic comfort foods with a tantalizing twist that satisfy the finicky as well as the true foodie. While the menu leans towards Italian, selections are eclectic and emphasize seasonal and local ingredients.
Although, at Bistro Mezzaluna they make all of their own pastry and focaccia, baking their own bread is a fairly new chapter in the restaurant's evolution. Making bread requires a skilled hand and is truly an art (even more so in South Florida, where the challenge is the humidity that can affect the rising of the dough). But once you taste it, it will be clear that Chef Brian and his team have mastered the art of bread making.
In what little free time he has away from the restaurant, he keeps busy by golfing, eating at other restaurants (for education), and spending time with his wife and children who love being in the kitchen with Dad!
Chef Brian. What can we say? One look at the pictures will tell you what kind of guy he is. So much fun!!! And, Oh. My. God. That Snapper dish was probably the best fish we've ever eaten. That's Jumbo Lump Crab ontop. Are we having fun yet? Also pictured, Hot Chefs Owner Taylor Morgan (trying to steal some food off the plate), Hot Chefs Owner Judy Myers who is skinny because she doesn't try to steal food off a plate, and Makeup Artist Gina Seebauer.
Makeup by Gina Seebauer, Photography by Michael Herb of 204 Studios
