Today, Saturday, April 15, award-winning chef María Grubb -nominated in 2019 for a James Beard award in recognition of her excellence in the kitchen- will offer a dinner paired with cocktails specially created with Don Q rums, as part of the orchestrated culinary sessions by Chef’s Dinner Seriesa private culinary salon tucked away in a downtown New York loft offering the ultimate high-end private dining experience.
“The evening menu is designed with very traditional dishes and flavors of Puerto Rican cuisine, but with seasonal products and available in New York,” the chef told Gastronomic in exclusive interview.
The dynamics of this gastronomic experience is to prepare, before the eyes of the guests, the dishes that they will later be tasting. In this way, those present will be able to witness the knowledge in culinary techniques that the chef applies when preparing and serving the dishes.
More about Maria Mercedes Grubb
It was from her mother, Bárbara Santana, that María T. Mercedes Grubb inherited her good hand in the kitchen. In fact, María herself has been cooking since she was eight years old, and her family restaurant in Barrio Obrero is the place where she discovered her passion for cooking. Of course, life took her down other paths, because instead of staying in the family business in Puerto Rico, this budding chef left for New York to study ‘Classic French Culinary Arts’ at the French Culinary Institute in Soho, California. New York, where he graduated with honors.
Once in the Big Apple, chef Mercedes undertook the task of perfecting her technique and culinary vision, for which she sought to work in restaurants, recipients of Michelin Stars, such as Maialino and Bar Basque, among others. Likewise, the chef -third generation of a family dedicated to the restaurant industry in La Romana, Dominican Republic- thanks her deceased father, Juan Mercedes, for having taught her about international cuisine and wine tasting.
“My father’s teachings aroused my curiosity for a Culinary Arts degree, the same one that became a passion,” recalls María Mercedes, who is part of the first generation of her family born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents. 2011 was the year that marked the return of chef Mercedes to Puerto Rico and since then she has not stopped surprising us with her accomplishments as a chef and philanthropist.
In 2019, Chef María became the first woman in the Puerto Rican food industry to be nominated for the James Beard Award for Best Chef. She was also selected by Food & Wine magazine as one of the leading chefs on the contemporary culinary scene in Puerto Rico.
The chef in detail
• Years of career: 18
• Studies: ‘Classic French Culinary Arts’ at the French Culinary Institute in Soho, New York City.
• Mentor chefs: Veronica Lindemann from the French Culinary Institute, Gabriel Kreuther from The Modern, Hoon Song from Maialino in NY and Michael Anthony from Gramercy Tavern in NY
• Challenges in the career: “Keep the balance between being a mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend and chef.”
• Favorite dish to enjoy alone: Ramen or ‘Pho’ soup. I adore the happiness these soups bring me and I love making them; but my weakness is a simple fried egg rice, ‘crispy sunnyside’ with ‘pickled onions’. The texture and the creamy yolk are my weakness.
• Indispensable ingredients in your kitchen: “Good salt and butter (‘real butter’) and fresh garlic.
• Good luck tools: a good knife
• Iconic dishes: KFC: Korean Fried Chicken with ‘gochujang’ sauce; the Brussels sprout Caesar salad; Primavera tuna with quinoa crust, Italian green sauce, edamame tapenade and avocado with alfalfa; and the Butcher’s Steak: Grilled rib-eye with applesauce, bernaise sauce, Maldon salt and asparagus
