24694: Hermantin (News) 2 Haitian chefs, a multitude of influences

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Thu, Apr. 07, 2005
THE CULTURAL KITCHEN
2 Haitian chefs, a multitude of influences
BY NANCY ANCRUM
nancrum@herald.com

Haitian-born chefs Ivan Dorvil and Ernest Martial both use the word fusion 
to describe their food, but their approaches to melding flavors are as 
different as their restaurants.

At Nuvo Kafe, 13152 W. Dixie Hwy. in North Miami, Dorvil, 38, presides over 
both the dining room and kitchen. In the former, a comfortable space with 
about a dozen tables and a bar, he greets patrons and chats with them at 
length, occasionally taking an order. On a recent evening, he made time to 
counsel a young culinary student facing a big exam on the art of making 
salad dressing.

At the stove, Dorvil takes a few familiar Haitian dishes and adds touches of 
France, Italy or Latin America.

''Being Haitian means that fusion is within,'' he says. ``In Haiti, 
superpowers have dominated: France, the United States, Spain. You get all of 
the flavors, all of the spices in the cuisine.''

Dorvil's menu includes traditional, sturdy Haitian pumpkin soup, but also a 
delicate pumpkin bisque spiked with fresh ginger. His braised oxtails are 
meaty and tender, but he presents them in a creamy, French-inspired wine 
sauce rather than the familiar stew. He serves his thick, easy-to-chew 
morsels of conch on a bed of arugula and radicchio.

Before opening his own place, Dorvil cooked his way up and down Miami Beach 
at the Delano, the National, the Betsy Ross, Tantra, even Pineapples 
vegetarian restaurant way back when.

Then he took a long vacation. ``I went to Germany, Italy, Spain. I tried 
different foods. I went crazy in Europe.''

When he returned to South Florida, he saw an opportunity in North Miami with 
its growing Haitian population.

''I knew that if I didn't come back to the Haitian community, they wouldn't 
know who I am,'' he says.

His clientele has turned out to be much more diverse than he expected -- and 
so has his menu. There's fried calamari, a Middle Eastern platter of hummus 
and couscous, New England clam chowder and lasagne alongside malanga 
fritter, crab cake, plantain and stewed beef with okra.

''I create flavors for all of them,'' Dorvil says. At the same time, he 
asserts the importance of working ''from inside out,'' maintaining his own 
creativity.

At Chez Rosie, 7015 Biscayne Blvd., in Miami, Ernest Martial's loyal 
customers come mostly for takeout. With only three stools at a counter, Chez 
Rosie is a humble space, but its size belies Martial's culinary skill and 
outsized flavors.

His food isn't so much fusion as mélange:

''If you look at my menu, you see French, Italian, Greek,'' he says. ''The 
fried shrimp and conch use Italian seasonings -- oregano and parsley and 
basil.'' And there's feta cheese on his salads.

''I can cook any food in the world,'' say Martial, 43.

He's got confidence, for sure -- and experience. In 1982, he was a 
dishwasher at Victoria Station for all of one week, he says. ``I got 
promoted to the salad bar and learned to make all kinds of dressings from 
scratch.''

Less than a year later, his boss moved to another restaurant, and took 
Martial along.

``He made me a line cook. I did so well that they treated me as if I was a 
chef. I stayed with him for a year, then went to Coco Loco in the Grove.''

He moved on to the Village Inn and the Rusty Pelican before earning a 
culinary degree at Johnson & Wales University and study hospitality 
management at Florida International University.

``I figured, if I go to school, I'll get more money, more respect.''

He opened Chez Rosie in 2000, naming it for his mother. Despite his 
international bent, much of the menu is unadulterated Haitian.

``The rice and beans -- it's completely Haitian. There are cloves in it. We 
have fried pork and fried goat and stewed chicken.''

All of which earned Chez Rosie plaudits in Bon Appetit magazine last year. 
''As little as we are, to be in Bon Appetit -- that's great,'' Martial says. 
''It gives me more energy.'' He'll need it. His goal is to open six Chez 
Rosies.

Nancy Ancrum writes biweekly about the culinary legacy of the African 
diaspora.