Insider’s Guide to Miami

Name: Chef Dewey LoSasso

The stats: Born in New Jersey; has lived in Miami for 28 years, currently in Miami Shores.

Why he loves Miami: The Miami beaches, the farms in the Redland area, and being so close to the Florida Keys (and the coral reef system). Farm, sea, and air …all in one!

Chef Dewey LoSasso is a New Jersey native who humbly started his culinary career making pizzas as a child in his family’s home pizza kitchen, where his culinary skills and appreciation for local ingredients was encouraged starting at a very young age.. A graduate of the Culinary Institue of America, LoSasso came to South Florida in the 1980s and was a founding member of the era’s Mango Gang, a group of bold young chefs who were credited with putting the fresh, tropical-influenced cuisine of South Florida on the culinary map.

He began at the Foundlings Club under the tutelage of philanthropist and art collector Micky Wolfson, where the pair traveled extensively throughout the world on a culinary tour. After his return, LoSasso turned the Foundling Club’s kitchen into a culinary laboratory, where he found his calling for creative, cutting-edge cuisine with global influences and ingredients – which he dubbed as “Florida Progressive” – gaining him recognition and several awards.

After a job as Donatella Versace’s personal chef and food event coordinator, as well as executive chef for the Lipton Tennis Tournament (now the Sony Ericsson Open), LoSasso worked as executive and concept chef for Tuscan Steak in Miami before expanding in New York. He eventually made his return to Miami and beat out 171 other applicants from around the world to impress owner Shareef Malnik with his bold and modern cuisine and ultimately earn the position as executive chef of Miami’s legendary The Forge Restaurant. After a 16-week process of creating the new menu for the landmark restaurant, LoSasso has revealed a menu with an emphasis on farm- and ocean-to-table ingredients and modern interpretations of classic dishes.

Of his new venture, Chef LoSasso said, “I like to pay attention to the way people eat. It reflects not only individual palates, but current cultures, both culinary and social. The Forge Restaurant | Wine Bar is unique in that it embraces tastes of a global community with a menu that pays respect to The Forge’s past, but takes rebel risks.”

Check out Chef Dewey LoSasso’s favorite haute spots in Miami at Haute Secrets.

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