The Fat Duck. El Bulli. Ryu Gin. Le Bernardin. Four kitchens, none of them in the United States until the last one, and a résumé that reads like a passport stamp page from the era when food was reinventing itself in two-Michelin-star rooms.
Michael Mérida walked all of that into the Beat Bobby Flay arena and chose fish croquette — the dish humble enough that a child can recognize it and exacting enough that the same child, twenty years later, can still get it wrong. The bechamel has to set firm; the breading has to seal; the interior has to stay molten without weeping.
First New Jersey chef to win the show. He runs Craft Elevated Dining in Westwood now. The training stuck.
More from French →