"Real" Miami Dining at Scarpetta

Last month, I received an “offer I couldn’t refuse” in the form of an invitation to meet Chef Marlon Rambaran, Scarpetta’s new Chef de Cuisine, and taste his white truffle dish for a MIAbites feature on truffle season in Miami. (http://www.miabites.com/home/2014/10/19/miami-food-blog-truffles-mckitchen-dena-marino-scarpetta-fontainebleau?rq=truffles#.VIDc1Cis3ww=)

Of course, I jumped at the chance.  I mean, who says “no” to that?  What I didn’t know at the time was what a treat my meeting would be!

I tend to frequent smaller, more “local” restaurants for dinner.  The experience of dining out begins with the food, and from there it becomes a more personal/subjective event. Having dined at Chef Scott Conant's Scarpetta at the Fontainebleau Miami on several occasions, I’ve never had any complaints.  The food and the service are consistently excellent, but I leave feeling like I just had a great New York restaurant experience.  I’ve missed that personal connection to Miami.  After only a few minutes with Chef Marlon, I began to understand that I may have been a bit misguided.

Chef Marlon Rambaran brings an interesting perspective to Scarpetta.  He has more than 15 years’ experience in fine dining , and has been part of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach food & beverage team since October 2013, joining the team as senior sous chef of Gotham Steak, the hotel’s previous steakhouse. His past culinary tours include  serving as saucier and sous chef at the renowned Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia, PA; chef tournant at Restaurant Daniel, acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud’s iconic Manhattan restaurant and as executive sous chef under chef/owner David Burke at both David Burke Townhouse and David Burke Fishtail.

With a Trinidadian family tradition and a French culinary background, he sees an opportunity to impart a few of his own personal touches at Scarpetta that result in continuing Scarpetta’s reputation as a quality Italian dining option while offering a taste of Miami. 

While visiting with him, in addition to presenting us with his Truffle Tagliatelle dish featuring fresh pasta, wild mushrooms, white truffle sabayon and shaved white Alba truffles,  he was in the midst of developing new dishes for the fall menu, and as dishes like Squid Ink Tagliolini with Braised Octopus tomato and oregano, Scialatelli with Rock Shrimp, arugula, basil and bottarga bread crumbs, and Suckling Pig Casonconelli in a chestnut sage brown butter appeared at my table, my misconceptions about Scarpetta went out the window as quickly as I could raise a fork.  Each dish was cooked with attention to both flavors and presentation and was a pleasure for both my taste buds and my eyes.

if those dishes weren’t enough to make me reconsider Scarpetta’s place in Miami, I discovered that they make all of their pastas in house….yes, even the spaghetti.  A  well- known signature dish favored by the most discriminating celebs it is simple, dressed with tomato sauce and basil.  Plus, the Fontainebleau has its own shipping boat so that its restaurants always have the freshest, in-season fish available.  That’s about as personal and Miami as it gets!

If you haven’t had a chance to dine at Scarpetta since Chef Marlon Rambaran arrived, I highly recommend a visit. 

Snag a reservation on the covered terrace, watch the waves come in, and sample some of Chef Marlon’s new seasonal dishes with a nod to his traditions and those of Miami.

Scarpetta at The Fontainebleau

4441 Collins Avenue Miami Beach, Miami, FL 33140

305 674 4772