Cucina Creativa


http://blogs.nypost.com/travel/archives/2007/02/liveblogmiami_b_1.html New York Post February 23, 2007 LIVEBLOG/MIAMI BEACH: School lunch Here's a restaurant you won't likely see too much of in the party pictures for the Wine & Food Festival - contributor David Appell discovers a school lunch room in Miami's Coconut Grove that's staying open after hours. When I got the press release, I thought—damn, do I feel sorry for this PR lady. A fancy Italian restaurant…in a school cafeteria? "Please enroll early," she wrote. Oh, cute—but really, how many of us want a ride on that particular big yellow flashback bus? The Arts & Minds Charter School in the downtown Grove is sure a far cry from Ridgemont High—a converted upscale shopping mall that for the past three years has been a Fame-style refuge for kids who want to balance the three R's with singing, dancing, painting, and acting. And right in the middle of it all is Cucina Creativa, run since 2006 by the lunch lady—er, chef Gilberto Barrera, a local restaurant veteran from Colombia who spent time studying cookery in Rome. When the school's founder realized that Chef Gilberto could do a heckuva lot more than just sling pasta and calzones for 250 students, he let him set up a 75-seat restaurant after hours for the general public. Tables are set out on a breezy brick plaza with a huge screen overhead showing movie classics; another few tables are off to one side in a cozy little sponged-painted room where you can see into the kitchen with its wood-burning oven and the maestro at work. And you know what? È buono—molto buono. At my recent meal here, I wasn't choking down some pile of overfried fish sticks—it was a fluffy oven-roasted red snapper with artichokes, garlic, Kalamata olives, and sweet peppers in a Chablis reduction. No gummy mac-and-cheese but an exquisite tortelloni di fonduta al sugo di vitello—filled with velvety fontina cheese in a veal-and-truffle-oil broth. And Welch's grape juice? Fuhgeddaboudit--it all went down like a dream with Castello Banfi's Rosso di Montalcino. The guy's a wiz in the kitchen, and even more amazingly, he does it single-handedly. Too cool for school. NEED TO KNOW: Cucina Creativa, 3138 Commodore Plaza, Coconut Grove; Tue.-Sun. 6-11pm; tel. 305-448-1970; www.aandm.net/Cucina/CCmain.html; entrées $14-$25, pizzas $7.50-$11.75, pastas $8-$12; reservations recommended for larger parties. -- David Appell
Cucina Creativa Ristorante The best kept secret in Coconut Grove. MIAMI, Jan. 31, 2007 By: Suzi Valentine When Weird Al Yankovic penned the lyrics of his seminal work School Cafeteria, he had something very different in mind from Miami’s Cucina Creativa. The restaurant which serves the students of the Academy of Arts and Minds High School at 3138 Commodore Plaza in Coconut Grove during the day boasts an excellent and reasonably priced Italian menu at night devised by a Colombian chef. Set on the terrace of the school and accommodating up to 75 people, the restaurant also boasts a private dining room in which up to six patrons can watch Gilberto Barrera whip up creations of their choice. “This is the school cafeteria during the day,” says Manuel Alonso, creator of the Academy “and we just happened to have an association with a great chef who cooks like a prince so we decided that he would cook for the students during the day and, at night, we would allow him to open to the public and create an atmosphere on the patio, a small quaint environment. “We are the best kept secret in Coconut Grove.” Selecting from the regular menu, visitors may savor lobster, mussels and veal – a far cry from the four million burgers of which Yankovic wrote – in imaginative dishes created by the charter school’s chef. On a daily basis, he caters to 300 students. The restaurant is a separate business from the school, other than providing a lunch service. Cucina Creativa is open from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day but Monday. The restaurant’s ethos reflects that of the school which focuses on creative endeavor. The school’s theater has hosted traveling acts and homegrown productions. The Academy of Arts and Minds’ Abanico Theater also plays host to the Dutch Film Club which meets monthly and Culture in the City, www.cultureinthecity.org, a city-based nonprofit organization that hosts lectures every Wednesday. Regular diners are serenaded courtesy of an outdoor screen at which the restaurant shows concerts and movies. “On the wall, we show videos of all kinds musical acts,” says Alonso, “from Tony Bennett to Madonna to the Bee Gees.” Against this backdrop, Alonso explains how the academy differs from other art schools in Miami. “It’s the idea of a cultural center,” he says, “where the educational and the professional collide.” Our philosophy is different. Our objective is that we want our students to become well-rounded artists with knowledge of all the artistic disciplines.” More details about the restaurant, the school and the theater available at ww.aandm.net.

http://blogs.nypost.com/travel/archives/2007/02/liveblogmiami_b_1.html

New York Post

February 23, 2007

LIVEBLOG/MIAMI BEACH: School lunch

Here's a restaurant you won't likely see too much of in the party pictures for the Wine & Food Festival - contributor David Appell discovers a school lunch room in Miami's Coconut Grove that's staying open after hours.

When I got the press release, I thought—damn, do I feel sorry for this PR lady. A fancy Italian restaurant…in a school cafeteria? "Please enroll early," she wrote. Oh, cute—but really, how many of us want a ride on that particular big yellow flashback bus?
The Arts & Minds Charter School in the downtown Grove is sure a far cry from Ridgemont High—a converted upscale shopping mall that for the past three years has been a Fame-style refuge for kids who want to balance the three R's with singing, dancing, painting, and acting.
And right in the middle of it all is Cucina Creativa, run since 2006 by the lunch lady—er, chef Gilberto Barrera, a local restaurant veteran from Colombia who spent time studying cookery in Rome. When the school's founder realized that Chef Gilberto could do a heckuva lot more than just sling pasta and calzones for 250 students, he let him set up a 75-seat restaurant after hours for the general public.
Tables are set out on a breezy brick plaza with a huge screen overhead showing movie classics; another few tables are off to one side in a cozy little sponged-painted room where you can see into the kitchen with its wood-burning oven and the maestro at work.
And you know what? È buono—molto buono. At my recent meal here, I wasn't choking down some pile of overfried fish sticks—it was a fluffy oven-roasted red snapper with artichokes, garlic, Kalamata olives, and sweet peppers in a Chablis reduction. No gummy mac-and-cheese but an exquisite tortelloni di fonduta al sugo di vitello—filled with velvety fontina cheese in a veal-and-truffle-oil broth. And Welch's grape juice? Fuhgeddaboudit--it all went down like a dream with Castello Banfi's Rosso di Montalcino. The guy's a wiz in the kitchen, and even more amazingly, he does it single-handedly.
Too cool for school.

NEED TO KNOW: Cucina Creativa, 3138 Commodore Plaza, Coconut Grove; Tue.-Sun. 6-11pm; tel. 305-448-1970; www.aandm.net/Cucina/CCmain.html; entrées $14-$25, pizzas $7.50-$11.75, pastas $8-$12; reservations recommended for larger parties.
-- David Appell

Cucina Creativa Ristorante
The best kept secret in Coconut Grove.

MIAMI, Jan. 31, 2007
By: Suzi Valentine

When Weird Al Yankovic penned the lyrics of his seminal work School Cafeteria, he had something very different in mind from Miami’s Cucina Creativa.

The restaurant which serves the students of the Academy of Arts and Minds High School at 3138 Commodore Plaza in Coconut Grove during the day boasts an excellent and reasonably priced Italian menu at night devised by a Colombian chef. Set on the terrace of the school and accommodating up to 75 people, the restaurant also boasts a private dining room in which up to six patrons can watch Gilberto Barrera whip up creations of their choice.

“This is the school cafeteria during the day,” says Manuel Alonso, creator of the Academy “and we just happened to have an association with a great chef who cooks like a prince so we decided that he would cook for the students during the day and, at night, we would allow him to open to the public and create an atmosphere on the patio, a small quaint environment. “We are the best kept secret in Coconut Grove.”

Selecting from the regular menu, visitors may savor lobster, mussels and veal – a far cry from the four million burgers of which Yankovic wrote – in imaginative dishes created by the charter school’s chef. On a daily basis, he caters to 300 students. The restaurant is a separate business from the school, other than providing a lunch service. Cucina Creativa is open from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day but Monday.

The restaurant’s ethos reflects that of the school which focuses on creative endeavor. The school’s theater has hosted traveling acts and homegrown productions.

The Academy of Arts and Minds’ Abanico Theater also plays host to the Dutch Film Club which meets monthly and Culture in the City, www.cultureinthecity.org, a city-based nonprofit organization that hosts lectures every Wednesday. Regular diners are serenaded courtesy of an outdoor screen at which the restaurant shows concerts and movies. “On the wall, we show videos of all kinds musical acts,” says Alonso, “from Tony Bennett to Madonna to the Bee Gees.”

Against this backdrop, Alonso explains how the academy differs from other art schools in Miami. “It’s the idea of a cultural center,” he says, “where the educational and the professional collide.” Our philosophy is different. Our objective is that we want our students to become well-rounded artists with knowledge of all the artistic disciplines.”

More details about the restaurant, the school and the theater available at ww.aandm.net.