Good friends Bernard Carmouche, the former operations culinary director for Emeril’s Restaurants, and Larry Sinbaldi, former chef of Hard Rock Hotel’s Palm Restaurant, had talked about opening a restaurant concept together forever for several years. That dream came to fruition when the two culinary heavy-hitters opened Two Chefs Seafood and Oyster Bar in Orlando, Fla., in April.
SeafoodSource recently talked to Carmouche about the restaurant’s unique take on Southern food, as well as where the eatery sources its seafood.
Blank: How big is the restaurant and why did you decide to open it in Orlando?
Carmouche: We have 150 seats, including an upstairs private dining room with 44 seats. We both like Orlando and our families are here. We wanted to be north of downtown. There are a lot of things being built in that area, including condos, other restaurants and a stadium for MLS soccer. It definitely has brought a lot of traffic through the area.
Blank: Why did you decide to focus on Southern cuisine and seafood?
Carmouche: With the water being so close, we wanted to support the local fishermen. I grew up in the South and Southern cuisine is some of the best food in the U.S. Some of the flavors on the menu are inspired by the foods I grew up eating. Some of our popular dishes include the Cajun bowl, which includes dirty rice, collard greens, and eight-hour slow roasted pork and oysters on fire, with habanero peppers, tomato sauce and top with melted pepper jack cheese. We also do an oysters BLT, a crostini topped with fried oysters, pickled okra, house mayonnaise and bacon tomato jam.
Blank: What is your seafood sourcing philosophy?
Carmouche: Whatever is coming out of the water in 24 to 48 hours and is in season, we will use. We just really focus on the freshness and the quality. We talk to vendors the day before or the morning of. I don’t mind spending a high price if I’m getting high quality. I don’t want to sacrifice that at any measure. It’s got to be the best of the best or nothing at all.
Blank: Which seafood suppliers and distributors do you use?
Carmouche: We don’t buy directly from fishermen, but we use distributors such as Bar Harbor Seafood and Seafood Connections, a small independent that gets us Cape Canaveral shrimp, catfish and other seafood. In the last couple of weeks, we have been getting some blue points from Connecticut as well as oysters from Duxbury, Mass.
