Welcome to Lenore’s Table! Welcome to my monthly column of food, fun and friendship. Let’s explore and experience the delicious! If I were to introduce myself as one of the top chefs in South Florida, you would be wondering about my qualifications. You would be thinking, “What’s the difference between a top chef and any other?” In a word: Passion!
As a little girl in Miami Beach, standing on a chair at the stove, donning my Campbell’s soup toque and apron, stirring a figure eight… This is my earliest recollection of “my food”! I can still smell the soup and remember sprinkling in some dried herbs like I had seen my mother do. She was a fabulous gourmet, loved to cook, loved to entertain, and was passionate about it! I wanted to be just like her!
At 19 in Indianapolis, I began my career and opened a brunch restaurant. In the late 1970s I moved to San Francisco and fell in love, duplicated my brunch and opened “Ryan’s,” a neighborhood restaurant, catering company, wine bar and retail market. Everything was delivered daily to our kitchen in hand-held baskets filled with baby lettuces, herbs, cheeses, meats and freshly laid eggs. We were farm-to-table, and passionate about it. We were “California Cuisine.”
In 1998 I returned home and opened my first Florida eatery, Lenore Nolan Ryan’s Catering & Cooking School in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea.
I now invite you to Lenore’s on the Galt Ocean Mile, still catering, and now offering a different culinary experience every day, with hands-on cooking classes, pop-up dining, wine and tapas tastings, and my favorite meal, Sunday’s “Bubbles & Brunch”!
I’m still passionate about the perfect poached egg, perched atop an Eggs Benedict or nestled in the heart of an artichoke flower, ladled with real hollandaise. I’m passionate about ethereal cream biscuits smothered with jam butter, bubbly libations and smiling, gracious service.
I was born to cook and entertain. It is my lifeline and the gift that I share.
I invite you to join me every month here at Lenore’s Table as we explore and experience food, fun and friendship together.
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