Michelle Bernstein's Pressure Cooker

Amy Keller | 12/1/2008

Food is never far from Michelle Bernstein’s thoughts. One recent night she woke up her husband, David, at 3 a.m. to ask him what he thought about a combination of fennel-crusted sweetbreads, sour oranges and bacon. Another time, in a needle-induced trance during a visit to her acupuncturist, she dreamed up a dish consisting of a red wine-poached egg with crispy pig ear served alongside a Latin-style white bean stew. That one landed with a thud when she added it to the menu at Michy’s, her acclaimed eatery on Miami’s Upper East Side. “Nobody would buy it,” she chuckles.

Michelle Bernstein runs Golden Spoon winner Michy’s in Miami (above) as well as MB at the Aqua resort in Cancun, Mexico, a seasonal restaurant called Michelle’s at Carysfort in Key Largo and a new tapas restaurant in Miami. And she and her husband/business partner are preparing to open another restaurant next year in Palm Beach. [Photo: Brian Smith]

Most of Bernstein’s culinary inspirations have been more successful, however. And as she’s cooked her way to the forefront of Miami’s restaurant scene, the 39-year-old Miami native has surfed the celebrity-chef phenomenon into a lucrative and growing string of consulting contracts and endorsement deals. In addition to running Michy’s (her childhood nickname), Bernstein designs the menus for Delta Air Lines’ international BusinessElite customers. Each week, she hosts an episode of “Check Please! South Florida,” a half-hour television show all about dining out. Last month, she embarked on a book tour to promote her new cookbook “Cuisine à Latina: Fresh Tastes and a World of Flavors from Michy’s Miami Kitchen.”

RECIPE Shrimp Tiradito with Avocado and Corn Nuts Celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein shares this easy-to-make appetizer. Read how to make it

Meanwhile, she jet-hops across the state to St. Petersburg to film commercials for the shopping network HSN, which she says is gearing up to launch a line of Bernstein pots, pans and oils early next year.

Indeed, the soft-spoken chef says the most unexpected aspect of her success has been the smorgasbord of economic opportunities outside the kitchen. “To think about so many ventures and possibilities ... I get to spread my wings. It’s pretty cool.”

Prep work

In the Miami Shores neighborhood where she grew up, the Bernstein house was known for its exotic menus. While other moms served macaroni and cheese, Bernstein’s mother, Martha, who is from Buenos Aires, prepared homemade gnocchi, “outrageous” risottos and braised fennel. Bernstein recalls making her first roast chicken with her mother at age 4. By 9, when most of her peers were playing with Easy-Bake Ovens, Bernstein was begging for an escargot set.

She never imagined food as a career, however. “I just loved to eat,” says Bernstein, who pursued a career as a ballerina successfully enough to land a scholarship to train with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York when she was 18.

Tags: Dining & Travel