Culinary Passions of Fla. CEOs

Steven Kirchof, CEO, OneOncology Inc., Orlando [Photo: Gregg Matthews]

Steven Kirchof grew up eating raw oysters from Appalachicola right out of the back of a pickup truck. A fourth-generation Floridian, his family first settled in Volusia County in 1890 where they grew citrus along the St. Johns River in DeLeon Springs and DeLand. Kirchof credits his grandmothers, Southern on his father’s side and Polish on his mother’s, for his cooking skills and appreciation of good food made from fresh, local ingredients.

The Kirchof family gazpacho. Get the recipe here

His tastes range from Southern Cracker-style food like fried bass, mullet or snapper paired with a cold beer or sweet tea, up the culinary ladder to French Burgundy cheeses with a good French Burgundy wine. He finessed his cooking skills and widened his repertoire thanks to his friendships with professional chefs such as Charles Draghi of Boston, Rick Bayless in Chicago, and Andre Gamard of Le Marmiton in Washington.

Kirchof and his wife, Maggie, also enjoy fine wines and have amassed a sizable collection. With more than 1,500 bottles to choose from, Kirchoff’s favorites are French Burgundies, which he says have gotten prohibitively expensive lately. Here in the U.S., he’s very fond of the Pinot Gris and Pinot Noirs from Oregon’s vineyards. Many Oregon vines are French clones, he says, and produce some wonderful wines.

Kirchof’s Favorite Oregon Wines

Pinot Gris
2008 Lange Reserve
2008 Chehalem Reserve
Anne Amie Winters Hill

Pinot Noir
2007 Domaine Serene Grace Vineyards
Shea Wine Cellars Homer
Ken Wright Shea
Eyrie Estate Reserve

Where He Shops
Online: winesearcher.com for imports
Local: The Wine Barn in Orlando

David Paris
Cardiologist, 48, Deerfield Beach

David Paris [Photo: Scott Wiseman]

David Paris is a connoisseur of hot sauce and hot peppers. He’s yet to find one he can’t take, although he will admit to resorting to an antacid or two on a rare occasion. He orders plants online and has peppers from Trinidad, Vietnam, India and China (to name a few) growing in his back yard. His favorite is the white habanero, a very tiny, very hot pepper.

When he travels, Paris searches for hot sauces at the best local grocers. "Kids want to stop at souvenir stores. I always want the driver to take me to the local supermarket," says Paris, who found one of his favorites, Susie’s (susieshotsauce.com), in Antigua.

Paris typically keeps a pepper plant in his car for when he’s eating out and wants to punch up his meal. He tells the waiter "to have the chef make it hotter than he ever has. I promise not to send it back," says Paris. Sometimes he jokingly reassures them that he’s a doctor.

Paris’ Hot Sources

Best Read: Chile Pepper magazine

Best Plant Source: chileplants.com

Robert Zarco
Franchise attorney, Zarco, Einhorn, Salkowski & Brito, 50, Miami

Robert Zarco [Photo: Scott Wiseman]

Miami litigator and multimillionaire Robert Zarco has a million-dollar view of Biscayne Bay and downtown Miami from his outdoor kitchen. But what really keeps his guests coming back is his 36-inch-by-42-inch teppanyaki table, a Benihana-style flat iron grill that sits in a 14-foot-long marble slab. Zarco is a self-taught teppenyaki chef who boasts a "killer fried rice that totally blows away any you’ve ever tasted."

Zarco requires his guests to sit around the grill while he’s working; it seats 16.That way, he can be part of the party instead of "slaving away all alone in the kitchen." He serves his fried rice with teriyaki filet mignon and teriyaki chicken and a glass of white or red wine — preferably Stag’s Leap wines.

From slicing and dicing to prepping the grill, cooking and then cleaning and oiling the grill, it’s a lot of work. Cooking the meal itself takes an hour, Zarco says. He calls it "sport cooking."

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Taking to the Vineyards

Mark Tobin, 46, an eminent domain attorney with Brigham Moore in Miami, married into an Italian family with roots on Long Island, a young but thriving wine region in New York.

Mark Tobin

His father-in-law taught him how to make wine in his garage. This family tradition led Tobin to purchase 22 acres on Long Island’s North Fork, which in the summer of 2005 became Mattebella Vineyards, named after his two children Matthew and Isabella. His wife, Christine, runs the vineyard, and he manages the winemaking. Mattebella produces 1,800 to 2,000 cases a year. The vineyard’s premier red, Mattebella Old World Blend, won a silver medal at the American Fine Wine Competition.