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Hot, hot, hot

The word is used repeatedly by fans of celebrity chef Tyler Florence - and they aren't just describing the food.

By JANET K. KEELER
Published February 16, 2005

[Times photos: Joseph Garnett Jr.] Chef Tyler Florence, host of the Food Network’s Food 911 and How to Boil Water, talks with Kay Jefferson of Tampa about how to prepare a recipe from his cookbook after a cooking class at Apron’s Cooking School in Tampa.

Florence cooked up Sesame-Encrusted Seared Tuna with Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette on chunks of avocado.

Makes about 1 cup.

TAMPA - Double-dipping is a no-no, unless, it seems, the first dip is by a handsome celebrity chef and the second by a smoldering fan.

When you are the pinup chef of the Food Network, every kitchen faux pas is excused, even encouraged.

"Who wants a taste?" Tyler Florence asks a soldout room at Apron's Cooking School at Publix at Shoppes of Citrus Park. He holds a spoon aloft after slurping ginger-soy vinaigrette from it. Hands shoot up.

Pick me. Over here. Hey, Tyler!

Michele Merryman of Tampa is the lucky one. Florence spoon-feeds her from the very utensil he just licked. The intimate moment is not lost on the faithful.

"I'd double-dip with him any time," sighs one woman.

Such is the lot of Florence, host of the cable channel's Food 911 and How to Boil Water. He has degrees in culinary arts and business from Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, S.C., and recently received an honorary doctorate.

Wait until his fans get a peek at the cover photo of Eat This Book, to be published in April by Random House. It conjures visions of Tony Manero strutting the streets of New York in the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever. Instead of a paint bucket, though, Florence is carrying bags of groceries.

A Manhattan restaurant, Agridolce ("sweet agriculture" in Italian), is in the works and Florence makes appearances at food festivals and cooking schools around the country. He cooked at the Naples Winter Wine Festival the day before teaching classes at Apron's in Sarasota and Tampa.

He's in demand for his cooking skills, but graciously greets, hugs and poses for photos with women who sound more like Paris Hilton than Betty Crocker.

"He's hot," says Merryman's mother, Scarlet Drane, also of Tampa. Drane was the second person in line when tickets went on sale Dec. 15.

"We got here at 5 a.m. and it was 38 degrees," she says. Forty-eight tickets at $100 each sold out in 30 minutes, never mind that the class started the same time as the Super Bowl. (Just two men were in the Feb. 6 audience.)

Florence's staff books his appearances months in advance and didn't realize the conflict, he says. If it mattered, he didn't let on.

"I like the enthusiasm of people learning to cook," he says before class. "People are really becoming talented cooks. It's very inspiring."

He arrives full-speed at Apron's kitchen, wearing jeans and a black and indigo blue checked shirt, untucked. There's a bit of stubble on his chin and no socks buffering his loafers. He tackles a large piece of tuna first.

"It's been frozen, but it'll be okay, it's beautiful, really." Moving quickly he cuts it into thin slices, looks over a pot of hulled strawberries, asks for more saffron, then heads to the book-signing table. Apron's resident chef Bil Mitchell and his staff help prepare the meal.

Ticketless Kristen Di Donna has come from St. Petersburg for the author's autograph on Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen (Clarkson Potter, $32.50). She makes a killer cheesecake and lasagne and would be happy to make them for Florence, she says. He poses for two pictures with her.

The chef's fawning following is a testament to the rock star status bestowed on celebrity chefs these days. Soldout classes and long lines for book signings are common for Food Network personalities such as Florence, Paula Deen, Emeril Lagasse, Sara Moulton and others.

Except for an occasional flush at a cheeky double-entendre, Florence takes the adulation in stride. At 33 (he's 34 in March), he is young enough for many in the audience to call him son.

He's intense and gets close to anyone who asks a cooking question, crouching down to give the answer, his eyes focused on the person he's talking to. He revels in sharing his love of good food.

"His recipes and cooking are easy and sophisticated. You don't have to have exotic mushrooms and exotic sauces," Drane says.

Then Drane mentions the hot factor. Again.

While the rest of America is eating wings and pizza, Florence's students dine on sesame-encrusted seared tuna with ginger-soy vinaigrette, Barcelona-style paella and pistachio meringues with warm strawberries. Fetzer gewurztraminer, chardonnay, pinot noir and Johannisberg Riesling accompanied the dishes.

Florence answers questions and gives advice while cooking:

* "There are four tastes - spicy, sour, salty, sweet. Every time I make a dish, I try to hit all four."

* The episodes of Food 911 with dark cabinets in the background were filmed at his New York apartment. The others are shot at people's homes.

* He'll eat anything but draws the line at the Chinese 100-year-old egg. He had a bad experience with one of those, something about a black yolk.

* For his own enjoyment, he makes a spaghetti with marinara and fresh basil from the garden that will "make you cry."

* His restaurant will look like a farmhouse. Half will be a dining area and the other half a market where artisanal products will be featured.

* The 320th episode of Food 911 was just shot. The network gets 350 requests a day from people who want Florence to come to their house to teach them to cook a troublesome dish.

* Cooking is his thing, he tells the audience. And from the adoring gazes of his students, he is certainly theirs.

Janet K. Keeler can be reached at 727 893-8586 or krieta@sptimes.com

To get a class schedule for Publix's Apron's cooking schools in Tampa and Sarasota, call 813 926-4465 or (941) 358-7829, or click on www.publix.com/aprons

Extra-virgin olive oil

4 (6-ounce) blocks sushi-quality tuna

1 cup sesame seeds

1 recipe Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette (see recipe)

2 ripe avocados, halved, peeled, pitted and cut into large chunks

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and coat with a 2-count of olive oil. Season the tuna generously with salt and pepper. Press one side of the fish into the sesame seeds. Lay the seeded side of the tuna in the hot oil and sear for 1 minute to form a slight crust. Pour half of the vinaigrette into the pan to coat the fish. Remove the fish to plates and serve with the avocado and the remaining vinaigrette drizzled over.

Serves 4.

Source: Tyler Florence.

4 big handfuls fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1 jalapeno, sliced paper-thin

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves, grated

Juice of 4 limes

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Grapefruit oil (see note)

1 cup olive oil

Zest of one grapefruit

In a mixing bowl, combine the cilantro, jalapeno, ginger, garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, 1/3 cup grapefruit oil and salt and pepper to taste. Stir the ingredients together until it's all well blended. Strain out the ginger and garlic, and serve.

Source: Tyler Florence.

2 chicken thighs

2 chicken legs

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons sweet paprika

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 Spanish chorizo sausage

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1 onion, diced

1 16-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed

1 cup Spanish rice, short to medium grain

1 teaspoon saffron threads

4 jumbo shrimp, peeled, with heads and tails on

2 lobster tails, split

6 littleneck clams, scrubbed

1/2 cup frozen sweet peas, thawed

Fresh parsley leaves, for garnish

Lemon wedges, for serving

Rinse the chicken pieces and pat them dry. Mix the oregano and paprika with some salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the spice mixture all over the chicken and stick it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so the flavor can sink in a bit.

Heat the oil in a paella pan or wide shallow skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is beginning to smoke, add the chicken, skin-side down, and brown all over, turning with tongs. Add the chorizo and continue to cook until the oil is a vibrant red color. Remove the chicken and sausage to a platter lined with paper towels.

Return the pan to the stove and lower the heat to medium. Now make a sofrito by sauteing the garlic and onion in the oil that remains in the pan for 7 to 10 minutes, until they begin to brown. Add the tomatoes and cook it all down until the mixture caramelizes a bit and the flavors meld. Season with salt and pepper. Fold in the rice, stirring to coat the grains. Stir in the saffron. Pour in 3 cups warm water and simmer for 10 minutes, gently moving the pan around so the rice cooks evenly and absorbs the liquid. Do not cover or stir constantly like a risotto.

Add the shrimp, lobster, clams and the reserved chicken and chorizo. Give the paella a couple of good stirs to tuck all the pieces in there; then just let it simmer, without stirring, until the rice is al dente, about 15 minutes. Scatter the peas on top and continue to cook for 5 more minutes, until the paella looks fluffy and moist. (The ideal paella has a toasted rice bottom called socarrat.) Then let it rest off the heat for 5 minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve with lemon.

Serves 4.

Source: Tyler Florence.

4 large egg whites

1 cup water

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup finely chopped (but not powdered) pistachios

1 pint strawberries, hulled and cut into thick slices

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Start by putting egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer. Make a sugar syrup by bringing water to a low boil, then adding 1 cup sugar, cooking to dissolve. Then bring the syrup to a boil and cook until the syrup reaches 248 degrees on a candy thermometer. When the syrup is almost up to temperature, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Then, with the mixer going, gradually pour in the hot sugar syrup and keep beating until cool. Beat in the vanilla.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using two large spoons, first scoop out a big spoonful of the meringue mixture. Then use the other spoon to push the meringue onto the parchment-lined baking sheet so that you have a big free-form mountain peak of meringue. Keep going this same way to use all the meringue. Sprinkle with the pistachios. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the outsides of the meringues are set and crisp, and the insides are still soft, like marshmallows. Remove from the oven and transfer to wire racks to cool.

When the meringues are out of the oven, combine strawberries, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and the lemon juice in a nonreactive saucepan and warm over medium heat, just until the strawberries begin to break down and give off their juice, about 3 minutes. Serve the meringues with the warm strawberries and their juices.

Serves 6.

Source: Tyler Florence.

[Last modified February 15, 2005, 11:39:04]