The philosophy that “food and music bring people together” inspired Chef Jamal Rodriguez and his business partner to create Plated Perfection. The name Plated Perfection came from their vision of the journey, rather than the destination. “Anything we do in life, we strive for perfection,” says Chef Jamal. “It doesn’t mean you’ll hit it,” he acknowledges, “but you’re on the right path if you’re striving for it.”
Chef Jamal’s background is impressive. He received an Associate’s Degree in Culinary Arts/Chef Training from Le Cordon Bleu Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in 2007. That led him to Banquet Sous Chef and Chef at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, and he ran their Culinary Academy. Before the pandemic, he moved to the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Maryland. And now he is in his present role of Executive Chef at Plated Perfection.
Chef Jamal invited us to share in their vision with a three-course tasting at Plated Perfection in Fort Lauderdale, and we watched as he and his team prepared each dish in the Executive Chef commercial kitchen. We asked him questions about how he got to be where he is today as well as what inspires him, and the three dishes he made for us.
Q. How did you get to be where you are now as a chef?
Chef Jamal: I think where I’m standing right now is a cumulative effect of the last three to four years. When the pandemic broke, like so many other people in this country, it was traumatic. It affected my life in a way that I wouldn’t wish on anybody.
I had moved from Florida to Virginia for a job in Maryland, the biggest job I’d ever taken, in September 2019. In March 2020 we all know what happened, and by April that was it. I was furloughed and then let go. I ended up in Miami, then in Las Vegas, and that’s where the beginning of this journey started. The beginning of Plated Perfection.
On my way back to Florida, I met Willis (my business partner) who had this idea which just morphed and grew and changed. There have been a lot of trials and tribulations, but when you push through something hard (as a team) and you come out the other side, you recognize “Not only is this going to work, everything is easy now for us to work together.”
Every time (there’s change), there’s an evolution that happens. My evolution started with COVID and this is where I’m at now. I’m happy to be where I’m at today.
Q. What’s the vision for Plated Perfection?
Chef Jamal: The vision for Plated Perfection is to be one of the top 5 catering companies in South Florida in the next five years.
One of the reasons we chose the name Plated Perfection is because it’s a journey. You can never achieve perfection, no matter what you do. Nothing will ever be perfect, but to not strive for it anymore is like dying. That’s like you’ve stopped learning. If you’re not trying to be the best, then what are you doing?
If you aim to be the best and you miss, you don’t miss really big. You miss pretty small. If we’re going to miss, we’re going to be as close to our target as possible.
Q. What do you think fosters your creativity?
Chef Jamal: I can be creative when people don’t ask for something with specific boundaries. If there are rules, barriers, things that I can’t do, then I can’t be creative and think outside the box.
I can walk through a store and find things that I’ve never seen before and ask, “how can I use this?” What tends to happen is I start to learn what new ingredients are, how they’re best utilized, and that allows me to take my spin on it and be creative with it.
Creativity doesn’t come naturally to me because there is a process to it. There’s always a process to being creative, for me. I know techniques, and what I do is utilize the techniques I was taught and take parts or sections of new “stories” and put them together.
If someone shows me something that is similar to what I’ve done in the past, then I want to see if it holds up for me. It’s a lot of trial and error.
Q. What are the culinary trends you’re seeing right now?
Chef Jamal: All of them have to do with gastronomy and the changes in food science. I think that’s the biggest factor. I think this will be around for quite some time because that’s what everyone is doing. And because everyone’s doing it, everyone wants to be one of the ‘cool kids.’
For me, I just like to do things that are fairly simple and what I really enjoy. When I create dishes like this (the pork plate), it’s what I like to do the most.
As Chef Jamal finished preparing each dish, we went to the luxurious private tasting room to try it. Here are photos of each dish and his explanations of each.
We started with a fig dish.
Q. Tell us about this fig dish?
Chef Jamal: I brought in some fresh figs: two types, brown figs and black figs. I wanted something fresh to start off with.
One of the best ways to do something fresh is to create a ricotta from scratch, so I created my own ricotta. I took some of the extra figs, cooked them down, and turned them into a fig jam. I seasoned the ricotta with the fig jam and put them back into the figs.
I wanted some local honey, to add a little more sweetness, so the inside will be sweet and the taste of the honey should go well.
We have pistachio nuts that are crusted on the bottom of each fig, with a little bit sprinkled on the top. And they’re finished with a bit of mint leaves.
The 2nd dish was a pork plate.
Q: What was the inspiration behind the pork dish?
Chef Jamal: The inspiration was the saltiness of the pork and the sweetness of the butternut squash and parsnip puree and the savory that comes in with the jus.
When I was thinking about the juice that would go on top, there could be beets or all sorts of other choices, but I wanted to use a type of liquor like vermouth that has a very strong flavor because everything on this plate should be extremely cohesive: the salty pork and the sweetness of the parsnips (made with garlic and rosemary), so it has an herbal aromatic taste to it. The butternut squash is just seasoned with butter and maple syrup, so it has much more sweetness to it. The savory should tie in with the salty/high salt content of the pork itself.
The topping on the pork is a baruque jus. I took veal stock and turned it into a demi and added a vermouth gastrique (or reduction).
(Jason then added colorful edible pansies to the plate and noted all the flowers were edible).
The 3rd dish was Chilean sea bass.
Q: Tell us about the Chilean sea bass
Chef Jamal: Chilean sea bass (about 6 oz.) was sauteed, served with bok choy that was sauteed in sesame oil with a touch of garlic and ginger. There were wild mushrooms pan-roasted in butter, and a lemon beurre blanc with dollops of basil oil and green onions on top.
The inspiration behind this dish was “butter.” Chilean sea bass is extremely rich, and I used sesame oil for the bok choy, but butter for everything else. The fish is seared in oil and butter and everything else is based in butter, including the lemon beurre blanc. For me, this is about as decadent and rich as you can get. For me, this is expressing butter on a plate.
Each dish was more delicious than the one before and we were impressed with the menu, the food, the location, and the entire experience. Danto Builders is proud to have worked with the Plated Perfection team to make their vision a reality. We encourage you to look at the amazing space in the photos below and do a tasting with them for your next event.
Plated Perfection is at 6472 NW 5th Way in Fort Lauderdale. They’ll be opening in October and we’re excited to share their starting menu with the QR Code below. You can reach Jamal for an event at Jrodriguez@platedperfection.com.
Interested in making your dream a reality?
Interested in making your dream a reality?Contact Debbie Danto to talk about your construction project.