Latest news with #JeremyFord
Time Out
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
What it's like to dine at Stubborn Seed from Michelin-starred chef Jeremy Ford
After winning season 13 of Top Chef, Jeremy Ford opened his farm-to-table restaurant Stubborn Seed in Miami Beach. Using produce from his own farm he created a rotating tasting menu based on seasonal ingredients that caught the attention of diners and food critics. In 2022, Stubborn Seed was awarded its first Michelin star. Now, Ford is in Las Vegas offering a seasonal tasting menu at his Stubborn Seed sequel inside Resorts World. We dined there. Here's what to expect. The restaurant is twice the size of the Miami Beach location with seating for 130. Ford partnered with Celano Design Studio on the space, which includes a three-tiered circular chandelier hanging over the bar. You'll also spot a crashing blue wave hand-painted on a curved canvas above the exhibition kitchen, where a team of chefs meticulously prepare Ford's modern American fare. Ford focuses on providing diners a vegetable-forward meal that mixes in proteins like salmon, Japanese yellowtail or Wagyu beef. He's sourcing ingredients regionally and locally, including using Vegas-grown Desert Moon mushrooms. The dishes are all artfully plated. Edible flowers top certain dishes, as do airy foams, while swipes of sauces ring the plate on others. Stubborn Seed opened in February with an eight-course winter tasting menu ($135 per person) that included sake and citrus cured Japanese yellowtail, uni panna cotta, and winter truffle ricotta gnudi with maitake mushrooms, buttery greens and crunchy pine nuts. The meal can be upgraded to the 'elevated experience' ($175) with add-ons such as a kaluga caviar macaron and Hudson Valley foie gras and black truffle tart. A wine pairing can be added for $70. A tight à la carte menu is available at the bar. Here guests can order some of those same tasting menu dishes individually or opt for items like Iberico ham fritters ($22), a Wagyu smash burger ($28) or barramundi with butter poached baby leaks ($33). Equally impressive is Stubborn Seed's beverage program. The restaurant's signature cocktail is called the Kill Dill. It's a fresh green cocktail that combines gin and the absinthe-like Dolin Génépy with cucumber, dill syrup and egg white. Other drinks are riffs on originals with Stubborn Seed's version of the old fashioned using black tea-infused whiskey and a negroni featuring ancho chile liqueur.
Forbes
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Jeremy Ford's Stubborn Seed Brings Its Playful Tasting Menus To Las Vegas
Stubborn Seed's "elevated experience" includes a caviar macaron. Stubborn Seed, Jeremy Ford and Grove Bay Hospitality's Michelin-star Miami destination, is ready to make a splash in Las Vegas. Tucked on the north end of Resorts World Las Vegas, steps from Brezza, Aqua and Carversteak, the new Stubborn Seed debuted in February. This is a modern American restaurant with playful seasonal tasting menus that start at $135, a good value for those who want a fine-dining experience that isn't overly fussy on the Strip. Upgrade to Stubborn Seed's $175 'elevated experience,' still significantly less expensive than the more elite tasting-menu restaurants in Las Vegas, to get sumptuous add-ons like a kaluga caviar macaron and a Hudson Valley foie gras and black truffle tart. Ford, who won season 13 of Top Chef, expertly plays with textures and temperatures as he serves uni panna cotta with yuzu gelee and orange kombu granita. It's a terrific combination of luxurious and refreshing, a proper introduction to the way Ford thinks and cooks. And as Ford has said before, Stubborn Seed wants to showcase 'every ingredient at its peak,' so the restaurant's winter menu in Las Vegas features winter truffle ricotta gnudi with maitakes and buttery greens. Stubborn Seed also makes the most of mushrooms as it amps up umami in standout dishes like pan-roasted barramundi with baby leeks, fennel, shiitake sofrito and a resplendent galangal green curry. Layering umami on top of umami on top of more umami and plenty of distinct savory notes is how Ford likes to roll: Westholme wagyu strip loin is prepared with brown butter soubise, Vegas-grown Desert Moon mushrooms, Marcona-almond-fermented soybean, crispy miso cabbage and chicken jus. There's a lot going on here, and it all works nicely together. Westholme wagyu from Australia gets the Stubborn Seed treatment. The Las Vegas Stubborn Seed, with its industrial-chic Miami roots, is a restaurant that's polished but not too polished, an upscale spot that has purposefully chosen to be loose instead of buttoned-up. It's part of an eclectic dining upgrade at Resorts World, where construction is well underway on Copper Sun, a high-end hot pot restaurant from the prolific Happy Lamb restaurant group. We hear that Resorts World will soon announce a noodle-focused pop-up from an East Coast chef as it keeps things moving with its diverse restaurant collection. Resorts World is where you'll find dining destinations like the plant-based Crossroads (where chef Tal Ronnen will host a collaboration with Rocco DiSpirito and Michael Voltaggio on April 17) and Genting Palace (which has raised the stakes for all-you-can-eat Vegas experiences with its Wednesday-through-Sunday seafood buffet, where guests can load up on crab and lobster and also enjoy Beijing duck). And for those who want to experience Stubborn Seed without ordering a tasting menu, there's also a tight à la carte menu with dishes like the barramundi with green curry, a double smash burger, whole roasted cauliflower and a smoked beef rib for two. Cacio e pepe cheesy puffs and a foie gras and truffle tart could be an over-the-top bar snack or the start of a transporting dinner. The whole point of Las Vegas, of course, is choosing your own adventure.
Miami Herald
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Chef from Michelin-starred Miami Beach restaurant opens a new spot in the Florida Keys
This winter has been a busy season for Chef Jeremy Ford, the force behind the Michelin-starred restaurant Stubborn Seed in Miami Beach. He has made it through the grueling first year at the organic Ford's Farm, his 5.5 acre stretch of land in Homestead. In February, he and his team opened a new Stubborn Seed at Resorts World Las Vegas in February. And now, he has opened a brand-new restaurant, Salt + Ash, at Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys. While the opening of a restaurant from a Michelin-recognized brand has become business as usual in the exploding culinary landscape of Miami, it's a noteworthy event in the Florida Keys. Ford, who also opened The Butcher's Club in Palm Beach Gardens in 2022, can't quite believe everything that has happened in the past few months. 'It's been a whirlwind, I'll tell you that,' he says. 'I've learned a lot, and I'm still learning, still growing. But you know, I think that we're producing something very different for the Monroe County.' The addition of Salt + Ash is part of a series of upgrades at the family-friendly resort, which is updating its 177 guest rooms and spa and will also be turning its poolside Pilar Bar into an outdoor restaurant serving Asian fusion and cocktails inspired by Ernest Hemingway. The 60-acre resort, which includes five swimming pools and a saltwater lagoon, is also renovating its marina to include 85 boat slips, a project that is expected to be finished by fall 2025. Reggie Cooper, managing director at Hawks Cay, said having a Ford restaurant on the property was a huge benefit to the resort, which is located on Duck Key, almost (but not quite) midway between Key Largo and Key West. 'Chef Ford brings an authentic taste of Florida's culinary spirit to the resort,' he said. 'His bold take on the Keys' seasonal flavors add a fresh, exciting dimension to our dining offerings with dishes that uniquely capture the essence of the Florida Keys.' 'What we get here is special' Located in what used to be an extremely large gift shop, Salt + Ash offers diners an airy, upscale beach house atmosphere. The menu highlights elevated coastal cuisine, with seafood playing the starring role in dishes like the crispy local snapper with tomato and ginger emulsion, pickles, nuac cham and Thai basil or olive oil poached swordfish with white bean puree, Sicilian olives, charred peppers and fennel pollen. 'What we do here that's different is that we have fishermen coming around, right to the dock at Duck Key, so we're producing some of the freshest fish you'll ever have,' Ford says. 'It's a game changer, right? Because a lot of these guys, they won't drive up to Miami, they won't drive up to West Palm. So what we get here is special. My chef de cuisine at Stubborn can't get what we get here.' Also on the menu are Key West pink shrimp with charred shishito peppers, as well as seafood towers with shrimp, raw oysters, marinated clams and a tuna-coconut ceviche. A delicate, delicious poached wahoo crudo is served with charred cucumber vinegarette, Yuzu buttermilk emulsion, beans and mint. But some of the true delights of the restaurant showcase what has made Ford's restaurants so popular: vegetable-forward dishes with eye-popping complexity, with many ingredients sourced from the chef's farm. Memorable dishes include golden organic tomatoes — a Ford's Farm specialty — with stracciatella, Asian pear, zata'ar, herbs and basil oil. Two charred dishes, the jerk carrots with pickled tomatoes, spiced yogurt and herbs and the cauliflower with tahini cashew puree, sesame chili crisp, furikake and herbs, reveal startling new flavors with every bite. Ready for the next growing season Ford says that the farm-to-table options have been a hit with Keys residents. 'To be honest, tourists are going to come and go, but the locals that are here, I think, are really enjoying the farm fresh product that we're bringing,' he says. 'We're off to a great start.' The first season at the farm has turned out to be a good one, Ford says. At one point, they were harvesting 10 to 15 pounds of tomatoes a day. Now, though, the growing season is drawing to a close, and the restaurant will have to source its produce from other places. Ford's longtime friend and business partner Joe Mizzoni, who splits his time between Ford's Farm and Salt + Ash, says the team, which includes Salt + Ash chef de cuisine and partner Kyle Campbell, will be more experienced and better prepared for the 2025-2026 growing season. 'I know what grows consistently at a decent rate, what's good for producing for the restaurants, what size plots we need to maintain certain dishes at the restaurant,' he says. 'So we learned a lot of stuff. I would say we'll probably cut down by a third to a half of what we were growing, and grow more of the things that were consistent or we're using across the board.' Ford agrees with this assessment and says that the plan for summer is to cover the grounds with sorghum, a cover crop that can add nitrogen to the soil. 'Can we grow okra, eggplant and collard greens all summer long? 100 percent,' he says. 'We'll grow a couple of those items just because we want to have some stuff from the farm at the restaurant. 'But we're kind of looking forward to shutting it down more or less for the next four or five months. I think Joe and I and Kyle have all put hours and hours of blood, sweat and tears in the farm, and we realized for a farm to be successful, it needs a rest. As we all do. So we're gonna let that rest until probably September, then we'll start propagating seeds. But I think coming into 2025-26 season, we're much more prepared and organized for one hell of a season.' Salt + Ash Where: Hawks Cay Resort, 61 Hawks Cay Blvd., Duck Key Hours: 5-9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and Sunday; 5-10 p.m. Friday Saturday More information and reservations: or 305-289-2999
