Executive Chef André Bienvenu on his quarter century at the legendary Joe’s Stone Crab and his unexpected second chapter as a restaurant owner

Culinary Characters Unlocked

Chef André Bienvenu spent more than a quarter-century as executive chef at America’s highest grossing independent restaurant, Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach. He considered that the pinnacle of his long career and was looking ahead to retirement, but those plans changed dramatically. Given an unexpected opportunity to partner on a new restaurant, he began a second chapter in his professional life as an owner, opening Catch & Cut in Fort Lauderdale, an old school seafood and steak restaurant that became an instant hit. He does things his way—a reservation book instead of an iPad, an obsession with running a civilized kitchen with no shouting, and of course his own take on stone crab.

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