The Rusty Pelican collage and images created by Marla E. Schwartz Executive Chef Michael Gilligan has taken over the helm at The Rusty Pelican in Key Biscayne following a $9 million head-to-toe renovation. Gilligan has had a rather eclectic career path that has made his current post a sure thing for the Specialty Restaurants Corporation (SRC) that owns and operates this waterfront dining establishment. You can see its sign as you drive along the Rickenbacker Causeway. It’s nestled around a boating area and when you enter you drive past a few other restaurants to the end of the pier where you’ll find this iconic hotspot with its breathtaking views of the Miami skyline.
Gilligan’s diverse culinary adventures began immediately upon graduation from The College of Food and Arts in Birmingham, England working as an apprentice chef at Michelin starred restaurants in France and England until he came to America; worked in five-star/five-diamond hotels in New York City, ventured out on his own opening Candela. Then he moved to Key West and owned and operated a successful Indian restaurant, headed back to NY and then found himself back in Florida wowing critics and diners at South Beach’s Rumi, ran culinary operations at the Conrad Miami, headed over to the W South Beach and now he’s found a perfect fit at The Rusty Pelican.
In honor of this exceptional dining establishment’s recent 40th anniversary celebration, its renovation and hiring of its new executive chef, the culinary expert himself agreed to answer a few questions for us.
MiamiArtZine: How were you approached to become The Rusty Pelican’s new executive chef?
Michael Gilligan: Well part of that $9 million was for me! Only joking - actually SRC was working with the Brustman-Carrino PR Company who had represented me in the past and they put us together.
MAZ: As a Key Biscayne landmark – has the menu changed?
MG: The menu is completely different so the past regulars are in for a nice surprise. The good thing about being here is that EVERYONE in Miami knows The Rusty Pelican. I’ve yet to meet someone who has said, “where’s that Rusty Pelican place then?”
MAZ: Who created the new menu?
MG: Most of the dishes are my own creations but I worked on the dishes with my sous chefs Jimmy Pastor & Natalia Garcia and we changed a few things with their input. They are very good.
MAZ: Does the menu change during the holiday season?
MG: The menu has changed four times since we opened. The changes aren’t drastic as there are some dishes we just can’t get rid of otherwise we would have a riot on Virginia Key.
Michael Gilligan executive chef Rusty Pelican
MAZ: Do you cook for your family during the holidays?
MG: The holidays are my wife Jeanne’s thing. I’m so busy at work that she does all the cooking, apart from the gravy - that’s my thing. We do American, as she is from Brooklyn, for Thanksgiving, she makes an awesome Maple Roast Turkey, and we go traditional British for Christmas with Turkey or sometimes Roast Goose, mince pies, etc. We always go with a sage and onion stuffing.
MAZ: What’s your secret to creating such sublime dishes such as the Oven Roasted Patagonian Toothfish?
MG: I don’t think there’s a big secret although I feel that it’s vital to get a great sear on the outside of the fish. We’re lucky enough to have a ‘plancha’ which gets wonderful heat on it and gives the fish an awesome ‘crust’.
MAZ: For desert did you create the delicious Coconut Panna Cotta particularly for The Rusty Pelican?
MG: This was a recipe we took with us from the W but we played around with it a little as I didn’t want to serve it in a bowl or soufflé cup. The idea came to me one day looking out the water over Key Biscayne and I decided to try and make it look like a wave-it’s kinda fun.
MAZ: As sous chef at the Tides Reach Hotel in Devon, England is it true that you cooked for Princess Diana?
MG: I was a peon back in those days when we cooked for her. A couple of years later I was promoted to sous chef at the Tides Reach. This story has taken on myth-like properties; it was a throw out quote that I once bragged about cooking for Royalty - now it’s gone so far that it’s almost like we dated for a while!
MAZ: Is it true that Robert DeNiro was impressed with the quality of your work as a sous chef at the five star/five-diamond Ritz Carlton in NYC that he asked you to work for him at both the Tribeca Grill and Montrachet? What did he like to order?
The Rusty Pelican Inside Dining - photo credit Michael PisarriMG: Actually it was Drew Nieporent who I met first at an event at Lincoln Center that asked me to go and try out there, it wasn’t until later that I found out it was DeNiro’s joint also. Mr. DeNiro used to like penne pasta for lunch with the garlic shaved really thin with a razor blade so it melted into the olive oil just like they did in Goodfellas when they were in the slammer. I used a Japanese mandolin, easier on the fingers.
MAZ: Did your mum actually give birth to you in a pub your family owned?
MG: This is almost true. I was born upstairs in the flat that the brewery had rented for my family when it ran the pub – it’s not like I was born on the bar! I think I was about 4-years-old, the baby of the family, and I would sit in the kitchen with my mother - it was the warmest place in the building - as she cooked. She would give me pieces of dough to play with and I would make them in to a “gingerbread man” shapes. Soon I noticed that after she baked them, they didn’t taste sweet enough - so I sprinkled sugar on them before it went into the oven. I then started adding cherries for the eyes and some chocolate for hair.
Located at 3201 Rickenbacker Causeway; lunch and dinner is served daily and offers a weekend brunch; opened Sunday to Thursday (11 a.m - 11 p.m; the bar - til midnight); Friday and Saturday (11 a.m. - midnight and bar til 1 a.m.). The website is therustypelican.com and the number is 305.361.3818 and it can be found on Facebook and Twitter, @RustyPelicanMI. The website is therustypelican.com and the number is 305.361.3818.