Chef Alan Wilkinson

I was born and raised in the Upper Keys. Graduated from CSHS in 2011.

I went to Eddison State College for 1 year. I always loved learning new things and sharing the knowledge I do have, with others. That’s when I decided to cook for a living and eventually become a chef someday. In the world of Culinary Arts, you will never know everything and can always share your knowledge; that’s what I loved the most about this profession.

I continued working in restaurants throughout South Florida until I moved back to the keys in 2014, I worked in what I thought were the best restaurants throughout Islamorada and Key Largo until 2017. I noticed I was losing vision of my goal to become a chef. I was stuck in the everyday rutt as a keys kid and became complacent, I was the best cook in any kitchen I worked in and quickly got bored of the restaurants in the keys.

This is when I decided to make the move to Miami to work for Norman Van Aken in 2017 when he opened a new restaurant in Wynwood. I had absolutely no experience compared to the Miami food scene, I really thought they only hired me because I was the only cook from the Keys like Norman was when he was a young chef. I started as a prep cook at $13/hour, while paying $1,500/month in Miami rent. Needless to say this gave me motivation not to fail.

I was a young kid in a big city all by myself, I worked at 12pm everyday until 2am often times. I quickly adapted to my surroundings and became a Chef de Partie (Line Cook), within the first 2 months.

After 1 year of working for Norman Van Aken, I heard of Thomas Keller opening a restaurant in Miami and I always wanted to work in a French kitchen. This was my opportunity to work for a Michelin Star chef, and I jumped right in.

After 1 year of training with some of the best chefs in the country under Thomas Keller, I got another opportunity to work at the Fontainebleau Hotel but this time as a Sous Chef under Michael Mina at Stripsteak (another Michelin starred chef).

My goal was to return to the keys to revamp and electrify the food scene, much like Norman Van Aken did in the 90’s. Hopefully in a few years we will start seeing that exactly.