Beneath a cover of palm bushes and clear blue skies, SoBe Vegan has served Miami locals tasty vegan dishes since 2020, however just lately, patrons had been greeted with a brand new menu overflowing with contemporary and acquainted flavors.
Formally introduced earlier this summer season, SoBe Vegan’s new menu is replete with Latin American flavors. As soon as identified for traditional, vegan fast-food fare—suppose burgers, hen sandwiches, sizzling canines, and milkshakes—SoBe Vegan is now a vacation spot for plant-based, Latin American dishes.
Tacos crammed with spicy jackfruit, chewy mushroom asada, and creamy avocado are all up for grabs alongside a refreshing taco bowl. And for patrons trying to fulfill their burger cravings, the tacky Queso Burger is certain to please.
SoBe Vegan
Basic, all-day brunch staples resembling açai bowls, avocado toasts, waffles, banana pancakes, and omelets are additionally featured on the menu alongside wraps, salads, and flatbreads.
The brand new, hand-crafted menu—which boasts roughly 80 distinctive dishes—is a departure from SoBe Vegan’s authentic menu, which closely relied on store-bought vegan meat options. Now, an estimated 98 p.c of substances are made in home.
SoBe Vegan’s new strategy to plant-based delicacies is the direct results of the restaurant’s partnership with native chef Horacio Rivadero. Billed as SoBe Vegan’s Collaborative Chef, Rivadero pulls inspiration from Miami’s numerous immigrant communities, his decades-long profession, and health-conscious delicacies.
“As SoBe Vegan grew, [the restaurant] got here to grasp that [vegan fast-food] was enjoyable and good, however with vegan meals, it isn’t only a matter of consuming this or that, there’s additionally the matter of including a more healthy element,” Rivadero tells VegNews.
Chef Horacio Rivadero’s plant-based delicacies
SoBe Vegan is simply the newest plant-based enterprise for Rivadero. Beforehand, the James Beard-nominated chef helped develop the high-quality eating menu at Chicago’s Bloom Plant Primarily based Kitchen alongside chef-owner Rodolfo Cuadros. Simply final 12 months, Rivadero obtained a coveted Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Information for his work with Cuadros and Bloom.
However, even earlier than Bloom Plant-Primarily based Kitchen, it was an opportunity assembly with the Govt Company Chef at Matthew Kenney Delicacies that modified the course of Rivadero’s profession.
Plant Meals + Wine
After working with Chef Douglas Rodriguez, Rivadero’s mentor and world-renowned chef considered the “Godfather of Nuevo Latino delicacies,” for 10 years, Rivadero explored new ventures and even opened his personal restaurant. Ultimately, Rivadero determined to pursue new alternatives, and in the end left his restaurant behind.
As an increasing number of cooks left Miami, Rivadero grew uninterested in the town’s culinary scene.
“That was a second the place Miami was form of at [a standstill] of creativity,” Rivadero says. “Everyone was simply shifting away from this a part of the nation.”
Rivadero thought of taking his skills outdoors of Miami, and maybe outdoors of the US altogether, when he had an opportunity encounter with Scott Winegard, Govt Company Chef at Matthew Kenney Delicacies.
“I need to work with you guys,” Rivadero recounts saying to Winegard and superstar chef Matthew Kenney. With the launch of Plant Meals + Wine in Miami underway, Kenney was in want of arms.
SoBe Vegan
Rivadero felt he could possibly be a superb match, however he admittedly had no expertise with plant-based delicacies. “I used to be very sincere with them,” Rivadero recounts. “I stated, ‘Let’s do that—I need to be your line cook dinner.’”
From day one, Rivadero was enchanted by plant-based cooking. “I [had] missed all of those lovely strategies and substances,” he says. “I used to be hooked on the meals, on the flavors, on the substances, and on the strategies.”
And after three months, Rivadero labored his means up from line cook dinner to chef, ultimately changing into Plant Meals + Wine’s Chef de Delicacies.
Plant-based meals made out of scratch
Whereas Rivadero credit his work at Plant Meals + Wine for introducing him to the world of vegan cooking, it’s his mother who impressed the chef to pursue a culinary profession.
Born and raised in Argentina, Rivadero loved spending time together with his mother as a younger boy. The chef’s mother, who was raised within the Argentinian countryside, took a really hands-on strategy when it got here to cooking. “She made bread, she cured bacon, she made pickles, and he or she made cheese,” Rivadero shares. “From the early days, [my mom] was studying all of this from her personal mother, and I received hooked on it.”
SoBe Vegan
The chef and his mother had a shared love for meals and cooking, a lot in order that Rivadero cooked pesto pasta from scratch as a Mom’s Day reward utilizing basil his mom grew. And, provided that one couldn’t merely Google recipes on the time, it was a significant feat, the 48-year-old chef recollects.
At the moment, chef Rivadero continues sharing his love of cooking. At SoBe Vegan, Rivadero hopes to proceed elevating plant-based delicacies whereas that includes seasonal substances. “It’s a piece in progress: to maintain creating nice flavors and nice desserts.”
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Jocelyn Martinez is an Affiliate Editor at VegNews residing in Los Angeles, CA.
