Savoring Success

School of Hospitality and Tourism Management grad Allen Susser ’78 sizzles in the kitchen and in his commitment to FIU

By Martin Haro ’05

The first thing chef Allen Susser ’78 ever cooked at his renowned restaurant was swordfish on a wood-burning grill he had brought home after spending a decade in France.

“That grill had tremendous flavor,” he said. “I put a piece of swordfish on it and let its succulent flavors mix with the oak that we used. It was great.”

That was some time in 1986, when he opened the doors of the popular Chef Allen’s in Aventura. More than 20 years later, swordfish still is a staple of Susser’s menu; he serves it with grilled pineapple and watermelon, bathed in a delicious tequila-lime vinaigrette.

Fish is one of the chef’s favorite things to cook, especially wild fish.

A culinary pioneer

Susser is an award-winning industry pioneer in Miami. His is one of the handful of boldface names always mentioned when conversation turns to successful local restaurateurs. Today, the Brooklyn-born graduate of FIU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management is one of South Florida’s preeminent chefs, credited as one of the innovators of New World Cuisine.

New World Cuisine is a multi-ethnic culinary fusion of Floridian, Caribbean, Latino, Asian and African flavors. Thanks to the classically trained chef and some of his local peers like Mark Militello and Norman Van Aken (with whom Susser made up the “Mango Gang”), New World Cuisine was the sensation of the local culinary scene in the 1990s.

Susser and his restaurant have been praised lavishly throughout his career. In 1994, he received a James Beard Foundation Award – the Oscars of the culinary world – for Best Chef, Southeast region.

Travel + Leisure called Chef Allen’s “the best restaurant south of New York City” and in 2004, The Miami Herald said Susser and his staff de cuisine “give the loyal clientele superlative quality, every time.”

Susser’s recipe for running a successful restaurant is one that he has perfected over the years. Unlike many of his peers who guard their secrets, he is happy to share.

“At the restaurant, we start early in the morning, usually around 9 or 10. We receive our fresh fish – we favor local and sustainable fish. We talk to our vendors, fishermen and local farmers,” he said. “We change the menu daily – that’s where my inspiration comes from, from seeing what comes in every day.”

A taste for mango

Outside the kitchen, Susser works with Share Our Strength, an organization that helps end childhood hunger in South Florida. He also has his own line of sauces (flavors include orange-chipotle and mango ketchup) and finds time to write about the food he loves.

He’s the author of three cookbooks: New World Cuisine and Cookery, The Great Citrus Book and The Great Mango Book.

“Writing is one of my other passions,” he said. “I love to explore the history and the culture and the background of ingredients and find out where they were from and how they were used originally and compare that to how we use them today.”

This curiosity is how he became a big fan of the mango. Susser remembers discovering the fruit in Miami when he started going to FIU. It has been one of his go-to ingredients ever since.

“I found a mango tree in my backyard. I never had that before,” he said. “These mangos were delicious – they were lush and sweet. From then on, I incorporated mango in every recipe I could.”

A real-world education

Susser was drawn to Miami and to FIU, a brand new university at the time, first by the weather and the city’s atmosphere. He ultimately stayed in what would become his adopted hometown because he discovered “a passion to share knowledge that the professors and the dean had.”

“I loved what they had to offer,” he said, “A great mix of education and exposure to the industry. That’s what I was looking for, I wanted to be at a place where I would be nurtured and could learn and understand from great professors, but, at the same time, work in the industry.”

All he wanted to do was be in the kitchen and cook, but at FIU he learned that being a chef involves much more than cooking.

“There’s a lot of management, not only of a restaurant but of people as well,” he said. “You have to know how to relate to your staff and to your community. FIU helped me understand everything I needed to understand to be successful.”

Susser, a member of the FIU Alumni Association and Torch Award winner, certainly has applied the lessons learned more than 30 years ago. He is welcoming of FIU students and grads. More often than not, there’s an FIU alum in his kitchen. He also has gone back to the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management to teach wine, cooking and management classes.

“We are proud of Allen. He is an outstanding award-winning chef, a businessman and an author but most importantly he is a humanitarian who cares for the community and those less fortunate,” said Rocco Angelo, associate dean of the School of Hospitality. “Although he has a full schedule, Allen never refuses a request to lecture at the school and to share his expertise and experience with the next generation of restaurateurs.”

The chef’s support of his alma mater includes his founding participation in the one-day Florida Extravaganza at Biscayne Bay Campus almost 10 years ago. That event became the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival, which has raised millions of dollars to support student scholarships and programs in the School of Hospitality.