When recreational divers scoured our coastal waters during Florida’s annual two-day “bug-hunting” season in the summer, it got Palm Beach chef Jason Van Bomel thinking.
Why not reinvent the venerable Maine lobster roll with a heaping helping of local inspiration — as in using those “bugs” divers were hunting?
Enter Van Bomel’s roll with, among other locally inspired ingredients, Florida’s spiny lobster — which isn’t actually a true lobster but is rather a leggy and clawless creepy-looking cousin with the nickname “bug.”
Van Bomel’s Florida lobster roll now is king among the patrons at the Four Seasons’ Graze restaurant.
“We talked in the kitchen one day about running it (as a special) and customers loved it,” Van Bomel said. “One day turned into two and then a week. … It has become one of the best-selling dishes on the menu.”
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