The chef who harvests what he needs in his new restaurant

A Miami chef harvests in his backyard for his new Coral Gables restaurant.

Weeks before Niven Patel opened the new restaurant Coral Gables that he had delayed for almost one year, he hired one last person: The farmer who grows food specifically for his restaurants.

Patel, chosen one of the best new Food & Wine chefs in 2020, Orno will open on October 14 at the Thesis Hotel in Coral Gables. The restaurant’s signature feature is a wood-burning oven where you can once again highlight the fresh crops he grows on the acres behind his Homestead home, which he jokingly nicknamed Rancho Patel.

“We needed to get the farm back because it is an integral part of what we do,” he said. Orno joins his group of restaurants: the four-year-old Ghee Indian Kitchen, and Mamey, which opened in the Thesis in August last year.

Patel had distinguished himself by growing key produce on the half acre behind his house and the nearby 1.5 acres cultivated by the Brendan and Laura Sutton.

But with the struggling restaurants, he had to lay off most of his staff (although he says he continues to pay for his health insurance), including the Suttons. His well-kept yard quickly fell apart. “The farm was down at the time,” he said. “It turned into weeds and grass. But I knew there were six years of love and work underneath. ”

He put Laura Sutton back on the payroll and asked her to start the harvest in the middle of its acreage, hoping to re-cultivate the two properties for its three restaurants with Brendan. “I told him, ‘We don’t bite off more than we can chew,'” he said. That means the taro root, Roman beans, okra, kale, and Japanese eggplant they grow will appear in different ways on their menus, even in Orno.

There, about half of the 36 dishes on the menu are vegetarian, with local produce such as vadouvan curried cauliflower, wood-roasted summer squash, grilled okra with confit lemon and artichokes. roasted in the oven. “You can eat a completely vegetarian meal and be completely satisfied,” he says.

Orno Opening: October 14

Address : 1350 S Dixie Hwy., Coral Gables at Thesis Hotel

Hours : From 5:30 pm to 10 pm, from Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday. Until 11 pm, from Friday to Saturday.

More information: 305-667-5611, OrnoMiami.com