Jeremy Ford is Having His Moment
The chef at Michelin-Starred Stubborn Seed opens Salt + Ash in the Florida Keys
Jeremy Ford is having his moment.
The Top Chef Season 13 winner and executive chef at Miami Beach’s Michelin-starred Stubborn Seed has been busy. Ford, who is also behind The Butcher’s Club at the PGA Resort in West Palm Beach, recently opened a second location of the award-winning restaurant at Resorts World in Las Vegas and has founded Ford’s Farm, a small five-and-a-half-acre farm in Florida’s Redland community.
Ford has once again expanded his reach— this time to the Florida Keys — with the opening of Salt + Ash at the Hawks Cay Resort in Duck Key. The resort is located at Mile Marker 61 on the famed Overseas Highway, about a three-hour drive from Miami, a 90-minute drive from Key West, or a quick 15-minute drive from Marathon Airport.
At Salt + Ash, Ford utilizes a cornucopia of fresh seafood at his doorstep, along with produce from his small farm, just a few hours away. He takes advantage of these resources with dishes that touch upon his fine dining expertise but still remembers that this restaurant is in a family-friendly resort in the Florida Keys.
The term “barefoot elegance” is thrown around too much these days, but Ford’s new restaurant means it with a menu that includes caviar service and a raw seafood tower, as well as wood-fired pizzas and a Smashburger.
Ford and his team, led on premises by executive chef Kyle Campbell, excel at it all.
was invited to eat at the restaurant and the standouts included a beautiful dish of organic tomatoes grown at his farm, served with stracciatella and drizzled with basil oil; charred jerk carrots, and butternut squash agnolotti with crisped sage. It’s always a good dinner for me when the chef respects vegetables as much as proteins and Ford did not disappoint.
Ford is also always super upbeat, and the friendly vibe translates to a positive experience. When I dined at Salt + Ash, Ford was there, bouncing from the open kitchen to the booth where his wife, Maria, sat with their children. At the end of the dinner service, Ford could be seen twirling his little girls. His passion for food is only rivaled by his passion for his family.
After the dinner, I caught up with Ford, who told me that he spent his childhood going to the Florida Keys, where the family would stop for conch fritters and fish sandwiches. He said that the idea of opening a restaurant in the Florida Keys appealed to him both for the proximity to his farm, which is the source of about half the vegetables on the menu; and for the rich bounty from the ocean. “None of my restaurants can ever have fish as fresh as here. Period. Point blank. Here, we can get a wahoo come in on Monday, and we’ll serve it Tuesday.” Ford is also enamored with the region’s Key West pink shrimp. “They’re super tiny, little, tender shrimp that are so delicate and perfect.” Ford uses them steamed for seafood towers and in composed dishes.
With solid resources in play, Ford decided on a menu of items that he and his family would want to eat: pizza, pasta, crudo, and fresh fish — but with chef-driven techniques. “If you want a Smashburger we have it. But we also have a crudo that has 19 components, we have that too.”
Since its opening just weeks ago, the response has been overwhelming — especially with the local residents of the Keys. “People have sent me hand-written letters welcoming me,” says the chef.
With one Michelin-starred restaurant under his belt and the Michelin Guide expanding its reach throughout Florida (previously only Miami, Orlando, and Tampa restaurants were eligible for the guide), there’s an obvious question: Will Ford shoot for a star at Salt + Ash? “Michelin is always going to be something that we hold in high regard. Just the ability to be able to be in the Michelin conversation is the lifeline of what we do.” Ford then made a startling confession. “I grew up as a 15-year-old kid wanting a Star. I knew I had to have one before I died.”
Ford muses on the award. “Earning a Michelin Star is the driving force in everything we do. Can we achieve it here? Can we achieve it in a potential Fort Lauderdale restaurant? We’ll try.” With all this Michelin talk, Ford remains grounded. “More important than Michelin is to make delicious food. Make it craveable. That’s the driving force behind everything we do.”
With Ford having his time to shine, I ask him what he wants the next five or ten years to look like. Will he build on his empire? Shoot for the much-lauded Two-Stars? Open a new concept in Napa or New York? “I don’t want to lose sight of being a great dad,” he says. “As much as the business and growth mean to me, a big part of success isn’t the restaurants you have, but the people that surround you: My kids, my wife, my chef Kyle. Sometimes you grow too much too fast. If that’s what it would cost — my family and my relationships — then I’d rather have a few restaurants and a farm.”