The Chef 4 U, Lutz

Key West native Chef James helms The Chef 4 U, channeling 10 years of experience as a culinary teacher, personal chef, and caterer. During classes, the sounds that fill the kitchen grow gradually more confident as students learn to slice veggies, apply the proper bend of citric juices to ceviches, and squeeze salt from seawater for margaritas. The menus for classes and precooked meals alike are ripe with influences from Cuban, European, and Asian culinary traditions, which peep through in shredded pork, wine sauces, and miso glazes. While working in the kitchen to sate his own clients, Chef James flips through a rolodex of ingredients he went to school with in order to craft menus for vegetarian and gluten-free tastes.