Chef Douglas Rodriguez sits at his restaurant DeRodriguez Cuba in South Beach. (Photo by MICHAEL HERB/204 Studios)

Back in the day, when I first met chef Douglas Rodríguez, he was doing improv at a Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, spot called the Wet Paint Café. Of course, instead of making jokes he made yuca, and instead of serving up punchlines he served up plantains.

Gussied-up yuca and plantains, that is.

This was 1988 and the 20-something Cuban-American kid with a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I., was concocting some crazy dishes for the day, pairing ingredients foreign to the Cuban vernacular. Green plantain linguini with bacon-sherry-shallot cream sauce?

Sure, if you closed your eyes, you might find it tasted as comforting and rich as a traditional Cuban fufú of mashed green plantains and pork rinds. But I guarantee that no shallot had dared to venture into the kitchens of Little Havana. And no self-respecting Cuban black bean would have been caught dead as a flavoring agent in pasta, much less one bathed in red pepper leek sauce.

But Rodríguez, one of Miami’s original four Mango Gang members, bravely forged ahead with his “nouvelle Cuban” ways along a hairpin-curve route that landed him in landmark Miami and New York restaurants, earned him a coveted James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year in 1996, turned him into a cookbook author and restaurateur and ordained him America’s godfather of “Nuevo Latino” cuisine.

“He understood the cooking of his parents and all of the Cuban émigrés … Then he did what chefs do if they have the mad chops — he turned it on its head!” says fellow Mango Gang chef Norman Van Aken, a pivotal figure in Miami’s fusion cuisine. “He actually re-grasped it with love and homage and showed generations past that Cuban cuisine should not be rooted and fixed, but moving and flowing outward.”

Van Aken compares Rodríguez’s enthusiasm for the “flavors, textures, shapes and juxtapositions” of Cuban food to that of pop artist greats — those so “incredibly contemporary that they confused the old guard for seeming less ‘artistic.’’’

Like a pop artist, Rodríguez fused “the common with the classic in a kind of street cred way,” says Van Aken.

Now at 46, “DRod” is downright mainstream. Part of that is due to the fact that Miami’s culinary scene has exploded in eclectic ways. And part of that is due to the chef’s re-focused approach to food.

“When you get older you mature in a lot of different ways,” says Rodríguez, who will host one of the marquee events during this weekend’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival. “My cooking, I think, is a little more mature. I’m trying to source better ingredients, use local ingredients, do more traditional dishes. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel anymore.”

The enthusiasm he once displayed for new-wave flavor combos is now lavished on his selection of ingredients — the local cobia coming in that day for his raved-about ceviche, the 60 pounds of heirloom tomatoes he bought from a local farmer, the beef he buys from a farm in Clewiston and the suckling pigs he just scored for a weeknight roast.

What shifted is Rodríguez’s sense of who he is as a chef in the larger world.
“The big thing that changed the way I think about food is this molecular cooking,” he says. “I tried it, tried eating it — and never wanted to do it. I’m not crazy about that stuff. I don’t get the meat glue thing. I have these young cooks who come into the kitchen and go, ‘Are you doing molecular gastronomy?’ They’re interviewing me. I say, ‘If you want to learn to cook, you’ve got to start from the bottom. You’ve got to learn the basics before you can glue food together.’”

Some notable chefs have blossomed under Rodríguez’s tutelage. New York-based Chef Aarón Sánchez (of Food Network’s Chopped and Heat Seekers fame) calls Rodríguez “my great mentor.” And Iron Chef José Garcés’ star rose after Rodríguez tapped him to lead the kitchens of two Latino-concept restaurants in Philadelphia, Alma de Cuba and El Vez.

Now Rodríguez hopes to inspire the incoming generation of chefs at Miami-Dade College’s new Miami Culinary Institute, where he sits on the advisory chefs’ council.

“I want to put together a laboratory for them on Latin foods and Latin cooking. There’s no culinary school out there that will teach you about ceviche and mole and arepas,” says the chef, who has four restaurants nationally, including Ola Miami and De Rodríguez Cuba on Ocean on South Beach, Alma de Cuba in Philly and Deseo in Scottsdale, Ariz. “I want to take a plantain and take it through the cuisines of Latin America — how do they cook that plantain in the different countries?”

RABO ENCENDIDO (SPICY OXTAIL) WITH PLANTAIN-GINGER FLAN

Recipe by chef Douglas Rodríguez

A hearty Cuban peasant dish, rabo encendido translates to “tail on fire.” Chef Rodríguez pairs the spicy oxtail stew with a cool, plantain-ginger flan for a sweet contrast.

Serves: 6

FOR THE OXTAIL

4 pounds lean oxtails, trimmed of fat, and cut into 2 to 3 inch pieces
Seasoned flour [see NOTE]
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
5 stalks celery, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon peppercorns
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bottle (750 ml.) dry red wine
2 quarts water

FOR THE FLAN:
2 semi-ripe plantains, peeled and sliced into 1-inch pieces
4 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon chopped ginger root
1/2 cup milk
1/2 evaporated milk
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup demi-glace [see NOTE]

FOR SERVING:
White rice
Plantain chips
6 chives, cut into 2-inch lengths

Pre-heat the oven to 400º. Dredge the oxtail pieces in the seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or ovenproof casserole, and brown the oxtail over high heat.

Add the remaining stew ingredients and braise in the oven for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, or until the meat flakes off the bone.

To prepare the flan: Place the plantains in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the plantains and let cool. Transfer to a blender and add the egg yolks, ginger, milk and evaporated milk. Puree for 1 minute. Add the sugar, salt and pepper, and blend for 5 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

Whisk the egg whites to form stiff peaks, and fold into the plantain mixture. Pour into 6 lightly greased 6-ounce ramekins and place in a water bath filled with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

When the oxtail has finished cooking: Turn the oven down to 350º and bake flan for 20 minutes, or until firm in the middle.

Meanwhile, let the oxtail cool for 15 minutes. Transfer the oxtail to a large bowl. Strain the liquid into a large saucepan, discarding the vegetables. Reduce the liquid over high heat to 3/4 cup, or until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add the demi-glace and continue to reduce for 15 minutes over high heat.

Return the oxtail to the pan and coat with the sauce. Cover the pan, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Turn the flan out of the ramekins, running a knife around the inside edges if necessary.
Serve the oxtail with the sauce, rice and flan. Garnish the flan with the plantain chips and sprinkle the chives over the rice.

NOTE: You can season the flour with salt and pepper, or add herbs and spices to your liking. You can use homemade or store-bought beef demi-glace.

DOUGLAS RODRÍGUEZ AT THE SOUTH BEACH WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL

Brunch at Sea

Chef Rodríguez joins protégé Aarón Sanchez (of Food Network’s Chopped, and Heat Seekers) and chef Timon Balloo (Sugarcane, Miami) for a 2 1/2-hour salsa cruise aboard the Biscayne Lady.

When: Sunday, Feb. 26, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where: Biscayne Lady — departs Bayside Marketplace, 401 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami
How much: Tickets are $150 and are available at the festival’s website, sobefest.com

A TASTE OF MIAMI

Here are a few other noteworthy festival events highlighting the flavors of Miami:

Farm-to-table lunch with chef Michael Schwartz (Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink); Saturday at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens.

Julie Loria (wife of Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria) hosts an evening at the new home of the Marlins, with dishes from her cookbook Diamond Dishes; Saturday night at Marlins Park.

The Swine & Dine event will turn Coral Gables’ iconic Biltmore Hotel into caja china central for a late afternoon pig roast. Star chefs include Jonathan Waxman and Marc Murphy; Sunday at the Biltmore.

Trucks on the Beach, the festival’s closing party, features some of the city’s most popular trucks, from The Fish Box to Cuban Cube (Palm Beach County’s own Stocked N’ Loaded truck will be there, too); Sunday night on the beach behind the Ritz Carlton South Beach.

DOUGLAS RODRÍGUEZ RESTAURANTS

DeRodríguez Cuba on Ocean
101 Ocean Drive (in the Hilton Bentley), Miami Beach; (305) 672-6624; dRodriguezcuba.com

Ola Miami
1745 James St. (at the Sanctuary Hotel, between 17th
and 18th streets), Miami Beach; (305) 695-9125; olamiami.com