The dish that he prepared for a “Taste of the Nation” fundraising event in West Palm Beach, Fla. was cited by a local food editor as “the best bite of the night.”
Zach Bell, Executive Chef of Addison Reserve Country Club in Delray Beach, Fla., earned acclaim from Liz Balmaseda, Food Editor of the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, in her report on dishes prepared by leading area chefs for a “Taste of the Nation” fundraising event, held April 23 in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Tasting-sized bites were served to more than 600 people at the event, Balmaseda reported, including “an outstanding lamb bite by Cafe Boulud executive chef Rick Mace; a delicious, locally grown rice salad by chef Lindsay Autry; a soul-warming ramen bowl by 3800 Ocean top chef Larry LaValley; an exceptional, spicy ahi-on-crisp bite by Buccan chef Clay Conley; a delicate, lightly cold-smoked local cobia sashimi by Aah Loi chef Roy Villacrusis, and an eclectic mix of other dishes by local star chefs.”
But, Balmaseda added, “the best bite of the night, to my palate, was chef Zach Bell’s ‘Bacon’ dish.
“The acclaimed former Boulud chef, now commanding the kitchen at the Addison Reserve Country Club, offered a masterful, quasi-molecular composition of crisped pork belly and velvety, carbonized cauliflower, a pickled salad of locally grown baby green strawberries, and bone marrow powder, topped with a tangle of red-vein sorrel,” Balmaseda wrote.
“Two thoughts at first taste,” she added. “1) Bacon has never been in better company on a dish, and 2) How does one join Addison Reserve?”
The event brought in $60,000, Balmaseda reported, for the Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign to eradicate childhood hunger in America. A “Mercado” booth was set up to sell goods handmade by local chefs, she added, that added to the fundraising efforts. Bell helped here, too, by bringing orange-ginger-scented beets to be sold in the market.
