Ingrid Hoffmann Takes on the SoBE Wine & Food Festival

“When I first made coconut rice on the Food Network, I got hate mail,” Ingrid Hoffmann declared. “I’m dead serious. People said that my food was not Latin, because people in the US assumed that Latin food meant Mexican food. People didn’t realize that there are 22 Latin countries with a broad span of flavors,” flavors including coconut rice, a staple of Barranquilla, Colombia, where Hoffmann grew up. Thanks to cooks like Hoffmann, however, misconceptions about Latin cuisine are fading and authenticity is on the rise. Hoffmann will be doing her part to educate the masses as she heads to the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. 

Hoffmann’s table growing up in Colombia and Curacao included a variety of ingredients, as well as an international influence. “My mom is a Cordon Bleu trained chef,” Hoffman said. “I was blessed with that because, really, I learned to cook as a very young girl and I was exposed to world food since I was very, very little. She was into Indonesian food, Chinese food, French food, many different cuisines. It was a gift to grow up with that.”

Add a German grandfather, a Bolivian/Peruvian grandfather, and a Colombian/Basque grandmother who was raised in Argentina, and the Hoffmann kitchen became a UN of flavors. “So I grew up eating an egg arepa next to a ceviche Peruano next to a chimichurri with a sauerbraten, and then some new concoction from Cordon Bleu,” she said. “I just always thought that people ate that way.”

Hoffmann’s multicultural upbringing made her feel comfortable in the melting pot of Miami, where she resides and eagerly anticipates the South Beach Wine and Food Festival each year. “Over the years, I’ve done almost every event in it, it’s been a lot of fun to see it grow,” she said. “The festival has exposed the locals to all of these international chefs and international wine and champagne. The whole community created a lot of awareness and education, along with opening up palates and opening up industries.”

She also said she’s a huge fan of founder Lee Schrager. “I’ve seen him start this from nothing, and he also does a lot for all of us chefs, locally. He really supports us back, just like we support him.” Hoffman is especially appreciative of the scholarships the festival gives through the culinary program at Florida International University. “Through that, they create a whole new legion of culinary experts,” Hoffman said. “It’s great for our industry.”

Next, what’s up next for Hoffmann…

This year, Hoffmann is participating in the Geoffrey Zakarian-hosted Pure Leaf Farm to Table Brunch, which will highlight ingredients from local farms. “People don’t think of Florida often as a place that has a lot of different ingredients growing,” Hoffmann said. “But we are getting there and we have some very committed farms involved.”

For the brunch, each chef was given an ingredient-driven theme to work with. Hoffmann chose fruit. “A lot of my cooking, coming from my Caribbean roots, is fruit-based. And so I naturally gravitated to the tropics and to fruit.” Her dish will be a twist on a fruit salad. “Not your typical fruit salad,” she hints, adding that there will be a skewer involved, some rum, and some coconut milk (of course).

She’s also doing cortadito torrija, a Spanish French toast with a strong coffee for dipping, along with a sea grape jelly. “Sea grape jelly is something that nobody knows, because we just invented it,” she said, laughing. “Sea grapes are what you see on the beach, from trees near the ocean. They are little and tart and most people don’t realize you can eat them but they are great for pies.”

Hoffmann will also be spinning at Flywheel Sports Celebrity Chef Ride for charity. “Lee Schrager invited a bunch of us chefs. I think he wants to kill us on top of the hangovers that we’re going to have,” she joked. “Actually, you ride and each high that you reach makes a dollar for charity. So the idea is for everybody to go and kill themselves and ride as hard as they can, which will be tough.”

Besides the SoBe Wine and Food Festival, Hoffmann is gearing up for an especially eventful 2014, expanding her cookware and tabletop brand, Delicioso, into JC Penney, in addition to Walmart and BrandsMart. She is also expanding her kitchen gadget line at HSN. Finally, and perhaps most exciting, is the plan is to roll out 30 restaurants nationwide in the next three years. “The idea is to bring healthy, natural, organic, fast food to the public,” she said. She is currently determining the debut cities.

Hoffmann’s ultimate goal, however, is to continue educating the US about Latin cuisine. “The flavors of the Spanish-speaking world is the US’ biggest trend,” she maintains. “Look at all the flavor profiles in America. Tortilla sales have surpassed bread sales, and salsa has surpassed ketchup. What does that say? The future of food is the Latin food in America.”