Chef Profile: Roly Cruz
The Chef: Roly Cruz, Executive Chef at the Biltmore Miami Hotel in Coral Gables.
The Toolbox: A knife kit and traveling knife roll.
The Tools: It’s clear early on that Chef Cruz is a bit of a geek when it comes to tools since his favorite tools all have some kind of technological aspect to them. “Scientific tools are neat,” he says. First out of the gate: “I love my dynamic immersion blender because of the things I can do with it,” he says, which include the ability to blend right in the pan over high heat and quickly emulsify liquids. When he’s traveling, he says he never leaves home without it.
He also loves his Vita Prep and Waring Extreme blenders, combi ovens that cook with both heat and steam, and thermal immersion circulators, which provide a hot water bath to slowly cook food that’s been through the sous vide machine.
His First Tool: He bought his first garlic press when he was ten years old. He loved to watch cooking shows on TV, particularly Jeff Smith of the Frugal Gourmet. “He used a garlic press, and for a long time, I thought that was the only way to cut garlic,” says Cruz.
50 lbs of carrots are no match for Cruz.
His Most Unusual Tool: “I’ve always been partial to mandolines, since slicing 50 pounds of carrots by hand is punishing,” he says. Turning to his love of high-tech, Cruz went one step further and “invented” a new speedy technique with a turning mandoline and a power drill. “We took the handle off the mandoline and attached a church key power drill to the nub of the handle, and five minutes later we had sliced 50 pounds of carrots,” he said. “We needed a bucket to catch it all.”
Tools That Grew Legs: Several knives, including a cherished Japanese boning knife. “And I’ve lost more cookbooks over the years than I can count,” he says.
His Holy Grail Tool: An Anti-Griddle from PolyScience, which does exactly what it sounds like: instead of providing a chef with a hot griddle, it’s cold, with temps that reach minus 30 degrees F. “I’d create chocolate snow,” says Cruz. “Pour the chocolate on the Anti-Griddle, scrape it off, and you’ll end up with chocolate snow.”
