Maybe it happened very quickly, or gradually over time, but whatever happened, Key West has become a bona fide food town. Dozens of distinctive restaurants in Key West today offer everything from fresh seafood to Omaha steaks. We are blessed to have the talent and the operators of these establishments.
The Key West Cooking School is, indeed, a restaurant, but it is much more. We are calling it a love letter to Key West because it speaks to so much of what makes this one of the most interesting places in a world of sameness.
It all started in the earliest days of the 1800s when Key West became a naval outpost on the farthest frontier of a young America. The first settlers were New Englanders, many of whom made their way through the Bahamas after the Revolutionary War. They brought their traditions and cuisine from coastal cities of the colonies. Wrecking became an immediate success story for this small island because of its geographic position on the Florida Straits, through which passed literally all the trade from the southern hemisphere to the coastal cities of the United States and then to Europe and back again. The influences on the food were dramatic. In addition to the New World flavors came input from enslaved people from Africa, the southern Crackers, Central America, Cuba and the Bahamas. Our food culture is every bit as diverse, interesting and compelling as any other great city known for its food like New Orleans. As a dividend of becoming one of the wealthiest cities per capita in the country from wrecking, early Key Westers were able to take advantage of the vast amount of goods passing by this little island and avail themselves of foods that were only available through expensive importation.
Take out a big mixing bowl and drop into it the wealth of a small community, a network of influences from virtually all over the world, an abundance of every sort of sea life that one can imagine and then necessity as the mother of invention. Mix it well and bake it for 200 years to get the food that now defines Conch cuisine.
At the Key West Cooking School, locals and visitors will get not only a lesson in how to prepare the dishes one would have enjoyed at grandma’s house for Sunday dinner that are inspired by the Key West Woman’s Club Cookbook, but also the history that defines the island’s history, society and culture.
Please accept our invitation to the new Key West Cooking School, where you will be treated not only to the food of Key West, but also the history of our people and how we developed over the past 200 years. It is a place to savor the food and our culture all in one entertaining, insightful and memorable experience. — Chris Belland
Editor’s Note: Chris Belland is a founder and CEO of Historic Tours of America and creator of the company’s new Key West Cooking School, which opens March 11 at The Shops at Mallory Square.
