| >> Beauty and the Feast: A new concept in dining |
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Does bison makes you beautiful? Perhaps, but it will definitely make you syntropic, says Tim Hogle, and that's even better. Hogle, the dentist-turned-restaurateur who owns Tantra, is devoting his new South Beach restaurant, Afterglo, to ''beautritional'' cuisine -- healthful food that's intended to make you fabulous-looking. Thanks to chef Michael Schwartz, formerly of Nemo, it aims to be fabulous-tasting, too, from Afterglo's signature appetizer, the Beauty Pill, a cake of salmon, mango and broccoli sprouts, to chile- and mint-sparked bison ceviche. Everything comes with a side dish of syntropy, Hogle's pet concept (it's his restaurant, after all). The quantum-physics term encompasses natural beauty, order and photosynthesis -- converting sunlight to energy. ''Combine CO, water and sunlight and this magical thing happens,'' says Hogle with the passion of a true believer. The magic and light business gives Afterglo its name. ''The science is new to me,'' says Schwartz, ``but the lifestyle isn't. What Tim says, my wife's been preaching to me for years.'' Hogle calls it honest food -- grown with love and without chemicals and pesticides. If it's not low in carbs or glycemic index, high in enzymes or Omega-3, vibrant of palette, anti-inflammatory, alkalinizing or mineral-rich, it's not on Schwartz's menu. It's an approach espoused by raw-food guru David Wolfe in Eating for Beauty (Maul Brothers, $24.95). Dishes include a healthy -- and healthful -- dose of watercress, cucumber, hemp seeds and coconut, with its lovely lauric acid. If raw food leaves you, well, cold, fear not; Schwartz hasn't given up cooking. And whether it's raw or cooked, don't think of it as health food. 'We use the word `beauty' rather than 'health,' '' says Hogle. After 30 years as a dentist to the stars, Hogle knows that people -- South Beach people, anyway -- are more interested in looking good than in being healthy. For him, the two are inextricable. Syntropic, even. Syntropy isn't easy to pull off. ''It's hard for people to eat healthy,'' says Schwartz. ``There's work, kids, carpools.'' And for the chef, there was a steep learning curve. Schwartz hadn't eaten, let alone prepared, the kinds of raw-food dishes that comprise a significant share of his Afterglo menu. He staffed his kitchen with fresh faces -- ``young people who weren't jaded. I didn't want to untrain anyone but myself -- that was hard enough.'' A former foie gras fan, Schwartz is now turned on by turmeric -- not the yellow powdered stuff but the real-deal rhizome. Fresh turmeric adds gentle heat and amazing dimension to dishes, has anti-inflammatory and cancer-fighting properties and a price that'll take your breath. ''Fresh turmeric is just magical,'' Schwartz says. ``I'll always have to cook with it now, but it's hard to get.'' If anyone can track it down, it's Schwartz, who researches the provenance of each ingredient. It's all part of his syntropy schooling. ''Now even organic isn't good enough,'' he says. ``It's a real challenge to source this stuff.'' The antelope and venison come from Texas, the fish from Alaska, the bison from North Dakota -- and if you can hook him up with a reliable source of dandelion root, Schwartz wants to hear from you. The New Age earnestness may seem incongruous for Hogle, who created a home for aphrodisiac cuisine at Tantra, but decadence lives in Afterglo's sleek, vaguely Egypto night-club decor, golden lighting and full bar. Is a martini syntropic? No, not even when it's Afterglo's wheat-grass martini. Booze doesn't qualify as health food. Nor does pastry chef Alejandro Briceno's Yin/Yang Cream Cheese Tart. Hey, revel in the moment. ''We don't want anyone to feel deprived,'' says Hogle. He and Schwartz aren't out to tell you what to do. You want to pollute your body? Fine, just order A Beautiful Mind. Sparkling with anti-oxidant-intense blueberries and goji berries, Brazil nuts for selenium, walnuts for Omega-3 and a ginkgo vinaigrette, A Beautiful Mind is a brain-power boost on a plate. Eat enough and perhaps you'll be able to talk syntropy with the best of them. And if you don't want to, that's fine, too. ''Learn as much as you want or nothing at all,'' says Schwartz. Afterglo has a sommelier to help you find the right organic and/or ''biodynamic'' wine to complement your grilled wild Nilgai antelope. There's also a beauty sommelier whose role, aside from being beautiful, seems uncertain. Perhaps eating A Beautiful Mind would clarify things. A sprout room at Tantra might be a place where people engage in activities best not mentioned in a family newspaper. At Afterglo, it's a room for sprouts. Or rather, for sprouting. Germinated grains, legumes and vegetables are loaded with nutrients and that adorable, sunlight-absorbing molecule, chlorophyll. Schwartz's current inventory includes caraway, red clover, milk thistle, sunflower, lentil and pea. ''It's like a garden,'' he says. Before launching Afterglo, Hogle made himself a human guinea pig. After five months on an all-syntropic-all-the-time diet, he says he feels great, oozes energy and has dropped 30 pounds. He didn't turn into Jude Law, but that's not the point. ''Beauty doesn't have to be defined by looks,'' says Hogle, who nevertheless is married to a former model, the stunning Irina Korneeva, hostess at Tantra. ``It can be defined by your excitement for life.'' ''Beauty is how you feel about yourself,'' adds Schwartz, whose leggy, blonde wife could be mistaken for a model. Tamara Schwartz is not only is an eyeful, she's a mother of three who works for an organic-foods supplier and has always been big into nutrition. Not Schwartz. ''I grew up in the convenience era in a nasty suburb of Philadelphia,'' he says. ``My diet's changed. I'm more conscious, more in tune to what I put into my body, more into raw, salady stuff.'' Hogle, on the other hand, is all about elk. If you're a where's-the-beef kind of guy, that or the grilled bison rib eye are Afterglo options worth investigating. ''No normal guy is going to leave here and go to Burger King,'' says Schwartz. Burger King is cheaper, but Afterglo's prices, though South Beachy, aren't stratospheric, with entrees in the $25-to-$35 range. ''Our target customer is everyone,'' says Schwartz. ``Raw foodists, vegetarians, vegans, people who don't care.'' Schwartz and Hogle, though, do. Passionately, and about all of it, from syntropy to selenium, from beautrition to bison. ''It's not a gimmick,'' says Schwartz. ``We believe in it 100 percent.'' Source: http://ae.miami.com/entertainment/ui/miami/restaurant.html?id=71003&reviewId=17934 |