A Miami native of Jewish and Latin descent, Michelle Bernstein, a passionate culinaire, has dazzled diners and critics alike with her sublime cuisine and a personality as bright and vibrant as the Florida sun. Honors graduate of Johnson & Wales University, Bernstein (40) cut her teeth with the likes of iconic chefs Mark Militello and Jean Louis Palladin before drawing the national spotlight in the late 1990’s as executive chef of Tantra on Miami Beach. She joined the Food Network as co-host of the show Melting Pot, where she introduced many Americans to the art of Nuevo Latino Cuisine. Bernstein would return to the Food Network years later to battle Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, from which the Miami chef emerged victorious.A James Beard Award winner (Best Chef South 2007) and author of Cuisine a Latina (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2008), Bernstein has three successful South Florida outposts: Michy’s, her cozy, haute neighborhood haunt on Miami’s Biscayne Corridor, and SRA. Martinez, her eclectic tapas restaurant in the burgeoning Miami Design District. Bernstein also owns MB, a beautiful, open air restaurant at the gorgeous Aqua Resort in Cancun. Beyond her trio of restaurants, Bernstein is keeping busy. She is preparing to tape the third season of the Emmy-nominated PBS weekly television series, Check, Please! South Florida; continues to consult for Delta Airlines, for which she creates in-flight menus for First and Business Class Elite and continues to appear on national television shows, ranging from Top Chef and The Today Show to the Martha Stewart Show.

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