A good rule of thumb at most restaurants is that things heat up in the kitchen, but there’s one spot on South Beach that’s taken an extra step to beat the heat in the 305. And that means the recipes can suit your palate all year round.
Welcome to Upland Miami, where consistency is the most prominent ingredient.
Martell Fonville, Upland Miami: “Consistency is the biggest thing we practice here. Consistency wins you ball games. You can’t be 110 miles an hour one day and then come back the next and be 45. It just doesn’t work.”
To make sure that happens, the restaurant installed a humidity controlled room where all their pasta, pizza doughs and desserts (we love the sugar choice) are made.
That’s real Italian style for these rustic Italian dishes.
Martell Fonville: “The humidity controlled room was something that Chef Justin thought would be a huge impact here since the humidity is so high in Miami, so basically we put in a room that’s temperature controlled.”
By keeping the room set at 67 degrees all the time…
Martell Fonville: “At 67 degrees, there’s no room for water. There’s no room for moisture, so everything stays consistent.”
That’s significant during the summer when temps can hit triple digits.
It’s an important ingredient for the restaurant, which is known for it’s tasty pasta and pizza dishes.
Martell Fonville: “If the pasta’s too wet, it doesn’t roll. If it’s too hot, the pizza dough overproofs within 20 minutes.”
That means…
Martell Fonville: “The perfect pizza dough is probably six by eight inches. If it overproofs, it becomes 10-12, which means it stretches and you get a huge hole in the middle of the pie.”
Another only-in-Miami feature for this restaurant based out of the Big Apple is the wood fire oven.
Martell Fonville: “Basically, we have a temperature control on the bottom, and then we constantly feed live wood into the actual oven. It gives us that smokey-ness, gives us our light, to give us our consistency on what we want.”
Here’s proof it passes the taste test. These visitors to South Beach say the food is all the way up on the top of their favorites list.
Kyle Fair, customer: “It’s been amazing; the food, the flavors are great.”
Blake Hayes: “You could totally tell between pasta that comes out of like a box and like a homemade pasta that they made back there.”
FOR MORE INFO:
Upland Miami
49 Collins Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 602-9998
http://www.uplandmiami.com/
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.