THE GENUINE HOSPITALITY GROUP, LLC
MIAMI, FLORIDA

It’s 5:40 a.m. on a recent Friday, and I’m blasting up I-95 under a nearly full moon-lit sky thinking I’m late. Myrtille Quillien runs on baker’s hours, and they began 40 minutes ago in pastry’s corner of the kitchen at Amara at Paraiso. I arrive relieved to find out I’m just in time. She’s in the dining room’s coffee station, brewing coffee for the crew arriving later on and making her own morning cup — a long espresso latte with steamed milk filled to the brim of a juice glass. We have a laugh about the Google calendar notification we both received at 4:50. I had mistakenly set today’s appointment remembering the much earlier wake up call for my visit to the commissary Pre-dawn here isn’t all about the sunrise, that view so different from any other time of day that few rarely witness. It is really about the dough — because so is Amara. There are two types for the restaurant’s empanadas alone, one of the first items to greet guests on the menu. Myrtille’s first helper to arrive is Yesenia, a transplant from ella pop café, and she begins there, scooping heaping stainless steel spoonfuls of glistening starch-white lard from a tub that smells like bacon. Once stretched in a pasta roller, cut into discs and portioned onto wax paper, it will be filled with tender pulled short rib, crimped and then baked to golden brown. The other is fried, puffing to a crispy delicious pocket thanks to the fluffiness of cooked yuca in the mix. Final product, served with chimichurri spice With Chef Paley driving the concept of the menu both savory and sweet, Myrtille’s role requires equal parts artist’s touch and technical skills — someone who can precisely develop ideas into executable desserts and baked goods suitable for production. The approach is working together and inclusive for a cohesive outcome on the menu, and all the chefs get to be included in the process of developing pastry. Myrtille works smart and tests in small batches as she goes. The new Sunday Brunch is an area she can bring new ideas to the table, since dishes change weekly, like last Sunday’s guava pastelito. She took the paste and thinned it out just a bit on the stove top, adding ginger and lime zest to bring out the guava flavor but not upstage it. Hello jackie, LOVE michael’s! We just arrived back from our grand cayman vacation and visited the restaurant. The staff was extremely knowledgeable and friendly (we had a filipino waiter and bus boy, dont remember their names) and the food was SPECTACULAR! We are used to eating at many fine dining restaurants and couldnt say enough about this place…it was our favorite restaurant on the island. That said, we have friends who are vacationing there the w/o 5/20 and i wanted to get them a gift certificate because we want them to eat @ Michael’s so badly. However, i tried calling the miami michael’s and they said their gift certs cant be used in grand cayman. I was told to check the website but dont see any contact info anywhere! I know your blog is not meant for this purpose, but am hoping you can connect me to the right grand cayman michaels contacts via email, please? Sorry to put you in the middle, but was desperate to get our friends a gift cert in time for their vacation. If you can please let me know, i would be so appreciative. Thanks so much! Melissa /