Sarasota Visitors Guide 2008 - (Page 16) By Chelle Koster Walton I asked for the dessert menu at Derek’s Culinary Casual the minute I tasted my chilled tomatillo, cucumber and yogurt soup. Not that I’m this major sweet tooth, but I just knew if Derek’s could do this to soup, dessert had to dazzle. That’s when I spotted it on the menu: fresh pear poached with lavender and honey, topped with goat cheese ice cream in a pool of black pepper caramel sauce. It sounded like a sonnet, looked like a masterpiece, and tasted like a crescendo. Sarasota and Her Islands: You come for the art galleries, the dance, the theater. Culinary Artistry But wait, what’s this? Art delivered right to your table at restaurants throughout the region! It should come as no surprise that this art-obsessed area takes it to the kitchen, translating a palette of tastes for a wide range of discriminating palates. The number of award-winning restaurants per capita puts Sarasota at the top of the culinary field. How did it happen? How did a former fishing village surrounded by small beach communities grow up to compete with the big cities and their name restaurants? So I went first to Michael Klauber, a name synonymous with fine Sarasota cuisine-crafting since the 1970s, when he opened Michael’s on East in Sarasota, having grown up in Longboat Key’s culinarily acclaimed Colony Resort family. Top: Stone crab claws at Crab & Fin Bottom: 5-One-6 Burns Right: Mattison’s City Grille 16 THE OFFICIAL SARASOTA VISITORS GUIDE® 2008
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