Chef Bill Bruening
Bill Bruening, the executive chef at Sunfish Grill in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, started
working in a kitchen when he was only 12 years old. By the time he was 14, he was
a cook and at age 17, he was running his own kitchen. When he was 18 years old he
remembers how proud his grandmother was when he told her how he and his roommate
could eat for an entire week on one whole chicken. He told his grandmother that
day that he was intent on becoming a chef.
Since then, during his 20 years as a chef, Bill has found that the best tool to
learning about different tastes and palates has been to relocate.
"I grew up on the Gulf Coast in Northwest Florida and I'm passionate about seafood.
Later, I moved to Oregon to learn all about the seafood and vegetables from that
coast. After that I moved to Tennessee and California. The easiest way to learn
as a chef is to travel and to experience what different cities have to offer. The
seafood in Florida is outrageous and wonderful, but there's a completely different
seafood market in Oregon - the mushrooms there are unbelievable. Food changes regionally
and different cities have different things to offer," says Bill.
When he's not banging pots and pans in a kitchen, Bill is a drummer. The loves of
his life are cooking, music and his wife, Deanna Scott, whom he married on June
19, 2011.
NOTE: All three of these dishes can be prepared using one whole chicken. When butchering
the chicken you can use the breast for paillard and cut the rest into pieces for
the next two dishes, utilizing the same marinade. You can even cut the back into
two pieces; there's great meat on chicken backs and the bones assist in flavoring
your paella stock.