Pairing Wine and Seafood

Think you can only enjoy white wine with seafood? Think again. Chef LaDuke brings you some fun new food and wine pairings from California Wine country.

Labels: Chef_Videos

Sonoma’s Fresh Flavors

Hello. Chef Michael LaDuke here, back from Sonoma County, CA, where we met with Red Lobster leaders to review this year’s menu and company accomplishments. From a culinary point of view, the most inspiring part of the trip was the opportunity to learn about food and wine in such a cool setting.

Sonoma offers an unbelievable backdrop of great wineries, farmers markets and organic gardens. With Sonoma’s cool nights and warm days, is it the perfect climate for fresh, seasonal products. And we had a great time using those fresh products in cool seafood dishes.

We spent a lot of time at the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center in Sonoma. We filmed Chef’s Blog videos from the center’s beautiful winery and organic garden that you will see on this site soon. The chef team also prepared a dinner of Red Lobster dishes with sides and sauces from Kendall-Jackson’s organic vegetables and herbs. Working with the Kendall-Jackson chef team was a great food partnership as we all celebrated fresh, flavorful ingredients. Together we served about 150 people and were uplifted by the Red Lobster leaders’ reaction to the dishes. I couldn’t have been more proud of our chefs’ food. The audience treated them like rock stars.

Now, it’s back to the Culinary Center to prepare new fresh seafood dishes for the fall. We’ll be introducing these dishes here soon. So please join us at the Chef’s Blog as we feature recipes and tips for preparing fresh delicious seafood. Happy cooking. Michael LaDuke.

Endless Fun!

It’s that time of year again at Red Lobster -- Endless Shrimp, where guests can indulge in their favorite shrimp dishes. This year guests also get to enjoy a new flavor for us, Cajun Shrimp.

One of our chefs, Willie Cornaz, was given the task of coming up with a new dish for the Endless promotion, something that would appeal to guests who are visiting us either for the first time, or are returning to try their favorites. Chef Willie, a graduate of The Orlando Culinary Academy, worked hard to come up with a dish that is outstanding and very popular. He used his years of experience working in Red Lobster restaurants, combined with his culinary training, to develop a dish that we successfully rolled out to 680 restaurants across North America.

It is always great for us to see a dish go from our kitchens in the Red Lobster Culinary Center, to the Center of your plate! So stop by and check out Cajun Shrimp, along with the rest of your favorites, during Endless Shrimp. Michael LaDuke

Fun, Flavorful Shrimp

Join us for the latest Chef’s Blog video as Chef Darryl prepares a tasty shrimp dish with Key West flair.

Click Here for the Spiced Shrimp with Key Lime Sauce recipe

Goin’ To California!

Not only is this the title of one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs, but it is what the chef team and I are doing! It is time for our Annual Red Lobster meeting where our restaurants leaders discuss this year’s menu ideas, share our accomplishments from the past year, and spend time learning about food and wine.

This year is very exciting, as we have an opportunity to meet in Sonoma County CA, with its unbelievable backdrop of great wineries, farmers markets and one of the country’s best destinations for fresh, seasonal products. This year, our chef team has been asked to host a dinner for our leaders. It is a very exciting opportunity. We will fly out to Sonoma, visit with the host winery, tour their gardens, and decide on some of the fresh menu items for that week’s dinner. It will be a unique chance for our team to take fresh products right from the field to the fork. Each chef will host/cook at a station and pair a Red Lobster favorite (Shrimp, Salmon, Maine Lobster) with whatever great items they find out in California. Chef Darryl Mickler and I will work with the winery to pair some of their best varietals with some of our best food. (One advantage of being the boss is that you get to pick your assignment. Therefore, I get to sample and pick the wine!)


While in Sonoma, we will also film some Chef’s Blog videos featuring cooking tips and great ideas for pairing wine with seafood. So, in this space I’ll soon recap our dinner and let you know what great dishes the chefs created. So stay tuned. And as the summer winds down, please stop by Red Lobster and see what’s fresh today. Michael LaDuke