Chef Chris Nealon
Chris Nealon feeds the masses with Aruba Beach Cafe General Manager Guy Contrada for Lauderdale-By-The-Sea's Bugfest. | Photo ©2019 Wayne Koss
Aruba Beach Cafe Executive Chef Chris Nealon is a long-time Florida resident dating back to arriving here in South Florida in his schooling salad days.
Notably: Chris is a four-time winner of the Fort Lauderdale Seafood Festival, recipient of the ‘Golden Spoon Award’, voted ‘Best Caribbean Restaurant’ by South Florida magazine, ‘Best Value on the Beach’ (Zagat Survey), and numerous other awards and accolades. With 35-plus years in the kitchens of Florida and the Caribbean, 30-plus of them at the Aruba Beach Cafe of Lauderdale By The Sea, Florida.
He has earned high praise and admiration of his peers, all who work with and for him, and countless thousands of patrons and beyond…
Chris voices “While I was still a student at Pompano Beach High School (Florida), I apprenticed with French chef Alain Petibon and learned the nuances of the country French cooking skills I still use today. Petibon and I worked at MaPomme. It was a gourmet place in the 1970s that attracted the likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Mary Martin, Jerry Lewis, and lots of other celebrities when they came to Fort Lauderdale.
The only time I have ever been nervous cooking for famous people is when I cooked for Rod Stewart because I’m a big fan of his. He was specific about how he liked his 4:00pm English tea prepared.”
Aruba Beach Cafe Executive Chef Chris Nealon
I embraced those skills and went on to make an incredible life for myself as a chef. My culinary adventure became a combo platter of catering local society parties for Wayne and Marti Huizenga, living aboard yachts in the Caribbean and summering in a 72-room Southampton mansion where I would create clambakes on the beach for the owners. Since they owned 13 Rolls Royce, their Rolls Royce mechanic sometimes lived there too.
In 1989 I came back to my roots and became the head chef at Aruba Beach Cafe”. I have remained here because I am appreciated and it’s such a cool location. People from all over the world come here, some in suits some in shorts—and no one feels out of place.
