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Sliding into Long Beach

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Just south of Los Angeles, Long Beach’s harbor, beaches and burgeoning businesses are making the city into a force to be reckoned with when it comes to attracting conventions and other large events. The recently-renovated, SMG-managed Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center seems to be in the middle of the transformation, and in the middle of the venue is Premier Executive Chef Adam Crisafulli, who couldn’t be happier or more enthusiastic to be leading this culinary team.

“My goal is to deliver a quality product: food that’s hot, whimsical, sexy, interactive—that people can enjoy when they come to the convention center,” he said. “I don’t want them to think that it’s convention center food. I want them to feel all warm and fuzzy inside when they leave a party here.”

For example, Crisafulli served some “crazy stuff” at a recent party, including French onion soup caviar, a dish using molecular gastronomy to create an edible sphere of soup and caviar meant to explode in the diner’s mouth. He also whipped up some prosciutto with sage cotton candy at the same event.

Some of his favorite signature items, however, are beautiful bite-sized burgers, made with gourmet accoutrements, ranging from beef, mushrooms and pepper jack cheese on a pretzel bun and buffalo chicken with an apple-blue cheese slaw to fried green tomatoes with spicy chipotle to mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and bacon.

“We use all different kinds of buns,” the chef said. “Depending on the party, sometimes we’ll put the sliders out on these little risers with heat lamps, or they will be tray passed and they’ll come in a little slider box.”

While sliders are a popular offering, Crisafulli explained that he takes care to make sure the menus fit the client and event. “I talk to clients about salads, appetizers, et cetera, and I get a feel for what they want,” he said. “I’ll put a menu together, go over it with the sales manager [and the client] … and we go from there. I create anywhere from three to four menus a week.”

PREMIER EXECUTIVE CHEF ADAM CRISAFULLI
LONG BEACH (CALIF.) CONVENTION & ENTERTAINMENT CENTER

“My background is Italian, Mexican and Spanish,” said Premier Executive Chef Adam Crisafulli. “I have vivid memories from my childhood of going to eat at grandma’s house—whether it was my Mexican or my Italian grandmother.”

Those memories have stayed with the chef, as visitors to the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center are bound to taste at least an Italian-inspired dish at some point, whether it’s an authentic pasta or something less traditional, like ravioli stuffed with chorizo.

Crisafulli trained at San Francisco’s California Culinary Academy and started his career at Valentino’s in Santa Monica before becoming the executive sous chef at its sister restaurant inside Las Vegas’ Venetian hotel. His cosmopolitan experience spans fine dining, quick service restaurants and banquet-style service, which prepared him well to serve the diverse clientele at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, where the chef said he can see himself for the next 20 years and beyond.

Contact: (562) 499-7663


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