MIAMI
This Le Jardinier Lunch Series Celebrates Local Farms, Not Just the Idea of Them
Chef de Cuisine Zack Pham
By Eric Barton | April 25, 2025
You know how every nice restaurant says they “celebrate the seasons” and “honor local farmers”? Usually that means they bought a $6 bunch of radishes at the farmers market and called it a day.
At Le Jardinier in Miami’s Design District, though, they’re actually doing far more. This month the restaurant is launched a new Saturday lunch series called La Table du Jardinier, and the idea is pretty simple: pick a farm, build a menu around what they’re growing right now, and let diners see (and taste) where their food actually comes from.
The first round of menus focuses on Paradise Farms, a five-acre regenerative operation down in Homestead where the vegetables taste like somebody cared. Executive chef James Friedberg and chef de cuisine Zack Pham put together a $44 three-course tasting menu that’ll run every Saturday through May 3, paired with organic wines and a lot of actual storytelling about the farm itself. Not the made-up kind.
“Our menus mirror the natural rhythm of the seasons,” Pham told me, a thing that could sound like press-release mush if he didn’t actually back it up with real enthusiasm. He said his team gets legitimately excited when a farmer drops off a box of just-picked produce—excited enough that they wanted to build a whole lunch series around it.
Pharm is not new to Paradise Farms. He first partnered with them last year, but after spending some time with their farmers up close, he says he came away kind of in awe. “Their hospitality and passion were among the best I’ve experienced throughout my career,” he said.
On the menu: roasted chicken with yucca and turnips, plus the restaurant’s take on burrata, upgraded with star fruit from the farm. They’re also throwing in chives, basil, mint, celery, and tomatoes that actually taste like something, instead of the sad hydroponic stuff from a supermarket.
For Pham, who grew up shopping twice a day for fresh ingredients in Ho Chi Minh City, the idea isn’t some farm-to-table marketing ploy. It’s the only way he knows how to cook: pick the best stuff available, let it speak for itself, and trust that people can taste the difference.
For reservations, find Le Jardinier on Open Table here.
Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who splits his time between Asheville and Miami. He’s on a constant hunt for the best pizza, best places to bike, and for his next new favorite destination. Email him here.
