The timeless elegance of 
Café Martinique on Paradise Island 
Recipes from this famed restaurant, which serves traditional French 
cuisine with ultra-modern flourishes

Cited from DINING and ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE – NASSAU, CABLE BEACH, 
PARADISE ISLAND - JAN 2006 EDITION
A stunning menu put together by the redoubtable Jean-Georges Vongerichten 
and a talented protégé by the name of Michael Lewis, 28, is making the new 
Café Martinique as well known for fine food as the original. 

Gastronomes still lament the passing of the old Martinique, demolished in 
the 1990s when Sol Kerzner was building Atlantis. The restaurant was renowned 
not only for delicious food and white-glove service but also for being a 
location in the 1965 James Bond thriller, Thunderball, starring Sean Connery. 
(Connery, who lives a few miles away in tony Lyford Cay, has dropped by to look 
around his new-old set but, by press time, had yet to show up for dinner.) 

Food at Café Martinique is still traditional French but with some ultra-modern 
flourishes. Lewis, in day-to-day control as executive chef, is unfazed by the 
demands of producing perfect meals every day. 

“Things are simple here,” he says. “Our goal is to give people an unforgettable 
meal without any hassle.” 

While Vongerichten’s name adds éclat to the new Martinique, the menu was a 
collaborative effort. “We came up with many dishes together, and some are my 
own creations,” says Lewis. He also creates all the specials and the amuse 
bouches, which “reflect the style of Café Martinique,” as well as his own vision. 


Pizza to petit fours 
Dining and Entertainment Guide caught up with Lewis one warm winter afternoon in 
Martinique’s elegant second-floor bar, overlooking three huge, gleaming yachts 
tied up across the street in Marina Village. 

Later, gourmets would debark to sample such delights as duck breast with baby 
turnip, sautéed foie gras and honey wine sauce, or dorado en papillote – 
a seasoned fillet of fish cooked in a parchment paper envelope with wild 
mushrooms and truffle, opened tableside and served over a leek puree. 

Unlike many who make it to the top in the culinary field, Lewis did not grow 
up in the bosom of a food-loving family. But he did start cooking on his own as 
a boy of 11 in Baltimore, MD. 

“My mom was working so I would have to cook for myself – you know, macaroni and 
cheese, pizzas. And I became bored with that so I started experimenting with 
different ingredients – shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce, stuff like that ... I didn’t 
realize where I was going, I was just cooking to feed myself.” 

The next step came when he was a teenager working as a summer dishwasher at a posh 
country club. Reassigned to the kitchen, he began cooking fries and remembers saying 
to himself, “You know what? I think I should do this. This is fun.” 

Lewis was not influenced by any one particular chef. “I had all the same cookbooks 
that young chefs do, and I had the same heroes – the great French chefs of the past.” 
He also lionized the top chefs who were and are making waves in the fiercely 
competitive New York culinary scene. 

Renaissance man 
Lewis figures he came into the cooking world “at the perfect time.” He graduated 
from the Culinary Institute of America at the end of 1998, a time when classic French 
cuisine was still king. 

But it was also the time when “a new movement was beginning to emerge.” Lewis 
explained that chefs in the new era are “getting very technical and scientific” 
about food, exploring the chemistry of taste and finding ways to combine foods to 
produce surprising and unexpected flavours. 

Some chefs before him are stuck in classic cuisines and others who came later don’t 
want to learn traditional skills and flavours. As for Lewis, “I want to be the guy 
who can do both” – a Renaissance man of the kitchen. 

His first gig out of culinary school was at a ski resort in Colorado: “I wanted to 
go somewhere where I could get one more snowboard season in before I buckled down.” 

Buckle down he did, mentored by two of the best-known chefs in the Big Apple today: 
David Bouley, owner of the highly acclaimed and eponymous Bouley, on West Broadway, 
and then by Vongerichten, who owns Jean-Georges in the Trump building on Columbus 
Circle (and other restaurants in New York and elsewhere). At Jean-Georges he rose to 
become chef de cuisine before taking over at Café Martinique. 

He loves being in The Bahamas and running the kitchen at Café Martinique. “I want to 
take this place as far as it can go, so that a trip to The Bahamas wouldn’t feel 
complete without having eaten here.” Here are some of the dishes Lewis hopes will 
take Café Martinique to the top. 

Market chopped salad 
Shiitake mushrooms, quartered and roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper 
Red radishes, cubed 1/4 inch 
French beans, sliced 1/4 inch thick and blanched 
Red and yellow cherry tomatoes, cut in half 
Corn, kernels cut and blanched 
Red finger chilli, shaved thin 
Avocado, cubed 1/2 inch thick and coated with lemon juice 
Scallion, shaved thin on bias 
Cucumber, peeled, seeded and cubed 1/4 inch 
Celery, peeled, blanched and sliced 1/4-inch thick 
Baby carrots, peeled, sliced 1/4-inch thick and blanched 
Fennel, cubed 1/4-inch and blanched 
Green zucchini, sliced 1/4-inch thick, grilled with olive oil, salt and pepper 
and then cubed 
Apple, peeled and cubed 1/4-inch 
Snap peas, cut in 1/2-inch cubes, blanched 
Red bell pepper, roasted with garlic, thyme and olive oil, then cubed 1/4-inch 
Yellow bell pepper, roasted with garlic, thyme and olive oil, then cubed 1/4-inch 
Asparagus, peeled, cut in 1/2-inch pieces and blanched 
Artichoke hearts, braised, cut in 1/2-inch pieces 

Prepare vegetables and serve at room temperature, not too cold. Combine one small 
spoon of each ingredient except for the finger chilli and the scallion, add only a 
pinch of each of these. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a vinaigrette made 
with 1 cup olive oil and 1 cup rice wine vinegar. 

To serve: Combine micro greens with some of each herb. Season with salt, pepper 
and vinaigrette. Place in center of bowl and spoon vegetables on top. Garnish with 
parmesan cheese. 


Coq au vin, chive spaetzle 
(serves four) 
2 4-lb chickens quartered 
6 oz prosciutto medium dice 
12 oz bacon cut in 1-inch lardon 
3 oz butter 
1-1/2 oz flour 
1.5 L red wine 
6 oz mushrooms (cleaned and quartered) 

In two large skillets, sear seasoned chicken until golden brown (breasts in one, 
legs and thighs in the other). Remove from pan, de-grease and add bacon and prosciutto. 
Render fat till bacon is golden, add butter, cook till foamy then add flour and return 
chicken to the skillets (still breasts in one and legs/thighs in the other). Mix all 
until pasty. Add wine, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer. Simmer the breasts for 
8-10 mins, remove from skillet and place in a Dutch oven. Transfer liquid to the skillet 
with the legs and thighs and continue to cook them for 35 mins longer or until tender. 
Place legs and thighs in Dutch oven with the breasts and cover with cooking liquid, 
bacon and prosciutto. Sauté mushrooms in foamy butter, season with salt and pepper 
and transfer to Dutch oven. Cool and reserve until served. 



Spaetzle 
8 oz chives, rough chop 
4 oz parsley 
8 oz milk 
6 oz crème fraîche 
4 tbsp salt 
2 tsp cayenne pepper 
1 nutmeg, grated 
16 oz flour 
12 eggs 

Combine chives, parsley and milk in a blender with 2 tbsp salt. Purée until green and 
smooth. Add crème fraîche and continue to purée until combined. Take 26 oz of purée, 
add eggs and whisk until combined. (Reserve remaining purée for serving.) In a separate 
mixing bowl combine dry ingredients including remaining salt. Whisk wet and dry 
ingredients together. Cook spaetzle batter in boiling salty water till it doubles 
in size, remove to an ice bath until cold, drain, oil and reserve until serving. 

To serve: Sauté spaetzle in foamy butter until lightly golden. Add sliced scallions 
and a small amount of water. Add 1 tsp chive purée and 1 tsp butter until emulsified 
and creamy, then adjust seasoning and spoon onto plate. Put coq au vin in 350°F oven 
for 10-15 mins. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve. 

English lemon custard with vanilla sable cookies and fresh raspberries 
(serves four) 

Custard 
2 oz lemon juice 
9-1/2 oz crème frâiche 
1/2 oz mascarpone (a soft mild Italian cream cheese.) 
3-1/2 oz sugar 

Juice the lemons. 

In a saucepan, place the crème frâiche, mascarpone and sugar. Cook on medium heat. 
When mix comes to a boil reduce heat and simmer 3 mins. Blend slowly adding the lemon 
juice and pour into bowls. Chill for a least 3 hours. 




Vanilla sable cookies 
7 oz unsalted butter 
2-1/4 oz salted butter 
4 egg yolks 
1/2 vanilla bean 
10-1/2 oz flour 

Bring the butters and the yolks to room temp. Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla beans 
and the yolks just to combine. Add the flour by hand till combined. Cut into 8 oz pieces 
and roll in tubes 1 inch diameter. Freeze. Brush with yolks and roll in vanilla sugar. 
Cut into 1/4 inch disks and bake at 400°F for 5 mins.