Given her success over nearly 20 years, Hutson is perhaps the most humble chef you’ll ever meet. Self-taught, she opened her first restaurant, Norma’s on the Beach, in Miami in 1994. The 46-seat restaurant would soon be touted as “the best Caribbean restaurant” in South Florida by USA Today, The New York Times, London Times and the Chicago Tribune.

When Norma’s opened, “I was scared to death,” Hutson says. “I didn’t know what I was doing or what I was getting into. It was the first place I’d ever cooked professionally. I’d fished for a living, and seafood is abundant here, so I stuck to a strict genre of Caribbean home dishes at that tiny restaurant. In hindsight, thank God I was in that little space or I never would have succeeded.”

Norma’s on the Beach was operating a mere six months when Carolyn O’Neil, executive producer and senior correspondent for CNN’s award-winning “On The Menu,” arrived in South Florida to find the source of the Caribbean-food wave spawning headlines nationwide. “She called Norman [Van Aken] wanting to do something on island food,” Hutson says. “And he was kind enough to say, ‘If you want something particular on Jamaican, no one does it like Cindy.’ So that was my first introduction to fame.”

Hutson closed Norma’s in 1999 to open Ortanique on the Mile, which graces Miami’s upscale neighborhood of Coral Gables. With more than triple the seating of Norma’s, Hutson set out to broaden her clientele’s horizons. Like Norma’s, Ortanique would offer diners authentic Caribbean dishes infused with Hutson’s elegant, fresh, light touch. But the menu wouldn’t drop anchor there.

“I wanted to expand what I’d learned over those years at Norma’s,” Hutson says. “Articles about Norma’s on the Beach focused on my Jamaican and Caribbean cuisine, but I was into so much more than that. I had such great ability to get produce and tropical foods and seafoods in Miami. In the Caribbean, Asia and South America, many of the ingredients are the same, but they’re prepared with different flair depending on where they’re cooked. So I tossed them around in the pan and, through trial and error, made different sauces to complement the proteins I was using.” The result? Ortanique was named Best New Restaurant by Esquire magazine—to Hutson’s dual joy and dismay. She was still being pigeonholed as a Caribbean-cuisine chef.

“I travel a lot and am inspired by food history and the origins of food,” Hutson says. “So I’d add other things, maybe from the Mediterranean, and then I’d add something from another region. People would call me and say, ‘You’re a Jamaican chef.’ And I’d say, no, more of a ‘cuisine of the sun.’ The more I used that phrase, the more it stuck with me.”

The rest is history. Hutson’s “cuisine of the sun” is an eclectic fusion of different nations and their natural bounties, prepared and presented creatively while concentrating on the flavor combinations of the freshest fish, fruits, vegetables and meats—from sunny climes all over the world.

“Local” Before It Was Cool
Hutson and life partner Delius Shirley decided to take Ortanique’s concept to the region that gave birth to Norma’s on the Beach so many years ago. In November 2010 they opened Ortanique on the Crescent at Camana Bay on Grand Cayman Island, an hour’s flight from Miami. The restaurant’s menu reflects the same global inspirations that created the menu of Ortanique on the Mile, but the island location lends Hutson the ability to offer a menu with even greater diversity.

On the menu at Ortanique—Cindy Hutson’s beer-steamed Mediterranean mussels in a spicy broth with shallots, Scotch-bonnet chile, tomatoes and Jamaican thyme.

“It was a very difficult restaurant to open because there were maybe 14 different nationalities in the kitchen,” Hutson recalls. “I wrote this book of recipes, but they weren’t in metric, and my staff didn’t understand my accent. Plus, we’re on an island—if the water was rough and fishermen didn’t fish and produce ships couldn’t get in, you’d have to wait. We were constantly redesigning the menu.”

But Hutson found herself in good company. Located near her restaurant are Eric Ripert’s Blue at The Ritz-Carlton, Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink by Miami chef Michael Schwartz, and Dean Max’ The Brasserie, among other chef celebs’ eateries.

“With all the chefs, farmers are now growing throughout the year except summer,” Hutson says. “It’s fantastic what we get. And we’re packed. We’ve been welcomed by locals as well as tourists.”

Hutson was about “local” in South Florida decades before sourcing within one’s environs became trendy. But she believes the stories behind ingredients are of far more interest to today’s diners, no matter where those ingredients originate. She’s not ashamed to feature any ingredient—as long as it’s authentic, cooked with integrity and sun-splashed with flavor.

Despite constant travel between her two restaurants, Hutson, who has three adult children (she raised them while a single parent building her reputation at Norma’s on the Beach), does guest-chef appearances and conducts regular cooking classes for amateurs and professionals and as team-building exercises for corporations. She’s an active board member of the Florida Lodging and Restaurant Association, supports the Miami Culinary Institute, and is a consulting chef to the American Egg Board and National Pork Board. Additionally, she’s a regular contributor to “The Huffington Post” and is writing her first cookbook, which will feature recipes born from her team-building experiences.

Since dipping a toe into uncertain waters way back in 1994 and finding them warm, Hutson’s discovered a secret to success: balance.

“Locals of every restaurant want your core menu to never change,” she says. “So I learned that you must keep the menu that they have a hankering for and specifically come in for. But I stay packed and interesting because I have a palette of flavors and dishes that rotate around that core menu. I’m constantly changing.”