WORDS Tara Crutchfield
PHOTOGRAPH Amy Sexson
Nutwood Winter Haven’s premier farm-to-table restaurant, Nutwood, celebrated five years last month. Owner and Michelin Starred Chef, Steven Rojas, looks to Nutwood’s future, including a kitchen expansion, cosmetic renovations on the outdoor dining space, and a tasty new business that had him traveling to Europe to study tradition and craft. You might say Rojas’ new venture will ‘cure’ any savory cravings you have.
awnings, and more greenery to give each table a more intimate, enclosed feel. “There’s a lot of empty space, and I think if we put little things like that between tables, it almost feels like their own little hidden restaurant,” he said. A BACKGROUND ON CHEF STEVEN ROJAS Chef Rojas has been in the culinary industry for over 25 years. Originally from Culver City, California, Rojas’ culinary origins hearken back to his childhood. “My dad used to do a lot of Argentine barbecue on Sundays. My mom used to cook – even though she says she’s not a good cook, she really is an excellent cook. Growing up around good food was part of my upbringing. We rarely went out to restaurants. We always cooked at home. That connection to food came very early on in my life.”
“It’s been a really hard five years,” reflected Rojas. The restaurant industry is demanding on a good day, but more so when dealing with a pandemic, staffing issues, and rising food costs. Run by an acclaimed chef and backed by a dedicated staff, Nutwood persists. “People who want to work here don’t just want to make a dollar. It’s a career path for them. That’s the difference between us and other restaurants in general. To have the staff that we do, we’re very fortunate,” said Rojas. “I push the recipes, I push people to do better, and they want to do the same thing too.”
Following an injury playing semi-pro soccer, Rojas enrolled in culinary school. From age 19, he prioritized working at the most desirable independently owned restaurants with James Beard Award Winners and Michelin Star chefs.
Nutwood vaunts farm-to-table cuisine in the truest sense of the term. Chef Rojas sources fresh produce from local farmers as often as possible, offers seasonal dishes, a curated wine selection, and even dry-ages his own beef for Nutwood’s menu. “Those little things that we do to set us apart, not because we want to be different, but because I think that’s the way people like to eat,” he said. “Farm to table is just what we do. We’re not doing it because it’s a hashtag or a cool, trendy thing to do. It’s something we do anyway.”
Culinary diploma in hand, Rojas moved to Chicago where he worked at Tru. His career took him to Patina Restaurant in LA, where we worked with Eric Greenspan and Walter Manzke. Around this time, Rojas was handed a 1990-something Michelin Guide Book from Spain and encouraged to travel, try to get a stage (unpaid internship) at some of the restaurants in the book, and learn as much as he could. During a trip to visit family in Spain, Rojas drove through San Sebastián, a city in Basque Country renowned for its culinary scene, especially pintxos, a small dish similar to tapas. “You walk through the old parts of San Sebastián, and you could spend three hours just walking and eating,” Rojas said. “That’s the food culture there, and I was enamored by it. It’s not just sitting down and eating and going home. It’s more talking, hanging out, drinking, and eating.”
With items not typical for the area, like grilled Spanish octopus for dinner, Chef Rojas was “pleasantly surprised by how well our restaurant was received.” Some diners were hesitant at first, but according to the chef, “I stayed true to our convictions that this is what we were going to do and people would come.” And they did. Today, Nutwood is a dining staple in the city with a customer base of foodies, loyal locals, and clientele who travel from around the state to meet there.
On the way back home, he knocked on the doors of several restaurants seeking a stage with room and board. The last restaurant he tried belonged to acclaimed three Michelin Starred chef Martín Berasategui.
Stark white walls, restrained photographs and artwork, and Edison light fixtures suspended above the simple, locallymade wooden tables create an intimate and straightforward atmosphere. The brick-lined, oak-shaded outdoor patio is bordered with foliage and strung with lights. Nutwood’s uncomplicated motif is purposeful on the chef’s part. “I want the food to be the center. I want the service to be the center,” he said. “A very intimate, chef-driven, food-focused, winefocused menu and restaurant with service that perceivably seems casual, but it’s not.”
Berasategui was sitting down reading a newspaper when Rojas entered. “It was surreal because I had a couple of travel books. I had a Relais & Châteaux and a Michelin Guide, and the Relais & Châteaux book had his face on it,” Rojas said. A starstruck Rojas was invited to come back the following January. In January, Rojas booked a one-way ticket back to Spain and found himself in line for a stage at Berasategui’s three-star Michelin-rated restaurant. “There was a line of cooks – Japanese, French, Spanish, South American – from all over the world,” he said. He worked 15 to 20-hour days, five days a week for a month, learning a “classic Spanish style of cooking.”
Nutwood hospitality artfully toes the tightrope between finedining service and casual atmosphere without a stumble. Servers manage to pay attention to detail without the stuffiness of a traditional fine dining establishment. From food and drink to service and atmosphere, Rojas prefers to underpromise and overdeliver.
“I learned a lot. I learned work ethic, professionality, and how to cook at that level. That was a very important part of my culinary career,” Rojas said.
Over the next two years, Rojas plans to expand the kitchen and smarten the patio with the additions of pergolas,
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