Celebrity Chefs Team Up With Pink Shell Resort To Launch Delicious New Dining Concepts

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla., May 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bongo's Beach Bar and Grill at Pink Shell Resort in Fort Myers Beach, FL has long enjoyed a four-star rating from TripAdvisor for the quality of its food, location and service.  Starting in June, it is about to get even better thanks to a collaboration between Pink Shell Resort's chefs and executive team and two celebrity chefs: Paul Minnillo and Michel Nischan.

Minnillo is a third-generation restaurateur and nationally recognized for some of the finest restaurants in the Midwest, including The Baricelli Inn and Flour.  Nischan is a James Beard Award winning chef, Humanitarian of the Year 2015 and a recognized sustainable food pioneer.  Together, these renowned chefs have brought their decades of experience and celebrity to the culinary team at Bongo's to redefine the essence of the menu.  Drawing upon the restaurant's existing focus on always fresh beach food, they have worked with the talented Pink Shell culinary team to create new dishes that elevate the emphasis on great seafood, healthy options and fresh, local ingredients.  The new menu will boast entrees crafted from the ingredients of regional farmers and fishermen along Florida's Gulf Coast.

"Chef Minnillo and Chef Nischan were the perfect choices to complement our existing culinary team," said Pink Shell Executive Chef Craig Panneton.  "Their culinary styles are very much in keeping with our own focus on fresh, local, sustainable foods and they bring an innovative flair to the planning of our new Bongo's menu.  Starting in June, we are so excited that Fort Myer's Beach visitors will enjoy the delicious new dishes our collaboration has produced."

About Chef Paul Minnillo
Chef Paul Minnillo grew up surrounded by three generations of family steeped in the restaurant business. Minnillo earned a degree in business administration from Ohio's Miami University before returning to his family's home in Cleveland and receiving on-the-job-training in the family restaurant, Minnillo's.  He expanded his culinary training in New York's restaurant scene, eventually leaving for London to join Anton Mossiman at the venerable Dorchester Hotel.

Returning to Cleveland in 1985, Minnillo opened his family's crowning endeavor, The Baricelli Inn.  The restaurant garnered its share of awards, including recognition as one of the finest dining destinations in the Midwest by Food and Wine magazine and The Chicago Tribune, as well as the Zagat Survey 2008 Top Cleveland Restaurants. Gourmet Magazine named The Baricelli Inn "One of America's Best 50 Restaurants," proclaiming "Minnillo's vibrant perfectionist cooking works across the board."

After 26 years in the business of serving Clevelanders fine food and wine at Baricelli, Minnillo opened his new, more casual venture, Flour | Italian Kitchen, in April 2011. Here, he has expanded his role of training and mentoring younger generations, teaching them the business from his well-traveled perspective.

About Chef Michel Nischan
Chef Michel Nischan is a James Beard Award winning chef and author recognized as a sustainable food pioneer.  The son of displaced farmers, he grew up with a great appreciation for sustainable agriculture and those who work the land.  As a chef and restaurateur, he built upon those childhood values and has now become a catalyst for change and new initiatives in local and regional food systems.  

With his first born son being diagnosed with diabetes early in life, Nischan has focused on creating "cuisine of well-being" with pure flavorful and local organic foods.  He was founder/owner with his partner, the late Paul Newman, of Dressing Room: A Homegrown Restaurant at the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut.

Nischan won a 2008 James Beard Foundation award for Best TV Segment for his work on PBS' "Victory Garden" and is author of two best-selling cookbooks – 2004 James Beard Award winning Taste Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books, 2003) and Homegrown, Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books, 2005). Nischan's third cookbook – Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place, One Recipe at a Time — was awarded the 2010 Green Book Award in the cookbook category by the Green Book Festival.  This year, he was awarded Humanitarian of the Year by the James Beard Foundation.

About Pink Shell Resort
Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina, a Boykin Management Company property, is on Fort Myers Beach, FL along a quarter mile of sugar-white sands with 213 beachfront studio and condo-style accommodations.   The resort features two unique dining experiences.  Bongo's Beach Bar and Grill is a gulf-front, outdoor restaurant that invites diners to socialize in a rainforest-style atmosphere, soak up the sun while sipping a tropical drink or take in a breathtaking sunset over the water while indulging in fresh seafood and signature sandwiches. Pink Shell was the first resort on the beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, FL to be designated a Green Lodging Property by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). The resort features many recreational activities in a family friendly atmosphere. For information, visit www.PinkShell.com or call 1-888-222-7465.

About Boykin Management Company
Boykin Management Company, owners of the Pink Shell Resort, is a leading hospitality management company with offices in Charlotte, NC and Fort Myers Beach, FL.  BMC is consistently recognized for excellence in delivering value-added lodging operations.  Since 1958, BMC has been developing, managing, and operating hotels, resorts, condominium hotels, and conference centers. In addition to BMC's long-standing relationships with the industry's leading hotel brands including Marriott, Hilton, DoubleTree, Embassy Suites, Radisson, Crowne Plaza, Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn, BMC has operated numerous independent and resort hotels. BMC has managed more than 20,000 rooms in 23 states since its inception. For information, visit www.boykin.com.

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SOURCE Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina

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http://www.pinkshell.com