Paul Menta (r) starred in Nationwide Geographic’s 2024 present “Gordon Ramsay: Unchartered,” that includes the Florida Keys’ distinctive delicacies and an offshore dinner that showcased indigenous seafood with famend chef Ramsay (l).
What has Paul Menta — the wildly artistic renegade, Key West rum-maker, high-flying kiteboarder and daredevil chef with a Quaker upbringing — been as much as recently?
Menta, a globe-trotting insurgent, has usually described himself as a “culinary gangster.” However as of late, it’s a extra subdued Menta who prefers to be often known as an envoy and cheerleader for The Florida Keys & Key West.
Paul Menta, in crimson cap and turquoise tank, celebrates the late Jimmy Buffett through the 2024 inaugural “Only a Few Associates Key West” festivities over Labor Day weekend, with singer Howard Livingston (far l), Key West Mayor Danise “DeeDee” Henriquez (middle in yellow T-shirt) and others in Key West.
“Key West has given me greater than I’ve ever given it,” mentioned Menta, proprietor of Key West First Authorized Rum Distillery, which he based in 2012 and billed as the primary authorized rum distillery in Key West since Prohibition.
He’s gearing as much as host Key West’s second annual “Only a Few Associates Key West,” a four-day Labor Day Weekend celebration Friday, Aug. 29 to Monday, Sept. 1 to honor Jimmy Buffett’s legacy.
After the loss of life of Buffett on Sept. 1, 2023, Menta, inside hours, brainstormed a strategy to honor Buffett with a 5 p.m. second-line procession. Particulars of the occasion unfold all through the island with the word-of-mouth native “coconut telegraph,” and hundreds of parade-goers flocked to downtown Duval Road.
A yr later, Menta launched the inaugural “Only a Few Associates Key West” to honor Buffett, who put The Florida Keys on the worldwide map. Simply months earlier than his loss of life, Buffett held a number of concert events in Key West, and all through his life maintained private connections to the southernmost island metropolis often known as “Margaritaville.”
Chef Paul Menta whips up gluten-free lobster mac ‘n cheese for the Star of the Sea Basis (S.O.S) in Key West. SOS was created to extend the well being and well-being of low-income people and households in Monroe County.
This yr, native artist Cliff Cody will unveil a brand new music about Buffett, recorded on the native Shrimp boat Sound Studio, through the “Only a Few Associates Key West Celebration within the Park.” The occasion will happen at Truman Waterfront Park on Sunday, August 31.
One other initiative close to and pricey to Menta’s coronary heart is “Salt Cured Life” which he calls a “film with a mission.” This award-winning documentary about neighborhood life in Key West, first screened on the 2024 Key West Movie Pageant and went on to win Greatest Brief Documentary on the Sunscreen Movie Pageant in 2025.
“Every day, I attempt to reside prefer it’s a hurricane, as a result of when storms hit, we present up for one another. That’s the type of vitality this movie is about,” mentioned Menta.
Menta is not any stranger to the digicam, touring to advertise his documentary at native movie fests to encourage donations for good causes in these communities.
When not lifting up the communities he serves, Menta could be seen starring in tv productions like Nationwide Geographic’s “Gordon Ramsay: Unchartered.” In actual fact, producers clandestinely scouted and selected The Florida Keys and Menta due to the 125-mile-long island chain’s distinctive culinary traditions.
Spouse Crystal and Menta on a crimson carpet throughout Germany’s oldest movie fest, “die Seriale” in Frankfurt, Germany, to advertise Menta’s “film with a mission” documentary “Salt Cured Life,” about neighborhood life in Key West.
“The producers needed main blown-out characters, and I gave them an inventory,” Menta recalled.
Menta hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in highschool, attended Media Windfall Associates College, a personal Quaker-based academy in Media, Pennsylvania.
A self-proclaimed “troublemaker,” Menta realized to prepare dinner from his Sicilian and Italian grandmothers, who sheltered him within the kitchen and taught him to prepare dinner meals for giant gatherings, when mischief landed him in scorching water.
After highschool, Menta earned a advertising diploma from the Neighborhood School of Philadelphia, graduated from Philadelphia Restaurant College, did cooking internships in France and Spain, and roared throughout the nation on his Harley Davidson.
The adventurer, waterman, and rum runner has kiteboarded to Cuba from Key West and pursued the game at Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan, close to three volcanoes at an elevation of 10,000 ft. Acknowledged as a kiteboarding pioneer, he’s traveled world wide and settled in Key West in 1989.
And ever since, he’s been cooking up methods to market the Keys.
Spouse Crystal and Menta on the crimson carpet through the “die Seriale” movie fest in Frankfurt, Germany, to advertise Menta’s documentary, “Salt Cured Life,” celebrating neighborhood life in Key West.
Menta based “Key West two hundredth,” initiating a 12-day public celebration in late March 2023 of Monroe County’s bicentennial or the two hundredth anniversary of the Florida Territorial Legislature’s founding of Monroe County. He led the group in numerous actions, together with an occasion with a commemorative time capsule and native college youngsters.
Menta additionally partnered with buddy and Key lime chef Kermit Carpenter, to create a gargantuan Key lime pie, through the bicentennial’s July 3, 2023, grand finale celebration on Large Pine Key. The huge pie measured a record-setting 13.14 ft in diameter,
In the course of the covid disaster, Menta produced, offered and gave away hundreds of bottles of “ruminizer” hand sanitizer, serving to greater than 10,000 residents. He packaged the product with T-shirts to help the Sister Season Fund, which assists hospitality employees. He additionally promoted a “Store Mother & Pop Key West” initiative for native companies.
As a former government chef at The Stoned Crab Key West restaurant, Menta launched a “Three Palms” idea to showcase the freshness of Keys seafood. Which means solely three units of palms contact harvested fish in a series of custody: the fisherman, fishmonger and client.
Menta’s been actively concerned in Key West Cares, which was arrange throughout Hurricane Dorian in August 2019 to assist victims within the Bahamas’ Inexperienced Turtle Cay, a barrier island off mainland Nice Abaco. He additionally created Go Fund Me efforts to profit Key West’s Bahama Village residents after climate occasions.
Paul Menta, an adventurous globe-trotting kiteboarder since 1994, introduced the game to Key West when he based his firm, Kiteboarding Key West.
He’s the publisher-author of three cookbooks, “Key West Native Gas,” “Native Gas: Key West, Cookbooks for Your Espresso Desk,” and “Key West Native Gas: Cookbooks in your Espresso Desk.”
In 2006, Menta established the favored waterfront Cuban Espresso Queen stand on Margaret Road. And though he offered it, the corporate has grown, with 4 areas on the island.
Menta’s spouse Crystal, who’s from New Mexico, met him as pals throughout spear-fishing expeditions.
“One time she tried to spear me. However I used to be an elusive fish,” Menta recalled, laughing. “She retains me grounded.” Menta additionally has a 31-year-old son named Paul (the 4th) who lives in Maryland.
If you happen to assume Menta is able to decelerate anytime quickly, assume once more. He’s already brainstorming extra occasion concepts for the 2026 “Only a Few Associates Key West” celebration, which he want to increase right into a week-long celebration.
His motto: “Properly finished is best than nicely mentioned!”
The place he dines: Boat Home Bar & Grill, MISOHAPPY, Little White Home Subs and El Siboney Restaurant, in Key West, and The Docks Restaurant + Uncooked Bar, Inventory Island.
The place he explores: The edges streets of Key West, offshore within the ocean’s sand bars, the Florida Keys Historical past Heart at Key West’s Monroe County Public Library. “Wherever on a bicycle to say hey to folks as I am going round this wonderful island.”
How he relaxes: “Wing foiling, kiteboarding, Conch Baseball video games, cooking for my household or neighborhood, serving to out the underdog, watching the sundown with my spouse, Crystal, at totally different locations, and celebrating with the neighborhood in parades.”