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 inventive 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 typically described himself as a “culinary gangster.” However lately, it’s a extra subdued Menta who prefers to be often called an envoy and cheerleader for The Florida Keys & Key West.
Paul Menta, in purple cap and turquoise tank, celebrates the late Jimmy Buffett throughout the 2024 inaugural “Only a Few Buddies Key West” festivities over Labor Day weekend, with singer Howard Livingston (far l), Key West Mayor Danise “DeeDee” Henriquez (heart in yellow T-shirt) and others in Key West.
“Key West has given me greater than I’ve ever given it,” stated 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 Buddies Key West,” a four-day Labor Day Weekend celebration Friday, Aug. 29 to Monday, Sept. 1 to honor Jimmy Buffett’s legacy.
After the demise of Buffett on Sept. 1, 2023, Menta, inside hours, brainstormed a approach 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 Buddies Key West” to honor Buffett, who put The Florida Keys on the worldwide map. Simply months earlier than his demise, Buffett held a number of live shows in Key West, and all through his life maintained private connections to the southernmost island metropolis often called “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 track about Buffett, recorded on the native Shrimp boat Sound Studio, throughout the “Only a Few Buddies Key West Get together within the Park.” The occasion will happen at Truman Waterfront Park on Sunday, August 31.
One other Menta initiative is his “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 Finest Quick 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 power this movie is about,” stated Menta.
Menta is not any stranger to the digital camera, touring to advertise his documentary at native movie fests to encourage donations for good causes in these communities.
Menta starred in tv productions like Nationwide Geographic’s “Gordon Ramsay: Unchartered.” Producers clandestinely scouted and selected The Florida Keys and Menta due to the 125-mile-long island chain’s distinctive culinary traditions.
“The producers needed main blown-out characters, and I gave them a listing,” Menta recalled.
Spouse Crystal and Menta on a purple 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.
Menta hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in highschool, attended Media Windfall Buddies Faculty, a personal Quaker-based academy in Media, Pennsylvania.
A self-proclaimed “troublemaker,” Menta discovered 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.
Menta earned a advertising and marketing diploma from the Group Faculty of Philadelphia, graduated from Philadelphia Restaurant Faculty, 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 toes. Acknowledged as a kiteboarding pioneer, he’s traveled all over the world and settled in Key West in 1989.
Spouse Crystal and Menta on the purple carpet throughout the “die Seriale” movie fest in Frankfurt, Germany, to advertise Menta’s documentary, “Salt Cured Life,” celebrating neighborhood life in Key West.
And ever since, he’s been cooking up methods to market the Keys.
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 varied actions, together with an occasion with a commemorative time capsule and native faculty youngsters.
Menta and Key lime chef Kermit Carpenter created a gargantuan Key lime pie, throughout the bicentennial’s July 3, 2023, grand finale celebration on Large Pine Key. The large pie measured a record-setting 13.14 toes in diameter,
Through 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 Arms” idea to showcase the freshness of Keys seafood. Meaning solely three units of arms contact harvested fish in a series of custody: the fisherman, fishmonger and client.
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 on 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 and spouse Crystal first met 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.
Menta is already brainstorming extra occasion concepts for the 2026 “Only a Few Buddies Key West” celebration, which he want to develop right into a week-long celebration.
His motto: “Properly executed is healthier than effectively stated!”
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 perimeters streets of Key West, offshore within the ocean’s sand bars, the Florida Keys Historical past Middle at Key West’s Monroe County Public Library. “Wherever on a bicycle to say whats up to folks as I’m going round this superb 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 at totally different locations and celebrating with the neighborhood in parades.”