08/27/2025
The Delicacies at The Chapman (Winter Park, Florida)
Orlando Baillage
July 24th, 2025
The reenvisioned Chapman restaurant is one of the oldest restaurants in the Winter Park area of Florida. Once the hangout of "the wealthy and powerful men visiting Florida from the Northeast to escape the cold," it is now one of the charms of Winter Park, Florida.
We were pampered by the staff and crew at the Chapman, as the Orlando Baillage restored us as we continue on our culinary journey. The Chef incorporated the native Florida abundance of food and beverage as we indulged for the evening. Chef Scott Copeland and his team gave us a wonderful culinary delight for the evening. One of the special treats of the evening was a raffle of wine that was from our last gathering we had. Our last Mondiale event, where we presented and tasted wines from Tim’s Wine Market in Orlando, Florida. Lucky attendees who joined us again at this dinner won a bottle of wine from the event.
Bailli Stephen Chun welcomed us all to the second dinner of the season. Chef Scott prepared a graciously paired meal for us all. After our hors d’oeuvres, we started with Chef Scott’s rendition of a jumbo lump crab cake. Succulent morsels of lump crab perched upon Florida Sweet Corn and dusted with toasted panko. Served alongside some ancho remoulade. It was light and a nice contrast between the meaty crab and sweet Florida corn.
Our second course was Pork Tenderloin. served over polenta amarena. This beautiful dish was a maze of flavors and textures that was a delight. Chef served an Amerena cherry wine reduction that balanced out the rich pork. The fun part of the dish is the lion's mane mushrooms. As they are raw, they have a fuzzy, almost furry-like feeling and appearance. Cooked, they are firm and meaty. Serving the Amarena cherry on the dish was, well, the cherry on top! For the intermezzo, we had a bight of melon granita- a shaved ice, topped with a fine chiffonade of mint.
A display of amazing tastes and textures comes alive in our next course. A beautiful plate of sliced Mayu8ra Station Wagyu Strip. The intricate plating included tender, melt-in-your-mouth sliced Wagyu tenderloin, curated salt, seared cippolini onions, roasted toybox tomatoes, and crispy gaufrettes. All this served with a shiitake gravy. This plate had a beautiful and playful presentation.
Just when you think your taste buds are as happy as they can be, next comes the dessert course. A Velrhona Chocolate flourless chocolate cake that just melted in your mouth and rounded out the whole evening.
The Chapman was such a delightful experience; it is definitely going on our regular dining experience list.
