Meet the creative minds behind Jealous Fork
Our story begins in 2007, when Henrik decided to move to Miami from Norway to pursue his Master’s Degree in Telecommunications. He met Joaquin through mutual friends during this time. Over the course of the next 8 years their friendship grew, as they bonded over sports and planning “guys trips” all over the world. During their travels they’d look up “best breakfast” or “best pancakes” in each city they’d visit. Without knowing it, they were doing years of pancake research all over the world.
Back home in Miami, Joaquin was honing his skills in the hospitality field. He graduated from Johnson & Wales University with degrees in Culinary Arts and Business Hospitality Management and continued to train under Michelin star and James Beard award winning chefs.
In 2016 Joaquin and Henrik decided to give working together a try and opened up Tea & Poets, a live performance venue, tea and coffee house and shopping market in South Miami. After four years and the tremendous success of Tea & Poets, Joaquin and Henrik decided to team up again to bring their innovation, creativity and nostalgic love for breakfast to the world of pancakes.
Jealous Fork was born out of Joaquin and Henrik’s passion for cooking, traveling, eating and having fun. They’d get together on their days off and cook pancakes at home and post the photos on their personal Instagram pages. As the photos went up, so did the comments and likes. People wrote things like, “Oh my God those pancakes look amazing,” “Come to my house and cook pancakes for me,” or “When are you hosting a breakfast party?” As the popularity of their pancakes grew, they had the lightbulb idea: “What about opening up a pancake restaurant?!”
They spent the next three months working on the perfect pancake batter. Hours and hours went into breaking down pancakes to an exact science. Joaquin and Henrik have more documented recipe variations than they know what to do with! After all that hard work, they settled on a final product. The Jealous Fork pancake is a delicious hybrid of a pancake and a biscuit. Once they had the pancake finalized, they spent the next four months perfecting each individual dish and recipe on their menu.
In the midst of the recipe testing one day, Henrik was searching the internet and came across a listing of a food truck for sale in the Miami area. So, Joaquin and Henrik decided on transitioning their pancake restaurant idea into a food truck concept. In October of 2019 Jealous Fork went live and the first artisan pancake food truck in the country, maybe even the world, was born.
After the tremendous success of Jealous Fork, the first artisan pancake food truck in the country, best friends Joaquin Ortiz and Henrik Telle need more space. Their rise was evident by the line that consistently stretched around the block; people waited for hours just to get a taste of their Instagram-worthy pancakes. Jealous Fork has been vlogged about by foodies and influencers across the country. Content creators from out of state have listed Jealous Fork as their top meal to try while in Miami. Jealous Fork has been awarded “Best Food Truck in South Florida” and featured on every major news outlet in Miami. Most recently, Joaquin and Henrik went national when they appeared on the Food Network. With their local and national success, it’s only obvious that the next step for these food truck gladiators was Jealous Fork the Restaurant.
Although Jealous Fork gained notoriety for their creative sweet and savory pancakes, the menu at the restaurant features a full range of dishes that showcase their classic and diverse culinary upbringing. There are three additional sections of the menu: “Quick Bites” with dishes like duck pastrami bao buns with umami cucumbers or tuna “sushi” over dashi rice with wasabi and pickled ginger. In the “Small Bites” portion of the menu, look out for the vegetarian corn “ribs” covered in black bean salsa with queso blanco and chipotle crèma, which can be made vegan as well. Jealous Fork also has their rendition of a Reuben sandwich, with line caught snapper, cracked rye, kraut and melted Swiss cheese. The “Big Bites” section of the menu features innovations on new American dishes, such as Snake River Farm’s Wagyu Churrasco with roasted red bliss potatoes and charred parmesan brussels sprouts, or duck flatbread with caramelized red onions, fresh sliced figs and Taleggio cheese and macadamia nut crusted snapper over sweet potato puree with grilled asparagus and vanilla bean gastrique.
Jealous Fork also features an extensive craft beer list, champagne cocktails and some incredibly unique coffee creations.
We hope that eating at Jealous Fork the Restaurant will not only be a nostalgic reminder of the best meals you’ve had, but will also be the place you choose to create new memories that will last a lifetime.
