Category Archives: Event

F&W’s Best New Chefs for 2013

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Aspen feast/fest and magazine’s July issue traditionally introduce new culinary talent

FoodWine-July2013-coverThe 31st annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen is now history. The tents have been folded, literally. The demonstration kitchens have been dismantled. The empties have been collected for recycling. And the who’s who in the food and wine businesses have left town, and the foodies who follow them have gone back home. Ten gifted culinarians (actually 11 when you consider partnerships) and five talented pastry chefs will forever have Best New Chef or Best New Pastry Chef on their resumes. This year at least, the kitchen is still mostly a man’s world, while women dominate the pastry honors.

Best New Chefs – 2013

. Jamie Malone, Sea Change, Minneapolis
· Jason Vincent, Nightwood, Chicago
· Michael Voltaggio, Ink, Los Angeles
· Danny Bowien, Mission Chinese, New York City
· Matthew Gaudet, West Bridge, Cambridge, Massachusetts
· José Enrique, José Enrique, San Juan, Puerto Rico
· Chris Shepherd, Underbelly, Houston
· Justin Cogley, Aubergine, Carmel, California
· Andy Ticer & Michael Hudman, Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, Memphis
· Alex Stupak, Empellon and Empellon Cocina, New York City

 Best New Pastry Chefs - 2013
. Melanie Durant, Empire State South, Atlanta
. Monica Glass, Clio and Uni Sashimi Bar, Boston
. Sarah Jordan, Boka and GT Fish & Oyster, Chicago
. Stephanie Prida, Manresa, Los Gatos, California
. Bob Truitt, Ai Fiori and the Altamarea Restaurant Group, New York

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Aussie Truffles on US Market — For a Price

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Wine&TruffleCo-logoWhen it’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s autumn in the Southern half — and, it turns out, it’s almost truffle season in Australia. Who knew? The truffle hunt is on at the Wine & Truffle Company at the Hazel Hill Estate in Manjimup, Western Australia, whose climate mirrors that of Périgord, France. The Wine & Truffle Company is the largest producer of superior Périgord truffles in the Southern Hemisphere. The roots of 13,000 hand-selected Oak and Hazelnut trees were inoculated at planting with spores from the French black Périgord truffle, producing superior truffles that are hunted in the traditional way — with trained dogs that lead professional truffle hunters to the buried treasure.

Truffles growing in Australian soil and ready for harvest.

Truffles growing in Australian soil and ready for harvest.

Though the official launch is June 22 at the annual Truffle Kerfuffle Festival, fresh truffles are now available through August at select Michelin-starred restaurants in North America. Star chefs such as Thomas Keller, Joël Robuchon, Michael Cimarusti, Josiah Citrin and Curtis Duffy, among others, are are pairing  Australian truffles with seasonal summer ingredients such as fresh corn, heirloom tomatoes, beets, blue crab, strawberries and figs. To celebrate the launch of the 2013 truffle season, The Wine & Truffle Company will be holding two private eight-course truffle dinners: tomorrow, May 29 at Grace Restaurant in Chicago with Chef Curtis Duffy, and a second on May 31 at Mélisse in Santa Monica with Chef Josiah Citrin.

The Wine & Truffle Company has partnered with chef Frank Brunacci, formerly of Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago and his wife Lillian, are bringing superior Australian Périgord truffles to American chefs. “Summer ingredients are ten times better with truffles,” Brunacci says. “Now guests can view truffles as an all-season indulgence.”

Even if I were in one of the two cities where one of the Wine & Truffle Company’s dinners are taking place, I suspect I’d have to break the bank to afford it. After all, these French-born, Australian-bred delicacies are $500 to $1,000 per pound. But a girl can dream, can’t she?

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Taste Buds Bloom at Botanic Gardens

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P1020620Locals and lucky visitors know the Denver Botanic Gardens for their year-round horticultural displays outdoors and in the soaring conservatory, gardening classes, concerts, plant sales and Blossoms of Light every December. But the monthly cooking classes for adults (except in summer) and weekly classes for children (Fridays during the summer) are less well known.

Even less known than these culinary classes are the Gather dinners, pop-up feasts offered roughly quarterly with guests chefs from leading local restaurants presenting creative dinners for a maximum of 75 guests. Previous chefs were Alex Seidel of Fruition, Elise Wiggins of Panzano and Hosea Rosenberg, Blackbelly Catering and “Top Chef” Season 5 winner.

Yesterday evening was my first opportunity to experience a Gather dinner — and what an experience it was. Two long tables were set up in the narrow Orangerie with a garden view and indoor fruit trees in one direction and a view of the opulent conservatory plants in the other.

Chef Daniel Asher desscribing both his culinary philosophy and the next dish to Gather diners.

Chef Daniel Asher describing both his culinary philosophy and the next dish to Gather diners. Photo courtesy Denver Botanic Gardens.

Last evening’s guest chef was Daniel Asher from Root Down and Linger, two restaurants that have been on my Denver Dining bucket list since they opened. Asher created what he called a plant-centric four-course menu, more nuanced and elaborate that he could do in a restaurant dinner menu.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The evening began with gorgeous ruby red cocktails mixed by Mike Henderson, who according to his two-sided business card is both Root Down’s “cocktail service tech” (which is yet another extension of “mixologist” and “bartender” before that) and also Linger’s “spiritual advisor” (which seems just plain whimsical).

Mike Henserson, mixing two drinks at a time.

Mike Henderson, mixing two drinks at a time.

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Then it was time to dine. Chef Asher is a gifted culinarian and committed advocate of fresh and local products. He not only conceived of a brilliant menu full of veggie wonderfulness, but presented each dish artistically — and named each one cleverly. My friend friend and fellow foodie, Toni Dash, who has serious gluten issues, was able to clean the plate at each course, and even though the macadamia-sesame crust on the dessert was reportedly gluten-free, she avoided it — in case. Continue reading →

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Asher to Cook at Botanic Gardens’ Next “Gather”

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Root Down and Linger chef at the quarterly event

DenverBotanicGardens-logoWord is that Daniel Asher, whose cuisine I have yet to try at either of his Denver restaurants, Root Down and Linger, will be cooking for the Denver Botanic Gardens’ next Gather event on April 30. The fact that I’ve never eaten at either of restaurants where Asher captains the kitchen has nothing to do with desire but a lot to do with the challenge in getting reservations at a desired time. This pop-up dinner is presented by the Denver Botanic Gardens, in partnership with Catering by Design.

Asher, like the Gather chefs before him (Top Chef Hosea Rosenberg, Fruition’s Alex Seidel and Panzano’s Elise Wiggins), is developing a special menu for the event. Each Gather event is limited to 75 attendees, served at a long family-style table in Denver Botanic Garden’s Orangery, features four courses of seasonally inspired cuisine. I’m thrilled to have been invited next week, and I promise to report back. Gather is always BYOB, and I’ll have to drink judiciously since my husband, who is usually a good sport about driving home after a dinner out, declined the opportunity to attend. Call 720-865-3585 to check on last-minute ticket availablity for the event.

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Food Truck Season Kicks Off This Evening

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Longmont & Boulder join Denver in hosting regular food truck gatherings

FoodTruck-clipartThere are years when the first farmers’ market weekend is a snowy one, and so it seems that the Front Range’s food truck season will also be. Longmont’s Prospect Eats is scheduled to launch this evening and continue through fall every Monday from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Prospect Downtown Park along US 287 just south of Pike Road. In addition to the food, there’s live music. It claims to be Boulder County’ largest food truck gathering.

In Boulder, in addition to the trucks that create a the food court at the big Boulder County Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings (and the smaller one on Wednesday evenings), the Food Truck Party in Gunbarrel gets going in May and runs first and third Wednesdays of each month through mid-October at Gunbarrel Commons, a private park bordered by Indigo Court, White Rock Circle and Wellington Road in the northeast art of the city. My foodie pal Laura Bloom is behind it, so head over when it starts. The City of Boulder, meanwhile, is still dotting I’s and crossing Ts on its food truck policies and schedules for select public parks.

The big kahuna of Front Range food trucks is Denver’s Civic Center Eats‘ outdoor cafe. It doesn’t get going until June 7, when it is pretty sure not to snow or be cold. Unlike the Boulder County evening food truck gatherings, this one is geared from the Denver lunch crowd, operating Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. through September 29 (except September 6 and 9 when entertainment producers and vendors are setting up and taking for A Taste of Colorado.

Of course, food trucks all have their regular year-round stops in office parks and other private parcels, as well is in selected “restaurant desert” locations. Want to know which truck is where and when? Two sites that can help are Denver Street Food and Denver Food Trucks.

I received two messages this morning from people who seem to prefer not to post comments about their own enterprises:

First from Laura Bloom (Food Truck Party): “Although it’s a private park, it is open to the public, but we don’t promote it as it’s goal is to be the opposite of Prospect – more small and Mayberry. And, I saw several trucks at Twin Peaks Mall in Longmont Saturday – I know they are gathering there too. Not sure how regular though.”

 

Then from Eric Lazzari (Civic Center Conservancy):

“We are the group behind Civic Center EATS…I was reading your blog this morning (love following it regularly).  It looks like you have some outdated info for Civic Center EATS (from an outdated webpage on our website).  Anyway…here is the updated link for this year’s version of EATS.We start June 4 and take off July 4, August 29 and September 3.  Thanks again for the shout out and please let me know if you need any additional info.”

 

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Where I Ate for Love: Pasta Jay’s on Lasagna Night

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Popular Boulder eatery has never been my favorite

P1020189Unlike many Boulderites, I don’t care for Pasta Jay’s food. There. I admitted it. I’m not impressed with their “world-famous sauce.” I don’t like the fact that they serve variously shaped pasta, gnocchi, eggplant parmigiano, manicotti and more in little individual baking dishes bathed in a sea of that sauce topped with cheese and baked till it bubbles and steams. The pizza isn’t too great either. I cannot for the life of me understand why there is often such a long line at the door. So why did I eat there on Wednesday?

My wonderful husband, whom I love dearly even though our food tastes are as opposite as Jack Sprat and his Wife, often looks longingly at Pasta Jay’s sign board announcing their Wednesday lasaagna night. His birthday was on Monday, but by the time I returned from the mountains, he had already eaten. Tuesday was a snowstorm, so I offered to take him out for dinner at Pasta Jay’s on Wednesday. He couldn’t believe my offer but happily accepted.

Pleasant decor that is a lot of Americans' image of what an Italian restaurant should look like.

Pleasant decor that reflects a lot of Americans’ image of what an Italian restaurant should look like.

Pasta Jay’s is cutesy Italian — red checked table cloths, Italian theme tschockes and pleasant framed art on the walls, big windows facing Pearl Street that open in summer and crooner music on the sound system. We each had a glass of wine, shared a salad and ordered individual entrées. I found the food as uninspired as I remembered from years past, but he was happy — and that’s what counts.

Salad greens with a garlicky dressing and a pile of shredded commerical mozzarella.

Salad greens with a garlicky dressing and a pile of shredded commercial mozzarella.

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Colorado Craft Brewers Week

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Raise a glass to the state’s vibrant craft beer industry during one special week

ColoradoBrewersGuild-logoColorado Craft Beer Week from March 18 to 24 is the state’s craft beer industry’s first collaborative effort to showcase the Colorado Brewers Guild’s 160+ brewery members’ special events including tap takeovers, beer dinners, “meet the brewer” nights and beer tappings. I’m not much of a beer drinker myself, but I’ll probably make an exception to taste the special brew created by a group of Colorado female brewers.  Sisterhood solidarity and all that.

The week kicks off at the Falling Rock Tap House in Denver’s LoDo area on Monday, March 18 from 7 to 10 p.m. with beers and ales from more than 80 Colorado breweries on tap — reportedly something no other tap room has done before. A Guinness Book of Records candidate, perhaps.  The genesis of this week is credited to one Scott Kirkmans (or is it Scott Kirkman?), a beer expert and brewer’s consultant, who originated “Colorado Beer Week.”  This year, the Colorado Brewer’s Guild (CBG) took over responsibility for organizing and growing the celebration. So beer-lovers, raise a glass to Scott and all of the state’s craft brewers.

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