Imagine having a potluck party with a bunch of chefs. What kind of creations would they bring? You can probably bet that they wouldn’t bother with those french onion noodle casseroles that Aunt Edna always brings to the church potluck. The Chef’s Potluck on Sunday at Middleton Place organized by Lowcountry Local First and the local Slow Food chapter has a yummy menu full of local meats and produce. Tickets are $40 and the event goes from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Check it out:
Anson Restaurant - Kevin Johnson
- Slow Roasted Tamworth Pork Leg with Spring Onion and Green Tomato Marmalade
- Local Clams with Preserved Lemon, Chorizo and Parsley Broth
- Spring Vegetables with Crushed Pine Nut Vinaigrette
EVO Pizza – Matt McIntosh and Ricky Hacker
- Wood Fired Strawberry Calzones
- Local Strawberries and Hazelnut Chocolate with Local Honey
Fish – Nico Romo
- Stuffed Tomato Provencal with Ground Beef
- Arugula and Strawberry salad with a Sweet soy Balsamic dressing.
High Cotton – Anthony Gray
- Ballotine of Local Rabbit with Spring Vegetables, Grits, and a Mustard Bacon Vinaigrette
- Chilled Asparagus Soup with Fine Herbs and Crème Fraiche
Le Club Fez – Bryan Lyndsay
- Braised Brewton Plantation Goat with Spring Onions and Lemons
- Assorted Morracan Spiced Local Vegetable Salad
McGrady’s Restaurant – Sean Brock
- Slow Cooked South Carolina Tamworth Pork Shoulder
- Deviled-Pickled Sea Island Eggs with Black Truffles
The Restaurant at Middleton Place – Brandon Buck
- Caw Caw Braised Pork Belly, Organic Carolina Gold Rice, Middleton Place Collard Greens and a Smoked Pork Reduction
- Organic Carolina Gold Rice Pudding with Fresh Fruit and Whipped Cream
Monza – Emily Hahn
- Smoked Local Clams topped with Rita’s Arugula, Sweet Onions and Lemon
- Bread Pudding Made from Normandy Farms Brioche with Local Strawberries and Whipped Cream
Savory Market - Angie Colyer
- Southern Paella with Keegan-Filion Chicken, Sausage, Shellfish, Local Rice, Tomatoes, Spring Vegetables and Herbs
- Southern Vegetable Dolmades Wrapped in Collards with a Miso Dipping Sauce
Slightly North of Broad- Shawn Kelly
- Dijon & Gruyere Cheese Gnocchi, local spring onions, arugula pesto, grape tomatoes
- Dijon & Gruyere Cheese Gnocchi, country ham, local spring onions, arugula pesto, grape
The Glass Onion - Chris Stewart and Charles Vincent
- Local Shrimp Remoulade on Local Bibb with a Deviled Egg
- Strawberry Poundcake
Opinionated About Dining — a blog, survey, forum and now a published dining guide — has come out with a list of “The 100 Best Restaurants of North America & Europe.” Billed as the “ultimate guide for destination diners,” the guide by Steve Plotnicki (a food blogger), aims to provide serious foodies with a roadmap for eating. The guide breaks restaurants down by continent — Europe and North America — and puts them in a category based on a numerical score — worth planning a trip around (105 and higher), worth going out of your way for (100-104) , and important local choices (95-99) .
Why should we care? Because Plotnicki is a fan of Sean Brock and his work at McCrady’s. He blogs about a visit there in Oct. 2007 and McCrady’s finds itself in the rarefied world of restaurants “worth planning a trip around.” In that category in North America, you’ll find only eight other restaurants, many of which you’ll probably recognize: Alinea in Chicago, French Laundry in California, Jean Goerges in NY, Manresa in California, Minibar in D.C., Per Se in NY, Splendido in Toronto, and Urasawa in Beverly Hills.
McCrady’s garnered a score of 106 and a glowing write-up: “Few people have heard of Sean Brock or have sampled the terrific biodynamic ingredients that he grows on a farm on nearby Wadmalaw Island. But those who have dined at this 200-year-old establishment know that Brock’s 25-course tasting menus can rival the output of the best molecular chefs in the country. Brock is a chef deserving of national recognition.”
Congrats to Brock, who seems to keep getting more and more attention these days. Hopefully we won’t lose him to the big city.
It’s probably too late, and I apologize for not getting this up in a more timely manner, but the Food Network is filming a segment on Robert Carter’s famed coconut cake from Peninsula Grill. Guest sign-in started at 11:30 a.m. at Lowndes Grove (266 St. Margaret St.). They need a live television audience for the taping of Creme de la Creme, a new show that profiles the best of the best.
They already taped some footage on Saturday at Peninsula. I was one of the crowd invited to come in for a staged meal so they could get material for the show. Bob Carter and restaurateur Hank Holliday made appearances, talking about the restaurant and the cake. A couple of cameras circulated as we ate and drank and generally enjoyed the special lunch. They served a crab salad and a scrumptious bass dish, but everyone was there for dessert, of course.
Despite having several stories I could have shared about Peninsula Grill’s coconut cake being my most favoritest dessert ever, the cameras only came by to capture us gorging on our gigantic piece of cake. Can’t wait to see that on TV.
This news has me pretty stoked. I was already excited at the prospect of Mustard Seed moving into the old Locklear’s space on Maybank Highway. It would mean a bigger dining room and more parking. But then I found out that Sal Parco has plans to turn the old space into a Boulevard Diner!
What’s that I hear? The sound of James and Johns Island residents rejoicing? Hell yes it is.
I talked to Sal’s right-hand woman, Andrea Sherman, earlier this morning and she told me that she’s in charge of reading the comment cards from Boulevard Diner and the requests for a diner on James Island have become a running joke between her and Sal. I’m just glad someone actually reads those things and takes their suggestions seriously.
The Mustard Seed switcheroo will happen pretty quickly, probably within the next month, while the Boulevard Diner change will take longer. Parco plans to upfit the kitchen and redo the dining room to have more of a diner feel.
In other Sal Parco news, he’s renovating a space in Mt. Pleasant for a corporate office, which will enable their catering operation to expand, and he’s also planning to offer his employees health benefits.
Saw a sign yesterday on Folly Road that pulled me in immediately “Pho — Sushi — Chinese Food.” Thinking I could save some time by not cooking dinner before a 7 p.m. basketball game, we stopped in the shopping center where Mondo’s and DB’s are located and ordered some chicken noodle soup (pho), rice paper rolls, lo mein, and chicken fried rice from the newly renamed B&L Asian Cuisine (at 5:10 p.m.). This little storefront has been several different Asian restaurants. The last time I think it was called Vinh Sing or something like that. I’ve tried it each time hoping against hope that we could finally get decent Chinese on Jimmy Isle.
A sign on the door trumpeted their desire to serve fresh, healthful fare, so I was feeling pretty good. Inside the empty dining room, which featured a defunct buffet along one wall, a young girl took my order, and I set about waiting … and waiting … and waiting. Forty-five minutes later, I finally received my order — with an apology from the owner, who blamed the lady in front of me for ordering five things. How dare she, right?
I bitched about waiting 45 minutes and told her it better be good — which it was and it wasn’t. The rice paper rolls were so loosely rolled that they fell apart on contact. The fried rice and lo mein were garlicky and fresh — but nowhere near the quality of Red Orchids. The pho was tasty but the broth didn’t seem as rich as it should. I’ve only had pho at Pho Bac, so I have no clue what the real stuff is like, but this version seemed ho-hum compared to Tom Pham’s.
Had I gotten my order in the ten minutes it should have taken, I probably would have a better report, but I was so irritated at the inordinate wait and the lame apology that I couldn’t take an unbiased bite. Not only did I not save time, but my kid’s night was totally screwed — homework was being done after the basketball game; he refused to eat the Chinese food, convinced that it sucked, and he ended up going to bed hungry. Damn you, lady.
After barely losing out as Best Chef in this year’s Best of Charleston readers’ poll, Oak Steakhouse’s Brett McKee was able to lick his wounds and lap up a pretty big accolade: the 2008 Culinary Legend Award at last week’s Charleston Food + Wine Festival.
Brett was lauded for his “culinary innovation, firecracker personality, and inspiring work in the Charleston community.” The busy chef spends a good amount of time volunteering for charitable dinners — three to four a week, according to his PR firm.
He most definitely has avid fans in this town. (We should know. We referred to the Brooklyn native as a ‘carpetbagger’ in a writeup a few years back and had angry phone calls, visits, and letters from his supporters. Say what you will about him, but the man incites the passion and loyalty of his friends and patrons.)
In other award news, his steakhouse was recognized as Best Steak in our readers’ poll again this year. Congrats to Brett.
As my tablemate Steve said, “I couldn’t believe it when I was able to get tickets. Suzanne Goin!? Michael Laiskonis?! These guys are rock stars!” or something to that effect. I was drinking a lot of wine (and wasn’t taking notes), so I can’t remember his exact words. But, his point was well taken. Other Dine Arounds sold out earlier than FIG’s (which still sold out weeks before the event), and the talent in the kitchen was extraordinary.
They put together five courses (two by Laiskonis), each paired with wine from Terry Theise Selections (as picked by wine guy Kevin Pike).
F irst up was Carlucci-Rodriguez with “Almond Shorba, S.C. White Shrimp with Bengali 5 Spice.” I still don’t know what a shorba is, but it appeared to be ground up nuts — looser than a nutbutter, but more textured than a puree. I liked this a lot and would describe it, in a word, as nutty. The dish was paired with a sweet reisling — Joseph Leitz Rudesheimer Magdalenekreuz.
Lata’s course came next and it was my absolute favorite of the night. “Over Easy Ravioli with Bianchetti Truffles and Local Asparagus.” An over easy ravioli? Lata was able to get a whole egg inside the ravioli before cooking. The ravioli looked pedestrian enough, sitting on the plate in a bit of sauce (I think there was sauce), but once you cut into it, a gush of runny egg yolk hit the plate and elevated this pasta course to a magical experience. Yum. I loved it. It looked fabulous and tasted even better. This course was paired with two Austrian rieslings — one from 1982 and one from 2003. Kevin Pike explained that he wanted to present these to show that some white wines can actually benefit from age. The older vintage was a bit odd on its own, but when sipped with the dish, it paired perfectly.
At the end of the night, Lata gave us a step by step explanation of how he created his ravioli, but by that point I was at least six (small) glasses of wine in, so I didn’t really understand how he did it. I’m satisfied just calling him a magician.
Suzanne Goin’s veal cheeks came next and they were perfectly tender and served with a risotto carbonara, cavolo nero (a kale-like green), sweet potato, and black truffle butter. Simple but rich and satisfying.
Laiskonis, arguably the biggest rock star of the group, came out with a Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta with grapefruit, avocado, basil seed, and vanilla oil. The two tiny little custards were scrumptious and only made us want more.
He finished with “Amedie Gianduja Parfait with Oregon Hazelnuts, Black Truffle Honey, Banana, and Brown Butter Ice Cream.” This was paired with a sweet wine called Ausbruch “On the Wings of Dawn.” Steve, my aforementioned tablemate and a wine aficionado, explained that this was a special rotten grape wine and he really enjoyed it. I thought it tasted a lot like my kid’s apple juice, but what do I know?
(PICTURED: Steve & Eileen at the FIG Dine Around)
All in all, the night was a lot of fun, the food was memorable, and Mike Lata made the most of his opportunity to work with such amazing peers.
One big improvement the F+W Fest organizers made to the Dine Around was allowing the pastry chefs to participate. In previous years, patrons were supposed to eat dessert at the separately-ticketed Bubbles + Sweets party. A good idea, if you could get tickets. If you couldn’t and you attended a Dine Around dinner, you were left with a meal that felt unfinished. This year, not only did we get dessert, but we got two courses from Laiskonis. Very exciting.
jimihatt is the man of La Mancha. As part of a guest chef program at Mellow Mushroom, the Guerrilla Cuisine organizer created a new pizza at the Mellow that you should get over there and try right away.
The ingredients:
Green Tomatillo Salsa base
Manchego Cheese
Petit Basque Cheese
Serrano Ham
Toasted Pine Nuts
Baby Rocket Tossed with Spanish Olive Oil
At first, I wasn’t so sure this was gonna work. But I ordered it anyway, ready to give it a try. It comes as a 10-inch, a measly four slices that my husband and I almost came to blows over. This pizza is freaking delicious. I loved it. I wanted to go back the next day and order it again. It’s so good.
Mellow Mushroom owner Michael Shem-Tov will be showcasing a different chef’s creation each month — jimihatt’s will be featured for the month of March.
After that look for pizzas from John Zucker of Cru Cafe, Mathew Niessner of Blend, and our own food critic Jeff Allen.
Have you bought tickets to any Charleston F+W fest events yet? The hot tickets again this year are the Salute to Chefs opening night party, the Bubbles & Sweets party, and the Dine Arounds (most of which are sold out). I bought tickets to FIG’s Dine Around this year where Suzanne Goin will be the guest chef with Mike Lata. What are you planning to attend? Any words of wisdom for newbies?
If you made reservations for Valentine’s Day at J. Bistro, you might want to rethink your plans. Tamir Lerman, who purchased the restaurant from James Burns a couple years ago, has closed the restaurant. The space is currently undergoing renovations and will be reopening in a few months under a new concept.
