Omnivore Atlanta

Tom Colicchio and Thomas Keller

It’s a gold, or rather or, medal finish.

In last night’s last “Top Chef” Las Vegas episode actually located in Las Vegas (ironically, the only episode that didn’t focus on the city), the remaining cheftestants competed in an olympian-sized challenge, a miniature Bocuse d’Or for a panel of crazy famous chefs, including the always intimidating Thomas Keller. Although the challenge called for fancy techniques and intricate presentation, it was hometown hero Kevin and his “day off food” that walked away with the gold, pocketing $30,000 and a shot at representing the US in the real version of the culinary games. Kevin left the bells and whistles in his beard and his more simplistic plate was the only well executed dish of the night, proving that good cooking, even prize-worthy cooking, doesn’t have to include showy techniques (yes, I’m talking to you, Michael Voltaggio). (more…)

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Miller Union, new in the Westside and soon-to-be-reviewed-here, has made the Daily Beast’s list of “fall’s hot new restaurants”:

The Buzz: Miller Union is the latest Atlanta restaurant to focus on farm-to-table fare. Led by chef Steven Satterfield, formerly the executive sous chef of acclaimed Atlanta eatery Watershed, Miller Union boasts an upscale Southern menu (beer-braised pork shoulder) built around local produce and a wine list of biodynamic, organic wines. Its atmosphere is meant to feel homey, with leather stools, antique furniture and exposed beams. The favorite appetizer: Farm egg baked in celery cream.

Check it out.

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I had my fifth hamburger meal in a row tonight and I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed. The flavors, with a few exceptions, all kind of run together in my memory. But that’s cool, because I’m educating my palate, right? Check out this interview with Richard Blais of Flip on BurgerBusiness.com. I especially liked this question and answer:

By offering so many nontraditional burgers, do you see yourself educating the tastebuds of burger lovers?

Looking at the future, I like to think I’m going to have a lot of restaurants that aren’t burgercentric, so I look at Flip as a sort of training ground for a lot of palates. Sort of disguised under this iconic All-American ingredient, the burger, it is a way to get young people to experience lamb or something else they’ve never had before. But they’re much more receptive to it because it’s a burger.

If I have two teens out on a Friday night date and they decide to order the lamb burger, I’m building clientele for the future. And they’re building their palates.

I don’t feel like what we do is that creative. We just try to look at things a little differently.

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Eli Kirshtein

What happens in Vegas apparently lands on your plate — if you know what you’re doing. If not, you’ll be sent packing, knives and all, with one killer hangover.

In last night’s super-Vegas-themed elimination challenge, the six remaining cheftestants created dishes inspired by six flashy Vegas casinos, from the gaudy Mirage to the gaudier Excalibur. Instead of stopping by Whole Foods, the cheftestants shopped for ideas at their individual hotels, touring lobbies, drinking beer, and greeting dolphins (for a moment, I thought I was watching a bad Travel Channel special).

While the infamous knife block certainly implied the selection of the casinos was random, the chef-hotel pairings seemed a little too appropriate. Wacky Robin was dealt the quirky glass Chihuly sculptures of the Bellagio, Jen looked for her prince (or rather, her Bam, Bam) at Excalibur, Kevin ogled the dolphins at the Mirage, one Voltaggio (Bryan) ogled the sharks at Mandalay Bay, and the other (Michel) visited New York, New York — and immediately talked about how the city has the best food in the country, implying his interpretation of the challenge would be the best, too.

Perhaps the most appropriate pairing of all, however, was class clown Eli, who was coupled with the class clown of the strip, Circus Circus. The casino is literally over the top (the “big top,” that is), much like the Atlanta-based chef whose one-liners often come across as equally garish. Unfortunately, Eli didn’t grasp the comparison. He created a dish that was almost completely literal — and nearly inedible.

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The Yale Daily News reports on some major stupidity in the academy:

When Darra Goldstein proposed writing a dissertation on food and Russian literature, her doctoral advisers were “aghast.” Food, they said, had no place in academia.

At a Pierson College Master’s Tea Tuesday, Goldstein, who is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, spoke to an audience of approximately 30 about her struggle to establish food as a legitimate academic pursuit.

Goldstein, who teaches Russian poetry, culture and art at Williams College, said fellow academics saw food as a visceral pursuit, not an intellectual one. But Goldstein said she couldn’t stop thinking about food.

“If it meant giving up food to be an academic, there was something wrong,” Goldstein said. “There [had] to be a place for people like me.”

Read the whole story...and subscribe to Gastronomica!

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It’s that time again — time to subscribe to Knife and Fork. Christiane Lauterbach, one of the dining critics at Atlanta magazine, has published this monthly newsletter for 27 years and I still regard it as the best dining resource in town.

Unfortunately, Christiane is not interested in the Internet, so to read the newsletter you have no choice but to subscribe. Cost is $26 annually and you can order gift subscriptions for $24 or $22, depending on the number you buy. Call 404-378-2775 for more information.

The latest issue includes positive (2.5-star) reviews of Antico Pizza Napoleatana, Grindhouse Killer Burgers and Leon’s Full Service. There are also first impressions of Bocado (positive) and Iberian Pig (kinda positive). Her “find of the month” is Alosta Bakery and the “traveler’s corner” tours Minneapolis. There’s plenty of gossip and off-the-cuff comment too, like this:

TREND WATCH: Veal breast is the new pork belly. Unctuous, easily caramelized, and of special interest to chefs squeezed by the economy, this inexpensive cut showed up on our plate twice in one week, properly boned, trimmed, and served in a neat square.

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Love at the Pub tells the story of the Brick Store

I am so glad Rocktober is over, because that means that it is Novembeer. Although I don’t expect Gov. Purdue to declare it officially, I am herewith designating this as the unofficial silly pun name for this month. Novembeer is when we all get together with our loved ones and give thanks for beer. It is also that time of the year when the breweries release their winter seasonals and holiday beers. It is a good month.

There is a lot to look forward to this Novembeer if you are a beer lover, including a new Taco Mac, the release of Love at the Pub, the story of the Brick Store Pub, a host of beer dinners and tastings, and a slew of new beer releases, both local and from beyond Georgia. Here are a few of the highlights of just the next two weeks!

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POPEYES CRUSADER: No, really. I look exactly like that.

A few weeks back, Hardy Wallace (AKA Dirty South Wine) asked me to participate in his Popeyes challenge. The task? Find a wine to pair with Popeye’s spicy fried chicken. On November 18, around the country, folks will get together to try all five wines along with the chicken, and tweet, blog and smack-talk their way to deciding which wine chosen pairs best with the spicy bird.

This was NOT an easy pairing. The spice on Popeye’s spicy chicken is such that it decimates most wines, leaving nothing but alcohol or off-notes on the palate. But with the help of some friends, I burned through over 30 bottles to find the wine. (Special thanks to Aria’s Andres Loaiza who lent his palate and a bunch of bottles to the final tasting. Unfortunately Cliff doesn’t drink, so I couldn’t put his Popeyes expertize to use.) My pick?

Kiralyudvar Tokaji Sec 2005-  Dry Hungarian Furmint

Check out the other picks and rules to the game on Hardy’s blog, and join in on November 18!

(Photo courtesy of CapedWonder.com)

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Atlanta Cuisine is about to take off in some new, pleasingly wacky directions, according to owner Tom Maicon, who sent me the following (edited) e-mail:

In just about 21 days the Atlanta Cuisine website is going to change dramatically in look and feel.  The forum will remain, as it is on someone else’s server (Ninja Post) and they maintain it.

We are moving more towards video — AC Television, which will air 21- and 42-minute segments of crazy investigative restaurant/bar stuff,  including paranormal investigations with real-life local ghost hunters armed with all the necessary equipment….

I just hired the production and camera folks in the last 48 hours and we plan to start shooting in the next 10 to 14 days.  The weekly show will be restaurant/bar oriented but with an investigative angle. Examples include paranormal investigations;  solving mysteries (such as identifying the “gel” that is in an Arby’s roast beef sandwich); a beer documentary covering 15 Southern breweries in five days with a bunch of beer fanatics on an old school bus, pouring beer from two custom-built kegorators; and all sorts of other show ideas I can’t yet mention.

There was no mention of the fate of the site’s monthly tabloid publication.

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To all who are interested in showing off their awesome culinary skills, “Top Chef”will  hold auditions here in Atlanta for season seven. This open casting call will be at Craft Restaurant, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., on Nov. 8. Be sure to bring a filled out application, video submission and all other required materials, which can be found on the Bravo TV website.

Also, be sure to brush-up on you pastries and cakes, as a new “Top Chef” spin-off, titled “Top Chef: Just Desserts,” will also be casting at the same audition. The newest version of the show was just recently announced on Oct., 26 and auditions are already underway. The spin-off is said to premiere in 2010.

Craft is located at 3376 Peachtree Road. 404-995-7580. www.craftrestaurant.com.

(Photo courtesy Bravo TV)

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I guess one good turn, or challenge, deserves a repeat.

Last night’s episode of “Top Chef” Las Vegas was a virtual vegetarian deja vu as the remaining cheftestants cooked up veggie entrees for quirky actress Natalie Portman, taking a cue from last summer’s “Top Chef Masters” where the masters cooked a dinner for quirky vegan actress Zooey Deschanel. While the first incarnation was mostly interesting (Art Smith making vegan food with love, come on!), this time around the majority of the cheftestants served up plates of thrown together veggies and then freaked out about it. The most interesting thing about the meal, aside from Padma and Natalie’s giggle-worthy double entendres, was Michael Voltaggio’s banana polenta, and even that wasn’t his original idea. (more…)

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Ever wonder what goes on inside Anthony Bourdain’s head?

I guess, although Tony always seemed like the kind of guy to just say what he’s thinking. That’s one of the best things about his award-winning Travel Channel show “No Reservations.” That and the look on his face when he’s gotta eat another poop shoot.

But we ask because Anthony Bourdain has a new TV series on the way in 2010, which promises a presumably elusive look into the celeb chef’s mind. The show’s animated and it looks … kinda bad. For “Anthony Bourdain’s Alternate Universe” the well-traveled chef’s animated doppelganger is some sort of too-cool-for-school, brain-eating (see Sandra Lee and Rachel Ray) Dr. Evil type. Sure, the real life Tony is also a too-cool-for-school, brain-eating Dr. Evil type, but the brief Travel Channel teaser makes cartoon Tony look like a bratty, image-obsessed Frankenstein. I prefer the weathered human curmudgeon to the salty, well-coiffed drawing. The teaser’s porn-y music doesn’t help either.

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Let it ride. Or rather, slide.

Over the past few weeks Jen has cooked through illness and battled anxiety, but during last night’s famous restaurant wars, the lone female superstar actually floundered, serving not one, but two poorly executed pieces of fish. Her sloppy, broken brown butter sauce was uncharacteristic and brought out some pretty harsh words from head judge Tom Colicchio ( “It’s basically grease – her mentor would not be happy with her”). Even her slightly more inspired mussel “consummé” was not up to her usual standards, or Robin’s for that matter, and at the judge’s table she was a literal and figurative mess. At least she (or the editors) got to show off her bikini bod. (more…)

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It’s almost – no – it’s very cliché now, to exalt the properties of the pig. There are many restaurants that should simply be called pig bars. And chefs like Kevin have replaced dragons, skulls, and Japanese body art with charts of the animal’s anatomy.

But, why?

For the most part, of course, it’s flavor. The smokiness.  The salt.  But, mainly, it’s the fat. Where other animals’ fat can take on an unpleasant texture, especially cold, the pig yields melting lusciousness, almost all the time.

For that reason, it’s irreplaceable.

Emeril was right (even if I cringe while typing it). Pork fat rules!

Bacon however… is overrated.

This declaration has already landed me on a few blog’s hit lists, but I feel rather adamant about it. (more…)

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Three cheers for the other white meat!

Kevin’s love of pork took center stage last night (narrowly beating out Padma’s knee-high white boots) as the remaining cheftestants paired pig with pinot noir for guest judge Charlie Palmer. In fact, Kevin’s downright jolly reaction to the challenge (“I have a pig tattooed on me, that’s how close this is to my heart”) and his subsequent win was more exciting than the dish he won it with, a pleasantly uncomplicated pork leg pate with pork fat mayo and a hint of chestnut. Even if Kevin doesn’t pull off a “Top Chef” win, after braised pork barbecue and bacon jam and all kinds of pork fat, he’s certainly the king of pig. (more…)

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Next week, our annual Food Issue will be hitting the streets, packed with advice from our critics on where to eat in Atlanta right now. As part of that guide, for the first time ever, Cliff Bostock will be counting down his Top 10 favorite restaurants in our city along with his favorite dishes from those restaurants. Over the next 10 days here on Omnivore, we’ll be counting down Cliff’s favorites, starting later today with Number 10. So watch for that today and every day for the next 10 days. And watch for the Food Issue next week, which will also have my Top 5 special occasion restaurants, Jennifer Zyman’s Top 10 ethnic picks, and much more!

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CL's 2008 Food Issue

Congratulations (!) to Besha Rodell whose 2008 Food Issue, My week on an all-Georgia diet, took home first place for Newspaper Food Feature under 250,000 circulation at the Association of Food Journalists conference in New Orleans. (We also hear that some guy named Obama was honored today too, although not for his food writing …) For the issue, Besha challenged herself to do that which so many preach yet so few seem to accomplish — survive on a purely local diet. She allowed herself a few basic cheats (salt, oil and yeast), but otherwise maintained a strict Georgia-grown dictum: no sugar, no pepper, not even any beer!

The result was a funny, honest, down-to-earth diary documenting her experience and experiment. She also spotlighted some of the faces behind the food on her table, such as Mike Buckner of Fielder’s Flour and beekeepers Donna and Ray Lopes. Since she came on as Creative Loafing’s restaurant critic and food editor in early 2006, Besha’s won two other AFJ awards and was nominated for a James Beard award in 2007 for her 2006 Food Issue. Congratulations Besha!

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That a boy, indeed!

Red beard sporting, southern food cooking Atlanta chef Kevin Gillespie took home a win, and $15,000, in last night’s episode of “Top Chef” Las Vegas for his venture into Asian cuisine, proving he can cook more than just bacon jam. Kevin’s Vietnamese inspired grilled pork with herb salad impressed guest judge Tyler Florence and his gutsy move – choosing the $15,000 over immunity – caused an outburst from otherwise calm and collected Padma (“That a boy, Kevin!”). And while his confident attitude (“At this point, I’m not concerned with immunity”) could have read as cocky, Kevin still managed to come across as a good guy. I hope Jen buys him that suit. (more…)

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Who will be first? Holeman & Finch or Abattoir? The Utne Reader reports:

You know that funny little red thing on the top of a rooster’s head? It’s called a cockscomb, and as Francine Segan recounts for Gastronomica, it’s very tasty:

What are these morsels that look like the fingers of a doll-sized woolen globe? . . . We take a taste. The spikes are slightly gelatinous, with hints of delicate frog-leg flavor. “Delicious” is the consensus.

Segan stumbles upon this rare ingredient on a trip to the Piedmont region of northern Italy, where cockscomb is a vital ingredient in a stew known as la finanziera, a 200-year-old dish that also utilizes a rooster’s wattles and testicles (among many other ingredients). The cockscomb seems to be the star of the show, though, which makes sense given the amount of work that goes into its preparation.

(Photo courtesy of the Silicon Valley Watcher)

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Too busy to impress your friends by joining them for a meal of trendy offal in a trendy restaurant?

Why not invite them over and pop open a can of something even stranger than offal, like scorpions, rattlensake, crickets with eggs or potted possum? It could be your very own dim sum from hell.

Check out the Telegraph’s photo feature of 26 (sort of) exotic canned foods. The pictures brought to mind one of the kitchen cabinets in the home of my Uncle Steve and Aunt Jock when I was a kid. It was stocked with rattlenake, chocolate covered ants, fried grasshoppers and much more.

I think these items appealed more to Uncle Steve’s sense of the absurd than to his actual palate. But all of those items, as I recall, were produced in earnest — not as a joke as a good many of those featured in the Telegraph’s story are.

Probably one of the early identifiers of my interest in food occurred when I tried desperately to open a jar of something strange fetched from that cabinet. When I couldn’t pry the lid off, I banged the jar on the counter. The jar shattered and I cut my self so deeply I had to go to the emergency room for stitches.

It’s odd how early in life our eventual fascinations often reveal themselves.

(Hat tip: Former CL staffer Rob Walton. Photo courtesy the Telegraph.)

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You see it on “Top Chef” all the time. The hobbled, baby wildebeest limping around the kitchen. A chef barely hanging on in the competition. Scared and bleeding. On their last legs. With a few hyena snapping at their ankles. A lions pride, calmly in the brush, watching.

Figuratively, Robin is that wildebeest.

Literally, though, she’s a true survivor.

Eli’s unfortunate comments cast judgment on Robin’s inspiration and victory this week. It was the type of comment that probably had more than one person, including myself, saying “Oh no, he didn’t”.

He did.

I can’t defend his choice of words. Even though I can vouch for his character (he happens to be an extremely loyal and family-focused person).

But I can help you imagine his mindset.

When you’re a young chef, overly ambitious and obsessed with your craft, cancer doesn’t mean much. When you work in a great restaurant and push hard every day, nothing else means as much. A tight brunoise or turned vegetable are all that matters. Life is barely a blip on the radar.

It reminds me of this quote from White Heat by Marco Pierre White.

“When boys don’t last the pace that makes me feel good because I can and I will”. – chef de partie at Harvey’s.

That is a ruthless yet accurate comment.

Change that to, “I love it when cooks can’t keep up, even if they’ve had cancer,” and you have a sampling of what I think Eli was getting at.

(more…)

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In my Grazing column two weeks ago, I wrote briefly about the ancient Romans’ penchant for disguising one food, particularly offal, as another, as illustrated in Petronius’ Satyricon.

The new issue of my favorite foodie mag, Gastronomica, features a 14-page article about the French’s own penchant for such culinary tricks during the 17th and 18th centuries. I haven’t seen the issue yet, but Marc Abrahams discusses it in his “Improbable Research” column for the Guardian. His article is headlined “When is a frog not a frog? When it’s a bird” and is illustrated with the Muppetesque photo above.

Abrahams writes:

The French will swallow almost anything, so long as it’s surprising to see and delightful to taste. Jennifer J Davis explains why in a study called “Masters of Disguise: French Cooks Between Art and Nature, 1651–1793.J” The 14-page report, replete with old drawings and few new photographs, is published in the journal Gastronomica.

“Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,” Davis writes, “cooks engaged in a multitude of games in which one food masqueraded as another. Such games often played along the fault lines of alimentary taboos, as the cooked imitated the raw, the dead masqueraded as the living, and the injunctions of Catholic fasts were followed to the letter, if not the spirit, of the law.”

Religious fast days, especially, became opportunities for cooks to strut their ingeniously stuffed stuff. All things seemingly became possible. Vegetables took on the appearance of fishes. Fishes were made into simulacra of beef, pork, and other meats.

French chefs fried up frogs “en guise de” chicken. Going in the other direction, sometimes birds became faux amphibians.

Read Abraham’s entertaining summary but subscribe to the quarterly Gastronomica to read the whole article.

(Uncredited photo courtesy of the Guardian)

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Toby Young is back, and he’s still “very, very British.”

In last night’s magic-themed episode of “Top Chef” Las Vegas, Toby Young, the show’s resident foul-mouthed, analogy-making Brit, returned to judge the remaining cheftestants’ deconstructed versions of classic dishes, from a showy Caesar salad to eggs “foreign to me,” alongside deconstructionist showmen Penn and Teller. Fittingly, both classic British dishes — shepherd’s pie and fish and chips — flopped last night, failing to meet Toby’s, or even Teller’s, expectations. Ash’s shepherd’s pie was clunky on the plate and poorly cooked (his tomato looked like a bad tomato Provencal I actually did get at a buffet in Vegas) and Laurine’s fish and two chips, aside from being overcooked, failed to recreate the fatty flavor of fries.

Ultimately, though, it was Ron’s pathetic paella, his countless mediocre fish dish of the season, that was deemed the worst of the night and sent the Haitian chef packing his knives. While I doubt Ron thought he was the best chef of the bunch, his disillusioned commentary (“I could win for this,” “I’ve made award-winning clam chowder”) made him seem out of touch with the competition and his abilities throughout much of the season. Thankfully, his heartfelt goodbye saved some face and helped to show that at least a part of his cocky/confused persona was created in editing. Keep living the dream, Ron — one day you can cook for Tyra Banks. (more…)

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GREAT RED NECKWARE SPORTING EURO CHEFS THROUGH THE AGES: Or possibly time-lapse aging. Mattin in 20 years?

Welcome to the wild, wild west.

In last night’s edition of “Top Chef,” the remaining cheftestants left the comforts (and air conditioning) of the M Resort kitchen for fire pits in the Nevada desert, cooking for a few dozen cowboys and camping out in teepees on a veritable dude ranch. The desert heat (after all, it was “nine trillion degrees”) made for some agitated chefs and overwhelmingly mediocre food, “some of the worst of the season”. Although Atlanta based Eli’s tough tuna sandwich and accompanying radish “salad,” which looked more like a pile of raw radishes, was certainly among the mediocre, his commentary got to the heart of the episode: presenting the chefs themselves. (more…)

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Like, have you been to El Bulli? Because if you haven’t … check out Eat Me Daily’s review of this new book.

You should also check out author Pim Techamuanvivit’s website, replete with video.

(Photo courtesy of Eat Me Daily)

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