Great Taste

Art and food: Thursday nights at the Walker

Tonight is Grand Opening for Gather by D'Amico, located in the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

As an opening highlight, special small plates will be introduced by D'Amico Executive Chef Jay Sparks and offered on the restaurant's menu through this month.   

The small plate series will continue on the first Thursday evening of each month and will feature top Twin Cities guest chefs, including Alex Roberts in July and Isaac Becker in August.

Other than Thursday nights Gather by D'Amico will be open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch, and will feature "globally inspired American cuisine"  by executive chef Josh Brown.  Fare includes a salad of warm salt-roasted beets with asparagus, pistachio, parmesan, and saporoso vinegar; halibut with spring onions, favas, and morels; barbeque beef short rib banh mi sandwiches; and buttermilk marinated chicken with artichokes, sweet peas, chard, and burrata. 

More info from City Pages: http://blogs.citypages.com/food/2011/06/gather_a_first.php 

And the Walker's website: http://info.walkerart.org/visit/dining.wac 

112 Eatery and Zingerman's Roadhouse won James Beard chef awards: What's wrong with this picture?

Never mind that the James Beard people have that flyover mentality that you recognize when someone confuses Minnesota with Michigan or spells Minnepolis "Miniapolis." (Both examples have actually happened to this writer....with college grads who otherwise may have passed for intellectual elite.)

So.....just don't pay attention to lack-logic categories in which Minnesota and Wisconsin are not considered part of the "Great Lakes" states but are lumped with Nebraska and Kansas. 

Amid this geo-cultural ignorance there still must be culinary brilliance. Right? Maybe? Here's what happened earlier this month: A ROADHOUSE on the outskirts of Ann Arbor got the prize for Best Chef: Great Lakes. And Minneapolis's 112 Eatery--which is noisy, casual and, yes, has good food, but is nothing to dream about--received Best Chef award for the Midwest. 

Really?

Stillwater and New Prague farms feature in gourmet loca-feasts

Twin Cities chef Scott Pampuch is presenting his annual summer Tour de Farm events at Cedar Summit dairy, New Prague; Axdahl's Garden Farm, Stillwater; and Riverbend Farm, near Delano.

Highlights: participitation by "it" chef Mike DeCamp of La Belle Vie, Minneapolis, and Twin Cities "bad boy" (or so sayeth Pioneer Press) chef Landon Schoenefeld at the Cedar Summit gathering.

More on Tour de Farm here. 

Say cheese....And make some this Saturday!

Jodi Ohlsen Read of Shepherd's Way Farms, Nerstrand,will hold a class on home cheesemaking this Saturday at Egg/Plant Urban Farm Supply, 1771 Selby Avenue, St. Paul (http://www.eggplantsupply.com/).  The class,1:30 to 3 pm, will focus on fresh cheesemaking, including a ricotta demonstration.

 

Shepherd's Way Farms makes some of the finest artisan cheeses in Minnesota, including Big Woods Blue--one of GG's fave domestic blues. Class registration is $25; call 651-645-0818 or email audrey@eggplantsupply.com. For more on Shepard's Way Farms cheeses, visit http://www.shepherdswayfarms.com/

Q: What Minnesota chefs are nominated for 2011 James Beard Awards?

The A: Lenny Russo Of Heartland Restaurant, St. Paul., and Isaac Becker, 112 Eatery, Minneapolis, are both nominated in the category "Best Chef: Midwest."   

For Great Taste's impressions of dining out at Heartland not long ago, click here.

For more on the James Beard Foundation Awards--no less than the restaurant business's equivalent of the Oscars--visit http://www.jbfawards.com/2011/nominees.php#restaurant-chef

Surly beer fans, this is for you

Much brew-haha over Brooklyn Center-based Surly Brewing Co. coming to town. 

News from other PB bloggers:

http://postbulletin.typepad.com/kiger/2011/02/surly-to-celebrate-5th-in-roch.html

http://postbulletin.typepad.com/center_stage/

What's all the fuss about? If you look at ratings from BeerAdvocate, it's easier to get the picture. (Or should that be pitcher?*)

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13014

*I have to ask my blogging compatriots and readers: Is there any place in Southeast MN where you can order Surly's on tap, at the moment?

20.21 will serve its last dinner March 12

In case you missed earlier reports, 20.21 Restaurant & Bar at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, is about to close. 

20.21 brought the glam and culinary wizardry of LA-based Chef Wolfgang Puck to the Twin Cities.

Minneapolis-based D’Amico and Partners will replace 20.21 later this spring with Gather, which will be open mainly for lunch.

If you never have had the chance to dine at 20.21 and are curious about it, GG urges you to make the trip while you can.

Back in 2009 GG created her Great Taste "faves list" for Twin Cities finer dining and 20.21 didn't make the cut. At the time she felt the high profile spot was a too-predictable pick, and that Puck's restaurants in LA were better.

But GG wouldn't ever have wished that sleek and sexy 20.21 exit the scene. Ouch. 

The Upper Midwest and chocolate: Let's go crazy

News and views about "healthy" chocolate seem to only get better (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/chocolates-startling-heal_b_825978.html) and what's more, some of the best chocolatiers are right in our midst--in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and (just a tad south) Chicago. 

Let's start local with B.T. McElrath, out of Minneapolis: https://www.btmcelrath.com/index.asp. Offered by a number of Minnesota retailers, its shiny-as-if-buffed, refined candies can be discovered south of the metro Cities at ZZest Market & Wine Cafe, Rochester, Slant Avenue Mercantile, Laneboro, and Present Perfect, Northfield.   

Fresh from Duluth, 185 Chocolat (http://185chocolat.com/links.html) is featured in Rochester at Sopra Sotto.  

Our next door neighbor, Wisconsin, claims greatness with artisan dairy products and now can also pride itself on Candinas Chocolatier, made and sold only in the Madison area. (http://www.candinas.com/) 

Traveling via the northern route around Lake Michigan, GG arrives in Fudge Country--but that's for another blog post. Here is Grocer's Daughter Chocolate, in Empire, Michigan. /http://www.grocersdaughter.com/ Then its on to truffle specialist The Chocolate Garden, Coloma: http://www.chocolategarden.com/

Last stop, all off, Chi-Town USA. Vosges Haut-Chocolat, popular for its bar chocolates, offers bittersweet-and-salty selections, among numerous concoctions that give tastebuds a sensory high:  http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/?gclid=CIL02sW4nqcCFQgHbAodtXSQcQ Vosges is sold in Rochester at Zzest Market & Wine Cafe.

Ah, this was such a hard blog to post....The agony. GG indeed has tried candies from all of the makers listed here and can confidently state they are right up there (or close) with fine Belgian chocolates, yet they stand on their own in mix-it-up, witty American style. GG is undoubtedly missing some other splendid makers; please comment on your faves. 

Thinking about...chocolate?

Le Cordon Bleu Chef's Series presents "Valentine's Day Chocolates; Truffles and More," 10 am to 1 pm on February 12 at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Minneapolis/St. Paul, 1315 Mendota Heights Road, Mendota Heights. 

The class is described as a "hands-on session" in which participants create hand-dipped candies, chocolate truffles, and molded holiday confections. "Aspects of how chocolate is made, how to temper and theoretical application will also be discussed."

Ready for your post-Oscar foodie close-up?

From 20.21 restaurant at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis:

Red Carpet Awards Menu
Tuesday, March 1-Saturday, March 12

For 17 years, Wolfgang Puck has created the menu for the Governors Ball, the official after-party for the Academy Awards®. Now you can get a taste of Hollywood's most glamorous event, with Puck party staples like Kobe beef mini burgers, spicy tuna tartare in a sesame miso cone, and smoked salmon pizza.

To make a reservation at 20.21, call 612.253.3410 or visit walkerart.org/2021.