Southern Comfort

(Hominy Grill--Best breakfast in the South)

Each year I'm lucky enough to be invited down to the Charleston
Food and Wine Festival. I say I'm lucky because as far as these
events go, and there are an awful lot of them these days, this event
is the perfect combination of great food, great local marketing and the
education of Southern cuisine and restaurants.

From a chef's point of view, I like it for three main reasons.
One, I've gotten to learn about what a great food town Charleston
is and have become friends with Charleston chefs I truly admire.
Each year this event suprises me more than the next. Coming from NYC,
where there is an ambitious restaurant around every corner, one doesn't
expect that to happen in other towns outside of L.A. or Chicago.
There is love of local produce and the true culiary arts that rivals
California and their whole fresh produce fetish thing that we love about them.
And though much of the food world is too busy looking at NY, Aspen and South Beach
for the insane crowded food loving madness that seems to make people feel legit,
Charleston has not gone unnoticed. These chefs are largely Beard nominated and
at anytime during the festival you run into the big guys. Big as in Ruth Reichl and Tom Colecchio. My first year there I got to have lunch with the late R.W. Apple. Not too shabby.

Two, it's opposite of most of the events we usually do in the industry. There is a civility about it that makes it a joy to do no matter how hard I have to work while I'm there. True, I make sure I go for the full four days and only work one or two
events but there are very few NY chefs that do this event and I usually feel the need
to bust it out a bit. I do most of my work at Lassi and ship everything down. This way I get to really enjoy myself, the city and the great chef community down there.

And three, they put you up in the best possible hotel. The Charleston Place. Big thanks to Mickey Bakst the GM of their restaurant for being the best host and a great friend.
(My apologies to Kenny Callahan of Blue Smoke. Not to rub it in, Ken. This year they put him up at a Holiday Inn due to the location of his event. A little bitter.) Here is where we stay:

Very often, your chances of being put up somewhere this great are slim. Budgets and stuff like that. Each year, my friends Michael and Heather Laiskonis (pastry chef of Le Bernardin and GM at Tailor, respectively) are with me on this trip. It's thanks to them that I'm part of this event. Heather and I spend lots of time at the spa there. Here's the pool, just to show you how fabulous:


On to more culiary things, this year I did the first dinner I've done
as a chef, not a pastry chef. Very exciting. And I had some very exciting company.
The dinner was at FIG, one of my favorite restaurants. The chef, Mike Lata hosted Suzanne Goin of L.A.'s Lucques, Michael Laiskonis and myself for this dinner. We each made a course. I know there were a bunch of other dinners going on that evening with very talented chefs and I have no idea what they did, but this is my blog and I'll have to say it was just the best menu.

I had the first course.
Almond Shorba with local shrimp seasoned with Bengali 5-Spice and spicy mint chutney.
The shrimp down there is really like no other. The thickness of the shorba with
the shrimp on top made the dish into an Indian version of Shrimp and Grits, a local favorite.

Mike, our host made an "over easy ravioli"--poetic license for the ricotta ravioli
with raw egg yolk in the middle. I love that dish. He served it with local baby asparagus.

Suzanne Goin was in charge of the entree. Braised veal cheeks with cavalo nero,
risotto carbonara and truffle butter. Wondering if the hype had teeth? Yes, it does. Had never met Suzanne before and I enjoyed spending a little time with
her in the kitchen.

Michael gave the meal the big finish with a pre-dessert of a greek yogurt
panna cotta with grapefruit, basil and avocado.
Following was a Amadei Gianduja parfait with organic hazelnuts and black truffle honey. Fantastic. It's one of my favorite dessets. One of these days Michael and I will have an Amadei vs. Domori conversation, until then I'll just drool over this dessert.

There was also a big pastry chef event the next night. I thought wisely and
had Damion Badalamenti make the Lassi chocolates to wow the crowd and that they did.

Later that evening all the chefs gathered for a party at FIG. It was just where you'd want to be after such a great weekend. A portable pizza oven, lots of roast pork and the southern sky. What more could a girl want?