Chef Entertainer Neil Fuentes (a.k.a. "The Singing Chef") was recently featured on the Food Channel giving audiences a tour of one of his favorite New Haven spots. Rubamba. We sat down with Neil to discuss his favorite ingredients, kitchen nightmares, and go-to dishes.
1. If you had unexpected guests arriving at your home for dinner in one hour, what would you whip up?
One of the most effective recipes I like to make when I am in a rush is my Mustard Chicken, It’s fast, with deep flavors and really quick. I grab whatever I have in the freezer, chicken breast, chicken thighs, a whole chicken or whatever. I place the chicken in in a large soup pot! I put water until it’s covered with water. Put on the stove on high and covered. To that I add a 3/4 cup of good old yellow mustard. 1 tbsp of garlic powder, 1 tsp of worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste. I let the chicken boil covered for 15 minutes. Then I uncover the chicken and keep it on high. The liquid will start reducing creating a super delicious sauce. One the sauce is thick I shut the stove off. At that pout I take the chicken off the pot and place it on a baking sheet with a rack and put it older the broiler in the oven until is nice and brown. I serve this chicken with a simple rice and sweet fried plantains.
"My Signature Dish" is a new CTbites column featuring a rotating cast of chefs, and the dishes that define their cooking style, or simply make them happy to fire up the oven.
We looked forward to learning about what Scott Ostrander had chosen as his signature dish at Mama’s Boy in SoNo, a Connecticut restaurant featuring Southern cooking and cuisine. But he was reluctant to tell us much about it. “We’re dealing with some major issues,” he confided. “Trying to dodge disaster.”
Issues. Disasters. Great. The stuff of a good story. We urged him on. But Chef Ostrander demurred. “I just can’t get into it right now,” he apologized.
The next time we met, the chef was all smiles. Problems solved. Scott shared the back story, one that reveals how a gifted chef deals with and solves both business and culinary challenges.
His new signature dish at Mama’s Boy is Crisp Pork Shank, an osso bucca-like braised pork shank with a dramatic Southern twist. Traditionally, slowly simmered meat is tender, juicy, and deeply flavored. But its soft texture is monochromatic. For his shank, Scott wanted contrapuntal textures. Soft. And Crunchy.
Barcelona Wine Bar in SoNo recently hosted a beer dinner with Captain Lawrence Brewing Company founder and brewmaster Scott Vaccaro. The four course dinner paired a spanish inspired menu designed by Chef Freddy Chimborazo, with four of the brewery's beers (and at $45 per person, this felt like a dine and dash). The meal went from light to heavy, beginning with a first course paired a grilled shrimp with lemon aoili paired with Liquid Gold, a Belgian Style ale, to a fourth course pairing smoked short ribs with a smoked porter. In addition to the four well-matched courses, the highlight of the evening was getting to know Vacarro, Captain Lawrence's amiable founder and brewmaster himself.
1. How did you go from drinking Schaefer to brewing your own beer at the age of 17?
I stumbled upon home brewing at a friends house my junior year in high school. I was amazed that you could actually brew beer at home. I was given the green light by my parents and with the help of my friends father I brewed my first batch in November of 1995.
2. You studied brewing at UC Davis, and worked at a few breweries including Sierra Nevada. Are you inspired by a particular style or brewery when brewing your beers?
Hosting the CTbites Blogger Lounge at the Greenwich Wine+Food Festival has to be one of our fondest and possibly the most fun collaborations we've been a part of in our three years of eating, writing, photographing, interviewing, and convening chefs and restaurateurs for CTbites.
There is so much to share, so much to cover, so as a bit of a teaser of that excellent day, here are some video snippets of the great action from Saturday's Blogger Lounge. We will be sharing full interviews, our own coverage, and our fellow blogger coverage over the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
The best life has to offer often happens around the dinner table. Mealtime moments shared with family and friends over good food and good drinks. However, making a meal that will impress your guests is a time consuming feat, one that takes you away from those life-well-lived moments at the table. That’s when Book-a-Cook steps in, relieving you of any stress and work involved in planning a family meal, dinner party or culinary event. There is so much culinary prowess in Fairfield County, and with Book-a-Cook you can book a chef’s table right in your own kitchen.
Book-a-Cook was founded by Westport native and Fairfield resident, Ashley Hart. Hart, an Institute of Culinary Education graduate and former New York City and Hamptons personal chef, wanted to provide intimate access to some of the great chefs in this area. Many cities offer similar services, but the suburban market had yet to be tapped. “We live in a very social community and it seemed like the perfect fit,” says Hart. With the help of business partner Amy Strife, Book-a-Cook launched in January. “Our goal is to take a restaurant experience into your home and make the experience as seamless as possible,” says Strife. “You are able to have a much more personal experience with the chef.”
Surrounded by candles on a wet Tuesday evening in April, Master Chocolatier, Fritz Knipschildt, of Chocopologie, and his talented Danish born and trained chefs; Christian Wilki and chef/manager, Christel Marie Moerck introduced 35 CTbites guests to the Nordic cuisine of their homeland, Denmark.
Inspired by the New Nordic Cuisine of Scandinavia, and Rene Redzepi's "World's Best Restaurant," NOMA in Copenhagen, this special 12 course meal turned into an amazing four hour event curated as part of the CTbites Invites program.
The evening itself was so well received, and so much fun for the chefs and the guests, that this Chocopologie creative team was inspired to offer as part of their new Fall menu some of the traditional Nordic dishes and techniques they had been trained in and missed preparing here in the United States.
Listen up food lovers. CTbites has rounded up some of the area's top chefs for two full afternoons of live cooking demonstrations, recipe tasting and general good times. Last year's CTbites Chef Demo Tentwas such a success we've added a second day!
On Saturday, August 31st & SundaySeptember 1st from 11:30-5pm come on down to Westport's Blues Views & BBQ Festival to meet:
Twelve years of apprenticeships and hard work are now benefiting Carlos Baez, the newly appointed Executive Chef at The Spread in SONO. Baez started his career at the age of 19 and gained his culinary experience through diverse roles including a sushi chef; he smiled as he told CTbites, “I was the only Mexican sushi chef in the restaurant”. He worked as a line cook in two top-rated local restaurants, Le Panetiere (Rye, NY) and Napa and Company (Stamford) before arriving at The Spread as one of its opening chefs.
After a few months in his new role of Executive Chef, CTbites spent an afternoon with Chef Carlos to sample a few of his newly introduced additions to the menu. The menu has a varied approach to the cuisine, with influences from American, French, Italian and Spanish cuisines while adhering to The Spread’s philosophy of offering high quality, locally sourced options, with entrées priced less than $25. I enjoyed many of the dishes but found many of the presentations a little over- or under-seasoned.
Gazpacho is one of those summer treats that allows a chef to combine vibrant seasonal flavors with a unique personal touch. Every bowl of gazpacho is different, and Chef Nick Martschenko of South End in New Canaaan does a wonderful job marrying texture, taste and a little heat. This sweet and spicy version combines the sweetness of the tomatoes with a little spiciness from finely diced jalepeno peppers. He then finishes this delectable recipe with grilled shrimp. Enjoy!
This past Sunday, a group of us were six of the lucky 40 folks to nab tickets to a "hip" six course menu put on by Plum Luv Foods at Butcher's Best in Newtown, CT, showcasing sustainable local produce, seafood and grassfed meats. This was a sold-out event, even after adding ten more tickets than had been sold at previous dinners.
For the past few months, Chef Plum and Sous Chef Kern have been hosting Underground Dinner ("pop-up dinners") in Connecticut, where they take over a space for the evening, and prepare dinner in a casual, local setting.
No one in our group had ever been to a pop-up dinner, but we knew we were in for a fun night when we were greeted with a glass of bubbly champagne with local blueberries as soon as we walked in the door.
Take a peek at the menu ~ this particular evening, Chef Plum showcased grass-fed meats from Shiregate Family Farm (carried by Butcher's Best), local grown produce (from Farming 101 and Holbrook Farm), and fresh fish and oysters caught right off the Connecticut shoreline.
Welcome to Throwback Thursday...We brought this recipe out of the archives right in time for blueberry season. Enjoy!
Sweet! Berries are back in season and we've got the perfect way to celebrate the booming berry harvest: fresh fruit tarts. We asked John Barricelli of Sono Baking Company for his favorite recipe as he knows a few things about tarts.
Piled high with fresh blueberries, these individual fruit tarts offer a sweet, creamy custard surprise in the center. Try making these with raspberries or strawberries, or an assortment of berries. Each tartlet uses very little pastry cream, so you’ll have some left over, which can be used as a garnish and served alongside the tarts.
Wirt Cook isn’t interested in stardom. Sure, he was Alex Guarnaschelli’s sous-chef on this season’s Iron Chef America, but he did that just to help his former boss. What Cook loves to do is cook in the kitchen at the Redding Roadhouse.
He and his wife Karen, sister Colleen and her husband Ted Stonebly had just bought the Roadhouse last July when Guarnaschelli reached the last round of the Next Iron Chef competition. She chose two sous chefs for the final battle. Cook was joined by Ashley Merriman, who also had cheffed at Guarnaschelli’s restaurants Butter and The Darby in New York City.
Cook says the team was shocked when they won. In the stress of creating more than five courses, each using the secret ingredient, within the one-hour limit, they’d made mistakes. They thought they hadn’t had such a great day. But Guarnaschelli won. She was the Next Iron Chef. And Cook suddenly had an extra job he didn’t have time for.
That thick, sizzling steak you’re about to devour is amazing: Behold its marbled, mahogany crust framing a pink, juicy interior that slices like warm butter and literally melts in your mouth..
What makes this magnificent steak even more incredible is that you aren’t dining in a great, leathery New York chop house. You cooked this baby at home...
Think it’s impossible to duplicate a Peter Luger Porterhouse in your own kitchen? Read on.
After interviewing local butchers, chefs, and food scientists, we have uncovered some of the secrets, tricks and myths of cooking a perfect steak at home.
On any given day, Chef Geoff Lazlo can be found in his vegetable garden, with his young family, or in the kitchen atThe Whelk in Westport. After years of working at renown restaurants such as Blue Hill Stone Barns, Chez Panisse, and most recently Gramercy Tavern, Geoff came back to CT where he was born, to join team Bill Taibe. “I made an effort to work at the very best restaurants while I was in New York City,” says Lazlo, “but I was never really an urban person. When I was 5 years old I turned my sandbox into a garden.” As passionate locavores who care deeply about the integrity of each and every ingredient, Taibe and Lazlo would agree that this has been a perfect match.
After a few months at Le Farm which Geoff says “was a great opportunity to be in a small chef driven kitchen after Gramercy Tavern," Geoff took over the helm at The Whelk (recently voted Best Seafood Restaurant in Fairfield County). When asked about The Whelk, Geoff said, “I’m a really academic guy and I like the challenge of approaching seafood with multiple cooking methods.” “Bill and I have a similar spirit, but we come at food from two different angles. I cook clean and light, and Bill encourages me to add that last ingredient that pushes it further.”
Carey Savona is the Executive Chef of Heirloom at the Study at Yale in New Haven and the Head of Culinary Development for Study Hotels. Heirlooms's self-described "American-heritage" approach to cooking, leveraging small batch growers and neighborhood artisan suppliers, makes it one of our favorite New Haven haunts.
A tireless force in the Connecticut food scene, Chef Savona is passionate about seasonality and the city of New Haven. He earned his kitchen stripes working alongside some of the most talented chefs and restaurateurs in the country. Savona has lived and cooked in San Francisco, Connecticut, South Florida and in New York City where, with Drew Nieporent and the Myriad Restaurant Group he earned Two Stars from Frank Bruni of the New York Times for his work at Mai House in Tribeca.
If you had unexpected guests arriving at your home for dinner in 1 hour, what would you whip up?
Spaghetti Carbonara. We always have pancetta, guanciale or bacon. Always eggs and good cheese and parmigiano or pecorino is part of that repertoire. Carbonara is great anytime. Better for breakfast or after a night of too much wine. Is there such a thing?
What is the last dish you cooked for yourself?
Last dish at work was spaghetti with olive oil, parsley, chilies and pecorino. Eaten out of a mixing bowl, quickly huddled next to a stove as we began to get hammered with dupes. Last dish I made at home was an egg and cheese sandwich for my wife (Alison Savona) and I that we shared over coffee before we both left for work. Best and saddest part of my day.
Despite the inclement weather this year, Memorial Day weekend always harkens the launch of grilling season. Chef McMillan, of The Bedford Post in Bedford, NY is no stranger to a fiery hearth, so we've asked him to ring in the season with a recipe from the restaurant.
Chef McMillan recently conducted a series of grilling themed dinners at The Bedford Post and as a locavore, he and his staff have taken to foraging the property for ingredients to use on their menu. Hence the use of Wild Mustard Greens and Nasturtium seen in this recipe for Pork Chops with Grilled Cherries, Wild Mustard Greens, and Nasturtium Leaves.
King of the Grilled Cheese, Jason Sobocinski is the owner and founder of New Haven's innovative cheese-centric gastropub and cheese shop Caseus Fromagerie Bistro. Here are his tips for the perfect Grilled Cheese sandwich.
The crispy and the melty are no more typified than in America's greatest culinary accomplishment, the Grilled Cheese! Who thought up such a wonderful combination, to put bread to butter then heat with cheese till melted? Pure culinary Genius.
The first signs of what we know as the Grilled Cheese sandwich surfaced around the 1940's. Sliced white bread was used often with cheese melted open faced called cheese toasties in England and was a popular dish to make in U.S. Naval galleys. These toasted melted precursors of what we now know where easy to make and super satisfying...did they come from the English Welsh Rarebit or the French Croque Madame? I'm not sure, but I do know that now more than ever this nostalgic sandwich has become increasingly popular and more and more refined. Is it because it's simplicity and comfort evoking qualities? Again, not sure but I know how to make a seriously great GC and here are some of my tips and stellar condiment suggestion to bolster your next crispy melty endeavor!
Want to start an argument…talk hamburgers. This simple grilled piece of ground meat is one of the most polarizing topics in the culinary world. Websites are fully dedicated to hamburgers, magazines run covers and full articles on hamburgers, super-chefs are sent to their knees if their hamburger is not on par with their foie gras, and the backyard griller will season and treat his hamburger like haute cuisine.
Why does a simple patty of cooked ground meat on a bun with toppings generate such love and vitriol, simultaneously?
Let’s start with the meat. There are currently numerous choices…local farm, commercial farm, grass-fed, grain-fed, dry-aged, wet-aged, medium grind, fine grind, single grind, double grind, so many permutations, and so little time. I reached out to Ryan Fibiger of Saugatuck Craft Butchery for some sage advice. His response, “come in and I can show you how our best burger meat is cut, blended and ground.” So one afternoon Ryan gave me a two-hour butchery course as he broke down the front quarter of a cow, combined and ground the cuts, and finally prepared and served two different hamburger blends.
CTbites has some big news for fans of James Beard nominated chef Bill Taibe and his Westport restaurants, Le Farm and The Whelk. Guests to both will find exciting changes and a couple of new faces in the kitchen at both of these Westport hot spots. Chef Arik Bensimon (The Spread, Napa) has already settled into Le Farm’s cozy chef's quarters, and Geoff Lazlo (Le Farm, Gramercy Tavern, Blue Hill Stone Barns) has moved from his post at Le Farm to head the busy kitchen at The Whelk.
CTbites sat down with restaurateur and chef Bill Taibe to discuss the new starting lineup, and get some insight into the future plans for these immensely popular dining spots.
When asked why Bill Taibe chose Arik for Le Farm, Taibe smiles and says "I’ve always been trying to get Arik over to Le Farm." Ever since Bill left Napa where Arik Bensimon worked as his sous, he knew he wanted to cook with him again. “We really clicked from day one,” says Taibe. "Arik has a beautiful elegance and rusticness to his food style. Our food just makes sense together." Having worked together before, the chef and owner already have a strong understanding of each others styles and expectations. Taibe went on to explain that, "sometimes the way I do things is the harder way, and Arik understands, it takes a long time to do things right."
