Summer is on its way!! In just a few weeks, the kids will be out of school and looking for their next adventures. Why not a culinary endeavor? These Connecticut caterers and venues are offering up kids cooking camps and classes throughout the summer months. Check their web site for complete details.
AMG Catering and Events, Wilton: This summer, youngsters can sign up for the Kids CIT (Chef In Training) Camp at AMG Catering. There are four weeks to choose from, but book quickly because they are already selling out!
Bishops Orchards, Guilford: New this year, Bishops Orchards in Guilford has announced Summer Camp Programs for kids! The summer is broken down into four two day long sessions where kids can explore a different farm theme.
Wakeman Town Farm, Westport: In addition to learning about life on a farm, participants in the Junior Chef Summer Camp get to work alongside local chefs and counselors to pick the freshest ingredients around from the farm, see how organic fruits and veggies grow, and learn to cook and create fun fare, from pickles to smoothies to stir-fries, in our brand-new farm kitchen classroom! It's seed-to-plate culinary fun with a homegrown spin.
While the rest of us were hibernating this winter, Justin Kingsley, Pit Master at The Stand in Branford, was up daily at the crack of dawn, cleaning and firing up the restaurant’s duel smokers in the pitch black. “Anyone can BBQ in September,” he quips as he opens one of the smokers to reveal shelves of pork shoulder and chicken slow-cooking for that night’s dinner. They look like perfection – rubbed with love and house-made spice blends he’s developed through trial and error with co-owner Eamon Roche. Justin tells me, to get the best flavors, they “draw inspiration from everywhere, see what works, and then make it our own.”
Experience a New England tradition: turning sap into syrup! Ambler Farm will host two Maple Syrup Open Houses. The history and process of making syrup is fascinating. Kids and families will have an opportunity to tap a tree, take the maple syrup taste test, learn about Native American, colonial, and modern methods of making syrup and, of course, taste Ambler Farm’s very own maple syrup over vanilla ice cream. DATES: On Saturday, March 4th and again on Saturday, March 11th (both from 1-2pm).
Bottles of Ambler Farm Maple Syrup will be available for sale. This event is free and open to the public.
I first became familiar Chef Judith Roll at Tabouli Grill when it was in Southport, and was saddened by its closing. I recently learned that she had launched a second and altogether different food concept, Judy’s Bar + Kitchen that can best be described as down-home, comfort with a twist of Southernese.
Located on High Ridge Road in a neighborhood that is both retail and residential, Judy is perfectly poised to keep locals (and non-locals) well-fed with her wide array of creative from-scratch cooking. When I arrived, I was thrilled to find plenty of parking, a big bonus for me.
World-class BBQ returns to CT with the homecoming of renowned pitmaster Nestor Laracuente, who is overseeing the kitchen at Mason Dixon Smokehouse in Stamford. When I heard that Nestor was teaming up with Mason Dixon, I was ecstatic, the mounds of his perfectly prepared meats that I raved about at Hoodoo Brown were indelible etched in my memory. Would Mason Dixon fill the void that I have felt for months? Bottom line…yes, the food is spectacular.
Laracuente is a soft-spoken lover of meats and Southern rock who spent years perfecting his craft. After leaving CT last year, he returned to Brooklyn where he spent time with his buddy at Beast of Bourbon in Bed-Stuy. His time was spent experimenting with new rubs, new dishes, waiting for the right opportunity for his return to Connecticut. His newest venture, of which he is part-owner, opened a few weeks ago and it is slowly expanding the menu.
Fairfield County offers some of the best food in the country, from trucks to fine dining, and when a restaurant serves food from the soul, it is special, it is uplifting, it makes you overjoyed. Every now and then I visit a new place that fits all these categories. Stephanie Webster, my CTbites partner, and I were looking for a new place for a lunch meeting and we chose Soul Tasty...we wanted to see what the buzz was about. It is located on Main Street in Stamford at the end of a dead end that doubles as the entrance to a pedestrian bridge and parking is incredibly difficult, have patience, it is worth it.
Soul Tasty is the brain-child and dream of Chef Jean Gabriel, Jr. When you walk in, you can feel the love. The walls are brightly painted, a little graffiti on the rear counter pronouncing FEED YOUR SOUL and a colorful menu above the hot trays holding the products of the chef’s homage to the Southern recipes of his grandmother.
About six years ago, I began teaching cooking classes out of my home in Westport. Long after culinary school, a couple of years catering at Abigail Kirsch and many years catering on my own, the classes became a perfect way for me to share my love of food and cooking. Initially it was mostly friends and acquaintances but word quickly spread and before I knew it I was booking 2-3 classes a week from people all over the tri-state area. Here is a behind the scenes look at Chop Shop Cooking.
A cooking class usually starts with an email: “I’m interested in a cooking class in December… “
Sometimes they have already done some homework and looked at my demonstration class schedule and it’s very straightforward: “I have 2 people and want to sign up for the Holiday Bites class on Thursday the 8th.” Easy! Great! Done!
But more often, people like to create their own, tailored experience.
More barbecue is a good thing, and if you're not on board with this basic fact, then you can just get out of my face. It was with this cardinal rule of life firmly in mind that I hit the road in search of a new truck on the Connecticut food scene - a truck selling barbecue and barbecue accoutrements. The fact that this particular Friday found the DrewbaQ food truck at Veracious Brewing Company in Monroe was a purely unrelated coincidence, to be sure. It would be a grave disservice to you, our beloved CTBites readership, if I did not take full advantage of this entirely unforeseen circumstance so, in humble service to your unending curiosity re: all things food and beverage, I had several beers with my BBQ. So that I might report on pairings, you see.
Kids and Summer vacation: No homework! No school! No tests! The beach! Playing with friends! Sleeping in! More friends! Camp! Baseball games! Swimming! Fun! Fun! Fun!
Parents and Summer vacation: WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE KIDS?!
Rest easy. Chill. We have some ideas that you will benefit from in more ways than one. Day classes, culinary camps, learning about where food comes from and then what the heck to do with it-you’re little (or big) foodie will be in their element. With any luck, junior will be able to make *you* a back-to-school breakfast by the end of the Summer. Ohhhh, yeahhhhh.
Choose your week, choose your cuisine. Proceed to cook and eat your way around the world. Well, in an almost-Anthony-Bourdain kind of way. At AMG Catering in Wilton, traveling the world is the theme for the summer cooking sessions that will introduce your “Chefs in Training” (CITs for those in-the-know) to a wide array of dishes. These hands-on classes will have the CITs working in a professional kitchen and learning cooking skills that will have them creating “Street Food”, “Regional Dishes” from across the U. S, and a variety of “Small Plates”. The junior chefs (ages 10-15) will top it all off with a cooking competition on the last day. Watch out, Food Network. A word of note: these kitchens are not allergy-free kitchens. Everything and anything (nuts, shellfish, dairy) is cooked here. Cost is $475 per week, $900 for two weeks, or $1350 or three weeks.
Judith Roll, creator of the popular Tabouli Mediterranean Grill in Stamford, felt that the dining neighborhood north of Bullshead was underserved. “The area needed something a little hip,” she told CTBites recently. “So I thought, take a chance, and try Barbecue.”
As if by wizardry, wisps of sweet hickory smoke were soon wafting over High Ridge Road, not far from the Merritt, as Judy’s Bar + Kitchen opened its doors to a diverse (and hungry) local crowd.
Even though she bills her dinner dishes as “Low Country,” Judith made no pilgrimage to Memphis and Carolina to study the nuances of time, temperature, cuts and woods. Rather she stayed in the neighborhood and developed her menu out of a culinary sensibility honed at CIA and the kitchens of gifted chefs like Wolfgang Puck.
“Simple and fresh are my style,” she says. “Good meat, cooked low and slow, what more do you need to know?”
Photo courtesy of CTNOWBrace yourself for a grillin’ and chillin’ good time at Sun BBQFest. On June 11th & 12th, sink your teeth into the best barbeque around with festivities featuring celebrity BBQ Chef — Myron Mixon, live music, beer trailers, barbeque showdowns, local vendors, food trucks and so much more!
Tickets are $5.00 per day and go on sale Friday, April 1st through the Mohegan Sun Box Office. Kids 6 and under get in free. The weekend of the event, tickets for entry are available at the gate along with food and drink tickets.
Eat, Drink, Compete
Get in on all the BBQ action and decide who reigns supreme during the People’s Choice Contest all weekend long. Purchase $2.00 samples from 20 participating Kansas City BBQ Society teams and cast your vote for the ultimate best at Sun BBQFest. Competition remains fierce on Saturday with a Rib Contest fromNoon to 2:30pm followed by a Wing Challenge from 6:00pm to 8:30pm. For $5.00, each contest offers a sampling of 5 wings or 5 ribs for you to judge! A portion of the proceeds benefits the Sun BBQFest official charity, Operation BBQ Relief.
They say “birds of a feather flock together.” Chef Tyler Anderson of Millwright's in Simsbury and Jamie McDonald of Bear’s Smokehouse are proving that isn’t always the case. In August, the two will come together to open The Cook and The Bear in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square. The restaurant will make for an interesting meeting of the minds; Millwright’s is known for its farm-to-table cuisine while Bear’s Smokehouse serves classic finger-lickin’ Kansas City-style barbeque.
“It’s a fun concept,” says AJ Aurrichio, Millwrights’ Operations Manager. “We’re taking traditional barbeque and putting a chef’s perspective on it.”
They first started testing the idea of a merger in August 2015. Every Monday night, they offered pop-up dinners with dishes representative of what the new restaurant could entail. Diners were very receptive and they moved forward.
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” laughs Aurrichio.
Anderson and McDonald gave guests a sneak peek of the new concept at Savor’s Grand Tasting event, which took place in Hartford on April 7 and 8. They presented a “Smoked Pork Kimchi Pancake with Gochujang BBQ.” It was the perfect fusion of both elements- BBQ reimagined with gourmet view. The softer, starchier pancake balanced out the strong spice from the pork. Meanwhile, green onion on top added crunch.
CTBites will keep you updated as details unfold! In the meantime, enjoy Millwright’s and Bear’s Smokehouse!
The holiday season is coming fast. The search for the unique gift for that special person can be easier this year. Give them a memorable experience that is both fun & useful. Sign them up for a cooking class at The Schoolhouse at Cannondale Restaurant in Wilton CT. Chef Tim LaBant & his staff will be sharing their years of experience each Tuesday evening beginning in February, through March. You'll also savor the finished culinary delights with wine pairings after the class. Classes range in topic from Winter Braising to Fish Cookery to Knife Skills.
The schedule and focus for each evening is as follows:
Top Chefs from all around Fairfield County gathered at the CTbites Chef Demo Tent to delight guests at the Blues, Views & BBQ Festival this past weekend in Westport. They grilled, demoed recipes, and served up some great eats to thousands of eager fans. Was it fun? Heck yeah. The chefs you see above hail from: Match, Walrus + Carpenter, The Spread, Fleishers Craft Butchery, Bobby Q’s, Vespa, Can Tiin & NEAT, as well as Da Pietro's. They made brisket, pork buns, sliders, pork belly, and every other cut of every meat imaginable. Good times were had by all. Check out the pics!
The 8th annual Blues, Views & BBQ Festival presented by the Westport Downtown Merchants Association will be held in Westport CT on September 5 & 6 at the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts and the grounds of the Westport Library.
CTbites will once again play host to the areas top chefs as they grill up and demo some of their favorite dishes and offer up samples for attendees of the festival. Come on down and meet this incredibly talented group of local chefs.
The heck with “Veni, vidi, vici,” my return visit to Hoodoo Brown BBQ in Ridgefield was more we came, we saw, we ordered and man we tried. And when I say we tried…we tried EVERY meat on the menu and we tried to eat every ounce of meat on numerous trays. If this was a gunfight with Hoodoo Brown in the 1870s we would be full of holes, he won.
Armed with a reservation for the “BBQ Room,” twelve of us ventured to Hoodoo Brown. As our group congregated, I placed the initial appetizer order plus a round of beers, sodas and lemonades. To warm up our appetites, this initial order included two large BBQ Nachos (one with chopped brisket and the other with pulled pork), a dozen Bourbon Teriyaki Wings and a couple of Strawberry and Arugula salads. As we waited, super Pitmaster Nestor Laracuente wandered into the room to offer his humble thanks to all of us for coming and wished us a great meal. He was heading back to Queens for the evening before beginning the return voyage the following morning at 4AM.
Ben McCrea is a gentle-giant of a man, but don't let his warm, friendly facade fool you. Underneath that kind-hearted shell is a mean, Auss-een, grilling machine.
In the WAY back of the lot on Fairfield Ave in Bridgeport that Walrus + Carpenter calls home, is the perch where Ben keeps watch. His job... smoking all types of meat to perfection. But what makes the man that makes the meat?
Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Ben gained his skills from watching his grandfather grill on the "barbie," but becoming a grill master wasn't his first passion. Ben came to the States as a boxer and did very well in that 'arena.' However, boxing is a short career and Ben knew something more awaited. What he didn't know was that it would be a smoker with a 500 gallon propane tank, commissioned by Walrus co-owner Joe Farrell (along with Adam Roytman.)
The Garden of Ideas, the outdoor community center and garden sanctuary in Ridgefield, is hosting a series ofmonthly cooking demonstrations and workshops from May through November with Chef Susie Buckley.
Each class will focus on how to make the most of the seasonal produce, using the bounty of their CSA as a way to highlight the intersection of food, nature, art and science within each workshop. Classes welcome all ages (kids from 8 years and up, and adults) and will feature fresh farm produce, focusing on basic cooking techniques, "nibbles, tastes, and recipes, included." View the complete class schedule below:
Saugatuck Grain + Grape is going to be holding a series of wine education classes. Classes will be held every other week this spring. The series will cover everything from "Introduction to Wine Tasting, Lexicon, and Labels" to "The World Through Rosé Covered Glasses" as they dive into specific varietals. For those who don't know Mimi and her team, there will most definitely be fun, food and some bad wine jokes in every session.
Classes will be led by Mimi McLaughlin and Jon Carr, the newest member of the SG+G team. There will be nibbles prepared by Mark Hepperman, their in-house chef, so your tummy and taste buds will be happy in a multitude of ways.
Below is a break down of the syllabus, cost and dates. Please call the store to reserve your spot.
While the news wasn’t available at the time of that announcement; the team at Brother Jimmy’s have announced their grand opening party! The event is scheduled for April 11th at their new location in Stamford downtown. This special event will feature a special performance by country band Hazzard County starting at 10pm along with drink specials all night long. to RSVP for the opening, click here.
You may recall that Brother Jimmy’s BBQ is filling the spot recently vacated by Butterfield 8.
