Secret Suppers Come To Dallas

The “secret supper” isn’t a new concept, but until today, I’d never heard of one in Dallas. I’m sure some of you have, you know all about them, and I’m a total idiot. However, if you’re unfamiliar, read this article. The basic idea is, food loving people get together at someones house for dinners made with (many times) local ingredients, as a restaurant alternative. The cost is often low. Sometimes everyone cooks, sometimes one chef is in charge. I don’t think this is technically legal, hence the secret aspect. Which of course makes it more exciting and fun.

If you’d like to know about an upcoming secret supper in Dallas, please continue reading. If you don’t care to know more, please don’t jump. Continue reading "Secret Suppers Come To Dallas"

Friday Fun: Create A Cheesecake Flavor, Win Things

Ever eaten at the Cheesecake Factory and thought you could come up with a better flavor of cheesecake than the ones they have? Yeah, me neither. But I tried last night when I got an email linking to this website. First of all, it’s awesome because of the “I Want a Cheesecake” Chris Brown-esque hip-hop song playing in the background. It’s also cool because you can win a trip to California if you’re a creative cheesecake inventor. All I could come up with was Caramel Goodness, plain cheesecake with a caramel swirl and chocolate ganache. I guess that’s what sounds good to me at 11pm. Jump if you want to read what else is going on at Cheesecake Factory (how to get free dessert and stuff).

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Discussing Trends and Eating Meat at the Mansion

Just back from the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek for a Fine Food Trends for 2009 luncheon, thrown by the Winn Meats folks. So Jamie Samford from Winn was there, along with Joe Harris from the Southwest Meat Association, chef Paul Rothe from Ben E. Keith, and chef Alan Turner from Snake River Farms in Idaho. So, obvs, we talked about meat a lot. These four guys spoke to a group of about 15 of us (Cathy Barber from the DMN, Jim White from Savor Dallas, Greg Fields from WFAA, among others) about food trends for this year and the state of the economy.

And we ate. A lot. This is a platter of Kurobuta pork short rib. Yep, it was amazing. Also on the menu: an amuse of sous-vide pork jowls, Kurobuta skirt steak, Wagyu sirloin, Wagyu short ribs, and Wagyu flat iron steak. Can someone please lift my head off the keyboard? Thank you.

Jump for what they talked about, and another pic of what we ate. Also, info about who is cooking at the Mansion now.

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Top Chef : Bring Back the Past Season’s Losers

In this episode of Top Chef, we were forced to endure the Top Chef Bowl, in which losers from past seasons we didn’t like in the first place returned to battle our current contestants. The product placement also gets out of control in the Quickfire (okay, it was already, but seriously, the oats were a killer).

Jump for it.

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Re: Bocuse D’Or Update

Norway has won. Team USA came in sixth. Read about it here. Here’s what Hollingsworth and Guest made (from the New York Times):

It prepared an olive oil poached loin of cod enveloped on scallop mousse, preserved Meyer lemon and Sicilian pistachios with citrus mousseline and shrimp nage.
It also presented wild prawn and Haas avocado tarts with fennel compote, chili peppers and yuzu gelee; agrumato custard with shellfish bouillon and candied ornge zest; and Yukon gold potato and bacon mille-feuille, with crème-fraiche-enriched King Richard Leeks, Hobbs bacon chip and a large dollop of Sacramento Delta Osetra caviar.

For its meat entry, it presented roasted beef rib-eye wrapped in applewood smoked bacon with prune-enriched oxtail jus; rosette of Scottish beef fillet with Perigord truffles, celeriac and oxtail-endive marmalade; glazed beef cheeks a l’etouffee with garden turnips and sweet carrots grown in the garden of the French Laundry, the Napa Valley restaurant where Mr. Hollingsworth works; calotte bresaola fume a la minute with granny smith apples, savoy cabbage and horseradish mousse; and truffled pommes Dauphinoise with California chestnuts, pickled red onion and celery brunch salad.

One component of the American beef dish was presented in stemmed crystal globes illuminated from below.

Sounds impressive to me. Maybe 2011 will be our year?

Libertine Beer Dinner: Revealed

The cold/icy/icky weather didn’t keep me at home last night either. I went to the Libertine bar for one of their monthly beer dinners (the one I told you about here). New Belgium was the brewery of the evening, and we settled in for a night of good food and a few beers I’ve never tried before.

This was my first beer dinner. Jerry from New Belgium came around and chatted with each table, but there was no formal presentation or anything like that. They gave us printed menus so we would know what to expect from each beer. First up: Black bean and avocado crostini (pictured) with 1554 Enlightened Black Ale. Jump for more pics and a review of the night.

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Bocuse d’Or Update

The office is quite a lonely place today. I’m keeping myself warm (it’s also freezing, thank you building managment) by reading about the Bocuse d’Or, a global culinary competition happening in Lyon, France today.

It’s not just any competition, it’s the “Olympics of cooking,” according to the organizers. Founded by Paul Bocuse, it takes place every year, and 24 different countries are represented in the two-day cook off. Chefs from each country must make a beef and seafood creation in 5 hours and 35 minutes. This can’t just be any old’ pot roast. This is a highly technical, super-precise, ultra-advanced cooking competition. Team USA is represented by Timothy Hollingsworth, a sous chef at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry. His assistant, Adina Guest, is just 22.

Read about it here. The competition ends later today.

Americans have never placed. The best we’ve done is sixth place. Keep your fingers crossed for chef Hollingsworth.

Wanted: Jewish Deli

Good luck with this one:

My boyfriend’s parents visited this past weekend and promptly upon arrival asked me where the best Jewish deli is in town.  I had to stop myself since Ed’s closed (tear).  But, I live in Uptown and rarely leave the bubble (635 is about as far north as I’ll go.)  HELP! I can’t think of a single place to send them next time they come in town!

Well Ed is catering. Maybe you should call him and dine at home. This lack of Jewish delis, or any great delis, in Dallas is really baffling.