Articles for January 3rd, 2011

Chef Matt McCallister Is Ready to “Play”

posted by Hayley Hamilton | January 3rd, 2011 5:50pm | filed under Celebrity Chefs, Chef's tasting, food pairings, Restaurant News, Wine & Spirits |

Chef Matt McCallister

Matt McCallister, former Executive Chef at Stephan Pyles and creator of Fuego, will soon be off on a culinary, year long tour cooking beside some of the best chefs in the country.  However before he leaves to cook beside Chef Sean Brock, 2010 winner of the James Beard Best Chef in the Southteast Award, at McGrady’s in Charleston, SC; beside Chef Grant Achatz at Alinea in Chicago; and a 3 month stint staging inside The French Laundry in Napa, he wants to “play”‘ a bit with some of his Dallas pals. 

Chef McCallister will cook beside Chef J. Chastain at Second Floor Bistro, and one of my neighborhood favorites, Abraham Salum, Chef/Owner of Salum for a few fun, innovative dinners.  The Chefs will team styles and ideas to create their own playful, Fuego-like experience.   The multi-course meal will highlight each chef’s imagination, style and flavors through a collaboration of methods, techniques and camaraderie, and each will feature chef/guest interaction. 

The dinners with Chef Chastain will occur January 14th and 15th; with Chef Salum will be March 3rd, and seating is limited. Cost is $125 for each dinner, $175 with wine pairings and reservations are available through each restaurant – Second Floor Bistro – 972-450-2978; Salum – 214-252-9604.

Feel-Good Spaghetti Western at Love Shack in Fort Worth

posted by Sarah Reiss | January 3rd, 2011 1:42pm | filed under Celebrity Chefs, Events, fundraiser |

Block out 5 to 9 pm on the Friday before the Superbowl (Feb. 4) to hobnob with Mario Batali, Tim Love, Emeril Lagasse, Guy Fieri, and Texas Rangers pitcher Tommy Hunter at Spaghetti Western,  a gourmet, Texas-style, philanthropic foodie event being thrown at Love Shack in Fort Worth. Batali himself will be preparing dinner and offering cooking demos throughout the afternoon. Keep your checkbook handy for the silent and live auctions. All of the proceeds from the event will benefit The Mario Batali Foundation and The Moyer Foundation’s Camp Erin, the largest national bereavement camp in the country for grieving children and teens, so you can feel good about the $500 ticket price.
Tickets are available by calling 206.298.1217 or by visiting The Moyer Foundation.

Sandstone Cellars Winery: Overachiever Still Under the Radar

posted by Andrew Chalk | January 3rd, 2011 12:51pm | filed under AgriBusiness, Texas Wine, Wine & Spirits | 3 Comments »

Manny Silerio, Scott Haupert and Don Pullum co-owners of Sandstone Cellars Winery

I will never forget my first encounter with Sandstone Cellars Winery. It was at the Big Red hosted by Charlie Palmer’s at The Joule in early November. A Burl Ives body-double handed me a taste of 2009 Sandstone Cellars Winery, #7, Mason County, TX and I was simply floored by the quality of the winemaking. In one fell swoop I had been treated to a winery with ambition, and a grape variety that I was unaware could excel in Texas. The Burl Ives surrogate turned out to be Don Pullum, winemaker at Sandstone. The hitherto unproven grape was an old favorite, Touriga Nacional, one of the core grapes of classic Port from Portugal’s Douro Valley. It turned out Burt had also been watching the WWE. You never smack an opponent once, You stun him and then come back with the follow-up. Don’s follow-up was the 2006 Sandstone Cellars, Port. #4, Mason County , TX. It is a ringer for a ruby port from the Douro Valley in Portugal. With such quality on show, I had to investigate. Continue reading "Sandstone Cellars Winery: Overachiever Still Under the Radar"

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