Winemakers talked guests through the courses. (photo by Brooklynne Peters)

Contributor Brooklynne Peters fills us in on what it was like to be a guest at NOSH’s Sassicaia wine dinner last night:

It was an evening of origins at NOSH Euro Bistro last night. The popular Oak Lawn restaurant hosted an exclusive five-course wine dinner, featuring Italian Sassicaia wines. Third-generation Italian family members were on hand to explain, in the charm of English spoken with a native Italian accent, the history and success of the winery.

Seats at the table went for $199; this writer (who was a guest at the event) was curious to see whether or not the evening would live up to the price tag.

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Butter-poached Maine lobster with rabbit confit, baby shitakes, and lobster jus paired with Tenuta Sette Ponti Crognolo Toscana, IGT 2008(left); chocolate ganache tart with candied pistachios, EVOO, and flake salt paired with Tenuta Sette Ponti Oreno Toscana, IGT 2009. (photos by Brooklynne Peters)

The restaurant was set up with labeled community tables; get ready to dine with five of your new best friends. The servers burst into action at 7 pm, with dozens working their magic on the tables and making plates and glasses disappear the moment they were empty. (Note to management: even though most of the dishes took only took three bites to get through, the efficiency of the servers caused the meal to feel a bit rushed at times.)

But folks were not there to critique service; they were there to listen to the third-generation wine makers talk about the history of their wine, some of which their ancestors reserved for up to 30 years before releasing to the public. We tasted the gamut of their selection, from adolescent wines that were more fruit-forward to more mature vintages.

The crowd favorite, goat cheese, and arugula gnocchi with braised pork belly served with Bodega Chacra "Barda" Pinot Noir 2010 (left); olive oil braised halibut with roblochon potatoes, pistachios, and Meyer lemon paired with a glass of pinot grigio, Friuli Grave DOC 2010. (photos by Brooklynne Peters)

“Listening to the wine-makers, people that are in this business, is just absolutely fascinating,” said guest Daniel Ryan. “The stories behind these vineyards and everything that goes into it – absolutely amazing.”

Naturally, chefs Avner Samuel and Jon Stevens of NOSH didn’t disappoint with their five-course meal.

“[This is the] best evening I’ve had in two years in any restaurant anywhere,” said guest Harold Nix. Nix has been following chef Samuel since he was chef at The Mansion on Turtle Creek, and said he’s been pleased with his progress. “He’s constantly experimenting, constantly changing, constantly looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Avner is the best.”

(photo by Brooklynne Peters)

Each meal was delectable in its own right, but the standouts were the braised pork belly, which fell apart on the fork, and the chocolate ganache tart with sea salt. The pork belly was perfectly crispy on the outside, but remained juicy and soft on the inside. The tart’s salty edge paired perfectly with the outstanding Tenuta Sette Ponti Oreno Toscana, IGT 2009, a big, dark wine that could stand on its own.

Even with the speech making, the evening wrapped by 9 pm. Several guests walked out having purchased several boxes of wine, and having found a handful of new friends to share it with.

Chefs Under Fire at Milestone Culinary (Photo by Loren J. Root; www.glassrootsconcepts.com)

Ace contributor Brooklynne Peters files this report from last night’s Chefs Under Fire event at Milestone Culinary Academy:

Last night, more than 100 Dallasites gathered at the Milestone Culinary Arts Center in Dallas to participate in DFW’s very own Hell’s-Kitchen-esque chef competition, Chefs Under Fire.

Chefs Scott Loranc (Central Market Austin), Kevin Martinez (Tokyo Café), Thuy Nguyen (Tarrant County Community College) and Juan Rodriguez (Reata Restaurant) competed against one another for the regional title by preparing the best, most creative dish they could with surprise ingredients, which were revealed to be tile fish, sweet corn, okra and Texas peaches. The winner would continue on to compete in the Chefs Under Fire Final Competition on October 16th in Austin.

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Secret ingredient: golden tilefish (Photo by Loren J. Root; www.glassrootsconcepts.com)

“I think it’s a great event,” said attendee Caitlin Cunniff. “It’s a great way to get people from Dallas that are interested in food together, and give some new chefs a chance to showcase themselves.”

The dishes were judged by chefs Tim Byres (Smoke), Katie Natale (Four Seasons Dallas at Las Colinas) and Sharon Van Meter (Milestone Culinary Arts Center). After thoughtfully tasting and questioning each chef about his or her dish, the judges chose Kevin Martinez as the winner.

“Kevin…somehow, seemed to bring all of [those ingredients] together,” said Van Meter. “In the long run, I just think it all worked. It all worked together.”

The winning dish. (Photo by Loren J. Root; www.glassrootsconcepts.com)

But while the chefs prepared their dishes, chef John Tesar (The Commissary) and sommelier Scott Barber (The Commissary) hosted a special food and wine pairing presentation. Tesar showed the crowd how to prepare braised beef tongue.

“It’s young chefs cooking,” said Tesar. “I wanted to do something unpredictable, inspirational, and also affordable.”

Barber complemented the dish with old world wines, including a 2009 Chateau de Sancerre, a 2007 Selbach-Oster and a 2009 Chateau St. Jean de la Gineste. The class was a huge hit among guests.

The moment of victory for Chef Kevin Martinez, center, of Tokyo Cafe. (Photo by Loren J. Root; www.glassrootsconcepts.com)

Corn, okra, and peaches. (Photo by Brooklynne Peters)

“I was a little nervous at first with the beef tongue,” said attendee Caitlin Cunniff, “but it ended up being delicious, so I really enjoyed it. When he was first pulling it up out of the pot, and it looked very much like a cow tongue, I didn’t really know what to think, but it was good!”

Others, however, couldn’t be convinced.

“I was thinking of trying the tongue,” said attendee Paula McCollough, “and my husband kind of said ‘No.’”

Make sure to keep an eye on DFW representative chef Kevin Martinez as he continues on to the Chefs Under Fire Finals on October 16th at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin. What does Martinez say he’ll be doing to prepare for the final competition?

“Just cooking every day,” said Martinez. “Trying new things.”

The foodie crowd. (Photo by Brooklynne Peters)

Carrie Keep, NOSH line cook, dishes about life in Hell's Kitchen. (Photo by Desirée Espada

Contributor Brooklynne Peters landed a one-on-one interview with NOSH line cook and Hell’s Kitchen, Season Nine contestant, Carrie Keep. The two sat down at Coal Vines Pizza and Wine Bar in Uptown last week, during which time Keep dished about the show’s behind-the-scenes drama and how she only has eyes for “cheffy.” Take it away, Brooklynne…

“I did not sleep with Brendan,” Dallas chef and Hell’s Kitchen, Season Nine contestant Carrie Keep clarified over calamari and bruschetta as she cleared the air about her (non) relationship with Brendan, girl drama on the show, and why she ultimately felt like she let chef Gordon Ramsay down.

Keep, who has a little over two years of cooking experience and a brand new degree from Le Cordon Bleu, beat out 20,000 applicants to become one of 18 final contestants on Hell’s Kitchen, the reality cooking show that banks on aspiring chefs’ ambition (and vulnerabilities) and chef Gordon Ramsay’s volatility. As of this week, she’s worked her way into to the final 10 and has a lot to say about how she got there.

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It hasn’t been a straight shot to the top for Keep, who is from Wichita Falls, Texas. The tall blonde spent much of her twenties working as a loan officer for Wells Fargo, and even, at one point, selling copy machines. But thanks to a lot of encouragement from her friends, Keep decided two years ago to drop everything and pursue her dream of becoming a chef.

“I always cooked for friends and stuff. I loved cooking,” Keep said. “They’d always be like, ‘Carrie, why don’t you become a chef?’”

So when she grew tired of life in sales, Keep enrolled in Dallas’ Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. In retrospect, she states that this might not have been the best decision, though it worked out in her favor.

“Knowing what I do now, I probably wouldn’t have gone to culinary school,” said Keep. “You learn so much just being in the kitchen.”

Which is just what she did. Within her first three months of school, she had secured an apprenticeship with Matt McCallister, executive chef at Stephan Pyles. Keep held down a full-time job while going to school and apprenticing at Stephan Pyles, making good her self-attributed title of “over-achiever.” “I had no life, but I didn’t care!” she said.

It was there that Keep really learned the ropes in the restaurant business, working the line and learning from her mistakes. “I feel that when you’re just thrown into it, that’s how you learn,” said Keep. “I don’t mind that I make mistakes. I’m not perfect. But I learn from those mistakes, and I get better.”

From that point on, Keep made it a point to learn from only the best, including Nick Badovinus (Neighborhood Services Tavern), Avner Samuel (NOSH), Jon Stevens (NOSH) and eventually, Gordon Ramsay.

Keep was a fan of Hell’s Kitchen long before she was a contestant, stretching back to her Wells Fargo days when a career in cooking wasn’t even on the horizon. She admired Ramsay for his incredible cooking talent as well as his ability to tear people to shreds with his words.

“When he’s calling everyone a donkey,” Keep said, “and dropping the F-bomb, I’m like, this guy’s amazing!”

A few years later, while still enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu, she made the decision to send in an online application for the show. After myriad interviews and background checks, Keep found herself in a finalist position to become a contestant on season nine. Part of the approval process included extensive screening by psychiatrists, doctors and a private investigator (“Because that’s what I like to do on the weekends – go out and murder people with my knife kit!”) But she wasn’t concerned.

“They just fell in love with me,” Keep said with a confident smile.

Interestingly, though she’d been through so much medical and mental screening, she’d had to do no cooking to prove that she deserved to be on the show. Up until it was time to shoot, producers had chosen her purely off of her personality. However, she said that anyone banking on personality alone would’ve been in big trouble. “Anyone would be stupid to lie and actually go into that kitchen, because it is hell…for you to actually not know a thing about cooking and to go into that kitchen…I mean, yeah, you’d get yanked immediately.”

Once the show aired, it became apparent to many that there was a lot of drama, and Keep was at the center of much of it. She had an ongoing issue with fellow contestant Elise Wims. The two didn’t get along from the beginning, despite having no apparent legitimate conflict.

“She is evil,” Keep said of Wims. “And I really don’t think she has a mother. Seriously, I don’t know who raised her. A pack of freaking wolves or coyotes. I want to talk to her mother, if she does have a mother. [I’d] say ‘What did you do to this girl? God!’ I have never, ever met someone who was like, off the bat, ‘Eff you.’ Never! Everybody loves me!”

Keep had a lot to say about other contestants on the show, but her real beef was with the Fox network itself for framing her and fellow contestant, Brendan Heavey. The show aired a segment indicating that Keep and Heavey were intimate with one another, which Keep insists was a total fabrication. So what exactly happened?

“It’s called editing. Thank you, Fox,” said Keep. “Literally, yes, I was down there talking to him, but we were just talking. It wasn’t flirtatious…My lips weren’t even moving when, supposedly, I was talking. They totally set that up. I never touched him. We were just friends. And they set up the whole shout out…at the end too, when he got eliminated. He was like, ‘Yo Carrie, look me up!’ Really? Good job, guys. Way to go. You succeeded in making me look like a slut. Appreciate it.”

But in spite of the constant drama surrounding Keep, she insists that her time spent on the show was valuable and rewarding, mainly due to the opportunity she had to work with Chef Ramsay.

“If I’m gonna flirt with anybody, and get it on with anybody, it’s gonna be Chef Ramsay,” Keep said. “I know he’s married, so it would never happen. I only had eyes for Cheffy.”

Keep was overwhelmed by Ramsay’s accomplishments including his numerous Michelin star restaurants and reality shows. One of her most memorable moments on the show was when the cooking tyrant toned it down for a moment to give her some real guidance.

“He comes over and he’s like, ‘Hey, watch me.’ And all he did was teach me,” Keep said, remembering a time when she was preparing sea bass for dinner. “It wasn’t like he was belittling my intelligence or anything. He just wanted to show me how he does it. That alone, right there, is so cool. Cuz I’m just sitting there right next to Chef Ramsay and he’s showing me everything. He’s like a god.”

But when it comes to the red-faced, fist-pounding Ramsay we all know and love, Keep thinks some of it might be for show. “He’s passionate about what he does,” said Keep. “So I understand why he flies off the handle. It is reality TV, so we’ll just say that.”

Despite being the least-experienced chef in the competition, Keep took away some valuable lessons, and very few regrets. She felt like a winner just for beating out 20,000 other contestants, and proving to herself that she could persevere.

“Of course, you go in there wanting to win it all,” said Keep. “I’m not gonna beat myself up because I didn’t get this far or I didn’t make it this far. Because I did it, you know? I got on the show. I kicked butt. And I can’t be disappointed in myself if I gave it everything I could.”

However, when it came to personal goals, Keep admits that she feels as though she failed Chef Ramsay in the end.

“I wish I would’ve stepped up and shown them, ‘This is me.’ I wish he’d seen more,” said Keep. “I wish I’d had more time to show him. I just felt like I let Chef Ramsay down. And that was the last thing I wanted to do. Because he had confidence in me, and I feel like I let him down.”

Keep’s future is currently up for grabs. She courts the possibility of returning to TV, whether it would be for a cooking show or another season of Hell’s Kitchen. But for now, she is happy working as a line cook at NOSH Euro Bistro in Dallas, alongside Chef Avner Samuels and Chef Jon Stevens.

“She’s got great charisma,” said Stevens of Keep. “I think she’ll be really good at it. She’s young in the business, but I don’t think that matters as long as you have passion for it.”

So, will we see Carrie Keep, the tall, sweet blonde from Texas, on national television again soon? Who knows? However, you might see her NOSH counterpart on the small screen sooner than you think.

“If I was approached by a show that I’d like to be on,” said Stevens,” I would consider it.”

Catch new episodes of Hell’s Kitchen on Monday and Tuesday nights on FOX.

Picnic faves from chefs Brian Luscher (The Grape), Justin Fourton (Pecan Lodge), Randall Copeland (Restaurant AVA), Janice Provost (Parigi), Jeff Harris (RedFork), and Marc Cassel (Peavy Road). (Photo by Brooklynne Peters)

On Sunday, new SideDish contributor Brooklynne Peters attended the Chef’s’ Picnic on White Rock Lake. Read on for her report in words and pictures…

On Sunday afternoon, food lovers and chef groupies flocked to the Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake for the Chefs’ Picnic on the Lake in honor of the park’s 100th birthday. The centennial event drew local chefs Brian Luscher (The Grape), Justin Fourton (Pecan Lodge), Randall Copeland (Restaurant AVA), Janice Provost (Parigi), Jeff Harris (RedFork) and Marc Cassel (Park, Peavy Road—coming soon). Proceeds from the day benefited The American Red Cross.

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Lining up for chef-prepared picnic favorites. (Photo by Brooklynne Peters)

Each chef produced a refreshing twist on traditional picnic fare. The menu was chock full of tasty, familiar-but-fresh options including a fruit salad from Brian Luscher that combined Texas peaches and blueberries with a hint of basil and mint. Marc Cassel whipped up a vegetarian potato salad with roasted potatoes, garlic, and caramelized red onions, leaving out heavy mayonnaise and sour cream to make it “hot temperature friendly.” Justin Fourton provided a tender, juicy smoked brisket that fell apart at the sight of a fork. The heirloom tomato salad from Jeff Harris was light and flavorful, a combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, fennel, Caprino Royale goat cheese, and vinaigrette. Janice Provost created what she dubbed “Mexi-Chin” slaw, a combination of peppers, onions, tomatoes, rice wine vinegar, and salsa. Randall Copeland rounded out the selection with baked beans and a broccoli and orzo pasta salad.

Brian Luscher lays it on thick. (Photo by Brooklynne Peters)

Ben E.  Keith provided beer, wine, iced tea and other refreshments, however, the dessert table stole the show. Paul Wackym (Wackym’s Kitchen) served up irresistible goodies, including salted caramel banana pudding and chocolate-snickerdoodle banana pudding, that drew this blogger back for seconds.

Thank goodness for shade. (Photo by Brooklynne Peters.)

Hollie Dorethy, personal chef, also contributed an array of desserts, including perfectly fluffy, brown-sugar shortbread; pecan baklava with white chocolate ganache; and, most memorably, bacon-and-cashew caramel corn served in paper cones.

After the meal, and just steps from the checkerboard tablecloths, pinwheels, and vintage posters, Kayakpower.com offered free kayak rides around the lake. The main hope in the air: that we won’t have to wait another 100 years to do this again.

Vintage America Red Cross banners. (Photo by Brooklynne Peters)

Perfect day for a picnic on the lake. (Photo by Brooklynne Peters)