Culinary Colorado

Culinary Colorado -- Brief Hiatus

2010-09-20T06:56:00.001-07:00

Culinary Colorado is on brief hiatus while the site is being upgraded. Thanks for your patience. It should be back this week. This should not effect bookmarking or a subscription to posts.

Sour Cream Bundt Cake

2010-09-15T23:45:00.000-07:00

Easy recipe for a simple, classic cake

So there I was late on Tuesday afternoon, working away at the computer, when a reminder popped onto the screen about a potluck that started at 6:00. I had a couple of tasks to finish before I could start cooking or baking. I went to the kitchen and did a quick inventory of ingredients on hand. Easy decision: sour cream Bundt cake. This simple classic takes few ingredients, is virtually fool-proof and tastes wonderful when fresh. I used my oven's convection mode, which does save baking time. I often take pictures of cooking a baking projects so that I can post recipes here. But I didn't have time and really hadn't planned to post the recipe until several of the other guests requested it. So here it is, as mixed and baked at 5,400 feet.

Sour Cream Bundt Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup sour cream
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur All-Purpose Flour)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees for conventional baking or 325 degrees for convection baking. Oil or butter a 9- or 10-inch bundt pan.

In a large mixing bowl or in the the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs.
With mixer at high speed, cream until light and fluffy.
Blend in the sour cream. Set aside,
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Stir in dry ingredients into butter/egg mixture in two or three batches.
Put batter into Bundt pan.
Bake in a for 1 hour for conventional baking and about 40-45 minutes for convection baking.
Begin cooling cake in the pan, and then invert onto a rack to finish cooling.
Sift powdered sugar on top of cake.

Bon Appetit Rates Boulder America's "Foodiest" Town

2010-09-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

Another national magazine finds another reason to rank Boulder as No. 1

"America's Foodiest Town 2010: Boulder, Colorado" is a piece by Bon Appétit magazine's food editor Andrew Knowlton extolling the virtues of the city that balances excellent places to eat with equally excellent opportunities to work it off. He wrote,

"Boulder has won just about every shiny happy lifestyle award a city can: Healthiest, Most Educated, Most Bicycle-Friendly—the list goes on. And this year, it can add one more: Bon Appétit's Foodiest Town in America. It turns out that, along with having fit, smart, and eco-conscious citizens, Boulder is home to a number of innovative food companies (Celestial Seasonings, Izze Beverage Company, and Bhakti Chai), several top-tier restaurants, and one of the best farmers' markets in the country. This town of 103,000 about an hour's drive northwest of Denver is a bellwether of a changing food culture across our land."

The piece, illustrated by a photo of the Boulder County Farmers' Market, includes the recipes: Happy's Bass with Herbed Rice and Coconut-Vegetable Chowder; The Kitchen's Heirloom Squash Farrotto, Frasca Food and Wine's Grilled Lamb Spiedini with Eggplant, Red Bell Pepper and Arugula Salad, The Bitter Bar's Green Tea Pimm's, Cafe Aion's Fried Cauliflower with Saffron Yogurt and Lemon and Kim and Jake's Cakes' Carrot Cake.

I feel fortunate to have these great items "right here," but now those elsewhere can head for their own kitchens and try to duplicate them. And me? I'm going to the Farmers' Market.

Denver Chef of the Year and Related Honors

2010-09-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Jasinski, Rowell, Winston, Layman and one of the Bortz bakers took top honors in 2010

The general announcement of Denver Magazine's 2010 Chef of the year will appear in the October issue, but the names were named, the awards handed out and the applause clapped yesterday evening at a ceremony at Denver's landmark Union Station on a mezzanine high above the waiting room.

The nomination and selection process is long and involves culinarians, sommeliers, farmers and other purveyors to the top restaurants in the Mile High City. The nominees are narrowed down to three finalists in each category, and the Denver Magazine's senior food editor Stacey Brugeman does deep research into each before the magazine selects the winners. It is not a popularity contest or a people's choice process. It's pros nominating and voting for pros for their professional skills, consistency, innovation and contributions to Denver.

The festivities started with a cocktail reception featuring items prepared by last year's winners. So there were (below) rabbit pâté from 2009 Chef of the Year Alex Seidel of Fruition and diver scallops by 2009 Specialty Chef Justin Brunson of Masterpiece Delicatessen. I ate but didn't get a decent photograph of the heirloom tomato canapé by 2009 Rising Star Chef James Rugile of Venue. I neither got a chance to try or photograph the gin-based South Park Cocktail by Sean Kenyon of Steuben's and Vesta Dipping Grill. Yasmin Lozada-Hissom of Duo and Olivéa, 2009 Baker of the Year, sent each 2010 guest home with a three-pack of macaroons.

The 2010 finalists with winners in boldface in the list below the picture.

Chef of the Year

Jeff Osaka, TwelveJeff Osaka, Twelve Restaurant
Jennifer Jasinski, Rioja, Bistro Vendome and Euclid Hall
Tyler Wiard, Elway’s

Rising Star Finalists

Brad Rowell, Colt and Gray
Chris MacGillivray, Olivéa
Sergio Romero, Argyll

Specialty Chef: Street Cart Finalists

Chad Clevenger, The Porker
David Bravdica, Brava! Pizzeria della Strada
Mike Winston, Gastro Cart

Mixologist Finalists

Kevin Burke, Colt & Gray
Randy Layman, Vesta Dipping Grill
Sean Kenyon, Steuben’s Food Service

Baker Finalists: Savories, Not Pastries

Gregory Bortz, The Denver Bread Company
Jeff Cleary, Grateful Bread Company
Michael Bortz, City Bakery
Note: Greg and Michael are nor related.

Congratulations to all. Next year, you'll be doing the cooking while the 2011 finalists wait for the names of the award-winners to be announced.

Jennifer Jasinski Named Denver's Chef of the Year

2010-09-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

This evening, Denver Magazine announced the recipients of its Chef of the Year honors and four other culinary and mixology awards. I plan to write a longer report with more pix tomorrow or later, but I have to share the Jennifer Jasinski, chef/partner in three Larimer Square culinary hotspots, Rioja.,Bistro Vendome and the hot new Euclid Hall, was selected for the top award this year. Below, Jennifer with Stacey Brugeman, the magainze's senior food editor:

Beautiful Day for Brunch at Olivea

2010-09-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

Shining culinary star in Uptown Denver and a grocery bonus

Since I moved out of New York a lifetime ago, I haven't been much of a Sunday brunch person. Back then, a large, leisurely late-morning meal in a pleasant place with the fat New York Times seemed like a perfect way to wile away weekend hours. In Colorado, the mountains are generally a lure, and my husband and I are out hiking or skiing or snowshoeing during brunchtime. But today, he, I and our friend Mike went to Denver to see the extraordinary "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs" exhibition at the Denver Art Museum. It's not to be missed, and the easy opportunity to have Sunday brunch while we were in the city was not to be missed either.

Olivéa in the Uptown neighborhood beckoned. The fare is inspired by the Mediterranean cuisines of southern France, Spain and Italy, and the team behind it are the two duos who operate Duo in the Highlands neighborhood (Keith Arnold and Stephanie Bonin, chef John Broening and award-winning pastry chef Yasmin Lozada-Hissom. The umbrella-shaded tables on the sidewalk patio were all occupied when we arrived, so we ate inside. Olivéa is a small and bright, with original art on the celery-colored walls, clean-lined furniture and flowered cloth napkins creating a splash of color on the bare wood tables. I loved the look and feel of the place. Since I eat brunch out so rarely, I like the food to be really good -- and Olivéa's is.

The menu is tight, and the fresh ingredients are thoughtfully combined. The only minor flaw was that our young, eager server came over time and again asking how everything was. If the first few bites of a dish are "fine, thank you," she should have inferred the the bites half-way through and at the end would be too.

We started with shared a basket of first-rate baked goods: five different pastries and breads in a napkin-lined basket.

I ordered the Olivéa Eggs, but with my eggs poached rather that sunnyside. No problem. They perched on parallel lines of perfect creamy polenta and San Marzano tomato sauce, with a bit of herb on top and a slice of crisp toasted bread alongside.

The two men both ordered the house-made pork sausage hash with a pair of poached eggs and tasty, chunky red pepper compote, along with a tangle of olive oil-dressed watercress and toast too. the portions were the right size for me, but on the light side for the men. Mike, especially, prefers more food on his plate (or more accurately, the same amount of food but a lot less greenery and more carbs). Without the pastries to start, he might have wasted away on the spot.

After we ate, we strolled across the street to Marczyk Fine Foods. My husband, who is always on the lookout for prime beef, bought a New York steak, and I picked some diver scallops. I asked the guy at the fish counter whether we could get a bag with ice in it because we were driving back to Boulder. He produced a rock-solid freezer pack.Mike bought some tea he had in Canada and is fond of and some halvah, which he hasn't found in Longmont. Three cheers for Marczyk's -- or maybe four (meat, seafood, tea and sweets).

Price check: Brunch entrees, $7-$11.

Heart-Healthy Cookbook 8th Edition a Winner

2010-09-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Classic cookbook iIn print for more than 35 years with three million copies sold

During farmers' market season, I regularly come home with an abundance of farm-fresh produce plus extra motivation to cook nutritious meals -- and also eat food that tastes really good. I'm happy to have gotten my hands on The New American Heart Association Cookbook, an impressive resource with 612 nutritious recipes (150 of them new) and the latest heart-health information.
The tome includes healthful versions of such contemporary, globally inspired recipes as Curried Pumpkin Soup, Spinach Salad with Roasted Beets and Pomegranate Vinaigrette, Ginger-Infused Watermelon and Mixed Berries, Slow-Cooker Cioppino, Salmon Cakes with Creole Aïoli, Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce, Couscous Paella, Slow-Cooker Chile Verde Pork Chops, Black Bean Polenta with Avocado Salsa, Cumin and Ginger Lentils on Quinoa, Edamame with Walnuts, Sweet Potato Bread, Pistachio-Cardamom Meringues,and Delicate Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake with Blackberries. The recipes are clearly written and printed one to a page, a cookbook layout that I really like.

How times have changed. Among my vintage cookbooks is a 1962 copy of Adele Davis's Let's Cook It Right, a revision of a 1947 book. Can you imagine a health- and nutrition-focused cookbook today including recipes for Baked Brains in Bacon Rings, Baked Liver with Sour Cream, Chicken-Fried Heart, assorted cream sauces, Cheese Souffle, Welsh Rarebit, Mustard Greens with Salt Pork or Custard Pie? I even didn't have to look hard to find these recipes in a book that we would, today, call Let's Cook It Wrong. Follow a book like this, and you'd have to get your arteries Roto-Rootered.

I'm amazed but the Let's Cook It Right concept of healthy foods, and I'm amused at the price: $3.95. I don't know what the first edition of The New American Heart Association Cookbook cost, or whether the recipes included others that we wouldn't consider preparing now. The new copy lists for $35 and looks to be worth it. The publisher is Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Random House.

Great Deal on Premium Wine Tasting

2010-09-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

Two-and-a-half hour tasting of top wines for just $25 per person

Yesterday, I wrote a post about this weekend's Denver Food and Wine Classic, but here's something that's less than half the price of the Classic's wine tasting. You won't get the food component or chefs' demonstrations, but what a deal for anyone who loves wine!

The top wine annual event in metro Denver is the annual Denver International Wine Festival in November. Scores of wineries send cases of wines that they believe are worthy of inclusion in the festival and, hopefully, award-winners. A panel of sommeliers and wine authorities get the first crack at evaluating the wines and selecting the winners. After that, festival organizers hold a consumer tasting for People’s Choice honors. The 2010 People’s Choice tasting takes place at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield on Saturday, September 11, 4 to 6:30 p.m.

Among other blogs, I partner in MileHighOnTheCheap,co, and wine festival organizaers have offered MHOTC readers a half-price deal on People's Choice tickets: two tickets for $50 (regularly $50 each) by clicking here. The offer is good only for online purchases. Tickets will be held at the door. If you need any confirmation about what a deal this is, the Denver Food and Wine Classic’s Grand Tasting earlier that afternoon costs $60 — without any available discounts that I was able to find. Plus you get to keep the logo glass.

Denver Food and Wine Classic This Weekend

2010-09-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

Legendary Cajun chef Paul Prud'homme headlines local fest

The sixth annual Denver Food and Wine Classic takes place Friday and Saturday at Metropolitan State College in Denver. The customary format of seminars, a fundraising auction and a grand tasting with fab food and beverages to match is telescoped into a couple of afternoons. Anyone who has attended a destination food and wine event appreciates not having to make any decisions between this seminar or that. The prices are reasonable, and for anyone in the metro area, the location is convenient. The main sponsors are Southern Wine and Spirits of Colorado and the Colorado Restaurant Association Education Foundation.

Friday, September 10

Hourly food and wine seminars from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. cost only $10 each. The early evening Riedel "glass seminar to demonstrate how wineglass shape affects taste, costs $75, but you get to keep all four pieces of this quality stemware.

On Friday evening, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., "Cocktails and A Concert" features recording artist, Ryan Star, Angie Stevens and Dueling Pianos, and a cocktail party under the stars with the "masters of mixology" of the Colorado Bartender Guild. Featured spirits include Jim Beam, Cruzan 9 Rum, Red Stag, Hornita's, Absolut Vodka, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Malibu Rum, Kahlua, Tres Agaves, Skyy Vodka and Patron Tequila. Tickets ($35) are available online and at the door.

Saturday, September 11

The Grand Tasting in the unusually early timeframe of noon to 4:00 is the Classic's coveted event. For $60, you get to taste terrific food and drinks. That's the place to sample some 600 wines and spirits and fare at some 30 tasting stations from local Denver area restaurants, including both independents and chains, and a handful of purveyors. Chef Paul Prud'homme of K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen who is also promoting his Magic Seasoning Blends is the visiting celebrity chef. He and chef Elise Wiggins of Denver's Panzano Restaurant can talk Lou'siana, because she also hails from the Pelican State. Other noted regional chefs cooking on the Viking Culinary Stage are Andrew Lubatty of Avenue Grill and Vaughn Hobbs, Viking and Kimball Distributing preparing distinct signature dishes featuring fresh local ingredients. Grand Tasting tickets are available at Denver area wine and spirits stores online or at the door.

Pupusa's Moves and Upgrades

2010-09-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

the new is across the street from the old

Pupusa's Sabor Hispano was a favorite North Boulder hole-in-the-wall find for people who love well-made, authentic Central American and Mexican dishes. This simple little restaurant developed a following for its moderate prices, informality and good eats. Now, it's no longer a hole-in-the-wall.

They've moved from their funky original North Broadway to the spiffier place across the street (below). Is the food as good and are the prices as modest? I sure hope so, but I don't know, because we didn't eat there when we drove by today. I snapped a few pix, and we kept going. People were entering so their followers seem to have, uh, followed.

Angkor Encore

2010-09-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

Longmont restaurant serves Southeast Asian cuisine -- mostly

Our friend Mike, who lives in Longmont, is a regular at Angkor, whose rhyming slogan could be "Angkor: Cambodian and More." The menu includes all-purpose AmerAsian appetizers (chicken and beef skewers, egg rolls, spring rolls, crab Rangoon, etc.), soups from the standard Chinese-American repertoire (hot and sour, egg drop and wonton), a couple of salads, some hot pots, "Angkor Specialties" (inspired by the flavors of Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese cuisine), Chinese stir fries and noodle dishes. The food is unexciting but dependable.

We have joined Mike there for dinner four or five times, most recently just a few weeks ago when an out-of-town friend was visiting. I hope their lunch and early-evening business is robust, because the commodious restaurant has been almost empty each time. Angkor is located in a strip mall and is a bit hard to spot from Ken Pratt Boulevard. It's right next door to Once Upon a Child, a children's consignment store. The dining room is spacious, nicely lighted and pleasant, with Southeast Asian themes dominating the decor.
A salad, an appetizer, a couple of entrees amd a heap of rice, which I didn't photograph because everyone knows what rice looks like, sufficed amply for four of us.

This pair of fried egg rolls could have come from any East Asian/South Asian restaurant. The menu also lists "Angkor egg rolls" that come four to an order; I suspect they are smaller, since four of those are the same price as two of these, but I don't know whether they are any different flavorwise -- or if you can even tell, because these had no distinct flavor other than fried wrapper..

The Cambodian salad consists of mixed vegetables (lots of cabbage), red and green peppers, chicken, crushed peanuts Khmer dressing and a spring of fresh cilantro. Since I was dining with three protein-loving men, I was happy to have a crunchy salad as part of our shared dishes.

Angkor's hot and sour soup..

Two of Angkor's hot pots are very similar to each other. Both this Cambodian curry and the Panang curry described as "traditional Thai [or Cambodian] red curry cooked with coconut milk, fresh potatoes and onions." The Cambodian curry also has eggplant, pineapple and crushed peanuts, while Panang curry has no eggplant, pineapple or peanutrs but adds strng beans. Both of these curry hot pots can be ordered with fish, shrimp, chicken, beef or tofu -- and many other dishes offer a choice of these five options at only a couple of dollars' difference between the least and the most expensive.

The Palin beef, presumably named after a community in northern Cambodia and not after Sarah, is sliced beef that has been stir-fried in a Cambodian-style hot and sour sauce and heaped on a plate circled by sliced cucumber and a few spears of sweet red pepper.

Green tea ice cream sounded really good for dessert, and it tasted good too. Scoop atop scoop of light green ice cream towered above the rim of the short sundae glass.

Price check: At dinner, appetizers, $3.-$5.50 (plus $7.95 for a sampler platter); salads, $6.50; small soup, $1.50; large soup, $3.75; hot pots, $9.75-$12.50; Angkor Specials, $9.25-$10.95; Chinese stir fry, $7.95-$12.50; noodles, $6.75-$11.60; desserts, $2.50-$4.95.

"The Cake Boss" is Coming to Colorado

2010-09-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hoboken celebrity baker at the Paramount in November

Are you a fan of "The Cake Boss"? I relate to the show and the surroundings, because I lived in Hoboken for 14½ years before moving to Colorado. In those days, the bakery across from City Hall was a German bakery called Schoening's. Carlo's Bakery was at Fourth and Adams on the west side of town, right next Fiore's Deli, which made the best mozzarella in town and sliced up great Italian cold cuts, which American foodies now refer to as salumi.

I went to the 400 block of Adams a lot. Even then, Carlo's made fabulous Italian cakes and divine pastries. There might be a crowd at the counter on a Sunday, but otherwise, you went in, ordered what you wanted, chatted for a few minutes and left with your sweet treats. And Carlo's didn't sell T-shirts.

That was then and this is now. Buddy Valastro is a certifiable TV celebrity, thanks to "The Cake Boss," a TV show that shows a lot of Carlo's grandly decorated cakes and a good portion of Joisy attitude, which I do occasionally miss.

Buddy's fame has turned Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop into such a destination that its website warns summer visitors:

"We want your visit to the bakery to be a memorable one. Please be patient, as we have extra employees on hand to keep the line moving as efficiently as possible. As we approach mid summer the temperature outside remains very hot, we recommend bringing bottles of water to remain hydrated and a spray bottle with water to spray the little ones to help keep cool, as there may be a wait to enter the bakery. Also, dress accordingly for the weather. Thank you for your continued support. We promise we are worth the wait."

Buddy is coming to Denver's Paramount Theater on November 15, so I can get my Hoboken fix without having to get on an airplane. The theater has announced a Labor Cay special with $5 off price level 2 and 3 tickets. The promotion code is LABOR, but the TicketHorse page does not specify whether this discount is available after Labor Day. The Paramount is at 16th and Glenarm, and tickets include free parking at the nearby Dominion Tower( 600 17th St.) or 410 Garage-(410 17th St.) .

And if you're in the New York, take the PATH, the bus or the ferry to downtown Hoboken and stroll over to "the avenue," as the main drag is called. You'll find Carlo's City Hall Bakery at 95 Washington Street, right across from City Hall. The phone number is 201-659-3480.

A Congenial Evening with Smith-Madrone Wines

2010-09-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Fantasy evening of food and wine at LoDo loft

I received a surprise invitation last week to a gathering at Synergy Fine Wines' LoDo loft to meet winemaker Stu Smith of Smith-Madrone Winery and enjoy a terrific al fresco dinner prepared by Synergy owner Scott Lauck. In a previous life, Lauck was a personal chef. The evening reminded me of a magazine feature showing people in a beautiful setting, eating fine food, drinking excellent wines and presumably being scintillating.

I write that it was a "surprise invitation" because I was the rare (maybe sole) food person amid a bunch of wine folks. I always enjoy rubbing elbows with wine lovers, because they combine real passion, deep knowledge and perhaps just a bit of snobbism to provide sophisticated charm. As egalitarian as I usually am, I like to experience a thin veneer of superiority when I'm among people who know a lot more about, say, art or wine than I do and have wonderful stories of glamorous people, places and events .

The evening, which started at the grownup hour of 7:00 p.m., began with Pierre Guimonet et Fils champagne poured into sparkling flutes. We sipped chatted and nibbled prosciutto, crostini and a selection of cheeses. The evening was balmy and the deck exceedingly pleasant.

Stu Smith (below) was introduced, said a few gracious words and then circulated to chat with individual guests. He had brought his 2008 Riesling, 2008 Chardonnay and an especially beautiful 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon. As we clinked glasses -- Riedel or some other musical crystal -- Smith noted that when we enjoy wine, we usually use the senses of sight, taste and smell, and that when we clink glasses, we also use the sense of hearing. I liked that and will quote him on appropriate occasions.

Dinner consisted of fresh-from-the-grill thick steaks, robust pork chops and whole sides of salmon portioned on the serving platter, plus heirloom tomatoes, grilled white asparagus and fabulous asparagus risotto. Lauck has clearly not lost his culinarian touch. The eating ended great chocolate layer cake that he did not bake, along with Bliss ice cream.

The entire evening ended with more champagne -- not sabered but opened with a spoon. Alas, it was too dark and it happened too fast for my little camera to capture. It was an amazing trick, though some folks claimed it's easy once you know where to insert the spoon.

I still am unsure of why I was invited, but I had a wonderful urban evening and am happy that I was.

A Taste of Colorado Coming Right Up

2010-09-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Food is just one aspect of the annual mega-fest at Civic Center Park -- and chef-prepared food a small part of that

The quarter of a million people, give or take, who pour into Denver's Civic Center Park every Labor Day weekend go there for the free music and entertainment as much as for the food. Dedicated foodies rush past the corn dogs, turkey legs, kettle corn and Dippin' Dots ice cream and head directly to the the fine dining area where chefs hold sway and to the culinary ahowcase. This cooking is presented by 630 KHOW and once again hosted by Pat "Gabby Gourmet” Miller. At the showcase, well-known local and vsiting chefs put on cooking demos with offer tips and techniques for festivalgoers take home to their own kitchens.

Culinary Showcase Stage

Friday, September 3

12 noon. Heather Isley of Natural Gocers by Vitamin Cottage.
1:15 p.m. Glen Whitman of The Broker.
2:30 p.m. Pie tasting contast, featuring baked treats from bang!, Child’s Pastry Shop, Granny Scott’s Pie Shop, Marczyk Fine Foods, My Mom’s Pie, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Pickles Deli, Posh Pastries, Silver Plume Tea Room, Trattoria Stella East, WaterCourse Foods Bakery, and Zaidy’s Deli.
3:30 p.m. Rachid Sabri, The Cork House Restaurant prepares lamb meatballs.
4:30 p.m. Garrett Whitlow of Randolph’s.
5:30 p.m. James Mazzio of Olive Oil and Pickles Deli, Littleton, preapres tiramisu. Mazzia was one of
Food & Wine magazine’s “Best New Chef” in 1999.
6:30 p.m. Ready, Set, Cook! chef competition.

Saturday, September 4

11:15 a.m. Heather Pratt of Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage
12 noon. Troy Guard of TAG Restaurant, prepares Szechuan Colorado hanger steak and Olathe corn salad. TAG was named Westword’s “Best Fusion Restaurant” for 2010.
1:15 p.m. Ice Cream Eating Contest
2:30 p.m. Matt Selby of Vesta Dipping Grill and will prepares chorizo and clams with caramelized fennel mustard seed broth.
3:30 p.m. Keegan Gerhard -of D Bar Desserts.
4:30 p.m. Maxwell Mackissock of The Squeaky Bean.
5:30 p.m. Colorado Produce, wine, and all things from the Front Range will be showcased with Chris “Moose” Coons of Peach Street Distillers, Ben Kaplan of Shazz Café & Bar Matt Selby again and the fine folks from Grant Family Farms.
6:30 p.m. Ready, Set, Cook! chef competition with Ben Kaplan of Shazz Café & Bar and Matt Selby of Vesta Dipping Grill and Steuben’s

Sunday, September 5

11:15 a.m. Patty Moore of Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage.
12 noon. Students from the Art Institute of Colorado’s culinary program and the school's Assignments Restaurant demonstrate ice carving and craft pineapple sorbetto.
1:45 p.m..Steve's Snappin’ Dogs Hot Dog Eating Contest.
2:30 p.m. James Mazzio of Olive Oil and Pickles Deli.
3:30 p.m. Keegan Gerhard of D Bar Desserts
4:30 p.m. Mike and Janet Johnston of the Savory Spice Shop (she starred in the Food Network’s “Spice and Easy”) demonstrate the use in sweet green pea falafel, three bean pepperoncini dip and Mt. Olympus spiced tzatziki sauce.
5:30 p.m. Colorado Farm Fresh Foods with Dan Borgmann of Vendor Hippo plus appearances by Daniel Archer of Root Down and Omnomnom Street Cart, and James Mazzio of Olive Oil and Pickles Deli.
6:30 p.m. Ready, Set, Cook! The Colorado Farm Fresh Challenge!

Monday, Sepembber 6

11:15 a.m. Maddy D’Amato and Alex Hasulak of Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage.
12 noon. David Hendricksen of Assignments Restaurant.
1:45 p.m. Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs Hot Dog Eating Contest.
2:30 p.m. Lee Clayton Roper, author of A Well-Seasoned Kitchen, makes several simple yet flavorful
gourmet recipes, including melted Gruyere and bacon dip, pesto chicken and vegetable fettuccine, and fast fruit cobbler.
3:30 p.m. Tyler Wiard of Elway’s Cherry Creek, crafts his signature chilled Colorado tomato tortilla soup and baby shrimp green chile salsa.
4:30 p.m. Daniel Archer of Root Down and Omnomnom Street Cart makes summer tomato-cantaloupe gazpacho, blended with Hanger One Chipotle vodka, lime crema and fig balsamic vinegar.
5:15 p.m. "Ready, Set, Cook! chefs competition.

Fine Dining Area

The Fine Dining Area, sponsored by Sub-Zero and Wolf, features some of Denver’s most
accomplished chefs and noted restaurants selling gourmet specialties. The following restasurant information is directly from Taste organizers:

Assignments Restaurant, a unique educational and dining establishment designed to create an open environment run entirely by students, will offer Festivalgoers a variety of tastes, including white gazpacho with manchego crisp, spicy chicken sandwiches with slaw, strawberry shortcake with lemon curd, and chocolate truffles.
The Broker, will be featuring shrimp cocktail, prime rib sandwiches, lamb ribs, and a shrimp & prime rib sandwich combo. Rustic and refined,
The Cork House Wine Restaurant’s menu will include Kobe sliders, lamb meatball sandwiches, and hummus. EvoBean, an economically, socially, and environmentally-conscience coffee company, will offer hot and cold coffee, hot and cold lattes, espresso, and whole bean coffee.
Olive Oil’s Italian comfort food and homegrown ingredients, featured in the spinach & mushroom lasagna, muffuleta, meatballs, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, and tiramisu.
Randolph’s will serve golden beet gazpacho, chicken salad sandwiches, and shrimp & chorizo cataplanas – contemporary American cuisine with a Rocky Mountain flair.
518 Degrees, a wood-fired pizza oven on wheels, serving margherita pizza, pizza alla diavola, garden medley pizza, garlic knots, and cannoli.
Summit County’s most popular tacos, Chimayo Mexican Grill will feature its baja fish tacos, baja shrimp tacos, and churros.
Gigi’s Cupcakes, home of more than 60 varieties of the sweet treats, will offer Kiddie Kake, Wedding Cake, White Midnight Magic and Miss Princess cupcakes.
Kinga’s Lounge will include traditional Polish dumpplings, including meat or cheese pierogi (dumplings); pierogi and bigos (a savory stew); bigos and kielbasa (sausage); pierogi and kielbasa; and a combo of kielbasa, pierogi, and bigos.
Tocabe will serve American Indian ground beef tacos, vegetarian tacos, cherry or apple dessert tacos, and powdered sugar/cinnamon frybread.

Culinary Colorado Marks 1,000th Post

2010-08-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

This blog starting its second thousand posts

I just noticed that my previous post, "Chautauqua Dining Hall a Lovely Lunch Spot," is the 1,000th I have written on this blog. The very fist was a little lament on October 10, 2006, called "Outdoor Dining Season Might Just Be Over." We're nearing the end of the fourth outdoor dining season since then, and I've written about meals I've made, meals I've eaten out, meals I've eaten while traveling, local food news, agriculture, books and much more.

One thousand posts call for a bit of background. I started this blog nearly four years ago because I love food and I enjoy writing about it too. I had authored a book called Culinary Colorado, a food-oriented guidebook and wanted an outlet for more food writing in this state and elsewhere. Since my 1,000th post was about a Boulder area restaurant -- one that happens to have been around for a long time -- that was in business then, I thought it might be a tribute to Boulder chefs, restaurateurs and the dining public to acknowledge the restaurants here that were in that book, which I researched in 2002 for publication in 2003. Some of them are gone, but in a number of cases, the chefs are elsewhere in town:.

Boulder Area Restaurants of 2003

Alice's restaurant at Gold Lake Resort

Bacaro
Carelli's
Chautauqua Dining Hall
China Gourmet and Spice China
European Cafe
Flagstaff House
Full Moon Grill
Jax Fish House
John's Restaurant
Mateo
The Mediterranean Restaurant ("The Med")
PanAsia Fusion
Q's Restaurant at the Boulderado
Rhumba
The Sushi Triangle (my combining of Hapa Sushi, Japango, Sushi Tora and Sushi Zanmai)
Sunflower
Triana
Trios Grille, Wine Bar and Home Gallerie
Zolo Grill

Interesting, isn't it?

Chautauqua Dining Hall a Lovely Lunch Spot

2010-08-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

Boulder landmark aces it for ambiance and atmosphere

Boulder provides an embarrassment of restaurant riches, including many that are simply lovely to behold and/or offer wonderful outdoor dining. But nothing -- with arguable exception of the Flagstaff House -- matches the setting of the historic Chautauqua Dining Hall. Chautauqua is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the gray frame building with white trim is now a public restaurant overlooking the broad lawn and large trees of Chautauqua Park. It is open almost year-round, serving breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner on a schedule that changes depending on the season. Right now, it is still going full-tilt.

Maybe because we lunched a bit on the late side, two friends and I managed to scores a table on the porch with a park view across the roadway.It was exceptionally pleasant to sit there, of course, with a light breeze and the sun flirting with the clouds.

The Southwestern Chicken sandwich (grilled chicken breast, green chiles and cheddar) comes on focaccia bread with a choice of fries or chips. The thin fries, which came out hot, nicely crisp outside and smooth inside, were a good choice.

The pulled pork on a bun also comes with a choice of fries or chips, but my friend didn't care for either. The first example of what I consider unnecessary nickel-and-diming was that there was no offer of a substitution. The waitress could, and IMHO should, have suggested a substitute, or the kitchen could have put extra cole slaw or a bit of lettuce and tomato on the plate.

I ordered the beet salad (spinach, sliced beets, orange segments, sliced red onion and champagne vinaigrette plus goat cheese, a $2 extra). That salad is precisely what came out of the kitchen. No more. No less. I requested a roll or a piece of bread. Ten minutes later, out came two pieces of focaccia, which was twice as much as I wanted and which added $1 to the check. It's not about the dollar, which I certainly didn't dispute, but this was what, to me, seemed like a second example of chintziness. I understand that the old building is expensive to operate, and the seasonal guest fluctuation adds to the challenge of operating there, but still.....

These are quibbles, because of the grade-A setting that makes me overlook the flaws. The Chautauqua Dining Hall is so appealing that the food, in a sense, is an add-on -- and I don't think that of too many places.

Price check: At lunch, appetizers, $6-$12; soups and salads, $6-$8; sandwiches, $7-$9 (and $14 crab cake); "late breakfast" items, $7-$10; lunch entrees, $14-$16; sides, $3-$4.Dinner is considerably more expensive.

A Bright Boulder Place for Tacos and More

2010-08-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

Pica's Mexican Taqueria got great review and has gringo appeal

I pay attention when a restaurant writer with the last name of Alvarez writes about "a new king of 'fast-fresh Mexican,' and lucky for us, its newest location is right here in Boulder. Tucked way out into the hinterlands of Arapahoe, the brand new Pica's Mexican Taqueria tops them all with effortless authenticity and bold, playful flavors that can go toe-to-toe with any fancier sit-down Mexican joint in the city and win. Best of all, you'll have a hard time exhausting a ten-spot on dinner -- unless you go gonzo on margaritas." And that's how Ted Alvarez, the Daily Camera's dining critic, started his review.

I have no idea whether Alvarez's forefathers came to what is now the U.S. Southwest long before the American Revolution, whether they crossed the Rio Grande more recently, or whether they were from Cuba, Puerto Rico or some other Spanish land. His surname gave credibility his review, but when I looked into Pica's history, it turns out that the "authenticity" came from Wyoming (locations in Jackson and Wilson) and migrated south. Trent Davol, the Boulder location's owner, worked in Wyoming and brought the concept to East Boulder. It's cheerful and clean and very pleasant with am ambiance that is more "American fast casual" than "taqueria," no matter what the sign on the door claims.

Ted Alvarez was not alone in praising Pica's for its tasty fresh food and moderate prices.The restaurant is bright and cheerful, but after we ordered and paid at the counter, we headed out for the spacious patio. Families are welcomed with such thoughtful extras as a container of sidewalk chalk that kids (and their parents) can use to draw hopscotch or create art on the concrete. The large umbrellaed tables are a nice distance from each other, so that conversations are separated by space. Only the incessant noise from an air conditioner kept it from being idyllic.

The food, when it was delivered, turned out to be good but not as drop-dead great as I'd been led to expec by the reviewt. The excessively salty guacamole came in a fake plastic molcajete with a basket of crisp tortilla chips for dipping.

Pica's pair of open-face, soft tacos can be selected with carne asada tacos, chicken el carbon, carnitas, Baja-style with either fish or shrimp, marinated shrimp, al pastor or grilled mahi. Each one comes with an appropriate salsa plus Mexican rice and beans.

Puya chicken salad consists of nicely grilled chicken, sliced avocado, a generous amount of salsa fresca and puya chile vinaigrette. Puya chiles, I learned, are moderately hot, enough to kick the salad up a notch. A folded flour tortilla perched on the rim of the plate.

Price check: Burritos, $6.25-$8.95; Tacos, $6.25-$8.95; enchiladas, $8.25-$8.75; quesadillas, $5.95-$7,50; salads, $4.95-$8.50; soups, #.75 for a cup or one to $6.95 for a bowl of the other.

Another Mediocre Meal in Estes Park

2010-08-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

Sweet Basilico showed promise but fell short as so many others have done

I like Estes Park. I really do. How can I not like a an almost chainfree town whose main street is filled with pedestrians shopping, window shopping and/or heading for a place to eat? It's the eating part that is at issue here. After hiking or snowshoeing or skiing, or when we have out-of-town visitors in tow, we tend to stop in Estes Park for a bite to eat. I always have high hopes for a really good meal, but virtually every restaurant disappoints,and we never go back. We often (though not recently) find ourselves returning to Ed's Cantina. It doesn't serve the best Mexican food on the planet, but it's a lot better than most other places we've tried.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried every place in town -- and we do tend to stop for a bite between the park's Beaver Meadows entrance and downtown and in downtown itself. I have not eaten at the Stanley Hotel in years and usually feel too post-hike-y to step into this classy place. The Dunraven Inn is only open for dinner, by which time we're usually back in Boulder, and for some reason, I've never yet made it to the Baldpate Inn, which is closed in winter and has changing hours between high and shoulder seasons.

A few weeks ago, when I was traveling, my husband and a friend wanted to try Sweet Basilico after they went hiking, but there was such a long wait that they went next door to the Estes Park Brewery with its uninspired pub food. With high hopes, we went to Sweet Basilico yesterday. It was raining, so the patio was out of the question. Within the low-slung building is a large old-timey dining room with knotty-pine tongue-and-groove wainscoting, pictures of Italy on the walls above and tables set with plastic cloths and paper placemats. Five chairs at the open kitchen welcomes solo diners. The restrooms -- at least the ladies' room -- really needed attention.

La Cucina

Sweet Basilico claims that everything is fresh and made to order. They sure manage to hide that. As at so many Estes Park restaurants, it is geared to customers with middle-American tastes: soft bread or rolls with salted butter, Saltine crackers with every soup, tedious salads often with bottled salad dressing, wilted vegetables, overcooked pasta drowned in too much sauce and so on. Sweet Basilico's food was certainly edible, but IMHO not worth a second visit. Another disclaimer. My husband who grew up in Nevada but whose parents came from Minnesota and our friend who is from Indiana thought the food was fine. I grew up in Connecticut, went to college in Boston and lived in New York and Hoboken, New Jersey, with a 45% Italian population when I moved there. My expectations of Italian food exceeded Sweet Basilico's fare -- of maybe it's just that I'm a food snob!

If you order a soup and salad, as I did, you have a choice of a large soup and a small salad, or a small soup and a large salad. Good idea. Below is the minestrone, the only soup available. It seems to have been made either with a tomato soup base or possibly with diluted tomato juice and then spiced to pleasant pepperiness. I commend the kitchen for not oversalting, but other than that? Sigh. The vegetables and legumes were of decent variety, but most seem to have come from cans or had been sometime before. I think the onions, celery and carrots might have been fresh-cut, but tomatoes or limp string beans didn't seem fresh. It's OK to use.chickpeas and red beans from a can, but the overcooked broccoli flowerets would have better relegated to the compost bin.

The salad was mostly iceberg lettuce. Iceberg lettuce? In the 21st century? In an Italian restaurant? Indeed, with a choice of three dressings. Sliced carrots, halved cherry tomatoes, unpeeled cukes julienned yellow squash and one each pickled red and green pepper. Long live peperoncini! Large and small salads are shown below.

Chicken mozzarella is white meat topped with mozzarella and baked with sautéed vegetables and served over spaghetti. The vegetables plunked on the pasta and the chicken were thick spears of carrot, red pepper, chunks of zucchini and more of that unappealing broccoli. Let's just say that presentation is not a strong point.

The cannelloni consisted of what tasted like sloppy Joe filling stuffed into two rolled crepes with melted mozzarella on top, swimming in a sea of pedestrian red sauce and a black olive or two as garnish..

Price check: At lunch, soups, salads and combos, $6.50-$850; sandwiches, $7.95 including minestrone or pasta salad; pasta, $8.95 (extra for cheese ravioli); chicken or shrimp entrees, $9.95; pizza, $4.95 for a plain "mini" to #18.95 for a fully loaded large; sides, $1.75-$3.95.

Urbanspoon.com inexplicably does not list any restaurants in Estes Park. They cover hamlets like Arboles, Blanca, Eads, Kersey, Pine, Silt and Wiggins, as well as Grand Lake on the other side of Rocky Mountain National Park, but not Estes Park which attracts hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of visitors from afar as well as almost-locals like us. Go figure.

Sweet Basilico is at 430 Prospect Village Dr., Estes Park; 970-586-3899.

Dim Sum, Redux

2010-08-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

New Port (formerly Heaven Star) continues to serve swell dim sum

My husband, a friend and I went for a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park today. The hike was fantastic, but without going into irrelevant detail, it persuaded me that I need new hiking boots before I next set foot on trail.

When we returned home after a truly mediocre late lunch in Estes Park (I'll write about that another time), we flopped down on the couch to watch a DVRed movie, "Dim Sum Funeral." It was a chick-flick about a Chinese-American family that only had a minor eating scene at the very end. No "Eat Drink, Man Woman"! But even the title reminded me that I never did get around to reporting on our most recent visit to New Port in Broomfield -- a dim sum excursion requested by my son, who was up from Durango a couple of weeks ago.

We nodded very often as the carts came by and feasted on an assortment of dumplings (fried and steamed, filled with pork, seafood or vegetables), sliced meat, soup, even Chinese broccoli and at the end, even cake (bottom image), even though Chinese cakes seem to put a premium on bright colors and sweetness over other characteristics. Somewhere, I have a menu on which I took notes as to what is in which dumpling or fritter. But the truth is, that when you visit a dim sum restaurant, you make your selection from whatever dishes are wheeled by when you happen to be there. Below are the the dim sum dishes four of us feasted on.

Local foodies have been debating whether New Port is as good as Heaven Star was. I did not find great differences -- other than those dictated by the hour. On previous visits, we went early and had to wait for a table. At peak times, the carts roll out of the kitchen with machine-gun speed. This time, we arrived around 1:00 p.m. to find no lines but somewhat slower carts. The food, I thought, was as good as ever.

Colorado Featured on Big-Time Food TV

2010-08-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

Kelly Liken still surviving on "Top Chef," and two Pueblo eateries compete on "Food Wars"

Once upon a very long time ago, cooking shows were mostly confined to public television. Then, years later, came the Food Network, which since begat the Cooking Network, and cable TV's Bravo and the Travel Channel are also in the food/cooking/reality TV continuum.

Kelly Liken, owner/chef of Vail's eponymous Restaurant Kelly Liken is still soldiering on season seven of Bravo's "Top Chef." Episode 11 has now been broadcast, and I think they're down to six (or is it five?) chef-testants, of whom Liken is one. If she wins, she will be the second Colorado chef to be the top "Top Chef" after Boulder's Hosea Rosenberg who won season five.

"Top Chef" contestants have to travel to the filming site, but the Travel Channel's "Food Wars" is one of those where the host and crew visit restaurants. I've frankly never watched this program, but I will this week because it features Pueblo. The format is a competition between two local well-loved establishments that are considered to be rivals. The program supposedly determines which makes the best version of the area's signature dish.

Wednesday's show takes the war to Pueblo, home of the Slopper. As I wrote, I've never watched "Food Wars" and I've never had a Slopper, but I now know that it is a cheeseburger smothered with so much spicy green chili that it is served in a bowl. For decades two rival restaurants have been fighting over who dishes out Pueblo's best Slopper: Gray’s Coors Tavern and The Sunset Inn. While Restaurant Kelly Liken is a fine-dining establishment in a high-priced mountain resort town, the two Slopper contenders are casual family-style, family-run restaurants in a gritty city with industrial roots. Not surprisingly, neither has a website -- note one that I could find anyway.

FWIW, Gray’s Coors Tavern is the birthplace of the iconic dish and has already won five “Best of” awards for its rendition. The Sunset Inn looks to dethrone Gray’s with its own Slopper, with a pepper-infused chili based on an old Mexican family recipe. A blind taste test will crown a winner in the Pueblo Slopper War. Below is a YouTube preview -- something I can't provide for "Top Chef."

Both shows air on Wednesday evening. Wednesday is "Top Chef" day on Bravo, and I'm frankly not sure when new episodes air. "Food Wars" comes on at 9:00 p.m., Mountain Time.

And to give recognition in the print media its due, four restaurants cited in a New York Times Travel Section piece on Denver were Colt and Gray, Fruition, Root Down and The Squeaky Bean.

Sangria and Hors d'Oeuvres at The Fort

2010-08-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

Beautiful setting and a fabulous early-evening spread

Yesterday evening was one of those charmed summer nights -- clear skies, comfortable temperatures, excellent company in an excellent place. The local chapter of the Les Dames d'Escoffier gathered on the terrace of The Fort, south of downtown Morrison for a sunset gathering.

Along with sangria served in Mason jars came a fine spread of nibbles from their appetizer menu: fabulous barbecued duck quesadillas, crunchy chips with salsa and guac', peanut butter-stuffed jalapeños, Acapulco shrimp ceviche, escabeche, bison eggs (similar to Scotch eggs but with quail eggs and ground bison meat, bison sausage called "boudies," and braised bison tongue on toast with caper aioli, one of The Fort's many heritage dishes that simply aren't served anyplace else. I'm not sure why we didn't take food closeups this time, but I'm afraid we didn't.

The hostess was Holly Arnold Kinney (below in a traditional beaded deerskin dress), The Fort's owner and a past chair of LDEI's local chapter. She told the amazing story of the food-safety detective work that went into identifying the Iowa poultry farms that are culpable in the recent salmonella-tainted egg problem that prompted a massive recall and made headlines. I can't begin to repeat it, but suffice it to say that The Fort played an identifiable role in ferreting out the culprit farms. She also showed us a spiral-bound proof of her forthcoming book, Shinin' Times at The Fort, a cookbook and family memoir that will be out in November. Even in proof form, it's a beautify, with photos by Lois Ellen Frank, a gifted food photographer who works and lives on Red Mesa near Santa Fe.

On the way out, we stopped to look at Sissy Bear's Garden, planted this year in The Fort's courtyard and used by the chefs to supplement the organic produce that the restaurant buys. You can see from the cut stems that veggies were recently harvested. I wrote about the new garden in a profile I did in edibleFront Range magazine, but I had interviewed Holly and the chefs last winter, so I hadn't seen it until now. The statue guarding the garden is of Sissy Bear, a Canadian black bear that was an Arnold family pet when Holly was growing up.

Tempted as we had been to stay for dinner, we pulled ourselves away and headed home. We were glad that we did, because as we were heading north on Highway 93, we spotted such a magnificent harvest moon rising over Denver that we pulled over to admire and photograph it.

Penzey's Now Open on Pearl

2010-08-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

New spice store on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall

Today is the first full day for the new Penzey's Spices retail store in Boulder. (It opened for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon because they were ready, as Kim told me when I stopped by this morning.) It is located on the Pearl Street Mall,, just east of Broadway -- and around the corner from born-in-Denver-born Savory Spice Shop on Broadway between Pearl and Spruce. Bottom line for cooks is that if you need herbs, spices, spice blends, rubs, seasoned salts, soup mixes or any other flavor enhancers, this is the place to go. Penzey's Spices, 1219 Pearl Street, Boulder; 303-447-2777. Savory Spice Shop, 2041 Broadway, Boulder; 303- 444-0668. This is not the first place in Colorado with both stores close to each other. In Littleton, Penzey's is at 2500 West Main Street and Savory Spice is at 2560 West Main.

A Look at the "New" Restaurant Kevin Taylor

2010-08-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hotel Teatro's fine-dining restaurant gets a modern makeover

Restaurant Kevin Taylor has been one of the finest of the fine-dining restaurants in Denver since it opened in late 1998.When I wrote Culinary Colorado nearly a decade ago, I described its decor as "a symphony of sage green and gold. It has soaring ceilings, beautiful artwork discreetly displayed on richly wood-paneled walls, custom alderwood armchairs upholstered in Scalamandré silk, and tables set with blindingly white and crisply starched linens, Bernardaud china, Christofle silver and crystal stemware." It was an elegant space that served as the perfect backdrop for Kevin Taylor's excellent cuisine, artfully presented and served with grace by a professional and knowledgeable waitstaff. That was then, and this (below) is now, with a sleek new look but the same exquisite presentations and excellent service.:

When I entered from the Hotel Teatro's lobby for a media preview of the new look and the new seasonal menu, I once again walked into a room of height and light. The restaurant, while still immaculate and elegant, is far less formal. "Understated" may be an overused word, but it fits. The giant gilt-frame mirrors remain, but gone are the fine linens, replaced by lacy round mats that show off the rare ebonized Makassar wood tabletops. Noteworthy are the clean-line side chairs upholstered in white leather, Austrian Swarovski chandeliers overhead and large abstract works by Colorado artists on the walls.

Guests still are served on Bernardaud china and Riedel stemware, but there are also bright art-glass vases (below) that were handblown by Kevin Taylor Restaurant Group chef Mark Saul. The total look is contemporary without the industrial cliché of exposed pipes and ductwork now so prevalent. To my eye, the previous elegance was beautiful, but the dark paneling, white walls and simple settings transitioned into 21st century's sensibilities while retaining the classiness for which the intimate restaurant is known.

Restaurant Kevin Taylor is a dinner-only restaurant that has changed its menu seasonally since the beginning, and the three-course menu we were served at lunchtime was richer than many of us tend to eat at mid-day. The plating was as artful as I remember from occasional previous visits. and the food combinations again presented pretty-on-the-plate pictures at every course.

The appetizer du jour was butternut squash gnocchi, orange-hued dumplings with roasted apples, asparagus, microcelery that I barely tasted but that did add a crunch and truffle cream sauce with blue cheese. A bit of the aggressive blue cheese on the fork dominates most other flavors, but the apples provide sweetness to tame it. And did I mention the ultra-thin disks of flecked truffle perching atop and hidden among the gnocchi?

The moist herb-crusted roast salmon nudges up against sweet-potato purée and a mélange of root vegetables with a Béarnaise sauce. The crust on my salmon wasn't crusty but soft, moist and smooth. I don't know whether this same dish, if ordered a la carte, is run under a salamander to crisp the crumb-and-herb top, or whether this is always the way it comes. The color palette was an autumnal salmon-pink, orange, yellow and brown tones -- no summery green on this plate.

The splendid dessert was listed on the day's menu as a chocolate parfait. It had a light mousse-like consistency fused with a delicate cake mantle and was served not in a glass but on a plate. Alongside were with a smear of "concentrated raspberries" (a new-to-me word for purée), a froth of cascading malted chocolate bubbles and a sprinkle of crunchy crystallized peanuts. The swoosh on top is a thin chocolate toffee that provides a crispy-crunchy bonus. I remarked to my companions that I would not describe this is a "parfait," but no one at the table picked up on my comment and I didn't have a chance to ask the waiter. When I checked the regular menu, this dessert appears as a pavé, not a parfait. I am not sure that I have ever had a pavé before, but when I looked it up, I read that it is traditionally a layered dessert of spongecake layered with buttercream. This pavé or parfait is a delicious adaptation by pastry chef Jason LeBeau any way you spell it.

As is customary at such events, the chef comes out after the meal and accept the guests' applause. Many chefs are comfortable in this public role. I get the idea that Kevin Taylor is a shy guy, happier in the kitchen, creating yet another work of beautiful, edible art than mingling with guests. Executive chef Austin Cueto is the behind-the-scenes implementer of Taylor's creativity.

Price check: Appetizers, $12-$16; soups, $10-$12; salads, $9-$15; $28-$36; meats; $28-$55; desserts, $10; artisanal cheese, 3 selections $10 to five selections, $15. Three-course seasonal tasting menu, $45 (no choice of items). Also, tasting menus with a choice of items at each: four courses, $65 (plus optional paired wines, $55 additional); five course $75 (wines, $65); seven courses, $100 (wines, $75).

Torch Passes at Boulder Wine Merchant

2010-08-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Two Master Somms sell 30-year-old store to a third

There are currently only 105 Master Sommeliers in North America (90 men, 15 women) and a mere 170 such wine professionals worldwide who have earned that title from the Court of of Master Sommeliers since 1973. Two of them Wayne Belding (who passed the rigorous exam in 1990) and Sally Mohr (1995, the second woman to achieve that level) are partners in The Boulder Wine Merchant, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary. It is not hyperbole to call this specialty store ahead of its time in showcasing wine -- especially considering that Boulder was dry until the 1960s. Belding and Mohr are passing the torch, or the corkscrew, to Brett Zimmerman (left), who became a Master Sommelier in 2007, and his wife Jennifer. They are both Boulder natives, so if they came from families of oenophiles, it's a good bet that they and their parents have patronized The Boulder Wine Merchant for a long time.

After graduating from CU, Brett started his sommelier career in Chicago at the acclaimed restaurant, Charlie Trotter’s, and then moved to San Francisco and the renowned restaurant, Aqua that is currently closed. Back he came to Colorado as general manager of the fine wine division of Southern Wine and Spirits and more recently at Domaine Select Wine Estates, with a focus on expanding their wine education in this region. Wine retailing a new step for him. The Boulder Wine Merchant is at 2690 Broadway, Boulder; 303- 443-6761.

Salud and best wishes to all.

DIY Cocktails at SALT -- or Not

2010-08-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

Boulder bistro offers option of becoming your own drink creator

When Evan Faber, a trained sommelier and now beverage director at SALT Bistro, was at one of downtown Boulder's many coffee shops not long ago, he listened customers ordered espresso drinks precisely to their liking: large or small; single, double or even triple shot; decaf or high test; non-fat, low-fat, whole milk, soy milk or no milk; lots of foam, little foam, no foam; this flavoring, that flavoring or no flavoring. His observation led to musing and then to some deeper thinking:

In this Mad Men-inspired culutral age when people are again appreciating classic, retro and even pre-Prohibition drinks. Faber (below left) began formulating an idea whose time has come. He began creating comparable cocktail customization. He realized that that people feel comfortable ordering drinks that they know but most haven't dissected cocktails on their own to slot drinks into specific mix-and-match styles. He floated the idea of guiding customers. He took his idea to owner/chef Bradford Heap (right) who told him, "You're free to fly." So Faber took off with his idea.

Now, when customers are seated at SALT's upstairs or downstairs bars or at a table, they receive the conventional menu and also a plastic card and a grease pencil. On the card are pictograms of different spirits that are the foundation of cocktails (vodka, gin, tequila, Scotch, bourbon, etc.), liqueurs or other flavor or sweetening agents (citrus, mint, cucumber, cardamom, tamarind, vanilla, lavender and more for summer, with some options to be switched in fall) and style (short, tall, rocks, neat, with soda water or not). Some combinations are suggested, but customers are encouraged to create their own. The bartenders, who have all enthusiastically bought into this concept, are happy to provide some guidance. Pricing is simple: $4 for a short drink, $8 for a tall one.

A very cool iPhone app (below) being developed starts out displaying an empty glass that fills up as each ingredient is added. When the glass is full, customers can save the combination, should they want to order it again. When it goes live, it will be accessible only in the restaurant, which I consider something of a technological trick.

SALT launched the concept quietly about six weeks ago, and I finally tried the DIY cocktails last night at a special tasting that also included flavor identification by sip and smell, and "error detection" by tasting cocktails that had too much or not enough of some element. I learned a lot during a couple of head-spinning hours. A "Daisy" was a popular drink in the 1920s, but when Prohibition hit, it migrated south of the border. The Spanish word for that flower is margarita, and that's what the drink become, eventually after Repeal migrating back across the border with returning tourists and Mexican immigrants. Add soda water to a Cuban-rooted mojito and it becomes a sling -- or is it a Rickey? There's so much to play with and so much to remember.

My combination, which I dubbed a "TequilaRind," was a short drink: tequila, Triple Sec and on the theory that more is more, all three of the "suggested" flavors (tamarind, vanilla, pomegranate) instead of just one, a splash of soda and an edible flower that I didn't eat as garnish. It won't win me an mixologist honors. but it was mostly tangy with vanilla tempering the fruitiness and soda as a refresher.

When I asked Evan whether anyplace else in the country was doing anything similar and encouraging customers to concoct their own cocktails, he said that the New York Times had recently written about "a bar in Tribeca".that was doing something similar. The story, called "Name Your Potion: Bourbon, Cardamom, Twinkies?", was about Ward III, whose "Bespoke Cocktails" operate on a similar principle. Frank Bruni wrote the Times piece, so of course,.he called his drink, which included strawberries, a "BruniBerry." Click here for the recipe. My TequilaRind is lost to posterity.

Locavore Lives at Spago

2010-08-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

Chefs muscle out landscapers and plant Herb and veggie gardens at Beaver Creek's Ritz Carlton

You know that the locavore movement is firmly entrenched in Colorado when lush flower beds at the super-luxe Ritz Carlton, Bachelor Gulch at Beaver Creek are being replaced by herb and vegetable gardens. But that's the transformation that has occurred right outside Spago, the hotel's big-name restaurant.

Executive chef Mark Ferguson, chef de cuisine Steve Maline and others on their staff selected the plants, put them in the ground, have weeded the bed and nurtured their bounty through the high country's short summer and are harvesting the bounty. Late afternoon showers are welcome by the gardeners, if not by guests who would enjoy cocktails on the terrace. The elevation also spares the plants from theFront Range's searing heat. Obviously, The Spago staff can't grow everything they need, but they grow everything they can and buy as much of the rest as locally as possible.

It goes without saying that the watchwords are "organic" and "natural." They've planted their first bed with Italian and Thai basil, mint, parsley, fava beans, Yukon gold potatoes, Swiss chard and more than I could write down as Ferguson was talking. Instead of floral cascades, big tubs are sprouting tomato cascades. Ferguson and others told me that guests are really responsive to seeing things grow and being tended that will appear on their plates.

The chefs love being able to use fresh-from-garden herbs and some bevvies and are already planning for next summer. They're composting vegetable scraps plus mesquite and pine chips and mesquite cinders from the wood oven. And they're eying the bed on the other side of the patio for next year.

Happy Hour at Trattoria on Pearl

2010-08-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

This downtown Boulder restaurant's power lunch and full-on dinners are terrific, but happy hour...WOW!

My husband and I happy houred at Trattoria on Pearl the other night, and what a pleasant and satisfying evening it was. When we arrived around 5:30, the sun was still broiling the outdoor dining patio, so we took a window seat in the bar area. By the time we left, the sun had shifted, most outdoor tables were filled and guests were beginning to drift into the restaurant.

We've enjoyed the Trattoria on Pearl and also their house-made limoncello before, and we're both quite fond of margaritas, so of course, we ordered limoncello margs. This tasty, hefty cocktail comes in a large tumbler and at $4 is one of the best happy hour drink values on the Pearl Street Mall. Owner Guillermo Casarrubias came out to say hello and then sent over pair of straight limoncello shots. We joked that we weren't sure which we should have as an aperitif and which with the pizzas we had planned to order. While the pizzas were being prepared. out came bread, which I believe Sara Casarrubias bakes -- at least she used to. Thick slices of this bread, which has both flavor and robust texture, come with oil and Balsamic vinegar for dipping.

When our pizzas were served, we looked at each other and remembered aloud that they are large (probably 12 inches) and big enough to share. They are a fantastic deal at just $7 during happy hour. Trattoria on Pearl's pizzas aren't just large, but they are delicious, built on a chewy crust and filled without being overloaded. We are till we were full and ended up taking the equivalent of a pizza plus two slices home. My husband likes nothing better for breakfast than cold pizza, and we warmed up the rest this evening -- mainly because I like pizza hot, and I stuck it on the pizza stone in a 400-degree oven before he could object.

Yes, we were full, so the chocolate Vesuvius cake that we shared was the the happy hour equivalent to gilding the lily. The chocolaty cupcake-size cake is baked with a molten chocolate core, topped with whipped cream and crowned with a strawberry with a pool of strawberry sauce (or is it raspberry sauce?) lapping at its base. Sliced strawberries and a sprinkle of cocoa powder complete the pretty -- and pretty delicious -- picture.

Wolfgang Puck Hosts Sublime Wine Dinner for a Good Cause

2010-08-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

Spago at Beaver Creek provided elegant background for First Descents fundraiser

Many -- actually, most -- fundraising dinners in hotels are booked into ballrooms or other function rooms and prepared by the hotel's catering staff. The ballrooms may be exquisite, the kitchen crew exceptional and the waitstaff outstanding, but it's not "the same" as eating in a restaurant -- though I'm not sure that I can define "the same."
A notable exception to the usual fundraiser format was Thursday evening's dinner to benefit the Vail Valley's First Descents whose adult camp format helps young adults, aged 18 to 39, cope with cancer by engaging them in outdoor activities. The dinner took place at Spago in the Ritz Carlton, Bachelor Gulch at Beaver Creek, and Spago creator Wolfgang Puck himself was present. The Wolfgang Puck Companies and the star chef himself are very heavily involved in a number of charitable and cultural organizations, and I consider myself one lucky foodie to have been included at this dinner to benefit one of them.

The restaurant, which was not open for regular dining that evening, was set up as it would be for a regular dinner -- but with many more wine glasses at each place. In the course of the dinner, the white wine glasses were replaced by red wine glasses, so even more stemware was used than what you see below. That's because winemaker Randy Lewis brought two vintages of three of the five wines that were paired with each course. Lewis, a former race-car driver (think Indy 500), established Lewis Cellars in 1992 with his wife Debbie. Their son Dennis came on board seven years later, so this acclaimed, small-production Napa winery remains a family enterprise.

Hors d'Oeuvres

The event started with passed hors d'oeuvres and flutes Piper-Heidsick champagne -- not sparkling wine but real champagne. Guests missed around the dining room among the tables, peered over toward the open where Wolf himself (photo below, right, but in the shadow) joined executive chef Mark Ferguson to lend a hand topping Spago signature pizzas. Two were presented, one starring house-smoked salmon (bottom image, below) and the other with summer black truffles. I had never heard of summer truffles, but if appears that they are fall and winter truffles in Australia and New Zealand and therefore become summer truffles in the Northern Hemisphere.

Kobe sliders -- not burger slicers but open-face buns topped with thickly cut beef.

Spicy tuna tartare with siracha cream in savory tuile cones.

A la Table

Every dish was exquisite -- beautifully presented and wonderfully balanced in terms of taste and texture, each carefully paired with Lewis Cellars wines. The portions were modest, which made if possible to enjoy every course without being overloaded.

First Course

Summer vegetable salad (Sorrento lemon, fennel, Asian pear, American black caviar) paired with a 2009 Sauvignon blanc.

Second Course

North Atlantic black bass with fresh-from-the-garden nage, a fan of zucchini ribbons and a shallow pool of heirloom tomato fondue. The wines were Lewis Cellars Reserve chardonnay, both 2006 and 2008. Randy had poured the '08 at the Food and Wine Festival at Aspen.

Third Course

Risotto made with local (and I mean local, like gleaned from Beaver Creek's dense forest stands) chanterelles and porcini mushrooms, intensified with summer black truffles, virgin olive oil and seven-year Reggiano Parmigiano. Lewis Cellars 2002 and 2004 Syrah was poured.

Fourth Course

As we awaited the fourth course and yet two vintages of Lewis Cellars Reserve, sommelier Vanessa Cinti poured the next wines that had been breathing in carafes and said that she is heading for Dallas this coming week to take the five-day Master Sommelier exam, a standing that her boss, wine director Sean Razee already holds. He is one of the few Master Sommeliers in the United States and only one currently within The Ritz-Carlton and also in the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. The test is intense, and if/when Cinti passes, she will double the number both in the hotel group and restaurant group.

The fourth course was tender, flavorful Kobe short rib on the center of the plate surrounded bu flavor swirls of Olathe corn panna cotta (that's the small light-colored mound on the right side of the plate) and house-grown "rainbow chard. Cinti poured Lewis Cellars' 2004 and 2008 Reserve Cabernet.

Fifth Course

The dessert course was a crisp mercona almond financier topped with a fresh, seasonal Colorado peach topped with a mango glaze -- the whole an island afloat in a sea of strawberry "consomme." I heard some people mutter that they are chocolate people, and so am I, but this was so good that I didn't miss chocolate one bit. This time "only" one wine was served. a 2009 "vin gris" Syrah rosé.

Price check: Hold your hat. This fundraiser cost $225, including gratuities and valet parking. But during the summer, Spago is has affordable options for a price less experience. The restaurant's well-priced summer tasting menu through September 6 features five courses for $48 or $68 with paired wines. The ingredients might not be as rarefied (maybe no truffles or Kobe beef, and the wines most likely won't be from a boutique winery's reserve list), but the carefully composed, contemporary dishes utilizing local, seasonal ingredients will be comparable.If you are a la carting, Master Sommelier Razee’s also offers a list of revolving wines – ranging in vintage, varietal and value – for half-price. And. for just a taste of Spago, have one of their famous gourmet pizzas for $10, $3 drink specials and $8 house-made libations, every evening from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Dallas Cowboy Becomes a Colorado Cowboy

2010-08-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Pro football player, entrepreneur and now Colorado rancher producing artisan beef

Once upon a time, Ryan Wood, a Fairview High School football star when the Boulder school won the state championships, was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. Meanwhile, his friend Kevin Plank, who played football for the University of Maryland, knew that cotton T-shirts weren't the ideal for hard workouts. He founded Under Armour, body-hugging, moisture-wicking microfiber undergarments designed to be worn under active sportswear. It was a functional and comfort improvement over cotton. Ryan Wood joined Under Armour, headed international operations and became a partner. Under Armour grew into an international brand with sales of nearly $1 billion a year, which is a lot of walking-around money for all of the principals.

Under Armour is headquartered in Baltimore, but Wood missed Colorado and ultimately returned to his home state to raise beef cattle. He purchased a 652-acre ranch along the Elk River near Steamboat Springs to raise Red Angus to become “artisan beef.” At his Sweetwood Cattle Company, he instituted sustainable practices, including the preservation of 451 acres through the Colorado Cattleman’s Agriculture and Land Trust, as well as caring for the cattle and environment every step of the way.

I wonder whether spending his early years in and around Boulder with its intuitive community sense of environmental stewardship and early and enthusiastic embrace of natural foods influenced Wood. Regardless of the inspiration, Sweetwood recently became Colorado's first ranch in Colorado, and only second in the country, to receive a Verified Green award from the US Department of Agriculture. “We look for operations engaged in sustainable practices, and Sweetwood is unique in a number of areas,” says John Saunders of IMI Global in Castle Rock, which bestows the award for USDA. “From the beginning to when it reaches the consumer’s plate, they’re in control of the entire process.”

At 6,700 feet in the fertile Elk River Valley, Wood’s operation resides in one of the world's best cattle-raising environments. Drinking and irrigation water comes straight from the Continental Divide in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness area. With the valley’s nitrogen-rich soil and 300 days of annual sunshine, the hearty Red Angus herd feeds on grasses that provide a perfect balance of protein and fiber. Growth hormones and antibiotics are not used on the ranch.

Sweetwood’s environmental focus carries through to the processing and packaging. Unlike large suppliers that use Styrofoam, dry ice and plastic, all of Sweetwood’s packaging is either recycled, recyclable or reusable. "We're 100 percent focused on environmental and business stewardship,” says Wood. “I want the Sweetwood ranch to be a model for balance and quality. We hope to be known for how well we tend to our cattle, treat the land and support our community.” Sweetwood Cattle Co’s first retail shipments, delivered in environmentally friendly packaging, shipped on July 1.

August News Notes

2010-08-17T23:12:00.000-07:00

Larkburger Now Open in Fort Collins

Born-in-Edwards Larkburger recently opened its third quick-service gourmet burger restaurant on the Front Range and its fourth anywhere on the planet at 2539 South College Avenue (near the Drake Road). Larkburger's policies and practices are described by such green buzzwords as compostable, recyclable, reused, natural, organic, etc., but the bottom line is that they still turn out some pretty impressive burgers. Launched in Edwards by Thomas Salumunovich, one of the Vail Valley's top chefs (think Larkspur), Larkburger has made its mark in gourmet burgerdom.

Everything's Peachy in Lafayette This Saturday

The 11th annual Lafayette Peach Festival takes over Old Town along South Public Road, the town's main street, on Saturday, August 21, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The highlight are truckloads peaches and also fresh baked goods. Morton's Orchards bring in 30,000 pounds of certified organic peaches from Palisade, and other vendors will be selling 600 fresh whole peach pies, 4,500 individual portions of peach cobbler and more than 2,500 peach smoothies. The fine pirnt on the baked goods reads "while supplies last," and they do sell out. There are all sorts of other vendors and exhibitors, free entertainment and FREE stuff for kids to do. For those who can't or don't care to walk the two blocks from public parking to the festival, there's new FREE pedicab service City Hall at S. Boulder Rd. and Public Rd. to the Old Town.

Denver Celebrates Harvest Week

EatDenver, a consortium of the metro area’s top locally owned restaurants, is offering its third annual Harvest Week August 21-28, celebrating Colorado’s exceptional produce and products.It seems pretty early to me, more like a pre-harvest week, but who am I to say? Each participating restaurant creates a menu that features food and/or beverages grown or produced in Colorado and highlights the style of that particular eatery.Click here for participating restaurants; which are listed on the left side of the page. Click for the menus and other important info.

Doughnuts: The Next Big Food Thing in the Denver Area?

5280 Magazine's Amanda Faison thinks so. In the publication's "Table Talk" bulletin, she opined, "We're quite convinced that doughnuts are the next big thing. Take a look around--from the offerings at D Bar Desserts and Rack & Rye Gastropub to Tin Star Cafe & Donut Haus in Evergreen and Sugar Lips' food truck--and you'll find these delectable treats make a strong showing. (We can hardly wait for The Hole , a beer and doughnut shop on Tennyson Street, to open.) The latest find came during Sunday brunch at Salt Bistro in Boulder. Chef Bradford Heap's house-made glazed doughnuts arrive five to a plate and so hot you'll burn your over-eager fingers. Wait as long as you can and then take a bite--first, straight up to appreciate the sugary glaze, and then dipped into the whipped-cream-topped, cinnamon-spiced chocolate. Ahh yes, heaven.1047 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-444-7258."

Corky Douglass Hosts New Restaurant Show

Corky Douglass, who for moue than 30 years ran Tante Louise, a fine French restaurant just off East Colfax, has a new gig. Last Saturday, "What's Cooking with Corky" premiered from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.a talk station that bills itself, not by its call letters but "101.5-FM "The Truth." He joins Warren Byrne, Pat "Gabby Gourmet" Miller and Mike Rosen talking about Denver area restaurants on the air.

Streetfood Vendors to Throw a Party

Within the last year, food trucks and food carts have escalated from roach coaches calling on office parks and downtown hot dog and burrito vendors to a high-profile segment of the food service biz in Denver and Boulder. Municipalities can wrap vendors up in red tape, so it's no surprise that a consortium of local food truckers call themselves the Justice League of Street Food. They'll be circling the wagons for a streetfood fest on Saturday evening, August 21, Hush-style, the location will be announced in the last minute. Sign up for or check their Facebook page to know where.

Hot Chili at a High Elevation

Costumed chili chefs compete in Winter Park's annual Famous Flamethrowers High Altitude Chili
Cook-Off this weekend. The competition on August 21-22 is literally and figuratively hot as contestants vie for the state title and the opportunity to represent the Rocky Mountain region in the World Chili Cook-Off. judging times are 12:00 noon for Salsa, 1:00 p.m. for Green Chili and 2:00 p.m.for Traditional Red Chili. Top prizes are awarded to in those categories and for the Most Creative Chef. After the judging, the public is invited to taste. Two tickets are $1. Antacid recommended!

Chef Competition Highlights Boulder's Eat Local Week

The FlatIron Chef Competition or maybe the Flat-Iron Chef Competition or perhaps the Flat Iron Chef Competition coming up on Thursday, September 2 seems to have a punctuation identity problem, but there's no confusion at all that this event will benefit local agriculture interests and in the process, support the locavore movement on the Front Range in general and Boulder County in particular. The chef competition is a highlight of Eat Local Week (August 28 to Steptember 4) the Boulder Farmer Cultivation Center, which promotes the preservation of local farmland community support for organic farming here. Participating chefs are Boulder restaurant icons Matthew Jansen (Radda Trattoria and Mateo Restaurant Provencal), Erik Skokan (Black Cat Farm to Table Bistro and Black Cat Farm), and “chef at large” Ayan Rivera. They will use fresh produce from counry farms and, in an Iron Chef format. Judges are John Lehndorff, food writer, editor and blogger, Joan Brett, founder of the of the Culinary School of the Rockies and Peggy Markel, who runs foodie tours via her Peggy Markel Culinary Adventures. The event takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Highland City Club, 885 Arapahoe Avenue. Buy tickets at the door for $25 or in advance online for $20. Anyone want to guess the secret ingredient?

Brace Yourself for Beerfest

The 29th annual Great American Beer Festival, September 16-18, brings more than 2,000 American beers (including examples from 56 new-to-the-festival breweries) and nearly 50,000 beer-lovers to the Colorado Convention Center. The festival is sold out, but the noise and sometimes rowdiness can spill onto the streets, so if you have any other reason to be downtown, be ready for anything. There's a food component to the festival that I'd like to check out, but not being a much of a beer-drinker, I'm happy to dispense with the rest of the fest.

Frasca Spawns Spin-Offs in Boulder

2010-08-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

Three new eateries with Frasca in their gene pool to open this fall

Boulder has a highly toured technology incubator created to bring high-tech businesses into the People's Republic. It has a far more informal "culinary incubator". It's called Frasca Food and Wine, which is not just an award-winning restaurant with a highly decorated chef and master sommelier in charge, but it is also turning out to be mentoring former employees in launching their own businesses.

If you are in Boulder, you might have seen the construction fence blocking the storefront just west of Frasca. The construction will allow for expansion of Frasca itself, including a much-needed larger kitchen and cleanup area, a few more table and a private room for small parties. Adjacent will be a new cafe and new pizzeria run by two guys who had been at Frasca for at least five years, which is to say that they have been mentored by the best -- much as Mackinnon-Patterson and Stuckey worked at Thomas Keller's acclaimed French Laundry in Napa.

Jordan Wallace, who went to Italy to study pizza, will operate the Pizzeria Locale. The plan is for super-thin, super-soft Neapolitan-style crust topped with high-quality, imported Italian ingredients. Travis Vaughn is to operate the small café serving espresso, simple panini, Italian soda and rustic wines on tap from late morning into the evening. Expect authenticity in ambiance and food at both spin-offs.

A few blocks to the west, in space that from 1988 until a few weeks ago housed the 14th Street Bar and Grill, Bryan Dayton, fa ormer Frasca bar manager at Frasca Food and Wine, will is opening his own retaurant too. Dayton is looking at operating beyond the dinner hour for customers looking a drink and a light bite until midnight or beyond. Boulder is currently lacking late-night options. This will provide one..

At this writing, none of these threehatchlings had yet been named -- or at least the names had not been announced.

Little Bear Inn Has Rustic Steakhouse But Serves Broad Menu

2010-08-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Surprising varied menu at steakhouse-style restaurant

I wonder how many people glance at the Little Bear Inn as they speed by on Intestate 25 north of Cheyenne and think, "That place doesn't look like much." Frankly, I don't even remember seeing the boxy off-white building trimmed in brown just west of the Interstate. Maybe I didn't see it because it's partially obscured by trees. Maybe I simply didn't notice it.

But a few weeks ago, I noticed it from the outside and from the inside. Walk in and you see an ode to the Wild West: dark wood walls, trophy heads and framed certificates that the restaurant has won. In one corner of the Little Bear Inn stands a great big bear -- a stuffed grizzly with its imposing claws and teeth showing. Just ahead is a bar, mostly populated by men in Western attire, cowboy hats or at least ball caps included.

The windowless dining room features sturdy come-in-and-set-awhile chairs and big tables, light walls above dark wainscoting, dark ceiling beams and Western-theme light fixtures. Everything about the place says "steakhouse" -- everything but the menu. Sure there are beef and buffalo dishes aplenty, but I was surprised at the variety. Here, in the middle of cowboy country, the Little Bear Inn even brags about its seafood. One of their specialties, according to the menu, is "world famous lobster -- served broiled or fancy fried our world famous way). It's a 7- or 140 to 14-ounced warm-water lobster from Brazil. I was curious but didn't want that much food.

As expected in a steakhouse, there was a lot of fried food, but there options as well. Below are some of the dishes a group of us ordered. I wasn't quick enough to get them all or even to take photos of all the dishes.

Appetizers

The large appetizer sampler platter is a actually a platter with a couple of outliers. Shown below are the onion rings and the celery sticks with four dipping sauces. Other items on the platter are wings, jalapeño poppers, Rocky Mountain oysters, jalapeño bottle caps and mozzarella sticks.

I didn't order the soup, but it was a bean soup of some sort.

Small dinner salad with choice of dressings on the side was fresh but otherwise pretty run of the mill.

Entrees

Fried (or was it "fancy fried"?) walleye (or was the catfish?) with rice pilaf.

I think this was the ribeye, but with two sauces perched on top, it's hard for me to tell.

Platter of fried fish (maybe this was the walleye?) with French fries and enough lemon wedges to assure that the diner does not contract scurvy.

One of the beef dishes is hiding under this mound of Tumbleweed Onions.

Desserts

Price check: Appetizers, $7.95-$9.95 plus $16.95 for a sampler platter; "On the Lighter Side," $7-$17.95; Seafood, $17.95-$36.95; "Center of the Plate," $15.95-$28.95; "Accents" (sauces), $2.95; "Chef Specialties," $14.95-$26.95; "Surf and Turf," $21.95 to market price; "Little Bear Menu" (kids, $4.95-$9.95.All adult dinners come with a choice of a cup of soup or house salad, and are served with a choice of baked potato, homemade French fries, rice pilaf or sauteed seasonal vegetables.

My Feature Story About The Fort

2010-08-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

Colorado landmark restaurant Summer 2010 issue of edible Front Range

I'm a "real writer," not merely a blogger, and my profile of Holly Arnold Kinney appears in the Summer 2010 issue of edible Front Range magazine. Her late father, Sam Arnold, established the restaurant in a massive, custom-built real adobe structure on a hillside south of Morrison. It was also the family home, and Holly's office was once her childhood bedroom. It was fascinating to research the piece, interview Holly about her family and her amazing life and hear her commitment ongoing commitment to maintain to The Fort's traditions and also move it into the 21st century. The quarterly magazine is a must for Colorado foodies who treasure the local, the natural, the organic, the sustainable and the delicious. You can subscribe, or if you can find it, pick up a free issue. If not, visit the magazine's website.

Traverse City's Burgeoning Food Scene

2010-08-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

Locavore movement strong on the shores of Lake Michigan

Many years ago, I spent several days in Traverse City, a prosperous tourist center on the northern section of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. I was on a ski assignment, so there was snow on the ground and nothing green other than the conifers and the traffic lights. As I drove northward around the east side of Grand Traverse Bay to Shanty Creek Resort southward toward Crystal Mountain, I passed dormant orchards and acres of frozen farmland. The small towns and wooden homes reminded me of New England, but with only smaller hills in the region.

In the dim reaches of my mind, I seem to remember that the Traverse City-Petoskey belt was once famous for its maraschino cherries, but that goes back even before my winter visit. I don't recall where I ate or what I ate then, and the words "locavore" and "sustainable" and the phrase "farm to table" had not yet entered the foodie vocabulary.In factm I'm not even sure that "foodie" had been coined. If I had a crystal ball then, however, I could have foreseen that Traverse City could become a culinary destination once people began exploring the country in search of good local food.

My friend Mike Norton of the Traverse City Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose job, of course, is to promote what's new and what's good in his town, sent me the following illuminating communique indicating that indeed, local chefs and bakers are using good, fresh, locally grown products. Here's what he wrote:

Almost overnight, it seems, this bustling resort town on the shore of Lake Michigan has acquired an aura as one of the country’s up-and-coming “foodie towns.”

Food writers, chefs and lovers of tasty food have been flocking here to sample the area’s fabled cuisine. For two years in a row, Midwest Living magazine has listed Traverse City among its Five Top Food Towns -- and this spring Livability.com gave it first-place billing among 200 American cities in its Top 10 list of Surprising Foodie Towns.

Traverse City cuisine is an eclectic, relatively recent movement that borrows freely from other regional styles and relies heavily on imagination, boldness and spunk. But if it has one defining characteristic, that would be a generous use of fresh ingredients from nearby farms, forests, waters and orchards.

From appetizers to dessert, local restaurateurs seem to be on a mission to showcase the best of what the area has to offer. Paul and Amanda Danielson, owners of the fashionable Trattoria Stella restaurant in the Grand Traverse Commons, are leaders in the so-called “slow food” movement, which is all about using fresh local ingredients wherever possible.

Janice Benson, marketing director for Taste the Local Difference, a nonprofit group that serves as a go-between for farmers, restaurants and grocers, says that many chefs now routinely buy from nearby farms and orchards instead of ordering produce that has to be trucked in from hundreds of miles away.

“And this isn’t just folks who look for local strawberries when they’re in season, but who are making a year-round efforts to shop for farm-fresh meat, milk, cheese and other items,” she says. “We have so much wonderful food here that it’s really not hard to do.”

It goes without saying, of course, that many chefs have always relied on the region’s abundance of fresh fruits. Mike and Denise Busley, owners of the Grand Traverse Pie Company, have been featured on the Food Network and earned fans all across the United States, but they know their popular bakery/café wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the fresh ingredients they find all around them.

"We wouldn't be doing this if we had to send to Washington for our apples or cherries," says Mike. "When people come to this area, they want to sample what the locals enjoy, and our job is to deliver that service. Can you imagine what would happen if we didn't use the best, local, fresh cherries or apples in our pies?"

Equally committed to that idea is Dave Denison (above left), owner/chef at Amical, a downtown Traverse City bistro offering French and Italian rustic cooking. Most of the greens, tomatoes, herbs and fruits featured on Amical's menu are supplied by area farmers, while many of the fish that play such a prominent role on the menu are taken from the waters between Charlevoix and Petoskey. Local wines, from northern Michigan's red-hot wine scene are featured prominently, as well.

Down the street, chefs Eric Patterson and Jennifer Blakeslee have made fresh local ingredients the mainstay of their tiny restaurant, The Cook’s House, where 90% of the menu is made with local products. The same can be said of other restaurants outside Traverse City, from the Bluebird and the Riverside Inn in Leland, Blu and the Good Harbor Grill in Glen Arbor, Martha's Leelanau Table and Gusto! Ristorante in Suttons Bay to Pearl’s New Orleans Kitchen and Siren Hall in Elk Rapids and The Boathouse and Mission Table at Bower’s Harbor.

Nor is this movement confined strictly to high-end restaurants. Small tavern-style eateries like Art’s Tavern in Glen Arbor and the Lil’ Bo in Traverse City have creative chefs who are enthusiastic about fresh local ingredients, while some of the region’s largest kitchens – like those at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa and the Great Wolf Lodge – are among the strongest supporters of the local-food movement.

“Certainly, part of it is supporting the local farms and the local economy -- but any good chef will tell you, this is what food is really all about,” says Joseph George, executive chef at the Grand Traverse Resort. “It’s about enhancing and bringing out the pure flavors of the food, as natural and unmanipulated as possible, and that’s why using the freshest ingredients is so important.”

Thanks, Mike, for catching me up. I've been wanting to get out of my recent Rocky Mountain rut and was looking for locavore info from elsewhere.

Nederland's Savory Cafe Satisfies

2010-08-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

Casual restaurant in heart of Nederland raises the bar for local foodies

If the Savory Cafe were down the canyon in Boulder, it would be just another place to get good, moderately food in a casual setting. But it isn't in Boulder, it is in Nederland,and there, it is a special place -- arguably the best in town. It provides yet another style of food that is worth eating, which is not always a sure thing up in small mountain communities. Located in Ned's only shopping center, it serves modern American food is well done without yuppification that would clash with everything else around. The dining room is tiny, and there is limited patio seating too.

I've been there twice within a very short period, once at happy hour with my husband, Ral, and our friend Dave after a hike on a hot, muggy (for Colorado) day and shortly after that for lunch with three women friends en route to the Central City Opera. Below are some of the dishes my companions and I had.

Savory Cafe Visit #1

We shared an order of onion rings that are among the best I've ever had: thick slices of sweet onions dipped in cornmeal batter, fried crisp and served hot.

This unconventional-looking onion soup (where's the pottery bowl? where's the cheese?) is tasty.

Good burger -- richly adorned too with lettuce, tomato, onion, bacon and a sliced pickle.

Heirloom tomatoes, house-made mozzarella and flatbread.

Savory Cafe - Visit #2

My friends and I are not customarily "ladies who lunch," except for our annual excursion to a matinee at the opera. To be faithful to our LWL roles, we ordered four cold, light dishes, the house-made mozzarella with pesto and three different salads -- all fresh with crisp greens, interesting combinations of flavors and pleasing presentations.

Price check: At lunch, starters, salads and sandwiches, from 42 (cup of soup) to $10 (olive oil-poached tuna with salsa verde and sprouts on ciabatta). At dinner, starters $2-$8, sandwiches and entrees, $7-$15.

Culinary Fundraiser for Young Adult Cancer Victims

2010-08-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

Colorado's Spago hosts glamorous event for worthy cause

First Descents, founded in 2000 by Vail kayaker Brad Ludden, is an organization is dedicated to providing a healing week of outdoor adventure young adults diagnosed with cancer. They say that nearly 65,000 adults between the ages of 15 and 40 are diagnosed with cancer every year. With so much of their lives ahead of them, this is a severe blow, and anything that can be done to mitigate the situation, even for a few days, seems very worthwhile. First Descents started with one kayaking camp with 14 participants. Now, it serves more than 140 young adults in six states, and there now 15 adventure programs. This takes funds.

This coming Thursday, August 19, celeb chef Wolfgang Puck hosts a culinary celebration at Spago in the Ritz Carlton, Bachelor Gulch at Beaver Creek to benefit the First Descents effort. Puck’s five-course menu features an array of signature dishes paired with Lewis Cellars world-class varietals from Napa. I was privileged to have been invited to the opening of Colorado's Spago two-and-a-half years ago (click here for my report), and I'm thrilled that I will be at the epicurean tour de force next week. I also skied with Puck and former world speed-skiing record holder Franz Weber (click here), but Puck meets so many people that I doubt he'll remember. I, on the other hand, will never forget.

“We're thrilled Wolfgang will be in town to host this compassionate event with us," said Spago executive Chef Mark Ferguson who is really in charge of making the dinner happen perfectly. "We can’t wait to provide the Valley with an exceptional culinary experience to benefit a great cause close to the hotel’s, and our, heart.”

Thursday's dinner starts at 6:00 p.m. with a cocktail reception hosted by Wolfgang Puck, followed by what I'm sure will be a fabulous five-course dinner presentation and wine pairing at 7:00 p.m. A limited number of the highly coveted tickets are still available for $225 per person, inclusive of tax, gratuity and valet parking. For more information or to make reservations, contact Spago, 970-343-1555 or visit the website.

"Left-Hand Paella" at Boulder's Restaurant 4580, August 13

2010-08-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

Light-hearted promotion of heavy-duty Spanish dish

Paella is taken very seriously in Spain and in places where people from Spain have settled. I was reminded of that recently when I visited Boise, with its substantial Basque population. Hanging on the wall of a wonderful shop/restaurant called The Basque Market are a couple of enormous paella pans, but they are not just for decoration. They are taken down and placed on coffee table-size iron stands (above left) and used at catering jobs. Owner Tony Eiguren acknowledged that paella is not a traditional Basque dish (the Basques being sheep people, not seafood people), but clients often ask for it, so the The Basque Market naturally complies.

Paella Night at Restaurant 4580

I've had "make paella" on my to-do list since I returned from Idaho nearly a month ago. When made right, this complex dish is a production that I don't undertake lightly. With paella in mind, I was tickled by the spin Martin and Susan Hammer, owners of Boulder's excellent Restaurant 4580 + Bar , put a light-hearted, left-handed spin on this fabulous Mediterranean dish. I'm not left-handed, but I might just be there -- or maybe I'll let the lefties have their day and try 4580's paella another time.

Here's the restaurant's announcement:

LEFT-HANDED PAELLA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 13

So to honor the over 38 million left-handed Americans (our daughter Kat is left-handed), Restaurant 4580 will be offering its Limited Edition Left-Handed Paella.

Finally, left-handers can experience truly great paella on their own terms! Delicious paella made especially for them, with ingredients applied in the opposite direction than that used in preparing our usual paellas. Our consultants suggested an additional $2.00 charge for this service, but we have rejected the suggestion and will offer it at the regular price of 17.95! HURRY! DON'T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO BE THE FIRST ONE ON YOUR BLOCK TO ENJOY THIS EXCLUSIVE OFFERING, we're even setting the tables for Lefties!

OFFERED ONLY ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 13th.

We will cease making these paellas once we are out of left-handed rice!

Love it!

Denver Set to Welcome Euclid Hall

2010-08-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Downtown eatery/drinkery opening 8-9-10 at 11:12:13 a.m. is third for Jasinski/Gruitch team

The wait is nearly over for the August 9 opening of Euclid Hall Bar and Kitchen, the third and arguably most ambitious establishment from the talented team of chef Jennifer Jasinski and manager Beth Gruitch. Today's Denver Post business section -- not the food section, but the business section -- ran a front-page, above the-fold feature. Denver Magazine, 5280 Magazine and Westword have all printed anticipatory pieces. Those food writers and bloggers who were invited to a preview tasting a few weeks ago raved about hearty menu, heavy on hand-cranked sausages, hefty sandwiches and even poutine, a Quebecois calorie bomb of French fries, gravy and melted cheese curds -- al exquisitely presented in the best Jasinski style. No surprise that foodie folks loved the distinctive intensely flavored items, and the ambitious beer selection and good wine list add to the appealing mix. The new menu and new dishes again underscore Jasinski's talent in the kitchen, and Gruitch knows how to run a restaurant. They already do a bang-up job at Rioja and Bistro Vendome on Larimer Square. Euclid Hall is around the corner at 1317 14th Street, Denver; 303-595-4255.

El Burrito: A Fort Collins Tradition

2010-08-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

Mexican restaurant at the half-century mark

I'm guessing that when the Gonzales family established El Burrito around 1960, it was a little place geared mainly to workers in nearby businesses -- manufacturing and otherwise. The 50th-anniversart anniversary celebration (with giveaways) is August 29. But locals don't need a party to visit. It draws from the main downtown retail area a few blocks away and Colorado State University a few miles away and elsehwere around. The restaurant's direct neighborhood is still a combination of modest homes and commercial buildings.

Over the years, El Burrito has grown into a sizable restaurant with dining rooms on various levels, which is pleasant because at off hours or at quiet times, relatively few customers are not rattling around in big barnlike space. One is set up buffet-style for weekday lunches. The decor is simple: white-washed walls with a modest amount of Mexican decorative touches, solid tables and chairs and functional light fixtures

El Burrito is celebrating its golden anniversary this summer, reportedly under the ownership of the original family. Some locals have been going there for decades, so for them, the family's recipes define Mexican food. Put into context, Taco Bell was founded in 1962 in California, and until then, Mexican, Tex-Mex and border foods were mainly known to Latinos and to people living in the border states. Now these related cuisines have become mainstream.

Four of us ended up at El Burrito en route back from hiking in Wyoming's Medicine Bow National Forest. We had intended to stop in Laramie for lunch, but very few downtown eating places (and no Mexican places which is what we were in the mood for) are open on Sunday. We therefore altered our trajectory toward Fort Collins. El Burrito is on the north end of downtown, so that was our destination.

The Food

We arrived between the lunch and dinner hours, yet chips, salsa and tall glasses of water came fairly quickly. The rest of the meal service was a tad more leisurely, which might have been a function of the time of day. El Burrito's salsa is pureed to ketchup-y consistency but with spice assertiveness. Like the salsa, the chile con queso is smooth., with nary an identifiable speck of chile in the soup cup full of melted cheese.

Among the four of us, we had one chicken mole entree and one chicken enchilada with mole sauce. The sauce was pumpkin-colored, without a hint of chocolate that very often both flavors and darkens the sauce. We asked the gringo waiter, who said that the restaurant makes the mole according to the owners' family recipe, without chocolate. I asked where the family is from. All he knew was "northern Mexico." In any case, I started doing some research and found several chocolate-free mole recipes, and all included finely ground nuts (peanuts in one, pecans in a second, almonds in a third) and even peanut butter, but couldn't determine their provenance.

The large portion beef fajitas (beef strips, red and yellow peppers, onions, tomatoes) came with rice and/or refried beans on the side and a separate plate of cold condiments (guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, lettuce, tomato) -- and of course, flour tortillas.

Not surprisingly, El Burrito serves several fully loaded combination plates. This long-time favorite includes an enchilada, a tostada, a taco, maybe something else under than blanket of sauce and layer of shredded iceberg lettuce, plus rice and/or beans. The price also includes a sopapilla and coffee or tea.

Price check: Prices are moderate, but I can't quote them. There's no online menu, and I didn't see a take-out menu. Since I kind of expected to, I didn't make notes -- and by the time we were leaving on Sunday, it was raining and we just wanted to get on the road and get home. Sorry.

Favorite Summer Combo: Tomato, Mozzarella and Fresh Basil

2010-07-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

Stuffed tomatoes are my spin on caprese salad

We went to Denver to friends' home for dinner yesterday evening. I was asked to bring a side dish. I toyed with the idea of a pasta or rice dish to go with the grilled chicken that was to be featured, but then I decided on a cold side dish.Then I thought about making stuffed tomatoes -- perhaps with a rice stuffing of some sort. And then I decided cold stuffed tomatoes would work. I love caprese salad, layers of sliced tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil, with or without olive oil and/or vinegar, so I decided to stuff fresh tomatoes with the traditional caprese combo. It was quick to make, traveled well to Denver without refrigeration and was refreshing to eat.

Caprese-Style Stuffed Tomatoes

9 fresh vine-ripened tomatoes
8 to 10 ounces of fresh mozzarella
4 stems of fresh basil
Olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil and drop the tomatoes one at a time. Scald each for 4 to 5 seconds and remove.

2. Slip the skin off each tomato. Cut a small slice from the bottom so that the tomato will sit on a flat plate and a larger slice from the top. Set a few thin slices aside for emergency repairs..

3. Using a grapefruit knife, serrated spoon (i.e., grapefruit spoon) and/or fingers, remove the seeds and the interior pulp "walls." If you happen to punch through the flesh, you can patch it with one of the reserved slices. Set upside down to drain.

4. Meanwhile, cut the mozzarella into squares about the size of dice.Place in a bowl. Cut the basil into very thin strips. Toss with the mozzarella Add oil and/or vinegar, and salt and/or pepper to taste and toss into the mozzarella/basil combo.

5. Place tomatoes on a serving platter and spoon filling into the hollows.

Serves 9.

A Quartet of August Food Fests on the Western Slope

2010-07-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

Steamboat Wine Festival

The seventh Annual Steamboat Wine Festival, August 5-8 kicks off on Thursday evening with an elegant Grand Tasting at the Thunderbird Lodge high on the mountain with incredible views and winds down with a second Grand Tasting at One Steamboat Plaza at the base of the mountain. Between them, they provide opportunities to sample nearly 800 wines, spirits, beers and foods from the region's finest restaurants. The James Foundation's Celebrity Chef Tour is represented at Steamboat by Bradford Thompson and host chef Jon Demel at the Sheraton Steamboat Resort. Also on the schedule are informative wine seminars led by some of the top sommeliers around. Participating chefs include stars Jamey Fader (Big RedF Restaurant Group, Boulder and Denver), Troy Guard (TAG, Denver), Brian Laird (Barolo Grill, Denver), Kate Rench (Cafe Diva, Steamboat), Matt Selby (Best Dipping Grill and Steuben's, Denver), Goose Sorensen (Solera, Denver) and Tyler Wiard (Elways, Denver). In addition to top winemakers, master sommeliers Ira Harmon and Brett Zimmerman impart their wine knowledge at festival seminars. I attended this terrific festival in 2009. Click here for tickets to this year's event.

Mushroom and Wine Festival

I'm afraid I don't know much about the Mushroom and Wine Festival scheduled for August 13-14 at Durango Mountain Resort other than two events among the mushroom-and-wine-themed activities, meals, tastings and demonstrations. A six-course, mushroom-themed dinner with paired wines for each course takes place at the Durango Mountain Club on Friday the 135th at 6:30 p.m. The following day, resort puts on a mushroom-hunting hike with guidance on how to identify edible mushrooms. The hike package includes transportation to and from the hunting area, a guided tour and a box lunch. Reservations: 970-385-2121.

Snowmass Culinary Arts Festival

Overlapping with Durango's event is the first annual Snowmass Culinary and Arts Festival, August 14-15. In addition to such local ("local" meaning Colorado) chefs as Ryan Hardy of Aspen's Montanna at the Little Nell Hotel and Frank Bonanno who owns Mizuna, Luca d'Iatlia and Bones in Denver, the festival is importint two well-known New York chefs. Chef Alfred Portale, a true rarity in 21st century dining, remains wedded to the Gotham Bar and Grill, the Greenwich Village restaurant where he launched his career 25 years ago. Laurent Tourondel, began his culinary career as chef to an admiral (or perhaps the admiral) of the French Navy and is now executive chef BLT Restaurant Group and Bon Appétit's 2007 Restaurateur of the Year. Wine and spirits purveyors and talented artists are also part of the mix.Click here for a schedule of events.

Palisade Peach Festival

The 42nd annual Palisade Peach Festival, August 19-22, includes tours through the orchards, wineries and distilleries. “Feast in the Fields,” a festival favorite, offers guests the opportunity to dine in the orchards on local cuisine paired with local wines (reservations required). Some of Grand Valley’s finest musicians will provide entertainment throughout the event. Other events include an ice cream social and street dance, Thursday, 6:00-9:00 p.m.; Friday through Sunday, Peach Festival at Riverbend Park with music, food vendors, peach cuisine with Colorado chefs, tug of war, alpaca showcase and more; Friday, 7:00- 9:30 p.m., “Feast in the Fields” at Z’s Orchard (reservations required); Saturday, 7:00-10:00 a.m., Lions Club pancake breakfast; 9:00 a.m., Peach Festival Parade; 11:00 a.m.,recipe contest and sample sales; and 7:00-9:30 p.m., “Feast in the Fields” at High Country Orchards (reservations required); Sunday, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. – Palisade Sunday Farmers Market. Click here for a full schedule, including non-food/non-wine activities. Accommodations in Palisade are limited, but nearby Grand Junction not only offers ample lodging but excellent values as well. Click here or phone 800-962-2547 for more information.

Luxury Diner Dishes Up Comfort Food

2010-07-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

Nostalgia reigns in Cheyenne institution known for big breakfasts

The Luxury Diner is luxurious in name only. It serves classic American comfort food, Western-style, in a cute, kitschy eatery tacked onto the Wyoming Motel between Lincolnway, Cheyenne's main east-west drag and the railroad tracks. It's a place where the waitresses call you Sweetie or Honey or Dear, where the portions are large and comfort food spot-on in terms of quantity and quality. Some chain or another uses a phrase something like, "Come in. Go away happy." And that's the truth at the Luxury Diner, where there's often a wait for a table but the fare is certainly worth waiting for. The diner has been around since 1926, when automotive travel along the Lincoln Highway (Lincolnway in Cheyenne and US 30 across the country) was beginning to compete with trains.

The bet part diner, to the left of the entrance annex, is a long, skinny room that was once a trolley car (below), evident when you look up at the ceiling. A counter stretches along one wall with tables along the other wall and the back. (Larger tables are in the room where we entered.) Red and white check tablecloths, black and white tile floors and red curtains add to the retro-look. The walls are hung with memorabilia, including great old photographs that show Cheyenne in its heyday as a train town in the golden age of rail travel. The Union Pacific's main line is just south of the diner, and you still hear freight trains rumbling past. To those who remember when trains served large cities and small towns alike, it is a comforting, familiar sound. To those too young, it reflects the way things once were when rails of steel rather than Interstates and airplanes linked the nation. In addition to the sound of the trains, the throwback decor, the waitresses' style and the look of the place, the prices are also a blast from the past.

But what of the food? Good, hot, hearty and as nostalgic as the trackside and roadside location. They don't know how to do small portions. I tried to get a single Egg Benedict, but the waitress said, "We can't do that, Honey." No "Sorry." No "I'll ask." Just a simple statement of fact, and I liked that. One of my companions suggested getting the full portion and eating what I wanted, but I try hard not to waste food, so I passed on that suggestion and ordered a fruit cup (orange slides, cantaloupe and honeydew melon cubes and a maraschino cherry) and oatmeal ("You want raisins, Dear.") My friends were less modest with their breakfast orders. One selected a pork chop smothered in green chili with fried potatoes, a folded flour tortilla and sour cream.

Just as you can get breakfast all day, you can order lunch in the morning, and one of my companions

launched her day with a grilled cheese sandwich and thick fried potatoes.

Price check: Breakfast items, $1.45 for a single pancake to $6.25 for some of the omelets. Lunch and dinner, sandwiches $3.65 for grilled cheese to $8.98 for a steak sandwich; platters, $6.25 for chicken fingers to $9.95 for a steak sandwich; desserts, 75 cents for a scoop of ice cream to $2.75 for a sundae or house-baked baked desserts. Also, kid's lunch and dinner items, $2;15-$4.50 for ages 12 and under.

The Capitol Grille: Capital Dining in Cheyenne

2010-07-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Plains Hotel's restaurant a perennial Cheyenne favorite

When the Plains Hotel opened in 1911, it boasted a premier location across from Cheyenne's busy Union Pacific Depot. Among the well-known guests were politicians on the campaign trail from the whistlestop era and later, including Tom Dewey, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy, and celebrities in Wyoming to make or promote movies including Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Pat Wayne, Gilbert Roland, Sal Mineo, Ricardo Montalban Jimmy Stewart, Barbara Eden and Debbie Reynolds. Surely, they also dined in the hotel restaurant.

The hotel fell into disrepair, although blocks of rooms continued to be blocked off for Union Pacific crews, long after passenger service was discontinued. The beautiful depot has been restored, and the hotel received a massive makeover in 2002 that included The Capitol Grille, a restaurant whose decor evokes the Craftsman style and whose cuisine, piloted by chef Gary Trehy, is a favorite by government officials, business travelers, legislators during the legislative session and visitors who appreciate the ambiance and the ample portions. Nine of us -- eight out-of-towners and three locals -- certainly did, forking into portions that would fuel a working cowboy.

The Wyoming Quesadilla (below) is not billed as an appetizer to share, but it certainly should be. Large flour tortillas (note plural) are stuffed with onion, jalapenos, black olives, cheddar and pepper jack cheeses and topped with additional cheese and sided with the Tex-Mex condiment trinity of sour cream, guacamole and salsa. And oh yes, add chicken or steak to the filling.

The soup of the day was a takeoff on minestrone, with white beans and mixed vegetables, herbs and cheese. "Hearty" is an appropriate adjective.

The Plains House Salad combines mixed greens, tomatoes, red onions, artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, sprouts, sweet peppers and blue cheese crumbles. There's a choice of thick dressings and two slices of herbed crostini come on the plate. The large salad (top image, below) is huge, and even the small version (bottom image) is sizable.

A raft of crostini come with a spread-your-own topping of finely chopped feta, Greek olive, tomato, red onions and artichoke hearts, and a small ramekin of sun-dried tomato pesto.

Ricotta-stuffed shells are lurking somewhere under this thick blanket of Alfredo sauce, topped with cheese (and maybe crumbs) and quickly browned. This rich-looking dish was ordered at the other end of the table, and I snapped a quick photo but didn't inspect it or remember to ask.

Red meat rules in Wyoming, and the images below show variations on the theme of beef or lamb that is served with a choice of garlic whipped potatoes, baked potato, fried Yukon golds (the kitchen had run out earlier) or cranberry wild rice, plus sauteed mixed vegetables and a sprinkle of chopped parsley on the plate rims. The top photo shows the Rocky Mountain Lamb chops with Bearnaise and marion berry sauces, and the lower one the 14-ounce grilled ribeye.

A steak-size portion of grilled fish is available with the same choice of sides as the meat dishes.

Apple-walnut cheesecake garnished with fresh fruit, whipped cream, mint and caramel sauce.

A mountainous slice of chocolate cherry mousse cake with decorative loops of whipped cream.

Price check: At dinner, appetizers, $7.95-$12.95; soups and salads, $3.50-$6.96; entrees, $9.95-$29.95; desserts, $6.95. The $20 range between the least expensive entree (stuffed shells) and the most expensive (the lamb chops) is worth noting.

Brown Palace Installs Rooftop Beehives

2010-07-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

Honey from above to be served at high tea in the lobby

A colony of honey bees has checked into Denver's landmark Brown Palace Hotel and Spa -- or rather checked onto its roof. The colony's mission is the production honey for the traditional, elegant afternoon tea and hopefully in the future toward signature spa treatments. While past Brown Palace guests have included crowned royalty, the hotel started with its own two resident queen bees supported by a court of 20,000 worker bees that are expected to grow to 140,000 by the end of the summer. The hotel has named this "the Bee Royalty Initiative."

The Brown has long had its own historian, and now it also has hired a dedicated beekeeper, Matt Kentner of Kentner Farms. He removes bees for people who don't want them and sources beehives to local farmers and ranchers who do want them for essential pollination of their crops. He's also a "personal beekeeper" and now is working with the Brown's colony. In the city, the bees buzz around landscaped city avenues and parks dipping into the pollan of flowering trees, bushes and other fblossoms to make honey out of their haul.

Colony collapse, unexpected decrease in bee communities, has been a real concern to growers, and the Brown is doing its part to improve the situation. As Kentner reminds people, “Unfortunately there are a lot of misconceptions about the nature of bees and what crucial roles they play in our food supply and environment. The affects of the decline in bees is extremely alarming and it’s important that we build awareness and do our part to help,”

Toward that held, the Brown Palace has donated two beehives to the Denver Beekeepers Association to assist in establishing hives in the Denver community and has also partnered with Denver Parks & Recreation to plant bee-friendly flowers in the nearby Civic Center Park.

“We’ve worked for years to bring urban beekeeping to fruition in Denver and The Brown Palace has demonstrated a true commitment to fostering these efforts in our community,” according to Marygael Meister, president of the Denver Beekeepers Association.

The hotel is running a "Name the Hives Contest," with contributors of the two winning names rewarded with a weekend getaway at The Brown Palace. Enter by going to the Brown's dedicated Facebook page.

Good Food and Green Practices at Red Feather Lounge

2010-07-19T23:09:00.000-07:00

Downtown Boise eatery raises the eco-bar

When I was researching the book, Culinary Colorado, nearly a decade ago, chefs who used local ingredients were cutting-edge. Now, close-to-home sourcing is common, and cutting-edge chefs are not only sourcing locally but are often growing their own -- and I don't just mean a bit of basil or a clump of chives out the back door. Boise's Bitter Creek Ale House and adjacent Red Feather Lounge, under the same ownership and sharing the same kitchen, raise the eco-bar.

Some people go to either of these places just to drink and nibble, but serious foodies can get some seriously good food there, especially in the swanky Red Feather Lounge. "Just Eat Local" is the restaurant's slogan. The front of the menu -- which customers are invited to "steal" lists the dishes du jour and their prices, and the back lists the regional purveyors by name and location.

Because I was in Boise for a meeting, the schedule was such that I ate twice in Red Feather's wine cellar -- once as part of a mid-day culinary walking tour and once for dinner. Both featured excellent dishes -- and we knew where they were coming from, and thanks to the on-site composting right in the cellar, we knew where the table scraps were going too. Important note: The bins where the worms are doing their work aren't gross and don't smell. Vegetable matter table scraps mixed with shredded newspapers are placed into large bins and covered with tarps. Used paper menus, in fact, become worm food too. At the bottom of each is a line: "THIS MENU TO BE CONSUMER BY THE URBAN WORM." Compost is sifted before being added to soil, and anything the worms didn't finish up is simply added to the next bin.

Reuse, recyle and compost are worthy practices, but people wouldn't be patronizing the Red Feather Lounge if their food weren't so good. Following are some of the dishes on the menu in mid-July:

Basil ricotta gnocchi with preserved heirloom tomato sauce and the sweetest imaginable braised carrots.

Braised Lava Lake lamb riblets from the ranch widely acclaimed at producing Idaho's best grass-fed, 100% organic lamb.

Grilled kale Caesar with shaved Idaho sheep's milk Borrego chese and crushed croutons.

Dad's Smoked Idaho Trout ("Dad" being the owner's father-in-law) with roasted gardlic, red onion, capers, horseradish homage blanc and enormous house-made crackers.

Rosemary and Dijon-rubbed Idaho lamb chops, most likely from Lava Lake, with Yukon Gold potato confit, those fantastic carrots, peas and small amounts of other vegetables.

Turkey casoulet with organic Idaho turkey leg confit in olive oil and summer beans.

Frozen mulberry souffle.

Strawberry shortcake made with poppyseed shortcake, local strawberries, lemon custard ice cream and sweet cream.

House-made beignets with butterscotch dipping sauce and the requisite amount of powdered sugar.

Price check: At dinner,soup and salad, $5-$11; appetizers, $4-$11; wood-fired pizzas, $9-$12; entrees, $8.50-$22; "Pleasures" (desserts), $6. Also three-course fixed-priced dinners with choice of two items per course, $24 for one or $32 to share.

Sour Cherry Spice Cake

2010-07-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hand-picked fruit finds its way into home-made cake

There's a sour cherry tree in the alley around near my house. Every July, I try to pick some some of the cherries and make "something" with them. Yesterday, for a potluck, the "something" was this Sour Cherry Spice Cake, dark with nutmeg and cinammon and moist from the juice that even sour cherries give off.

Sour Cherry Spice Cake

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp.ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp. baking soda
1 cup 2% milk
1 quart sour cherries, stemmed and pitted
Nonstick spray for pan
Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Cream together butter and sugar until light-colored.

2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

3.Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to the butter/sugar mixture, and mix until smooth and creamy.

5.Fold in the cherries.

6. Spray a rectangular 9 by 14 -inch pan (I used Pyrex). Pour in batter. Bake 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

7.Cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle top with confectioners' sugar.

Serves up to 24 when cut into squares.

Note: This recipe can be cut in half and baked for 30 to 35 minutes in a 9-inch-square baking pan.

Saturday is Farmers' Market Day in B-Towns

2010-07-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

Boulder and Boise both boast great famers' markets

Last week, I played hooky from a meeting in Boise and skipped out of the convention center for a couple of hours to explore the city's fantastic Capital City Public Market. It stretches along North Eighth Street between Bannock Street and the Grove Plaza in front of the convention center and also half-a-block or so in either direction on the cross-streets. The plaza itself invites lingering. A band plays, kids splash in a fountain and it is an upbeat scene. Because I live within a short walk of the Boulder County Farmers' Market, my farmers' markets are pretty high, and Boise more than meets them.

It's a fantastic farmers' market with fresh produce, flowers and plants, wines, food carts, breads and other baked goods, artisanal cheeses, prepared foods and an outstanding selection of artisans. Among the fruits, berries are sublime right now (or were last week, anyway), and among the many vegetable stands, I was touched by those staffed by refugees from troubled lands. I spoke to a young man from Somalia who made his way to the US via Kenya. His must be a heart-wrenching story, and I hope that it has a happy ending in the fine agriculatural land of western Idaho or eastern Oregon.

The market operates Saturdays from 9:30:a.m. to 1:30 p.m. until sometime in September. Contact information: Capital City Public Market, P.O. Box 2019, Boise, Idaho 83701; 208-345-5928.

Some Farmers' Market Fotos

Here's a selection of images from this excellent market:

Crested Butte Wine and Food Festival, July 21-24

2010-07-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

Upcoming wine and food fest in one of Colorado's prettiest mountain towns

I was lucky to be invited to the 2009 Crested Butte Wine Festival benefiting the Crested Butte Land Trust, which I wrote about here. Amazing how quickly a year has passed, because the 2010 Crested Butte Wine and Food Festival is coming right up, July 21-24. Last year, which was only the festival's second, it was well run and attractive to top wine distributors, which in turn makes it attractive to wine lovers. Foodies fared pretty well too with a good tasting assortment from local restaurants. (Photo at left by Marc Piscotty, courtesy Crested Butte Wine Festival)

This year's festival again promises top on-site sommeliers, gifted chefs and a variety of wine-themed parties and activities that will let guests sniff, swirl and sip their way through the weekend. The most exclusive events during the Festival are the Chef Dinners, where a roster of award-winning chefs create intimate dinners in private homes throughout Crested Butte. This year, these intimate dinners on Thursday and Saturday evenings feature food by Andrea Frizzi of Il Posto in Denver's Uptown area and David Wooding of Maxwell’s Steakhouse of Crested Butte with sommelier-selected paired wines.

New this year, the festival welcomes the James Beard Celebrity Chef Tour on Friday, July 23. It is one of only 20 stops in the United States. The evening features an incredible multi-course dinner prepared by guest Celebrity Chefs Ryan Hardy of Montagne in Aspen's Little Nell Hotel and Richard Sandoval who founded Modern Mexican Restaurants (including Tamayo in Denver, La Sandia with two in Denver and notable restaurants elsewhere). The host chef is Eric Jaeger of Crested Butte' Resort's conference center.This dinner in Uley’s Cabin, midway up the mountain of Crested Butte Mountain Resort, has limited seating. Considering the few stops, this special evening promises to be exclusive and memorable. Tickets are $200 per person or $375 per couple, with proceeds benefiting the James Beard Foundation.

Back again, of course. is the signature event of any winefest, the Grand Tasting on Saturday, July 24 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. It features hundreds of wines from around the world and hors d’oeuvres from more than a dozen local restaurants. Last year it was held indoors, but this year, it returns to its outdoor venue at the base of the Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Tickets are $70 in advance and $80 day of event (21 years and older only) and $15 for children and designated drivers. Tickets may be purchased online. Guests staying at any CBMR Property during the festival get 15 percent off lodging and Grand Tasting tickets. Two night of lodging at the Lodge at Mountaineer Square and Grand Tasting tickets for two people start at $207 per night. Reservations from Crested Butte Vacations at, 888-280-5724 or online.

As is customary, various restaurants in Crested Butte host a number of special events and parties to celebrate the Wine Festival including wine dinners, seminars and culinary demonstrations. Click here for a full schedule.

Back to the Future at Historic Rhode Island Inn

2010-07-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Grand oceanview hotel serves fresh local food -- like in the old days

When the Ocean House opened 136 years ago, eating locally grown and harvested foods was what people did. Now, this grand hotel in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, has reopened following a $140 million restoration and expansion. I haven't been anywhere near Watch Hill in a long, long time, but I cheer the Ocean Inn's rebirth and am happy that it is committed to farm-to-table cuisine and celebrating what it calls "the true flavors of the Atlantic Northeast." That's a big part of the fare of my Connecticut childhood.

The Ocean House boasts five dining venues, including Seasons, the fine-dining restaurant. Executive chef Albert Cannito utilizes local, estate-grown ingredients from the resort’s own farm, traditional native foraging, local organic produce and ethical use of the seafood for super-fresh naturally prepared and exquisite yet simple cuisine. Chef Cannito tends to his own on-site herb garden for fresh-cut, seasonal flavors both for the restaurants but also as inspiration for the property’s signature spa treatments.

In addition to its own and locally sourced ingredients, the Ocean House has a full-time food forager on its culinary team. That would be Pamela Stone, who serves as liaison between the resort and local purveyors. She is also a Master Gardener, responsible for maintaining the Ocean House’s private gardens, and is a crucial part of the resort’s Culinary Education programming. She escorts guests to the resort’s gardens, to regional farms, to the port to meet local fishermen as they bring in their daily catch and to visit local cheese and wine makers. There were no cheese or wine makers when I was growing up in New England, other than Italian families who made their own wines and the occasional Italian deli that still made its own mozzarella.

Ocean House, 1 Bluff Avenue, Watch Hill, RI 02891; 401-584-7000 or 888-552-2588 (reservations).

Denver's Taste of the Nation Event

2010-07-12T18:14:00.000-07:00

Food and restaurant industry's July 18 Denver fundraiser to end childhood hunger

The Taste of the Nation, Denver's part of Share Our Strength, the restaurant industry's incredibly generous national campaign to combat childhood hunger, takes place on the evening of Sunday, July 18. Dozens of local chefs and mixologists will prepare fabulous food and drinks, sommeliers will pour win e and entertainers will, well, entertain. General admission tickets to this annual bacchanalia are $75, with 100 percent of the proceeds go to Share Our Strength, this year benefiting Operation Frontline Colorado, which teaches nutrition education, cooking skills and financial planning to low-income families and individuals in our community, as well as the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger in Colorado.

The Taste of the Nation always attracts top local restaurants and wine and spirits distributors, so guests dine well while doing good. The event has gypsied around a bit trying out several venues. This year, it takes place from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the totally suitable Mile High Station, 2027 West Colfax Avenue, Denver.

Front Range Food Events NOW

2010-07-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Last-minute on a couple of food evenings coming right up

"Gastro Gone Wild @ Great Divide" - Sunday, July 11, 6:00 p.m. The latest Hush dinner featuring the team from Argyll Gastropub in Cherry Creek. The dinner won't be at Argyll but at the Great Divide Brewing Company, 2201 Arapahoe Street, in Denver. Cost is $85 per person. Signing up on the website is not straightforward, so if you want to reserve a spot, E-mail chance@hushdenver.com and phil@hushdenver.com -- and maybe flag your message as "Urgent." There does not appear to be a phone number. But "hush" is what Hush is all about.
TAG's Community Culinary Fundraiser - Monday, July 12, 5:00-10:00 p.m. This month's Community Culinary event at TAG Restaurant, with 20 percent of owner/chef Troy Guard's food sales going directly to the Children's Hospital Foundation/Courage Classic. in honor of four-year-old Hudson Huckemeyer. 1441 Larimer Street, Denver; 303-996-9985. I don't know what ails littls Hudson, but TAG is always supporting good causes.

Downtown Boise Food and Drink Finds

2010-07-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

Historic candy factory, Basque foodstore and distillery in the heart of Idaho's capital city

BoDo (Boise Downtown) is the Idaho capital city's heir to Manhattan's SoHo, Denver's LoDo and San Francisco's SoMa -- in short, the lively, interesting and renascant center of the city. The domed state capitol anchors it to the north. Boise Centre, the convention facility and adjacent sports arena, and numerous hotels cater to visitors. Outdoor events including "Alive After Five" summer concerts on Thursday evenings, and the twice-weekly Capital City Public Market lure lots of locals downtown too. In addition to restaurants, clubs, shops and gallery, BoDo offers a trio of interesting enterprises for foodies:

Idaho Candy Company

The Idaho Candy Company was established in 1901 and moved into its current building in 1909, is family-owned and would be Idaho's official state candy maker if Idaho indeed had an official candy. Idaho Spud Bars and the smaller Idaho Spud Bites (cocoa-flavored marshmallow coated with dark chocolated and sprinkled with coconut), Old Faithful (milk chocolate peanut butter bar with vanilla-flavored nougat) and Owyhee butter toffee (with or without chocolate) are made from traditional recipes in the downtown factory. Much of the machinery is vintage, and much is still hand-made. The factory is undergoing such refurbishment as refinishing the hardwood floors and repainting brick walls, so a group of us given a tour.

The company is now run by Dave Wagers, shown in obligatory hair net even though the factory was not operating the day I visited because part of the hardwood floor was being replaced . His business card doesn't say "President" or "Chief Executive Officer" but "Candyman." You can buy his Owyhee Brand Candy in a small factory store at 412 South Eighth Street; 208-342-5505.

The Basque Market

Tony Eiguren, whose grandfather immigrated to Idaho from northeastern Spain at the age of 16 to herd sheep, and his wife Tara McElhouse-Eiguren, who is Basque by marriage rather than ancestry, own the delightful Basque Market. They sell light fare and tapas (like the delicious pimento-flecked tortilla wedges below) to eat in or take out, imported packaged foods and wines, a refrigerated case with cheeses and sausages and Basque pottery. They also have a catering operation. Their most common request is for paella, which they prepare in the largest paella pans I've ever seen. The Basque Market also offers cooking classes. The next one is a paella and tapas class on August 26 for $30, which by Colorado standards is a bargain, There's a huge map on the walls of Basque lands that span the Franco-Spanish border and the Pyrennes. The geography lesson is free. The store is at 608 W. Grove Street; 208-433-1208.

Bardenay Restaurant

Right next door is Bardenay and Distillery, which looks like a pub, serves food like a good restaurant and boasts the nation's first federally licensed distillery in a restaurant. The hoops that owner Kevin Settles has to go through to distill vodka, gin and rum continue to be daunting. But he is up to the challenge. In addition to the downtown Boise location at 610 Grove Street, 208-426-0538, there are also Bardenay Restaurants in Eagle and Coeur d'Alene -- each also distilling a different spirit.

Culinary School of the Rockies Sold to Illinois Firm

2010-07-07T05:22:00.000-07:00

Boulder cooking school promises business as usual -- and a future as an Escoffier school

The Daily Camera headline above the fold on page 1 reads, "Culinary School of the Rockies sold to Ill. firm." The story is the final chapter on Joan Brett's ownership of what she started as the Cooking School of the Rockies nearly two decades ago in her kitchen offering classes for home cooks. The school long ago outgrew her kitchen and is a major presence in South Boulder's Table Mesa Shopping Center. It still offers hands-on and demonstration classes for home cooks and became the Culinary School of the Rockies with the introduction and growth of its professional culinary tracks. Since 1996, Culinary School of the Rockies professional program has graduated more than 900 students. More 100 students are expected to graduate this year, and the school offers more 160 classes annually to home cooks (including the knife skills class, above left).

It was not a forced sale. Brett has pulled back from day-to-day management some years ago and has candidly said that she was looking for a suitable buyer in order to ease into retirement and especially spend more time with her grandkids. The right buyer turned out to be Triumph Higher Education Group (Triumph HEG), which the CSR's press release described as "a seasoned Chicago-based management group dedicated to developing global post-secondary educational institutions."

Triumph already owns the Culinary Academy of Austin in Texas and reportedly intends to acquire other culinary/cooking schools. If all goes according to plan, Triumph will be re-branding the Culinary School of the Rockies as the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts that, again according the press release, will be "a professional school for culinary and baking, it will offer a rigorous, accelerated program focused exclusively on classical culinary training and proficiency in the skills and techniques sought by employers. The school will combine CSR's outstanding programs and its emphasis on local sustainable cuisine with interactive delivery, distinguished instructors, and affordable tuition."

The Colorado school would presumably then be Triumph's flagship in the Auguste Escoffier Schools of Culinary Arts in the United States and internationally, affiliated with the Escoffier Foundation and Museum headed by Michel Escoffier, great-grandson of Auguste Escoffier, the icon of modern French cuisine. Michel Escoffier has been in Colorado at the Broadmoor's Salute to Escoffier dinner.

Brett will remain at CSR as a consultant, and the announcement indicated that CSR's Culinary Arts, Chef Track, Pastry Arts, Pastry Track and the Home Cook Classes that started the whole thing will all remain in place. The school will continue to demonstrate its support for local agriculture by buying from local artisans, farmers and producers, so expect to find representatives, food samples and recipes at the Boulder County Farmers' Market. "We are committed to becoming an active member of the Boulder community, and look forward to serving students and employers, as well as community organizations, while supporting the local economy." said Jack Larson, executive chairman of Triumph HEG, in a pro forma buyer's statement. Let's all hope so.

West End Tavern on the 4th of July

2010-07-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

Upscale American comfort food at Boulder pub

July 4, 2010, did turned out to be gray, cool, partly drizzly and eventually gully-washing stormy. No hail in West Boulder, but some of the southern and eastern Denver suburbs were pummeled. We and friends were hoping to go to Folsom Field on the University of Colorado campus to watch the fireworks up close. We were stopping downtown for a bite to eat en route to the stadium, but the weather persuaded us that televised fireworks were better.

We had originally hoped for an outside table, but given the quick change (for worse) in the weather, we were lucky that we scored a booth at The West End Tavern, enjoyed some holiday drink specials. There's beer, of course, but the Red, White and Blue Slushie seemed appropriate for this day -- as did a single-tone Watermelon Cooler garnished with fresh watermelon -- even though the last thing anyone needed was a cooling drink.

And then there was food -- comfort food on the Fourth. Below, an enormous fillet of Rocky Mountain trout swimming upstream in orange BBQ sauce.

Lightly blackened mahi mahi on a wheat bun with salad, pickle and a lot of sauce on the side. House-made slaw is part of the sandwich, between the bottom of the bun and the fish.

Smoked short-rib burger with cream cheese mashed potatoes, some slaw, excellent beans and an American flag.

The market BBQ selection is so large that it comes on two platters. It includes ribs, pulled pork, hot Links, brisket, pork belly baked beans, slaw and Texas toast.

Eating My Way Through Palestine

2010-07-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

Middle Eastern specialties are served in plain and fancy places

I recently returned from a week in the Holy Land -- mainly in the West Bank/Palestine but also in Jerusalem, and I think I'm suffering from hummus withdrawal. Hotel breakfast usually includes foods we normally think of for lunch or dinner: platters of sliced cucumber, sliced tomato, olives, sliced meat, cheese and the like.

Lunches and dinners are often pretty similar. The pattern such cold dishes as hummus (often topped with some extra olive oil and spices, herbs or whole chickpeas), tabbouleh, Turkish salad (finely chopped tomatoes, onions, and perhaps something else, plus spices), fava beans, various herbed yogurt and sour cream dishes, tossed salad, eggplant, pickles and more.

The generous main course is lamb, beef or chicken (in a stew, sliced or on a skwere) served with rice pilaf (usually) or bulgur (occasionally). The meal ends with a small dessert (often sweet watermelon), but occasionally a baked dessert. Some meals are served buffet-style, others not. Below is a random selection of images from foods I enjoyed during my week.
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Air Fare

2010-07-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

The food is definitely better in the front cabin of the plane on long international flights

On a recent trip to the Middle East, which involved flying from Denver to Newark, where I had a four-hour layover before a lo-o-o-o-ong flight to Tel Aviv, I parked my inner cheapskate and used miles (30,000 each way) and money ($500 eastbound, $350 westbound) to upgrade from the caboose section of Economy to Continental's Business/First. The idea of a seat that lies flat on theses flights, both overnighters, held immense appeal. I wanted to be as rested as possible for what would be an intense, fast-paced visit to the Palestine/West Bank portion of the Holy Land.

It was almost midnight EDT when my flight took off from Newark, and even though I was still on a Mountain Zone time clock, it was "tomorrow" before the meal was served. First came a cloth to cover the tray table and real stainless flatware wrapped in a napkin, and soon a hot, moist towel was presented. Then, a small bowl of warm nuts arrived to nibble with cocktails or wine.

Dinner began with a salad with a choice of two dressings and optional shrimp or crabmeat, a bowl of soup, fresh fruit for whenever, a glass of water and individual glass salt and pepper shakers. A flight attendant brought around a basket of bread and rolls, which she served with tongs.

There was a choice of four entrées. I chose the spice-rubbed grilled chicken breast, with mustard barbecue sauce, steamed jasmine rice, pickeed cabbage, vegetables and half-lemon wrapped in mesh -- a civilized little touch.Other options were stenderloin steak, grilled striped bass or a bowl of pasta and vegetables.

A cheese and fruit course followed and after that a dessert cart, but I declined both, transformed my seat into a flat bed, turned off the light, used my noise-canceling headphones plugged into the airliner's classical music channel, pulled the featherbed over me and went to sleep.

Culinary School of the Rockies' Ice Cream Sandwich Recipe

2010-06-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Cooking school's timely Fourth of July sweet treat + first-ever recipe contest

I was traveling all last week with no time to post, no notes from recent culinary experiences and no access to my image files on the netbook I had with me. I'm still trying to catch up and will start posting on my usual topics ASAP. Meanwhile, I am grateful that a Culinary School of the Rockies recipe for home-made ice cream sandwiches landed in my inbox.I'm not sure why they're desribed as "sparkler" sandwiches, except that it's almost the Fourth of July, and I haven't made them myself, but they look like all sorts of fun to prepare -- and I'm sure they're tasty too. So with thanks to CSR, here's the recipe:

Chocolate Sparkler Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients

1½ cups all purpose flour

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup large sugar crystals (optional)

1 pint ice cream, any flavor

Method

1. Whisk flour, cocoa powder and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla extract. Beat in sugar in 3 additions. Add egg and beat until blended.

2. Add dry ingredients and beat just until blended (dough will be sticky). Divide dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Using plastic wrap as aid, form dough on each into a 3 inch diameter log. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate dough until well chilled, at least 2 hours. (Dough can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

3. Preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap cookie dough logs; roll briefly on work surface to form smooth round logs in sugar crystals, if desired. Cut logs crosswise into ¼-inch-thick rounds. Place rounds on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies until tops and edges are dry to touch, about 8-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and let cool completely.

4. Once the cookies cool, spread a large scoop of ice cream onto one cookie and sandwich with another cookie to adhere.

5. Continue until all the sandwiches have been made and return to a cool baking sheet. Freeze the cookies for about 1 hour or until the sandwiches are fully frozen

Yield: About 12 ice cream sandwiches.

CSR Ice Cream Recipe Contest

It you think you have a great ice cream recipe using local ingredients, enter CSR's "Splendid Scoops!" recipe contest, the school's first. They say, "All you need is creativity in the kitchen and a trip to the farmers' market to churn the winning bowl." Contestants must use at least one local ingredient. Submit the recipe and photos to office@culinaryschoolrockies.com for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to the CSR, $100 in Boulder County Farmers' Market bucks and a spotlight on the school's home cooking blog. Deadline is July 23.

Winter Park Chocolate Festival

2010-06-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Still on hiatus, but feel driven to post about chocolate

The Village at Winter Park hosts the first Winter Park Chocolate Festival, Saturday June 26 from 10 a.m. to 5 p m. Admission is free to browse more 20 vendors of fine chocolates, truffles and wine. If I were there, I'm sure I'd find the $10 tasting tickets irresistible. The event kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday June 25, when the original Violet Beauregard from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" speaks before a free outdoor viewing of the movie during the weekly Coca-Cola Family Movie Night. Bring a blanket and come early for a good place on the lawn. Then, on Saturday June 26, there will be live music, a pudding eating contest, another chance to meet Denise Nickerson, chocolate and wine pairings and a cooking demo. Make a sweet weekend of it with a 20 percent off lodging package at the resort.

Winter Park Chocolate Festival Schedule

Friday, June 25
7:30 p.m. Zephyr Plaza, Meet Denise Nickerson, Original Violet Beauregard (Blueberry Girl) from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," followed by free outdoor viewing of the movie.

Saturday, June 26
10:00 a.m. The Village at Winter Park, free event admission, $10 sampling tickets

11:00 a.m. Hands-Free Pudding Eating Contest

12:00 noon. Denise Nickerson, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" actor, “My Life as the Blueberry Girl”

Immediately following. Live music by Wonderlic

1:00 p.m. Truffle Competition Awards

2:00 p.m. Truffle Demo with Chef Trusan

3:00 p.m. Chocolate and Wine Pairing Demo with Julie Pech

3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Wine Tasting

On Hiatus Until the End of June

2010-06-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

Have you missed me while I've been gone from blogging?

I an in Palestine/West Bank on a media vsit right now, and I'm afraid that I left a backlog of upcoming posts: a girls' dinner at Vesta Dipping Grill, being a judge at the first Taste of Elegance Food and Beer Competition, an interest grill-off at Mountain High Appliance's and more. This weeeklong itinerary is packed, and I haven't had time to do my usual posts. Also, I can't seem to upload photos onto this blog.

Let this hold you till I get back home:

Fantastic hummus, served with a little olive oil and who chickpeas on top
Great falafel, fried crisp and even on the ourside and soft and flavorful inside
Hot peppers
Grilled eggplant
Fresh salads, usually with salty feta, fresh tomatoes, cukes and a light dressing
Puffy pita
Yummy yogurt

Keep ceating till I return. - Claire

Culinary Colorado Passes Visitation Landmark

2010-06-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

Sometime late on Monday, when I wasn't paying attention, this blog surpassed 250,000 visitors. Page views are approaching 400,000, and the average length of visit is 1.6 minutes -- enough to read one of my longer posts from beginning to end or to skip to another page or two. Thanks to all who have visited, read and commented.

The Place for Pierogis

2010-06-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

The Eggcredible Café serves comfort food with an eastern European twist at breakfast and lunch

You can get scrambled eggs and waffles and pancakes and French toast and and breakfast burritos and various versions of eggs Benedict in just about any breakfast place around. But the only one I know of to get pierogis, those fantastic filled dumplings from Poland, is the Eggcredible Café on the second floor of the Days Inn on South Boulder Road. Last weekend was wetter than a hunting dog who's just fetched a duck, so hiking was out of the question. Eating, however, is never out of the question, so we had a late breakfast at this fastidious restaurant. Call it brunch if you wish.

Guests are seated aturdy oak tables and chairs in this light airy restaurant with unusual decotative elements. If the owners were not Eastern European, Polish in fact, whose cultural tastes run to bright folk-art colors, small designs and flowers, I'd call the decor "old lady." But in Poland, that pleases the eyes of young and old alike, and it pleased me too. The traditional dress and fringed scarf pinned to one wall probably belonged to a family member. In addition to the high ceiling, there areenormous windows looking southeast to Boulder Open Space.

I had to have the pierogis, which come nine to an order -- all strawberry, all blueberry, all vanilla farmer's cheese or a a plate with three of each. They circle a cup of fresh fresh, alternating with little squirts of cinnamon-sprinkled whipped cream, which melt really fast. In fact, I wonder whether it was real whipped cream or ersatz, but it spread out like the Wicked Witch of the West into a white pool before I even made a dent in the fruit. The pierogis are heavenly. The dough is soft as fresh, home made noodles. It is filled and folded, not unlike a wonton, boiled and served. Of the three excellent fillings, the vanilla farmer's cheese was my favorite -- probably because of its strong resemblance to the sweet-cheese-filled Austrian Palatschinken of my childhood.

My husband likes pancakes, eggs, bacon and butter, so The Sunrise was a no-brainer -- two pancakes, two eggs (he asked for them over easy) and strips of bacon (sausage patties are an option) with a goodly portion of home-made honey butter and a twist of fresh orange on top.

Price check: Breakfast entrées, $6.29-$9.89; sides, 75 cents to $2.99.

Zino is Ba-a-a-ack in Edwards

2010-06-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

Resurrection of popular Italian eatery west of Vail

The first restaurant at the west end of the then-new Edwards Riverwalk was Zino, an Italian restaurant with a great patio overlooking the river, a bocce court on the lawn and a warm, wonderful two-level indoor dining room. Restaurateur Kevin Clair, who also owns Sweet Basil in Vail, broke trail for fine dining in Edwards. In 2003, Zino closed, and the space in turn was occupied by the River House, Frites and most recently Rick and Kelly's American Bistro space. Now it's gone and Zino is back, with Clair, Giuseppe Bosco and executive chef Mike Irwin as partners. A decade or more ago, patrons were content with good versions of standard Italian food, but now, tastes have sharpened, and the kitchen will be making its own Burrata and its own pastas.

Nop website yet, so stay tuned for more information. 27 Main Street, Suite 101 Edwards; 970-926-3423.

Still Loving Lucile's

2010-06-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Lucile's is a corner of of Louisiana on a Boulder side street

Lucile's Creole Café opened in Boulder in 1980 (that's 30 years ago, food fans). The first chef had worked at Commander's Palace in New Orleans, a powerful credential when it comes to authentic Creole fare. Lucile's eventually expanded to four Front Range locations, each awash with casual charm and warmth, and all serving breakfast and lunch.

The downtown Boulder location is where I got together for breakfast with three representatives of Utah skiing who were in Colorado for face time with media here. There's a lot of Louisiana to Lucile's, but a lot of Boulder too. Therefore, you can get café au lait or housemade chai, or pain perdu with an egg and sausage or eggs scrambled with spinach, tofu and ginger and topped with sesame carrots with whole wheat toast. In addition to Boulder, there are Lucile's in Denver, Longmont and Fort Collins, each with a slight different menu.

We started with beignets, puffy hollow yeast pastries with a thick coating of powdered sugar that are a N'Awlins signature. Likening them "donuts" is an insult. They come four to an order, which was perfect for our foursome.

The New Orleans Praline Waffles are an ode on a plate to Louisiana. The thick waffle made of pecan batter waffle is topped with chopped pecans, fresh strawberries and a whole big mess of fresh whipped cream. It is served with praline syrup.

The Boulder expression of Lucile's duality is represented by the Totally Organic Breakfast. Scrambled are served with spinach, tofu and ginger and topped with julienned sesame carrots. The toast is whole wheat. Impaled into the top of the dish: chopsticks.

The awesome oatmeal and gorgeous granola are similarly presented (different patterns and proportions of sliced strawberries, sliced banana and a blackberry) and comparably healthy.

Price check: At breakfast, Beignets, $3.95 for four; breakfast entrées, $6.05-$13.50; sides, $1.50-$7.95; beverages, $2.10-$4.80.