Last evening, six local chefs competed for the Golden Fork Award at the Pitch's Taste of Kansas City event, held in the KC Live Block of the Power & Light District. Chef and restaurateur Jasper Mirabile Jr. served as emcee for the Iron Chef-style competition where the competing chefs were given a limited bag of ingredients - in this case, the items included pork, kosher salt, figs, balsamic vinegar, a tiny bit of cream, fingerling potatoes, fresh herbs (saffron, rosemary, cumin and chives), canned artichoke hearts, lentils, capers, and rice - and had 75 minutes to complete a dish to be judged by me, food blogger Emily Farris (FeedMe KC) and culinary instructor and caterer Mary Berg.
Charles d'Ablaing of Chaz on the Plaza, the Raphael Hotel's dining venue, was voted the top contender, with chef Bobby Stearns taking second-place honors and EBT Restaurant's Tate Roberts voted for third place; the other competitors were Beth Barden of Succotash; Michael Foust of the Farmhouse; and last year's winner, Jesse Vega of the Our Lady of Mercy Country Home.
Back in January, Charles Ferruzza broke the story that Magnolia was going into the empty spot on Cherry Street, and McAfee promised that this wouldn't just be standard Southern fare.
"My dishes are Southern cuisine for the Food Network generation," McAfee told Ferruzza.
When you're caught in the throes of a Chinese craving, who's cooking for you and what's the dish you're eating?
Eater has the story of the 150-minute wait that folks were willing to endure at Doughnut Vault in Chicago, which has been named the number one doughnut shop in the country by Food & Wine. Werner's gets a pretty good line (but it moves quickly) around noon on Saturdays for their sausages, and it's rare that the Oklahoma Joe's line doesn't extend into the parking lot. What's the longest you'd be willing to wait for food?
Former Kansas City restaurateur Sean Cummings, best-known for his Grille on Broadway restaurant, called Fat City today to report that his friend and original chef, Lorenza "Poco" Guiterrez, the owner of the beloved Poco's on the Boulevard restaurant at 3063 Southwest Boulevard, passed away after a long illness.
"Poco wanted to live the American Dream," Cummings says, "and she did. She opened her own restaurant and ran a food-truck business. She was an amazing woman."
Fat City will report on funeral arrangements when the information becomes available.
I have eaten more than my share of unappetizing dishes in my day - mostly crow. And dirt? Well, considering my notorious clumsiness, I've dropped God only knows how many doughnuts, hot dogs and deep-fried Twinkies on the ground over the years and still eaten them. And to paraphase Stephen Sondheim: I'm still here.
I don't believe I've ever seen dirt listed as a menu ingredient before I dined at chef-owner Martin Heuser's German bistro, Affare, last night. The small-plate menu includes a salad with an array of fresh greens, asparagus stalks, paper-thin radish slices, flower petals and edible soil. Did I read that correctly?
Yes, according to our server, Josh (formerly of the Brookside Avenues Bistro, like about half of the servers here), who explained that edible soil is not a dirty little secret but a concoction of portobello mushrooms, cocoa, almond oil and chopped almonds. It looks like high-grade mulch and tastes kind of chewy, a little nutty. I wouldn't want to make, you know, a meal of it.
The cast of a local radio program focused on restaurants - yes, including myself - will blab on the art of food writing tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Arts Bar at 3611 Broadway. The gabfest will be "presented in a talk-show format." For radio fans of Mary Bloch, Gloria Gale, Chris Becicka and Emily Farris, they're scheduled to be in attendance. There is no cover charge.
The Golden Ox and I don't have a long history. I've danced with the restaurant's prime-rib sandwich and enjoyed an unironic Old Fashioned at its bar. But I do have a soft spot for the steer horns above the kitchen, the beaded booths and a dining room that is an unabashed love letter to steak. So my ears perked up when a delightfully generic commercial host informed me that Wal-Mart was doing a ""Steak-Over" (a meat-based makeover?) at the Golden Ox.
Who satisfies your craving for Chinese?
Magnolia's Contemporary Southern Bistro is good for your soul
Chef Charles d'Ablaing wins 2012 Golden Fork Award
Five strawberry dishes to herald the coming of strawberry season
Exotic Cantonese flavors spice up bedtime at ABC Cafe
Steered wrong: Golden Ox shouldn't have gone for the Wal-Mart 'Steak-Over'
Eat flowers — and dirt — at the new Affare
Kansas City's restaurant scene is revving up for summer