Ben Paynter, a staff writer for The Pitch from 2003 through 2007, won in the Environment, Food Politics and Policy category for his Fast Company piece, "The Sweet Science."
"A lot of what I write is science and technology stuff, but I have a huge passion for food. I've even written about Cargill before and how they save offal from slaughterhouses in order to repackage it. This story was a nice way to combine those two passions," Paynter says.
Fat City caught up with him to learn more about his story on the sweetener Truvia (you can read it here), the awards night on May 4 at Gotham Hall in New York City, and what's next for the writer who still lives in Kansas City.
Harvest Public Media delves into Boeckmann's farm as a way into a discussion of what the farms of the future might look like. The story looks at how the tension between ecology and economy is being played out, not just on neighboring farms but on one farmer's single tract of land.
Houlihan's has six locations in the Kansas City area, plus J. Gilbert's in Overland Park. It also runs two Bristol Seafood Grill restaurants in Leawood and the Power & Light District. The chain has six total concepts, including the Braxton Seafood Grill, Chequer's Seafood Grill and Devon Seafood Grill. If you want to know about the history of one of the signature Kansas City franchises, Charles Ferruzza wrote back in November about Houlihan's early years and its life after the Plaza.
The Kansas City chef, who owns and operates Bluestem with wife, Megan Garrelts (the restaurant's pastry chef), has been a finalist in the Best Chef: Midwest category for the past five years. But when the winner was announced, it was Tory Miller of L'Etoile in Madison, Wisconsin (here's his recipe for apple brown betty with maple-bacon frozen custard). A complete list of the winners can be found here.
Under the ordinance, mobile vendors must be at least 60 feet from "brick and mortar" restaurants, although food-truck operators could receive special dispensations for festival or events to open sooner or park in a restricted location. There's the Rolling Cafe — the food truck arm of the Neighborhood Cafe that dishes up breakfast goods and a cinnamon roll with every order. It's unclear if Apollo's Gyros is actually rolling yet. Anyone been to another food truck in Lee's Summit?
According to a piece in the Kansas City Business Journal, the plant at 701 Broadway is expected to close next month. Parent company J.M. Smuckers announced in March 2010 that it would close the plant, which at the time employed 179 people, and move the production facility to New Orleans.
After weeks of negotiations, chef Ray "Pete" Peterman signed a lease yesterday with developer Greg Patterson to take over the venue at 900 West 39th Street — the location of the former Pangea, Caliente Grill and Amor Picante restaurants. It's been five years since Peterman, voted "Best Chef" in the 2004 edition of The Pitch "Best of Kansas City" issue, closed his second restaurant, S.O. Redux in Columbus Park. Since then, Peterman has worked at a country club and two hotel kitchens, but has been planning for several years to open a restaurant focusing on regional cuisine.
"The food is going to be about the foods of Missoura — with an a," he says.Peterman will own and operate the restaurant with his wife, Heatherrose McBee Peterman. After considering several possible names, the Petermans have decided to call the venue — scheduled to open in mid-May — Peanches. That's right, peaches with an additional n.
"That was how my mother called peaches," Pete Peterman says. "The place will be kind of a tribute to her."
Peterman's mother, Barbara Dustin, passed away in January. She was always a big supporter of her son's restaurants, right down to sewing the tablecloths for Peterman's first restaurant, the Sour Octopus, in the Northland.
The little restaurant inside the Visitor Education Center at Powell Gardens, Cafe Thyme, has never been renowned for its cuisine. In fact, during the years that the cafeteria-style dining area was operated by corporate food-service giant TreatAmerica, the food and service were both so dreadful that I refused to eat there anymore. I vowed that I would eat flower petals from the gardens first.
Last year, Powell Gardens hired society caterer Lon Lane to run the food-service operation at the facility, but that relationship was short-lived. Last week, a new chef took over the Cafe Thyme kitchen: Michael Foust, the chef and owner of the Farmhouse restaurant at 300 Delaware in the River Market.
"Michael took over the restaurant on March 2," says Karen Case, marketing director at Powell Gardens. "We're very excited."
Not as excited as I am. I love going to visit Powell Gardens. But until now, I would pack a lunch to eat on the way. (I completely missed out on the tenure of the talented Lon Lane.)
"We've been playing around with it on the farm, and a rogue strawberry escaped. We used a vanilla container just because it was what we had on hand," Shatto says.
Milk & Honey has the best I've had in KC. http://milkandhoneykc.com/
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