Nosh Pit

Holly Smith Faces Her Stiffest Critic Yet at the Great American Family Dinner Challenge

A boy from Ohio proves one picky eater at the glitzy Washington, DC, cook-off.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Nov 30, 2011 at 12:38PM 0 Comments

Holly Smith and Maria Hines represented in the Great American Family Dinner Challenge.

Holly Smith has faced some tough judges, but on Wednesday Tuesday evening she met her pickiest one yet: a boy from Toledo, Ohio, named Austin.

“He spit all but two dishes out,” laughed the chef and owner of Cafe Juanita during a Wednesday morning phone call.

Smith is referring to the meal she and a handful of chefs made for the Great American Family Dinner Challenge in Washington, DC. The affair was part of the first-ever Building a Healthier Future summit, a two-day forum put on by the Partnership for a Healthier America.

The cook-off was one of several marquee events (Michelle Obama’s speech probably takes the title of headliner—even chefs can’t trump the First Lady), and had Smith and Ming Tsai facing off against Tom Colicchio and Seattle’s Maria Hines (Tilth, Golden Beetle). The four James Beard winners were tasked with making a meal in 30 minutes with only $10, the idea being to demonstrate how to cook healthy with a food-stamp budget.

It went down in the Regency Ballroom. There, side-by-side kitchens—“pretty straightforward kitchens,” noted Smith (the gig was meant to simulate real life, remember)—faced a crowd of 800. That’s the most people Smith has cooked before. Nerve-wracking? Nah. “I don’t care about a stage. It wasn’t about the judges. It was about the 800 people watching” and the conversations they were having.

Those judges included Austin and his single mother and another family from Maryland. They all weighed in on the two teams’ creations but it was the budding boy gourmand “who really took over.” A kid spitting up food and making gaggy faces is a good barometer of what is and isn’t working.

Smith made quinoa with veggies and herbs and quick-braised chicken thighs; her partner Tsai a salad and parfait dessert. Ultimately it was a Jello creation crafted by Colicchio that won over Austin, giving Colicchio and Hines a nine-point edge over their competitors.

“But he did eat three bites of my chicken,” beamed Smith.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Seattle Chefs

Does a TV Appearance Boost a Food Truck’s Business?

Not surprisingly, the answer is yes. But by how much?

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Nov 10, 2011 at 01:29PM 0 Comments

Photo: Lucas Anderson

Marination’s Kamala Saxton, TV star.

Recently Lee Scott of Snout and Co. found himself filming with the show Eat St. It’s not the first time the street food series has shot in these parts. Last year Where Ya At Matt landed considerable camera time, as did the ladies of Marination, Roz Edison and Kamala Saxton.

By this point those two were old hands at TV hamming—you’ll recall they made quite an impression on Good Morning America. Curious to learn how airtime affects business, I asked Saxton, What can Scott expect after his episode screens?

A surge in sales. “It happens almost immediately,” Saxton says of the boom in customers. She estimates sales climbed by 25 to 35 percent post-broadcast. When a rerun airs there’s also an increase.

Getting recognized in random places. Saxton recalls trying on shoes in Vancouver, BC when a salesperson stopped and asked, Do you sell tacos? She still occasionally gets comments.

Long, long lines. Other mobile outfits have found the onslaught of new customers disastrously overwhelming. Saxton didn’t find the response that unbearable but acknowledged: “There’s a good chance you’ll run out of food on a nice day.” Couple that with national attention and “you’re guaranteed to run out of food.”

A host of out-of-towners. Saxton largely credits the business boom to visiting gastrophiles. (She still laughs about the 75-year-old woman who saw the truck on the boob and came for tacos.) “It’s great for the city and obviously great for the business,” Saxton says. But when the lines are long and you’re running out of food, you have to be careful not to alienate your bread-and-butter base. “There is this feeling that I’ve got to feed the city I’m doing business in.”

More attention from national media. In December or January Marination is slated to appear on Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods. Marination also was spotlighted in Zagat’s best restaurants roundup for 2011.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Street Food, Seattle on TV, Seattle Food Trucks

Michael Mina Thinks Seattle Diners Are…

You know you want to know what the bigshot San Francisco chef who made Seattle the site of his 19th restaurant, RN74, really thinks of us.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Oct 17, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Lucas Anderson

Michael Mina’s RN74 Seattle.

His story’s well-known among restaurant watchers: Born in Egypt, raised in Ellensburg, Michael Mina went on to seize the restaurant world by the gullet with his upscale seafood at San Francisco’s Aqua in the early ‘90s. After racking up accolades and awards the chef partnered with tennis pro Andre Agassi to pepper the country with concept restaurants, from the elegant Michael Mina in San Francisco to the manly Bourbon Steak in Washington D.C.—and, now, some 17 in between. In June he opened his second RN74 on the corner of Pike and Fourth in downtown Seattle. Five months in, I asked him how it’s going.

“RN74 feels a lot like when I first opened Aqua,” Mina told me by phone from San Francisco. “Seattleites are enthusiastic in that way that says they hadn’t quite known what to expect. In this case I think they weren’t expecting RN74 to be so approachable. They knew it would have fine wine elements so I think they weren’t expecting it to feel casual.”

Mina was touched that so many of his high school buddies came to the opening. “I think there were 18 people from my high school graduating class there. My best friends live in Seattle. I tell you, it’s hard to get my head around how Ellensburg, this whole area, has changed since I’ve been here. It’s always been about farming, yeah…but it was cool when we were trying to find a great source for heirloom tomatoes and I learned that the best came from Ellensburg.”

During a brief stint living in Seattle after high school Mina worked at the Space Needle and the Kirkland Anthony’s HomePort; now he operates 19 of the most sophisticated and high-profile restaurants in the country. What regional dining habits has he noticed? “Definitely there’s heartier food on the East Coast, more traditional French technique,” he said. “The West Coast, spreading from California, is more product-driven, more rustic Italian.”

“And happy hour!” he hoots. “Seattleites are WAY over the top!” Utterly taken aback by Seattle’s bottomless thirst for the late-afternoon “meal,” Mina had to add a cooking station to the back of the house and change up his staffing patterns to accommodate. “Some nights I have half my line busy with happy hour food…it’s amazing,” he marvels. So happy hour is a bigger deal in Seattle than anywhere else?

“It sure feels bigger!” he roars.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, RN74, Critic's Notebook, Seattle Restaurant Culture

Wall Street Journal says Willows Inn “On the Brink” of Becoming Next Big Restaurant

The Lummi Island up-and-comer gets points for daily foraging and ducks fed to the chef’s specifications.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 06, 2011 at 09:39AM 0 Comments

Chef Blaine Wetzel

Photo by Jim Henkins via Willows Inn

Did everybody see this? On October 1, Wall Street Journal writer Katy McLaughlin wrote an article called “What’s the Next Big Restaurant?”

In it, she made predictions about which eateries were poised to follow in the footsteps of El Bulli, Noma, and Alinea to become the most celebrated restaurants in the world.

Among her picks: Lummi Island’s Willows Inn. McLaughlin describes how wunderkind chef Blaine Wetzel (who came to Lummi by way of Copenhagen resto Noma, named the best restaurant in the world by S. Pelligrino) obliges his five chefs to “spend roughly an hour daily foraging for wildflowers, berries, early spring shoots, grasses and ferns.” She says ducks on the restaurant’s farm are “fed to Mr. Wetzel’s specifications, slaughtered at eight weeks and dry-aged in the barn.” (Side note: Why has someone not made a Zoolander-type movie about farm-to-table trends in haute cuisine?)

And yet, reservations are not impossible to come by. “For now, that it.” Wetzel told McLaughlin that a weeknight seating is usually attainable if booked two months in advance.

Read the full article.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Chefs, Blaine Wetzel, Willows Inn

Don’t Forget That Seattle Chef Wayne Johnson Is Going to Be on Iron Chef This Weekend

Sunshine, smunshine. There’s television to watch.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 29, 2011 at 04:20PM 0 Comments

Seattle’s own Wayne Johnson competes on Iron Chef America. All you have to do is watch.

Photo: Andaluca

Program that DVR, people who have DVRs: Seattle’s own paella master, Wayne Johnson, is competing on Iron Chef America this weekend, and you know you don’t want to miss that.

Johnson, the executive chef at Andaluca and Oliver’s Lounge in the Mayflower Park Hotel, will take on Michael Symon of Cleveland’s Lola Bistro. If the secret ingredient is anything that you put in paella—and you can pretty much put anything in paella—Johnson’s got this one in the bag.

Iron Chef America airs on the Food Network, the programming details are on its website.

Who will win? We don’t know! We hope it’s our guy though, right? Of course we do.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Seattle Chefs, Seattle on TV

As a Kid, Jason Franey of Canlis Ate a Lot of Cuban Sandwiches

A place named Little Havana was his go-to.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 21, 2011 at 09:05AM 0 Comments

Photo: Young Lee

Canlis chef Jason Franey, shopping for produce but dreaming of Cuban sandwiches.

Food and Wine talked to 20 some toques from around the country and asked them about their favorite childhood summer food. Says Jason Franey of Canlis (he was listed as one of the glossy’s Best New Chefs in April): “When I was growing up in Florida there was a lot of Cuban food, and I would get a Cuban sandwich at a place called Little Havana.”

His new summer obsession, he tells F&W: strawberries, raspberries, and peaches.

And the croissants aux fruits at Le Panier Very French Bakery.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Seattle Chefs

Inside RN74 Seattle

After months of building anticipation, celeb chef Michael Mina’s restaurant and wine bar is slated to open June 13.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jun 10, 2011 at 12:47PM 1 Comments

RN74 Seattle is the nineteenth restaurant of the Michael Mina group.

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RN74 Seattle is the nineteenth restaurant of the Michael Mina group.

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Each table is engraved with its own code number based on its position in the restaurant.

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Polished as it is, RN74 is meant to cater to casual crowds as well as downtown types.

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The dining room will seat about 55. Unlike at most restaurants, the wine informs the food rather than vice versa. In that March interview, Mina talked of adjusting acidity in dishes to harmonize with the vintages. “I’m totally into the whole idea of balance.”

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The menu is made up of Mina-modernized Franco-American classics and shareable plates—five snacks for under $5, 10 consumables under $10, another 10 less than $20—all of which go down best with a pour.

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The bar accounts for a majority of the restaurant’s real estate.

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Certain design cues are borrowed from the SOMA-set original, like the real-time train station sign that tracks wine sales.

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Industrial chic is the theme here. The bar’s seating area is festooned with strands of worn fixtures.

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By now you’re probably versed in the details of RN74 —how it’s an offshoot of the San Francisco original, the ambitious food and wine program, the is-he-or-isn’t-he-tending-here drama surrounding Murray Stenson.

Now it’s time to take a look inside.

Back in March when Mina was in Seattle for Taste Washington, I asked him why he decided on downtown after eying the city for nearly a decade. “There was a lot of consideration, but the building itself was the real selling point to us. RN74 just really fits that Joshua Building,” Mina, an Ellensburg native, said of the historic property on Fourth and Pike. "Once you fall in love with a space, it’s really hard to find another one. It’s like buying a house. Once you’re in love with that house, it’s really hard to like anything else.”

To see what it was that had Mina so smitten, click through the slideshow.

All photos by Lucas Anderson.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Downtown Seattle Restaurants

Nosh Pit’s Top Food Tweets of the Week: James Beard Edition

José Andrés retweets too hard, props for Rachel Yang, and the best photo snapped at this year’s #JBFA.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 13, 2011 at 03:47PM 0 Comments

The Feast NY’s sentiments exactly.

This week brought us the James Beard Awards, and it was a pretty dismal year for Seattle.

Tom Douglas, the Canlis family, Ethan Stowell, and Matt Dillon were all up for awards but didn’t win. Our one victor was quite a worthy one, however. Farestart was awarded Humanitarian of the Year.

And despite the disappointments, there was much #JBFA-related entertainment to be enjoyed on Twitter.

Coming in at number 5 is the adorable Iberian José Andrés. He walked away with this year’s Outstanding Chef award, an awesome honor. His tweeting skills, however, could use some sharpening.

Twitter lit up with accolades for the DC-based chef after his award was announced, and Andrés retweeted them all. For this breach of Twitter etiquette, he received many virtual spanks. But it wasn’t until after Andrés retweeted the following, from someone called Web Barr, that he realized his mistake. An apology followed.

Now that @chefjoseandres has won the James Beard Award for Excellence, can we anoint him King of @Humblebrag? #lotsofretweets

4. Seattlest’s Lorraine Goldberg, responding to the announcement that Best Chef Northwest was Portland’s Andy Ricker—and not, as we’d all assumed it would be, Ethan Stowell—tweeted:

Portland-1 Seattle-0. Bummer

3. The ever-mysterious Ruth Bourdain had some funny things to say about the Beard awards (and won one!), but this is our favorite tweet of hers this week.

I hate the way men look at me when I walk down the street eating a geoduck clam.

Okay, that wasn’t a James Beard tweet at all. Hmm. Moving on.

2. Revel and Joule chef Rachel Yang cooked at the James Beard Awards this year and received high praise from the always lovely Marcus Samuelsson.

Best food tonight from revel[’s] rachel yang. http://yfrog.com/gyspkknjj

1. But the best James Beard Award tweet by far came from The Feast New York, who snapped the photo you see above, with the following caption.

Our sentiments exactly.

Better luck next year, Seattle chefs! And happy weekend.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Ethan Stowell, Farestart, James Beard Awards, Food Tweets of the Week, Geoduck

Chatting with Michael Mina About RN74 Seattle

The big-name restaurant from the big-deal chef will open on Fourth and Pike in June.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Mar 28, 2011 at 07:53AM 1 Comments

The interior of Michael Mina’s RN74 San Francisco. A Seattle offshoot is opening this summer in the Joshua Green Building downtown. Photo courtesy michaelmina.net.

When Michael Mina was in town for Taste Washington, I had the chance to chat with the chef and restaurateur. Soaking up Friday’s glorious sunshine and sipping iced tea, Mina fielded a bundle of my questions about his newest venture, RN74.

First up: why he’s opening the restaurant and wine bar downtown versus, say, the booming South Lake Union, where he had just lunched.

“There was a lot of consideration, but the building itself was the real selling point to us. RN74 just really fits that Joshua Building,” he explained. "Once you fall in love with a space, it’s really hard to find another one. It’s like buying a house. Once you’re in love with that house, it’s really hard to like anything else.”

The decision to shack up in the historic emerald-trimmed property meant the end of Mina’s nine-year “aggressive pursuit” for a first foray into Seattle dining. What took so long? Mina and co.—they oversee 18 restaurants nationwide—couldn’t quite pin the right concept for Seattle. But during a year-and-half hiatus from scoping the Seatown market, Mina opened the original RN74 in San Francisco.

RN74 Seattle, the primary offshoot, makes sense. There are of course this city’s vino-swilling, fanatical food lovers who will gobble up the Mina-modernized Franco-American classics. And the Northwest’s buzzy grape industry provides plenty of ammo for the ambitious wine program of Rajat Parr—half of the wine list will be dedicated to the region. But then there’s the fact that Mina grew up in Ellensburg, clocked in at several Seattle kitchens, and still has family in eastern Washington.

“I’m here all the time and love the city and feel like I understand it very well.” (About 20 times a year, to be more specific.)

Back to that menu. Mina says to expect a bunch of shareable plates—five snacks for under $5, 10 consumables under $10, another 10 less than $20—all of which go down best with a pour. Parr will tell you that unlike at most restaurants, the wine informs the food rather than vice versa. (To wit, Mina talks of adjusting acidity in dishes to harmonize with the vintages—“I’m totally into the whole idea of balance.”) RN74 is primarily a wine bar, after all (consider the rotating selection of 100 bottles for under $100), and will account for a majority of the restaurant’s real estate. The intimate dining room will seat 55.

Like its SOMA-set bro, RN74 Seattle is heavy on the industrial-chic look, and Mina envisions it catering to casual crowds (told you this is a keen fit) as well as dapper-duds types. Certain design cues will be borrowed, like the real-time train-station sign that flips as it tracks wine sales, but because of the building, Mina promises “its own identity.”

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Downtown Seattle Restaurants

Keeping an Eye on Volunteer Park Cafe’s Mac-n-Cheese Sauce

Here’s your homegrown novelty condiment for 2011.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Mar 23, 2011 at 09:37AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy Volunteer Park Cafe.

We’re calling it now: When the ladies of Volunteer Park Cafe let fly their Mac Daddy Sauce, it’ll really, well, fly.

Consider VPC’s predecessors, other restaurants to recently bottle and merch coveted condiments—people hoard the stuff. You can’t bat a lash without seeing Boat Street Cafe’s pickled preserves lining some shelves somewhere. Skillet’s bacon jam has fans the country over blogging about it. And besides, the VPC sauce is made with enough cow’s milk to shave a few from the ticker—when have you known fontina, parmesan, Tillamook white cheddar, gruyere, and Mount Townsend Camp Fire, combined, not to be good.

Right now the mac-n-cheese sauce (recent subject of T magazine crushing) is available for purchase at the Capitol Hill cafe. An eight ounce helping costs $15. Taking production up a notch so the product is retailed elsewhere is likely. Talks of not only selling here in Seattle but out of state, too, are in effect, we hear.

On a recent visit to the restaurant, just one jar was chilling by its lonesome in the fridge—a sign of things to come, people.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Volunteer Park Cafe, Seattle-Made Condiments,

James Beard 2011 Finalists Announced

Here are Seattle’s culinary contenders.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 21, 2011 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

Who will be Best Chef Northwest this year? Ethan Stowell and Matt Dillon are up against three cooks from Portland.

Photo courtesy: webrestaurantstore.com

On Monday, March 21 beginning at 11:30 am, the James Beard Foundation (Twitter feed here) announced the finalists for the 2011 awards from Portland, Oregon.

These are, of course, the most important honors in the dining universe. (The journalism awards are pretty darn important too).

The awards will be announced at ceremonies on May 6 (journalism) and May 9 (restaurants and chefs). Both events are in New York City.

An early award announced last week: Seattle’s own FareStart is James Beard’s 2011 Humanitarian of the Year.

Below is the list of locals who made it to the final round.

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM FINALISTS
Cooking, Recipes, or Instruction
Local writer and Saveur contributor Sara Dickerman is a finalist, sharing the nomination with Harris Salat and Lonnée Hamilton.

RESTAURANT AND CHEF FINALISTS
Best Chef Northwest
Matt Dillon (Sitka and Spruce)
Ethan Stowell (Staple and Fancy Mercantile)
Christopher Israel (Gruner in Portland)
Andy Ricker (Pok Pok in Portland)
Cathy Whims (Nostrana in Portland)

Outstanding Restaurateur
Tom Douglas

Outstanding Service
Canlis

Local candidates were semifinalists in the categories of Best New Restaurant, Rising Star Chef of the Year, Best Wine Service, Outstanding Chef, and Outstanding Restaurant but did not make the cut to the finalist round this year. See the full list of local semifinalists here.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Restaurant News, Awards and Accolades, James Beard Awards

Matt’s in the Market Is on the Food Network

Again.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Feb 10, 2011 at 09:27AM 1 Comments

Dan Bugge and Chester Gerl of Matt’s in the Market take on Bobby Flay.

In case you didn’t catch the Seattle-centric episode of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay when it aired several weeks ago, the Food Network is showing it again Thursday evening at 7pm ET/PT.

In it, Matt’s in the Market toques Dan Bugge and Chester Gerl take on the bronzed Bobby to see who can cook up the best salmon chowder. Sounds fun.

Also fun is the fact that a familiar name here at Nosh Pit, Jessica Voelker, is one of the judges (go JV!) Tune in tonight to see which bowl she and Tom Douglas decide who takes home the crown.

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Tags: Reality TV, Celebrity Chefs