Posts We Like

Here are some posts from round the ‘net for your pleasure.

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“16 Nights. 48 Chefs. Once-in-a-Lifetime Culinary Experiences.” In a Farmhouse Restaurant in a Horse Park. In Kentucky. Alltech, main sponsor of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, to be held in Lexington (the first time the Games have been held in the USA), announced today that the Games will feature a Celebrity Chef Dinner Series. Two celebrity chefs, many of them James Beard award winners, and one Kentucky chef will cook (at least some) Kentucky food each night of the Games. Alltech, based in Nicholasville, Kentucky, never EVER makes small plans. These dinners promise to boost central Kentucky’s emerging status as a local foods capital. Congratulations to the Kentucky Proud Program, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, the James Beard Foundation, the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation, and other sponsors who join with Alltech to make this happen.

Each dinner will feature two celebrity chefs, many of whom are James Beard Award-winners, and one local or Kentucky-based chef, cooking side-by-side at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Farmhouse restaurant. Each night, 80 guests will enjoy dining experiences that replicate the sumptuous dinners held at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City.

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I thought we Kentuckians were good at Bourbon??? Jim Murray, author of the 2010 Whiskey Bible, named Buffalo Trace’s 18-year old Sazerac Rye the best whiskey in the world. Rye, not Bourbon. I ask you, can we trust the judgment of a man who tasted 3,850 whiskeys??? He described the winning Sazerac as “reaching previously unknown heights.” See?  In any case, I had the kind of upbringing in which the word “whiskey” was rarely used to modify “Bible,” so I have no experience to bring to this story. You’ll have to be brave and try it yourself.

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Photos of boots and fast food burgers, hand-written narrative that ties together George Washington and Alice Waters – It’s the latest Maira Kalman installment in the New York Times photoblog “And the Pursuit of Happiness.” This one, for the harvest season: Back to the Land. (Thanks to my magazine-inventing/publishing/book making friend for this tip.)

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Good Gravy! If one set of top 20 food trends for 2010 pan out, we’re going to be healthier and happier, and our farms are going to have more support. Consider the top four:

1. Local produce
2. Locally sourced meats and seafood
3. Sustainability
4. Bite-size/mini desserts

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The National Restaurant Association surveyed more than 1800 chefs about 2010 food trends. One result: Beer’s Bubbling Up, the more local the better (wine too)

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Restaurants Worth the Money: Gourmet Magazine has made its transition to infinity, but its last batch of restaurant recommendations remains fresh and juicy. Even mere mortals can afford to go to some of the restaurants on the list. For example, here is one of particular interest to us in the Bluegrass:

Tucker’s (Cincinnati)
For more than 60 years, this family-run diner has endured in the perpetually burgeoning Over-The-Rhine neighborhood. The secret? Oversize omelets, sturdy BLTs, and a killer vegetarian take on huevos rancheros. 1637 Vine St., Cincinnati (513-721-7123)

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Maybe there is hope for clean, inspected, good-for-farms/good-for-us raw milk sales in Kentucky sometime this century. Apparently some state legislatures are willing to consider raw milk sales as a way to help their struggling dairy industries survive. I believe this could be true for some dairy farms in Kentucky. And speaking of milk….

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Milk Punch (a recipe) – Yes, I’m sure milk does punch in this preparation. Mixing milk and Bourbon hasn’t occurred to me before (outside the rare Bourbon-laced eggnog experience), but here’s the recipe for an icy slushy drink tipped with nutmeg.

Related posts:

1. Superb Kentucky Spoonbread Kentucky might as well be Corntucky, given how important the tall Zea mays grass has been to us for centuries....
2. Ouita Michel Shows The Way Ouita Michel, Midway’s much-loved chef (and visionary, community activist, business developer, and more) adds a new plaudit. The James Beard...
3. Spoonbread or Spoon Bread – It’s Delicious Working on my part of tonight’s dinner, using James Beard’s recipe for Cornmeal Spoon Bread, I came to the part...

by Rona on December 2, 2009 · 4 comments

in Kentucky Food