Fisk & Co. - What Austin Fausett has been up to in Chicago

Fisk & Co.

225 N. Wabash, Chicago IL 60602

312-236-9300

www.fiskandcochicago.com

DC misses Austin Fausett. At least I did. I've known him since he was at Citronelle and ran into him again while working for Trummer's on Main. He's a good chef. He drives towards perfection in the little things and it shows.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend a little time with him and try out his new place while is I was in Chicago for the National Restaurant Association show in May.

 In addition to spending time with Austin, I got to hang around with these two - Tom and Victor. I've known them for 15-20 years and finally got a chance to break bread with them again...and make them wait for this awesome food while I took pictures. They were good sports about it.

 Austin looking happy and in charge.

 We started out with the tower. It seemed like the right thing to do.

 A variety of oysters, clams, shrimp, and king crab.

 The arrangement got envious looks from around the dining room as it was delivered to our table.

 Love the crab.

 Remember when I was mentioning attention to detail? There is a difference between someone going high-speed/low drag and someone who takes the time to make sure there isn't a speck of shell in the liquor to take your attention away from the briny perfection. This is that kind of place.

 Gorgeous - and I don't usually like clams on the 1/2 shell.

 Seafood mortadella with smoke whitefish rillettes

 The whole seafood charcuterie board was excellent - the monkfish liver mousse was awesome.

 I can never pass up deviled eggs with roe.

 Nashville-style hot soft-shell crab. This heat was slow-build with a fiery finish. Excellent.

 Grandma's pierogis were a hit.

 The salted-caramel/espresso ice cream had a very powerful coffee flavor but none of the color you'd expect. Science I guess....

 Hazelnut Kit-Kat in a vanilla crème with crispy chocolatey bits...Seems familiar. 8)

Last but certainly not least, the rum cake. 2nd best I've every had..next to Martha's from the Whitehouse Press Pool parties, but that's a story for another day.

Overall, wonderful meal in a very nice spot. I'm sure they'll be successful and Kimpton Hotel Group is lucky to have a chef like Austin running a restaurant in their hotel.

Best of luck and see you next year Chef.

If Dinner Parties Were A Competition - We Won. Again.

Dinner Party at Hotel Antolli

Undisclosed Location in Suburban Maryland, MoCo

Sorry for the self-aggrandizement and tooting of thine own horn you're going to be subject to here, but this one is too good not to tell you about.

I'm the co-founder of a charitable organization called Shooting with Chefs. We have an annual fundraiser for Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic and it's, for lack of a better word, unique.

Some of the area's best chefs help my organization create a day-long extravaganza of food, firearms, fun, fire, cigars, bourbon, and fundraising.

This year's event was the most successful to date. We raised over $54,000 in this one-day event that went directly to Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic.

We raise these funds through corporate sponsorships and donated auction items. The auction items range from hotel nights and chef's tasting dinners at exclusive restaurants to one-of-a-kind experiences created by world-renowned chefs at the winners' houses.  Last year I was lucky enough to be invited to a dinner where both Bryan Voltaggio and Mike Isabella provided dinner at a friends house. Here's a link to the post about that dinner: How to Win a Dinner Party.

A few smart friends of mine and I decided to pool our resources and bid on a private dinner at one of our houses prepared and served by Bryan Voltaggio, Graeme Ritchie and Dane Nakamura of Voltaggio Family of Restaurants this year and it was a rousing success. Read all about it.

Above is the first course we enjoyed: Turbot with cucumber, lemon, chanterelle mushrooms. 

For the dipping: Whipped lardo with crispy leeks and a chicken liver mousse if memory is serving me correctly. 

Here's another shot of the Turbot.

Corn soup with cotija, okra and guajillo. Smooth, cold, and buttery. 

Nothing like some perfectly seasoned and grilled octopus with fregola, almond, olive and Meyer lemon.

This dish bordered on flavor overload: Tonnarelli Nero, cooked in squid ink, with Maryland Blue Crab, jalapeno and sea urchin. 

Sometimes something is cooked so perfectly it's almost like a new food. Anson Mills Grits with coconut, calamari, shrimp, and the most exquisitely cooked scallop I've ever had.

For those of you who are not afraid of food with a face, here is one of the ultimates: Pig Face. There were two halves for the ten of us. I will not share the metode' with you as it was entrusted to me in confidence and I solemnly swore to only use the recipe for my own benefit moving forward.

Think of the best pork belly you've ever had. A thin layer of crispy skin with about two inches of fat-layered meat. Now think of that with more flavor and a crispiness that has none of the inedible portions that  you sometimes get with roasted pig. This was the bomb. It was served moo shu-style with lettuce wraps and various toppings/condiments. I know I'll never love this way again. (Yes, that's Whitney singing in the background.)

I had range officer duty the next day in Poolesville and Paul Antolli, host for the evening, was nice enough to bring me four slices of white bread and some of this for lunch. It was spectacular then as well.

This was adding insult to injury at this point, but when Graeme comes and drops a dessert in front of you you are compelled to eat it. Every last bit. Black Forest: Chocolate, dry cherry, sweet cream, and cocoa nib. Sounds simple. Looked spectacular and tasted better.

What's even better than some kick-ass cigars after a meal like that? Spending time shooting the breeze and smoking kick-ass cigars around the fire with some of your restaurant heroes who just made you and your friends one of the best meals of your life. We had a great time and the money went to a great cause. Brian is very generous to donate his time, money and effort to several charities including No Kid Hungry, Chefs for Equality, and others.  Bravo chef, and thank you.

And the parting shot! Left to right the lovely Mrs. Cheryl Bolen (AKA Mrs. Smelson), Dane Nakamura, Graeme Ritchie, yours truly, and Bryan Voltaggio.
If you're interested in something like this and want a crack at winning a dinner prepared in your home by Bryan, Mike Isabella, or some as-yet-to-be-named chefs (got a couple of special donors TBA at game time) at Shooting with Chefs IV to be held in June of '16 reach out to me at ChefShoot@Outlook.com or dsmelson@gmail.com

Thanks for reading.

Home Cookin' - Oxtails: What do you do with them?

 Liberty Delight Farms

Oxtails

as prepared by

Pleasures of the Table

You may have read about Oxtail before. Some of you may have had it, but it's not a hugely popular dish anymore. I'm not sure why, but it may be that it requires a little more time than some people care to spend cooking. In any event, it's one of my favorite cold-weather dishes to make and eat.

The tails are literally cow tails. The nice thing about them is that the meat, after braising, holds together nicely and there is a huge amount of collagen in the tail-bone that gives the stew a rich texture.

It's a great dish when you've got some spare time to spend in the kitchen as I did when I went to Snowshoe Mountain last weekend. I prepared it over a two-day period. Well worth the time spent.

Here's how they look coming off the truck. Either leave them in your fridge for a day or two to thaw or leave them in the package in a cold-water bath for an hour or two to thaw.

I actually left them frozen and used them as ice-packs in my cooler for the trip up the mountain.

 I used some random vegetables that I brought up with me. Peppers, carrots, parsnips, garlic, shallots, and celery.

I diced up all the vegetables, tossed them and the tails in a little bacon fat left from breakfast, added salt, pepper, and dusted them with flour, then let them roast for an our at 375, turning a few times.

After the tails had browned a bit I added a can of chopped tomatoes, a couple of bay leafs and four cups of beef stock and covered them tightly and left them in the oven for about 3 hours at 325. When I took them out of the oven, the meat was tender and easily separated from the bones, which you discard. Put the meat back in with the vegetables and let it cool, then put covered in the fridge for dinner the next night.

I skimmed a lot of fat before I put it in the fridge, but a lot more will solidify on the top when it's fully chilled. You can easily scoop it off. Don't be too heavy-handed with the removal though as a lot of the flavor is fat-soluble, so you don't want to remove it all.

Heat it back up slowly to just a simmer and stir in some cooked lentils or beans if you prefer, add 1/2 a teaspoon of allspice, a teaspoon of time, salt and pepper to taste.

And there you have it. Hearty, rich, flavorful stew to keep you warm and satisfy hearty appetites.

Thanks for reading. If you try it, let me know how it turned out!

Mala Ocean Tavern - Our Aloha Meal....and Mahalo.

MALA OCEAN TAVERN
1307 Front Street, Lahaina
On the Island Of Maui, Hawaii 96761

http://www.malaoceantavern.com/

Lahaina is a quaint town that used to be the capital of Hawaii. I've heard that it's rocking and it has a Hard Rock Cafe and a few other chains that might lead you to think that it's THE party place. I drove through at 2:00am on the way to my fishing trip and it was so quite you could hear a pin drop. Regardless, it's home to a few good restaurants right along the ocean. Mala Ocean Tavern is one of them. It came recommended by an old friend who'd been here before.

They start you out with salsa and hummus. I liked the volcanic rock mortar it is served in along with the house-made chips.

This was my last Mai Tai of the trip, and one of the better ones. Cheryl had a Spunky Monkey. The kids got a kick out of that.

We started with some calamari. It came with Mojo Verde and fried lemons. Nicely done.

I had the Hoison glazed ribs with purple mashed potatoes and a peanut/edamame/coconut sauce. The ribs were more lean than I'm used to but very tasty.

Cheryl had the Big Fat Greek salad with some Mahi Mahi. Great presentation and very big.

Mugging for the camera....you can tell they were road-weary and ready to head out. We were actually on our way to the airport and Lahaina was our last stop. Note the lack of a roof...this is a cool place.

We were all full, and tired, however, we couldn't pass up this dessert. The description hooked us. Vanilla Macadamia Nut brittle ice cream with house-made caramel sauce. What's not to like?

And so ended our culinary tour of the 50th state to join our union. It was a grand adventure. I hope you've enjoyed reading about some of the great restaurants we visited and if you do happen to go to any of them, please tell them where you read about them.
Aloha and mahalo.

Aloha Mixed Plate - Good Food, Great View

This is going to be the first post in a long series about my dining adventures in the land of aloha. My family +1 took a trip to Hawaii and did all kinds of fun things. Naturally, my idea of fun is spending time at great restaurants and seeing what this gorgeous island, Maui, had to offer. We started out our first night at a place named Aloha Mixed Plate. It's part of a small chain owned by several folks. They do a few other restaurants as well as a luau at the property next door. This restaurant was recommended to me by the carhop at Merriman's.

I walked up to the host and said, "We'd like a table for four outside." He said, "They're all outside." I like it. True enough, they were all outside. The only choice was boozing or non-boozing. For some reason they couldn't serve alcohol at the tables closest to the water. I chose boozing. We had a clear-enough view from that section, or so I thought.

Cheryl had the Fuzzy Pineapple, which had Malibu, Pineapple and Sprite. It was pretty and tasty.

I had the island stand-by, the Mai Tai.

Here are the boys standing by the water...very close to where we sat. Note the frazzled, "We just spent 27 hours travelling to get here" look.

This was my Lau Lau. Pork and beef steamed in Taro and Ti leafs. It was served with a side of macaroni salad and something similar to a salty cevice of salmon with tomatoes and onions. The little white thing in the upper left-hand corner was some very tasty coconut flan-like item.

Alex went for the Saimin noodle dish. Very much like a light ramen or heavy pho dish. The broth was super savory. Lots of flavor.

Cheryl had the eponymous Aloha Mixed Plate, with fish, beef, and chicken. The fish and beef were phenomenal. I didn't try the chicken...

Michael had the Kalua Pork sandwich. My first taste of this popular island dish. It's similar to pulled pork here but without the rubs and sauces.

As soon as the sun started to set, a gaggle of people walked in front of our view and sullied it! Damned tourists.

I moved a little to the right so I could get a good view. Very peaceful and an excellent end to a very long trip.

Couldn't leave without a pineapple upside down cake. It's the dessert of the island. This was good, but not nearly as good as some we had later in the trip. You'll just have to stay tuned to see where the best was had.

Mahalo for reading. Please tune back in or follow me using any of the various and sundry social media platforms I pollute to keep up with my intrepid dining adventures in Maui.

Aloha until next time.