Category Archives: guest blogger

Actually, my friend, fellow foodie, Restaurant Intelligence Agency creative mastermind, dedicated dining partner and all around nifty young fellow Matt Kirouac didn’t actually get sappy for his guest blog post at all, but he did report on a sticky situation— his very fun and very important job as judge at the National Maple Syrup festival in Indiana a couple weeks ago. From the twisting paths of tapped maple trees to maple Italian cream cake and maple tea..it was a true maplepalooza.

Tapping into the sugar trails

Memorable Moments From My Weekend at the National Maple Syrup Festival

I recently attended the National Maple Syrup Festival in Medora, Indiana, where I was asked to be a judge at the King Arthur Sweet Victory Challenge. Criticizing maple dishes is what I do best, after all.

Chatting with Tim Burton, head honcho at Burton’s Maplewood Farm, was the highlight of the weekend. He exudes energy and generosity, not to mention his killer maple tea, made with maple sap. The tea bar has been raised.

The Sweet Victory Challenge (aka the American Idol of maple syrup, per me) was fun, if a bit disappointing that two entrants’ recipes failed before we could taste. My favorite was the five-spice pudding with maple glaze. It didn’t win.

The winner was a maple Italian cream cake. Not so good was the maple “upside-down” cake, which was not upside-down in any way. And it was inexplicably flavored with Greek yogurt. No.

Exploring the “sugar trails” in the woods on the farm was incredible. Sounds like real-life Candyland, but actually they were just paths winding around tapped maple trees. Along the way, folks clad in colonial garb demonstrated antiquated maple-ing. We tasted maple sugar made the old-fashioned way and it was sublime.
— Matt Kirouac

An example of said antiquated maple-ing

Maple Italian cream cake...holy yum

Writer-foodie-intern-model extraordinaire Amber Gibson guessed not one, but two mystery posts this month, so she’s got some guest blogging in her future. Her first installment is her account of Taste of the Nation, held last week at Navy Pier. I have never attended the event, but after reading about her top tastes of the night (namely sweet corn and watermelon), I will have to check it out next year…her mini review below…

“Goodbye poorly air-conditioned Aragon, hello Navy Pier! Taste of the Nation was even better than last year and the weather couldn’t have been more lovely as the night ended with guests happily stuffed and mesmerized by fireworks. Plus, this year the desserts were sprinkled throughout the main floor instead of tucked away on a separate level, so it was easy to enjoy sweets interspersed with the savory offerings.

Top Tastes
1) Sprout’s Fig Thing With Cookie— they threw everything from bacon to frisee and red wine blueberry jam on a plate with a thyme shortbread cookie and somehow this salad-desperately-wishing-it-were-a-dessert worked.
2) Boka’s Criollo Chocolate Creméux with Yogurt Orange Blossom Water & Michigan Raspberries – Kady Yon’s swan song at Boka before she heads to Pump Room. She’ll be sorely missed.
3) MK’s Kumamoto Oyster & Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho Shooter – never had an oyster like this before, but the briny flavor was perfect with gazpacho.
4) Andrew Schicker of GT Fish & Oyster’s Fresh Grape Sidecar with Pierre Ferrand, Combier, lemon and grapes. Schicker didn’t add any sugar to sweeten this drink, instead using muddled grapes for a perfectly light and fruity refreshment.

Most Impressive
Tru’s Meyer Lemon Gelée with fennel cream and black olive was the only dish served in a glass as opposed to plastic, and the tart lemon made this the perfect intermezzo between heavier courses. Moto’s ACME “camping dessert” may have really been just an interesting chocolate truffle with a liquid graham cracker center, but Ben Roche lit the dessert on fire. Gimmicky? Perhaps, but impressive nevertheless. Roche said he experimented for more than a month to come up with the perfect dehydrated marshmallow fuse for this s’mores bomb. MarketHouse’s Scott Walton was making it rain black gold, generously shaving winter truffle atop his Lobster and Smoked Corn ensemble.

Trends
Sweet corn and watermelon dishes popped up everywhere and began running together in my mind after a few too many cocktails and more than 50 dishes. I’m not complaining though. A refreshingly simple watermelon salad is so good, I don’t mind having it a half-dozen times. With desserts, there were too many half-hearted crémeuxs, puddings and panna cottas to count. And everyone from Cafe Spiaggia to Sunday Dinner to Girl & the Goat were serving caponata.

Awkward moment of the night
Getting my dress splattered with Manchego espuma at the Mercat a la Planxa booth, courtesy of Chef Cory Morris.”