Wednesday, June 12, 2013
When it comes to local food, there’s more to the story than farm-to-table. In the restaurant kitchen and, more recently, behind the bar, the best Kansas City chefs, restaurateurs, bartenders and artisan food producers are feverishly redefining Midwestern cuisine, ingredient by ingredient.
Layer cakes by co-owner Mark Wingard sit atop the counter under cake domes. Wingard has made the grapefruit cake recipe — originally from the Brown Derby, a chain of restaurants started in 1920s Los Angeles — his own. Here’s the recipe.
Former JJ’s servers Kevin Fossland and Martin Diggs are seeking out stories for a 90-minute documentary on the barbecue capital of the world.
Mother and daughter owners Vicki and Natasha Goellner were determined to protect the artisanal nature of their business when they decided to split the production and retail parts of their business, leasing a storefront on the Country Club Plaza and production space in Waldo.
James Beard nominee Colby Garrelts is sharing his popular chicken recipe that has diners clucking. Rye fries 1,000 pounds of fresh, organic, free-range Amish hens from Ohio every week. The dish has been so well-received that Garrelts says they are considering adding another fryer to the kitchen.
Anton’s is a laboratory for local food production. You’ll find pots of fresh herbs under grow lights, trellises of spinach and 600 tilapia destined to become fish tacos.
Deviled farm-fresh eggs with smoked salmon, brick oven pizzas, a Caesar salad and “Perfect Nachos” are some of Kelli Daniels’ other offerings at the West Plaza hangout.
To earn the title of master cicerone, Witte put his encyclopedic craft brew knowledge and keen palate to the test. The grueling two-day affair included 10 hours of written questions, two hours of oral questions and two hours of beer tasting and evaluation.
Guerric Letter, a monk, priest and the assistant kitchen manager at the abbey, offers up the recipe for this devilishly good treat that was handed down to him by a childhood neighbor from Black Creek, Wis., where he grew up the youngest of 11 children.
Chef Scott Welsch’s funky cafe across from the Roasterie factory is in an unlikely neighborhood of warehouses, businesses and a few modest homes. But last year’s opening of the Roasterie factory café drew in droves of downtown office workers and artists hungry for his fresh, from-scratch food.
The company’s ketchup comes in 12 flavors, including Thai ginger, smoked serrano, grill smoke, applewood, alderwood and even black truffle.
The charcuterie and meat shop in the East Bottoms lets class participants wield a knife as they learn to dismantle a hog. Sausage-making classes are also offered.
Slow Food Kansas City networks with other local food nonprofits.
Ernesto Peralta, owner of the gourmet burger restaurants, wants to see his condiment in every refrigerator. More products are coming and will be in stores in coming months.
Rawxies — a cross between “raw” and “foxy” — are oat-based, heart-shaped snacks are aimed at the mainstream consumer looking for a healthy indulgence rather than a Clif-style energy bar power lift.
“When you have your own restaurant, you can only hope for a signature dish that successfully connects with people,” Ryan says. “Chilaquiles aren’t usually found on local restaurant menus, but are Mexican soul food that can be eaten anytime of the day or night.”
The chocolate bar line has six flavors. Coming up are candy bars that mimic Butterfingers, Snickers, Milky Way and Crunch bars.
Greg Madouras is owner/operator of the full-service meat store next door to Gomer’s, where the service and atmosphere feel like times gone by and all the beef is antibiotic-free.
It sounds like a joke: So there’s this guy in Overland Park making French wine with grapes from his own vineyard. Only it’s true.
Just named 2013 Bartender of the Year, Maybee, who specializes in craft cocktails with fresh, house-made ingredients, is also the only person with the BAR masters certification, similar to a master sommelier, through the mixology industry’s Beverage Alcohol Resource.
The restaurant has one of the most alluring bars in Kansas City. Owner Richard Ng has helped develop signature cocktails based on traditional Chinese ingredients
Brad Harsha’s Primo Tap system works much like beer lines. Wine is pushed out of a cask through tubes and dispensed through a tap. As the wine level drops in the cask, nitrogen gas fills the space to prevent the wine from coming into contact with oxygen, so the last glass tastes the same as the first.
Haus co-owner Desmond Carr learned that many brews he was interested in had extremely limited availability. Instead of turning down interesting beers that could not be purchased in large enough quantities to put on the permanent menu, Carr brings in one scarce beer a month and sells it for $5 a glass until it runs out.
Lincoln Broadbooks, who works at the gourmet store in Prairie Village, is the only certified cheese professional in a six state area. Here are some of his locally made favorites.
Bartender Loren Murrell is putting the focus on locally produced beers and wines, and craft cocktails mixed with fresh, house-made ingredients.
Every couple of days an 18-ton truck drives up to the Boulevard Brewing Co. plant on Southwest Boulevard and hooks up hoses to empty a silo of spent grain. The grain is hauled to Nunemaker-Ross Farms in Lawrence, where it is fed to a herd of about 900 head of cattle.
Cookbooks still feed the nation’s soul. Online recipes are what’s for dinner, but there’s still a market for curated cookbooks with beautiful photos.
At the Crossroads Arts District restaurant, mixologists are funneling original craft cocktails into 8.5-ounce or 17-ounce clear glass flasks, which are then set in an ice-filled silver bowl in the middle of the table. A server pours out the first drink into glasses filled with rocks that guests can then refill on their own.
When owner Craig Adcock learned of a rum maker in the 9th Ward of New Orleans that was struggling to regain its footing after the post-Katrina flooding, he toured the factory, tasted the rum and decided to make the switch.
Andrews McMeel Publishing: 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106-2109, 800-943-9839, andrewsmcmeel.com
Since August 2011 more than 3,300 students from across Johnson County have visited the campus kitchens, which include cooking spaces for consumer sensory testing, as well as a theater kitchen and classrooms, in the International Animal Health and Food Safety Institute building.
