The Art of the Plate: September 2015

Thursday, September 24, 2015

CIC Hosts Pork Board Competition

Chef Deihl on the left and Chef Stefanelli on the right

A couple of weeks ago, the Pork Board held a competition in Charleston for the best pork dish. CIC friend Chef Craig Deihl, of Cypress restaurant and Artisan Meat Share, took home first place. CIC Chef Instructor Scott Stefanelli brought home second place. Congrats, chefs! To get their recipes, go here.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

It's Keegan-Filion Farm's Pastured Pork For The Butchery and Charcuterie Class

The photos tell the story. At top - students begin to fabricate one of the three pastured pigs purchased from Keegan-Filion Farm. Below, you see Marc Filion telling the class what is involved in the process of raising livestock on a farm where every animal is free-range. At his right, Megan Pirkel is stuffing some brats. To the right, the salumi is hung for a ferment. All are products of Keegan-Filion pork. Keegan-Filion's chickens, pigs and cattle are the preferred livestock for most of Charleston's best restaurants. Like the CIC, they believe in sustainable agriculture from local sources as opposed to farm-lot commodity meat.

What We're Reading

“Eating from the Ground Up”

Out just in time for the vegetables appearing at our farmers markets, Alana Chernila’s cookbook focuses on creatively using every root and leaf. While some of the recipes may be familiar concepts – think stuffed tomatoes – hers are packed with millet, basil, and parsley. Fried rice stars salmon, fennel, and Swiss chard stems. Roasted asparagus are sauced with a combo of butter, garlic, nutritional yeast, and tamari. Stone fruit, raw corn kernels, scallions, basil, and jalapeño make a cool salad for hot weather. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.

"Soul: A Chef's Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes"

“This book is my homage to the cuisine of my family,” Chef Todd Richards writes in his autobiographical collection of essays and recipes. “These are the ingredients of my people. This is my sermon about my Soul food.”

Bringing accolades for his stints at Atlanta’s Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons, James Beard nominations, and, of course, his prowess at Southern cooking, Richards seasons the pot with a powerful bouquet of flavors as he pays his heritage forward. Collards cooked with ham hocks are accented with piquant pickled collard stems. Blueberries are found in fried pies; strawberries are plated with champagne aspic, whipped cream, and honey. Grilled peaches pair with radishes on toast spread with pimiento cheese. Sweet potatoes are layered with cauliflower and crab in a lush gratin.

"Soul food," Richards tells us, "is the original cuisine of the South, born from an involuntary collision of cultures."
Published by Southern Living. $35.