The Art of the Plate: December 2016

Friday, December 16, 2016

May Your Holidays Be Filled with Sugar Plums!

CIC Chef Instructor David Vagasky and CIC Advisory Board Member Mark Gray shared this recipe from their artisan chocolate business, Cacao's. It was featured in the December issue of Charleston magazine, as seen here.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

CIC Alum Chelsey Conrad Featured in Charleston Magazine

CIC alum and Butcher & Bee chef Chelsey Conrad was featured in Charleston magazine sharing her recipes for pecans. "Although sentimental about the chestnuts on trees at her childhood home in Charlotte, North Carolina, Chelsey Conrad can wax eloquent about pecans. “They’re so buttery and, unlike other nuts, they don’t have any bitterness,' says the Butcher & Bee chef. 'They’re delicious straight out of the shell, while most other nuts need some toasting to coax out their flavors. And all those crevices hold seasonings really well.'" Read more and get the recipes here.

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.