The Art of the Plate: March 2017

Thursday, March 23, 2017

CIC Alum Mark Heyward-Washington Competes on Food Network

Congratulations and good luck to CIC alum Mark Heyward-Washington, the pastry chef at Burwell's, for landing a spot as one of the competitors on the Food Network show The Spring Baking Championship! Check the Food Network website below for dates and times that the competition runs.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/spring-baking-championship

Monday, March 6, 2017

Charleston Wine + Food Festival Gives an Award to Hospitality Instructor Lisa Buzzelli

Congratulations to CIC Hospitality Instructor Lisa Buzzelli, who was given the Charleston Wine + Food Festival's 2017 Marc Collins Award. The Marc Collins Chef Award honors an outstanding chef in the Charleston community who shows leadership, dedication and innovation in their field. Chef Collins presented the award and noted the Ms. Buzzelli's "involvement from the beginning of the festival to date, and her tireless dedication to its success. She has devoted countless hours to showing our city in its best light." Well deserved!

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.