Culinary Madison

When it comes to holidays, nothing surpasses Thanksgiving for tradition and for hours of time spent in the kitchen cooking.

And this year will be no different than other years we’ve spent celebrating the holiday.  Twenty-some people will descend on the house like ravenous vultures, eating everything in site.

Ok, that might be somewhat a bit of hyperbole, but it sure doesn’t seem like it when the turkey comes out of the oven and the hordes descend.

I know that the commercials, and cards, and traditional programs around Thanksgiving depict the elder male of the family standing at the head of the table, masterfully carving a beautifully dressed and arranged bird.  His impeccable family sits at the formally set table, dressed in their best finery, with looks of awe and adoration on their faces. Why look! A quick Google image searched showed me exactly that:

Who ARE these people, and what planet do they live on??

This is what it looks like at our house.  The turkey gets pulled out of the oven and the vultures immediately descend.  People start vying for the tail, the skin, and any hunk of meat they can get their hands on before the carving even starts.  Typically, the only way to ward the vultures off is with several serious waves of the carving knife.  And that seldom works.

THAT is our family tradition.  Try to finish off the turkey before it even makes it to the table!  Then fill your plate with everything else, and drowned it all in cheese sauce.

 

I don’t expect that this is going to change too much.  It pretty much puts an end to any fantasies of an elegantly prepared dinner with candlelight and soothing music playing in the background.  But there is much screaming, yelling and wrestling that takes place, that makes up for the lack of background music, right?

At any rate, here’s the menu, so far:

Appetizers:  Cheese, sausage, crackers, olives, carrots, deviled eggs
Cole Slaw
26 Pound Turkey
Italian Sausage and Wild Rice Stuffing
20 Pounds Mashed Potatoes with herbs and cream cheese
Gravy
Cheese Sauce
Peas and Pancetta with pearl onions
Cauliflower 
Broccoli
Black-Eyed Peas
Cornmeal Fried Okra
Green Bean Crap*
Bread
Pies:  Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple, Pecan, Chocolate Pecan, Blueberry, Double Chocolate Fudge 

*Yet another family tradition, you can read about it here.  You may note that we had basically the same menu last year.  See, we ARE a traditional family.

Each year I swear I’m going to blog along with all the prep.  I live up to that vow up until Thanksgiving morning.  It’s all over after that.

I’m afraid that I drove a deli counter clerk around the bend recently.  And I still don’t know how it really happened.  A bit of background, first…

There are two bits of Italian food that I absolutely love - Bruschetta and Prosciutto.  As much as I love them, the pronunciation of them has always been a stumbling block unless I thought about it, because my inclination is to pronounce each of these in the opposite way that they should be. 

Bruschetta is pronounced Brew - SKET- ta.  But I always wanted to pronounce it Brew - SHET - ta.  Proscuitto is pronounced pro - SHOE - toe, but I always wanted to pronounce it pro - SKEW- toe.  I’m sure you can understand the stress this has caused me in life.

In my spare time, I could be found muttering to myself “pro-SHOE-toe - brew-SKET-ta,  pro-SHOE-toe - brew-SKET-ta,  pro-SHOE-toe - brew-SKET-ta”.  And then one day, it just came naturally.  Without thinking, brew-SKET-ta flowed naturally from my lips without thought.  Pro-SHOE-toe was simply second nature, requiring no deep concentration.

And so, without even thinking, I walked up to the (non-Italian) deli counter in our mass market chain.  They used to carry chopped tomatoes, seasoned with basil, garlic, and olive oil at the counter (they called it bruschetta), but as of late they had started putting it in cartons and hiding it in a new place each time I visited.  I suspect it is one of those games born out of boredom that deli counter workers indulge in worldwide.

“Excuse me,” I said politely.  “Can you tell me where you’ve put the brew-SKET-ta?”.  The deli counter said, “What are you talking about?”.

“Brew-SKET-ta”, I said.  “The chopped tomotoes that you used to keep in the deli counter, but that you now put in cartons.  Can you tell me where they are?”.

The deli counter stared at me with frustration in her eyes and exclaimed loudly, “It’s brewSHETta.  BruSHETta!”

Taken somewhat aback, I merely responded, “Ok, so where do you keep that?”

She waved in the general direction of a deli case afar, and continued to exclaim loudly, “It’s brewSHETa.  I’ve never even heard it called brew-SKET-ta.  I am so sick of you people”.

I grabbed my carton of bruschetta and carried on, as the deli counter continued to rant loudly.  Three aisles away, I could still hear her loudly exclaiming her disgust with customers in general, but me specifically.  Though not the smartest move on my part, I turned back to the counter to discuss her clear stress.  She got even louder as she screeched about the twenty years of service she had put in dealing with idiots like me.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry you didn’t agree with my pronunciation - but don’t you think this is a bit uncalled for?  I’m just here shopping.  There’s no need to scream at me while I am three aisles away”.

The deli counter clerk  exclaimed, “I hate customers.  I’m through with customers.  I’ve spent twenty years dealing with customers and I’ve had it!  Go ahead and turn me into the manager - I’ve already turned my two week notice in.  What are they going to do, fire me?!?!?”

I admit.  I did go and speak with the manager.  I let him know that one of his employees had snapped, and was on the verge of doing irreparable damage to his customer service image.  I didn’t really need to tell him - we could hear her screaming as we talked.  As he approached her to get her to calm down, she grabbed her belongings and announced her intentions to leave rather than be asked to leave.

I’m still a bit puzzled by it all.  My only hope is that it does not create a setback in my newly found bruschetta/prosciutto confidence!  Who knew the peril that could be found in proper pronunciation.

It’s that time of year when anyone who writes about wine feels obligated to make recommendations for wines to serve at Thanksgiving. In keeping with that tradition, here are mine.

My significant other and I have fantasies about the perfect Thanksgiving, an elegant meal with a small group of gourmet friends featuring a number of elegant courses accented by fine wine paired perfectly with each dish. The realitiy is that we host a family gathering of eighteen (or is it twenty?) people ranging in age from roughly one to seventy. The dinner is traditional turkey (26 pounds), mashed potatoes (15 pounds), various vegetables served with cheese sauce (too many pounds to count), and of course that jellied cranberry sauce that only one or two people eat. We’re lucky that by adding two tables end to end with the dining room table and using every chair in the house we can actually get the crowd all seated, if only momentarily. Only about half of the adults are wine drinkers with the rest drinking milk, soda and beer.

With that in mind, we avoid anything over $15, try to keep it simple, and have enough on hand so that there is a glass left to drink while cleaning up after the crowd has gone. Here then is what we probably will be drinking this Thanksgiving.

For a white, we’ve been drinking the Hogue Gewurtztraminer ($9). I am not a big fan of Chardonnay, especially at the low end, and don’t find it a good match for food. The Hogue has a nice balance of crispness and fruitiness without being too sweet. Just the thing to go with turkey and mashed potatoes. If you prefer your whites a little sweeter, Hogue also makes a Late Harvest Riesling in the same price range that should suit you. Both of these wines are readily available.

The subject of the perfect red wine for Thanksgiving always causes debate, and from any group of three wine experts you can expect at least four opinions. In the past, I’ve usually chosen either a Zinfandel or a Syrah. Syrah is a very food friendly wine and Zinfandel has enough fruitiness to avoid overpowering the turkey.

This year I think we will go with the Cline Ancient Vine Zinfandel ($12-$14). This is a nice Zin with a bit more depth to it than Zin’s a few dollars less. There are certainly a number of Zin’s in this price range that would also be good choices, the Ravenswood Vintner’s Blend ($10) and the Renwood Sierra Foothils ($12) come to mind.

If I was going to go with a Syrah, I’d be tempted to choose the Qupe Central Coast ($16) though it is just over the $15 mark. I’ve been a fan of this wine for years. It is elegant, smooth, and extremely food friendly, everything one looks for in a good Syrah. There are of course any number of Australian Syrah’s (Shiraz), but this is after all, an American holiday.

 

 

Brickhouse BBQ will be opening on Gorham Street.  Scheduled to Open mid-2009, this restaurant will feature a full menu featuring different types of meats, barbeques, and side dishes.

Brickhouse BBQ is owned by the same people who brought Madison the Samba Brazillian Grill.

The 2008 Madison Dueling Chef competition took place at the Madison Food and Wine Show this weekend.  The Dueling Chef competition featured Madison’s finest chefs, battling it out for the title of Culinary Conqueror.

This year’s winner was a very deserving Chef Charles Lazzareschi from the Dayton Street Grille at the Madison Concourse Hotel. The mystery ingredient for the finale was decadent American Kobe Beef Flat Iron Steak.

Madison Dining Online was on hand for judging the competition on Saturday, and we’ll post commentary, photos and even video soon, so check back!

Congratulations again to Chef Charles Lazzareschi, Madison’s 2008 Culinary Conqueror and winner of the Madison Food and Wine Show’s Dueling Chef.

The time has come!  Vote for your favorite Madison Restaurants now!

The final voting for the second annual Mad Diner Awards is now taking place!  After months of taking nominations from our viewers, we’ve moved into the next (and final) phase.  It’s time to name the Madison-area restaurant favorites!

Like last year, first, we opened it up for nominations.  While we may have favorite restaurants, we wanted you to control the list of restaurants that would appear on the final Mad Diner ballot.  And you told us what you thought!  We’ve now tallied the nominations and we’ve presented the top five finalists in several categories.

And now we’re ready to open it up again - go here now to vote for your favorite Madison-area restaurants!

One of the many highlights of the upcoming Madison Food and Wine Show (October 17 - 19 2008 at the Alliant Energy Center) includes the Dueling Chef competition.  This competition pits local Madison-area Chefs against each other as they vie for the title of the 2008 Culinary Conqueror, Iron Chef style.  Last years competition was riveting.  You can see a write-up here.  This year proves to be equally as exciting.  MadisonDining.Com and CuisineCapers.com will once again be serving as celebrity judges for the competition.

Without further ado, here’s more information, from Madison Magazine:

Beginning Friday, the chefs will compete in elimination heats, advancing until there are only two chefs left standing for Sunday’s final duel. During each round the two chefs, each with a hand-picked assistant, will be given one mystery ingredient, a matching set of supplemental ingredients and 30 minutes to prepare two dishes. The final prepared cuisine will be judged based on presentation, creativity and taste by three celebrity judges and one audience member.

Dueling Chefs Emcees

Patrick O’Halloran
Lombardino’s Restaurant
Lombardino’s has been a part of the Madison landscape for over fifty years and has the distinction of being one of the city’s oldest continuously operating eateries. Founded by Sicilian immigrant Matteo Lombardino as Lombardino’s Garden Restaurant on State Street, the eatery quickly became a local favorite. The restaurant took a dramatic turn from its Italian American roots in 2000 when Patrick and Marcia O’Halloran bought the business and implemented their philosophies of a seasonal menu, friendly service and the introduction of an exclusively Italian wine list. The menu is a reflection of several journeys to Italy combined with the wealth of local ingredients available in the Madison market.

Robert Von Rutenberg
Von Rutenberg Ventures
The start of von Rutenberg Ventures goes back to 1961 when Bill and Betty von Rutenberg purchased the Nibble Nook, an eight-stool hamburger spot on East Washington Avenue. Five years later, Bill and Betty sold the Nibble Nook and bought Jack Burke’s Supper Club (now the Mariner’s Inn). The von Rutenbergs saw the need for more casual dining on Lake Mendota, and soon the Nau-Ti-Gal was created. Next they developed a moderately priced seafood restaurant: Captain Bill’s. The most recent addition to von Rutenberg Ventures is Betty Lou Cruises. Bill and Betty’s sons – Bill, Jack and Robert – now carry on the von Rutenberg tradition of waterfront hospitality.

2008 Dueling Chefs

Chef	Restaurant	City
Charles Lazzareschi	Dayton Street Grille	Madison, WI
Barbara Wright	The Dardanelles	Madison, WI
Rob Grisham	Brasserie V	Madison, WI
Andrew Lickel	Samba Brazilian Grill	Madison, WI
Mai Zong Vue	Taste of Asia	Madison, WI
Jeff Bach	Captain Bill’s	Middleton, WI

We’ll see you there!

Quivey’s Grove Stone House is celebrating Oktoberfest with a special menu!  Served Tuesday - Saturday during the month of October, this three course menu offers a taste of Germany at a great price - with a drink thrown in!  Being Oktoberfest fans, we tried it out - see our pictures below.  Yes, it tasted as good as it looked.  Here are the details:

For $25, choose one item in each course and with a glass of Capital Oktoberfest Beer, or Wollersheim Dry Riesling Wine.

Appetizer
German Meatballs
Warm Potato Salad
Goulasch Soup

Second Course
Wienerschnitzle
Beef Rouladen
Bavarian Sampler

Dessert
Apple Strudel
Black Forest Cherry Cheesecake
Linzer Torte

               

Or, try the Stable Grill Oktoberfest Menu, being served Monday thru Saturday. $20 includes a three course Oktoberfest Dinner with three shorty Oktoberfest Beers.

Appetizer & Beer
German Meatballs
Capital Oktoberfest

Entree & Beer
Bavarian Sampler
New Glarus Staghorn Oktoberfest

Dessert & Beer
Black Forest Cherry Cheesecake
Tyranena Gemuetlichkeit Oktoberfest

With this article, Madison Dining Online continues the series by guest columnist Greg Fowlkes. In the third in a series of articles, Greg discusses some of the best wine lists he's discovered in...

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Madison Dining Online continues the series by guest columnist Greg Fowlkes. In this article, Greg discusses the factors that go into building a good wine list.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]