Here’s what you missed at past Stir the Pot suppers. Don’t let the next one pass you by!
(Please click on menu images below to enlarge.)
October 7–8, 2012
Jamie Bissonnette is the chef and co-owner, with Ken Oringer, of two acclaimed Boston restaurants. He dishes up Spanish-style tapas at Toro and Italian fare at Coppa. A proponent of nose-to-tail cuisine, Bissonnette is renowned for his charcuterie. At Coppa, he has dedicated one section of the menu to house-made salumi and another to offal—offerings include such flights of meat-fancy as duck prosciutto or pig’s ear terrine.
July 29–30, 2012
Pat Martin is the owner and pitmaster of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nolensville, Tennessee, where he smokes whole hogs in keeping with Tennessee tradition. Martin is also a member of the Fatback Collective. His Redneck Taco, an open-faced construction of pulled pork piled atop a hoecake, was chosen by Garden & Gun magazine as one of “100 Southern Foods You Absolutely, Positively Must Try Before You Die.”
April 15–16, 2012
Stir the Pot Nashville kicked off with Ashley Christensen as guest chef, hosted by Tyler Brown of the Capitol Grille at the Hermitage Hotel and Tandy Wilson of City House.
February 19–20, 2012
Photographs coming soon.
Joseph Lenn is the executive chef of The Barn at Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee. A Tennessee native, Lenn’s culinary training began in the butcher shop of his hometown grocery store. He interned at Blackberry Farm during culinary school and returned to the Barn after productive stints at the Peninsula Grill in Charleston (with Chef Bob Carter) and the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville (with Chef Sean Brock). Today, Lenn’s team prepares soulful, seasonally inspired food showcasing produce from the garden, just a few feet away from the restaurant. Chef Lenn’s signature dishes include Autumn Harvest Winesap Apple Salad with Smoked Mountain Trout Cake, Watercress, and Cider; and Ashley Farms Crispy Chicken with Anson Mills Grits and Trefoil Custard, Benton’s Sausage, Oyster Mushrooms and Olive Oil Braised Kale.
September 18–19, 2011
John Fleer honed a Foothills cuisine during his years at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee, interpreting the work of artisans like Cruze Family Dairy, Sunburst Trout, and Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams. At Canyon Kitchen in Cashiers, North Carolina, he serves root beer glazed pork and Spanish-inspired fig and almond cakes.
To see more photos of John Fleer stirring the pot, please visit the SFA’s Flickr page.
Edward Lee, a Brooklyn native of Korean ancestry, is a blissful convert to Kentucky provender. At 610 Magnolia, his Louisville restaurant, he slathers Kentucky-raised pork and bison with soy-based black barbecue sauce, inspired by mutton, popular in and around Owensboro, and kalbi, popular in Korea. Chef Lee chose karaoke for the potluck’s musical accompaniment and rocked the mic with selections ranging from Elvis to Whitesnake.
To see more photos of Ed Lee stirring the pot, please visit the SFA’s Flickr page.
John Currence is a Louisiana-born maverick, now living and working in Oxford, Mississippi, where his empire of restaurants includes Big Bad Breakfast and City Grocery. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he led the rebuild of Willie Mae’s Scotch House, the iconic New Orleans fried chicken house.
Tyler Brown, chef of the Capitol Grille at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, is also an avid farmer who works the dirt at historic Glen Leven farm, just down the road. Tandy Wilson is a salumi savant and the chef at City House in Nashville, where he specializes in Italian fare but has been known to reinterpret such crowd-pleasing classics as corn dogs, movie theater popcorn, and chicken wings. Together, Brown and Wilson are known as TnT, a force to be reckoned with.
Sean Brock, the chef at McCrady’s and Husk in Charleston, South Carolina, farms his own land and raises his own pigs. Brock touts the import of heirloom crops like benne, Sea Island red peas, and Jimmy Red corn, which appear on his dinner menus, and on the tattoo that runs down his left arm.
Alex Raij and Eder Montero celebrate Basque cuisine at Txikito in New York City. They earned fame with lengua, lomo, and morcilla. Gulf Coast Southerners will recognize a common palate in dishes like txangurro, a crabmeat gratin, and gambas planxta, head-on shrimp, napped with olive oil and sea salt.
