Category: Food & Drink

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Extra Helpings

Mark your calendar for a star-studded benefit dinner at Wally Joe restaurant on Sunday, March 26th. The dinner benefits Share Our Strength’s program to fight childhood hunger.

Chef/owner Wally Joe has invited five nationally acclaimed chefs who will each be in charge of one course, leaving two courses to Joe and his pastry chef Jorge Noriega. The lineup for that night includes Johnny Iuzzini, pastry chef at Jean Georges in New York City. Iuzzini was voted one of America’s top-10 pastry chefs by Pastry Art & Design magazine in 2003 and 2004 and is known for surprising diners with desserts that are outstanding and different. Chocolate goat cheese, anybody?

Shawn McClain owns three highly renowned restaurants in Chicago. He serves up high-end Asian-infused Continental food at his restaurant Spring; inventive, mostly vegetarian, small plates at Green Zebra; and modern American cuisine with an emphasis on artisan meats at Custom House.

Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun’s and Krog Bar in Atlanta has worked in upscale kitchens around the South since he was 14 years old. His preparations are modern American, and his menu offers items such as sea scallop Benedict and Hamachi crudo.

Bob Waggoner, executive chef at Charleston Grill in Charleston, South Carolina, fuses low-country cooking with his own French-influenced technique to create contemporary “Southern haute cuisine,” such as Maine lobster tempura over lemon grits and roasted venison tenderloin over sawmill gravy.

Last but not least: Don Yamauchi, executive chef at Tribute restaurant in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where he prepares dishes that are contemporary French with global accents. On his menu, this translates into soy-marinated cod and herb-crusted Kumamoto oysters.

Seats will go fast for this seven-course food-and-wine extravaganza. The cost of the dinner (complete with wine pairings) is $175 per person, including tax and gratuity. All proceeds will go to Share Our Strength. A champagne reception begins at 6 p.m. at L Ross Gallery; dinner at Wally Joe begins at 6:45 p.m.

Wally Joe, 5040 Sanderlin. For more information and reservations, call 818-0821.

If the benefit at Wally Joe is too rich for your taste buds and your budget, Miss Cordelia’s Lazy Sunday Jazz Brunch on March 12th might be more your style. Among the menu items are artichoke, prosciutto, and goat-cheese strata, hash-brown casserole, New Orleans French toast, and cheese-grits cakes. Live jazz will be provided by local musicians. Brunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is $16 per person.

Also new at Miss Cordelia’s: executive chef Nancy Kistler’s weekly Healthy Options Menu, featuring three meals that are less than 550 calories, low in fat, sodium, and all the other bad things that we usually load onto our plates. Kistler makes them high in fiber and essential nutrients. Why not give it a try? Among this week’s dishes are Chicken Limone with olive whipped potatoes, pasta with pomodoro sauce, and fish Armandine over spinach.

Cordelia’s Table, 737 Harbor Bend Rd. (526-4772)

Ever wondered how Southern Jews manage to keep a kosher diet, when the sweet, the greasy, and the barbecued lurk at every corner? Marcie Cohen Ferris explores those foodways in Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South. The book includes numerous photographs, anecdotes, oral histories, and more than 30 recipes from friends, family, fellow Southerners, and fellow Jews.

Cohen will sign copies of the book on Thursday, March 9th, at 6 p.m. at Davis-Kidd Booksellers.

Davis-Kidd Booksellers, 387 Perkins Ext. (683-9801) Home chefs, keep an eye peeled! The Viking Culinary Arts Center is moving its cooking school to Park Place Mall at Park and Ridgeway in late spring. The retail store will remain downtown. While the setup for the cooking school will stay the same, more classes might be offered at the new location, which will also feature a small retail store. For more information, call 578-5822.

Vikingrange.com

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

All About Aldi

I grew up with Aldi, a Germany-based discount grocery chain that has its origins in my hometown of Essen, and I never thought I’d find Aldi in any other part of the world. Aldi stores are part of Germany’s landscape like McDonald’s are part of America’s. And just as the McDonald’s experience is the same everywhere in the world, so too is the Aldi experience.

While all Aldi stores are alike, they are different from most other grocery stores. For one thing, they’re much smaller, taking up around 15,000 square feet compared to the 60,000 square feet of an average Kroger. In addition, Aldi sells hardly any name brands. Instead, it carries products such as Tandil liquid laundry detergent (200 oz. for $6.99), Shep dog food (20 lbs. for $4.49), Millville instant oatmeal (10 ct. for $1.49), and Bon Italia macaroni and cheese sauce with beef (15 oz. for 69 cents). It also runs specials on a small number of non-grocery items like digital cameras, computers, and portable CD players for a limited time — usually until they are sold out, which might take only a few hours.

When Karl and Theo Albrecht took over their mom’s sundry store in 1946, they founded Aldi, which is short for Albrecht Discount. The first Aldi, as we know it, opened in 1961. Karl and Theo, however, split up and consequently split the German market into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. Internationally, the brothers seem to have an agreement as well, since you don’t find both brothers expanding into the same foreign market. Aldi Nord, for example, operates stores in France and Spain, whereas Aldi Süd is in Australia and America.

Aldi might be rather mysterious to Memphians. While its flier comes in The Commercial Appeal every Sunday, there is no mention of store locations, and if you’re waiting for other ads, don’t bother. Aldi doesn’t advertise beyond that flier. When the Aldi brothers started the business, they sold highly in-demand items, such as butter, under the purchasing price. They made up for the loss by pricing other items a little more expensively. Karl Albrecht once said that Aldi’s low prices were all the advertisement it needed. The news about new store openings or special deals spread through word-of-mouth and that seems to be good enough for the company, which currently operates 7,000 stores worldwide.

The first thing you notice when you go to Aldi is the sign above the grocery carts, which reads, “How a quarter saves you dollars.” It costs a quarter to rent a cart. Once the cart is returned, you get your quarter back. This system adds up to one or two people Aldi doesn’t have to hire because there aren’t any shopping carts to gather from the parking lot.

Inside, you won’t find 10 brands of frozen pizza, potato chips, flour, orange juice, or cookies. There is one choice per item, maybe two. Aldi carries around 700 items per store compared to an average of 25,000 items in other chain grocery stores.

The goods at Aldi are sold pretty much straight out of the shipping box, which means even fewer employees because nobody needs to unpack and stock products. Pallets are lined up neatly next to each other, though some items are stacked on shelves. Everything is easily accessible, and the shelves or stacks aren’t very tall. This arrangement is an important part of Aldi’s concept. There may be only two people working in the store — the manager and a cashier. They need to be able to oversee the whole store from wherever they stand.

If you try calling an Aldi, you won’t have any luck. Store phone numbers are unlisted because, with only two employees working, there is no time to run to answer the phone. At the register, there’s nobody to bag your groceries. You have to bring your own bags or purchase a large (and I mean large) plastic bag for a dime or a paper bag for a nickel. To speed up the checkout process, the cashier returns your groceries to the cart, which you can then empty yourself in the bagging area or outside directly into your car. And when you pay up, be sure you either have cash or a debit card, because Aldi does not take credit cards and frowns on checks.

For Aldi shopper David Sienkiwicz, it’s like getting gas at a self-service station. Sienkiwicz used to shop at Aldi when he lived in St. Louis, and he doesn’t mind reusing his bags or bagging his own groceries. “It’s a good way to save money for a family that lives on a tight budget or a family with a lot of kids,” he says.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

A Place of His Own

John Bragg isn’t a newcomer to the Memphis restaurant scene. He has worked at Erling Jensen’s restaurants and with Gene Bjorklund at Aubergine, among others. In 2004, he reopened the vegetarian restaurant, La Montagne, keeping the name but changing pretty much everything else. Now, he’s taken the next step with River Oaks, his new restaurant located in the former Cockeyed Camel at Poplar Avenue and I-240, next to Park Place Hotel.

“We had been looking for our own place for a while,” Bragg says. “People would come to me and say, ‘John, we love your food, but this location isn’t going to work,'” referring to La Montagne’s site on Park Avenue near Highland.

River Oaks is all Bragg. Nothing remains of the former tenant. Inside, the restaurant offers warm earthy tones and lots of natural light. The tables are bare, showing off their honey-colored wood. Black napkins pick up the color scheme in the eye-catching artwork, an elegant contrast to the golden interior.

Bragg’s cuisine is modern American, and his menu features items such as wild mushroom and goat-cheese crepes, crawfish beignets, rack of lamb, baby pheasant, striped bass, grouper, and tilefish as well as a small à la carte steak selection and several side dishes.

Most dinner entrées at River Oaks are in the $22 to $26 range, with the exception of steak entrées, which are about $30. Chocolate soufflé, Meyer lemon tart, and pineapple baked Alaska are some of the sweet treats offered. The lunch menu features soups, salads, and sandwiches as well as a small selection of entrées.

River Oaks is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week, serving lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch.

River Oaks, 5871 Poplar (683-9305)

Meanwhile, La Montagne won’t be vacant for much longer. Javier Corona is set to open La Bamba, a Mexican restaurant, bar, and discotheque this month. While Corona plans on being open for traffic from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, he wants to serve his wife’s Mexican food almost around the clock on weekends.

La Bamba, 3550 Park

Two new restaurants opened at the Avenue Carriage Crossing in Collierville. At STIX (as in chopsticks), you can enjoy Asian favorites and sushi or gather around the hibachi grill. The Collierville STIX is the third to open. The original is in Birmingham, Alabama. STIX serves lunch and dinner daily.

STIX, 4680 Merchants Park Circle (854-3399)

Diners will feel like they’re in New Orleans’ French Quarter when they sit down to sample the Crescent City‘s Creole-style comfort food. The menu includes all the New Orleans favorites — crawfish, catfish, po’boys, muffalettas, red beans and rice and, of course, freshly prepared beignets. Crescent City serves lunch and dinner daily.

Crescent City, 4610 Merchants Park Circle (850-8580)

Soup lovers, get your spoons ready: Youth Villages’ Soup Sunday is this Sunday, February 26th, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the FedExForum. More than 50 popular Memphis restaurants will serve up soup, specialty items, breads, and desserts to benefit Youth Villages.

Tickets at the door are $18 for adults and $5 for children 11 years and younger. Free parking is available at the Ford Garage. Call 252-7650 for tickets or go to www.youthvillages.org.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Homegrown

Imagine this real-life challenge on a busy night of cooking and serving food: The corporate director of culinary procurement for Harrah’s Entertainment and several associates show up for dinner at your restaurant. (In this case, LB’s Steakhouse at Grand Casino.) But Bill Barum isn’t just your boss. He’s also an accomplished chef who has cooked for Jordan’s King Hussein and, more recently, handled Super Bowl catering for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

To complicate matters, the group doesn’t want to order off the menu. “Surprise us with your cooking,” they say instead.

What do you do? If you’re LB’s chef de cuisine Jimmy Gentry, you think on your feet and get busy, combining classical French cooking with something new.

“Our corporate chef is a big fan of Indian food, so I played off of those flavors,” Gentry explains, smiling at the spontaneity of his eight-course meal. “It was fun.”

So what dishes did Gentry whip up over the next two and a half hours? Curry cauliflower to start, followed by Indian lamb stew, shaved salad with warm ajowan-seed vinaigrette, and crisp sea bass, jasmine rice, and red-curry yogurt. Frozen-grape granité came next to ready the palate for Marsala-roasted filet of beef and a puree of Yukon gold potatoes. No room for dessert? Too bad, because Gentry served grilled angel food cake with yogurt and black-pepper/raspberry marmalade.

“I cook using a hybrid of my classical training mixed with the tastes from food I like to eat,” Gentry says. “I like the smaller places, the mom-and-pops, the Asian restaurants, because they tend to be the most authentic.”

Gentry’s current favorites are seafood dinners at Asian Palace in Bartlett and Sunday-morning dim sum at Nam King, located in southeast Memphis near Winchester and Kirby. “A friend took me to Asian Palace, and it’s probably the best Chinese food I’ve ever had,” says Gentry, recalling the restaurant’s lobster tanks and lavish presentations. “I try to remember those kinds of tastes because I like to incorporate ethnic flavors into my cooking. They play really well with simple food.”

Gentry’s creative flair for mixing tastes and textures is reinventing LB’s traditional steakhouse offerings with a cooking style as accessible as the chef himself.

“We still sell more eight-ounce filets than anything else, but I’m dressing up the beef specials,” Gentry says. “Just because we are a steakhouse doesn’t mean we have to act like one all the time.”

Seafood selections are being updated as well with Gentry’s preferred spices and seasonings: soy, star anise, basil, mint, dashi, sambal, surachi, coriander, sesame, yuzu fruit, bean paste, and Chinese black vinegar, to name a few.

Gentry’s new direction is attracting national attention and local acclaim. In October, LB’s received an award of excellence, or DiRona Award, from the Distinguished Restaurants of North America. Loyal foodies, who know Gentry from his six years at Erling Jensen the Restaurant in Memphis, also appreciate his revised menu. LB’s now serves about 250 customers each weekday and up to 400 on weekend evenings, an accomplishment Gentry shares with Chris Clark, his sommelier and general manager.

At LB’s, the corporate setting is more departmentalized than a private restaurant where chefs typically trouble-shoot many different tasks. “If something breaks at LB’s, I call the maintenance department instead of trying to fix it myself,” Gentry says. “It’s taken some getting used to.”

Fortunately, adapting to new kitchens is easy for Gentry whose first summer jobs were in Arkansas restaurants operated by his mother, Lisa Hackett. “My dad was in the liquor business in Memphis, working for Star Distributors,” Gentry says. “I used to joke that by the time I was in elementary school, I had been in more restaurants and nightclubs than most adults.”

Since then, he’s cooked at Three Oaks, Ciao Baby, Country Squire, Pig N Whistle, Ruth’s Chris, and Erling’s.

Is there any one important cooking tip he’s learned? “Think of a recipe as a guideline and experiment,” Gentry replies, “and don’t forget to have fun.”

And what about the secret to cooking a perfect steak? “Rub it with salt, pepper, and a little olive oil and pop it in a hot oven,” Gentry says. “You’ll be amazed at how good it is once you get it off the grill.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

You’re headed for California’s wine country?

If you can stand the drab, rainy weather, this is the best time to visit California wine country. The region still has that romantic feel; you can still walk among the rows of vines — albeit brown and bald — and taste fantastic wines ’til you drop. Plane fares are cheaper, traffic isn’t as bad, bed and breakfasts actually seem appreciative to see you, and wineries aren’t overrun with mobs of tourist buses. Well, not as many.

There are plenty of reasons to visit wine country, my favorite being the ethereal feeling of being part of something passionate and real. I get pathetically misty-eyed and wistful when I see the dormant vineyards, resting and getting ready to produce another crop of grapes destined for my favorite beverage. And then there’s the unlimited wine tasting. There are literally hundreds of wines available at more than 150 wineries vying for your attention — but especially your money. Taste carefully, choose your wineries wisely, and you can have the best vacation of your life.

I don’t normally spring for the B&B experience; instead I save money by staying at a chain hotel. When in Sonoma County, I opt for a central location like Santa Rosa. The Hilton Sonoma often has decent deals in winter. I’ve paid as little as $100 a night (a deal in wine country). I rarely stay in Napa Valley, since my wine psyche belongs to the more down-to-earth, less commercial Sonoma region. That, of course, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t climb over the mountain to visit Napa — what many people call America’s wine mecca.

To keep my vacation going, I normally return home with at least one case of wine. Yes, my house is overrun with wine, but, like an addict on Home Shopping Channel, I can’t help myself. And I’m super-choosy about what I schlep home.

If it’s available where I live, why haul it? Besides, the wine is rarely cheaper at the winery. I seek out the “tasting room only” wines — the unusual, the rare. Another budget tip: If you can stand the anxiety of a possible break, don’t pay the shameful shipping fees to mail wine home. Buy a shipper at the last winery you visit, find some packing tape, and check it on the plane. I’ve (knock on wood) never had a bottle break on me.

There are two different reasons to visit a winery: the wine and the experience. In Sonoma, the coolest wineries to visit for the beauty, people, or uniqueness are Hop Kiln, located in an actual hop kiln (used for making beer); Ferrari Carano, an absolutely gorgeous property, even in winter; Chateau Souverain, the closest to a Napa winery property, complete with the fabulous chateau; and the Kendall Jackson wine center, which has an amazing educational sensory garden.

For a mixture of both unique and fantastic wine, Benziger Winery, a working biodynamic/organic winery, is kind of like Disneyland with its small tram that carts you around. For simply amazing wine in Sonoma, my must visits — and where I load up on the best wine — are: Cline Cellars, B.R. Cohn, Murphy Goode, Ridge, Locals Tasting Room in Geyserville, Family Wineries of Dry Creek, Hanna Winery, Preston of Dry Creek, and Simi Winery.

In Napa, I recommend Flora Springs, Milat, Beaulieu Vineyards, Chimney Rock, Markham, Miner, Mumm Napa, Rombauer, and Sterling.

Recommended Wines

Merriam 2001 Russian River Windacre Merlot (California) — This is not a wimpy Merlot, so quit the Sideways whining. Bright cherry and earthy cedar characterize this sultry sipper. Smooth, elegant, and especially good with food. $28

Montaudon Brut — A moderately expensive French Champagne with a sensation of slight sweetness on the tongue and a crisp, shy lemon/lime flavor. $28

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Out of the Ordinary

On busy New Byhalia Road in Collierville, there’s a typical shopping center with a Target, a Schnucks, and various other businesses. In the corner space is Lee Kan’s Asian Grill, a Chinese restaurant which appears to be as ordinary as its environs.

Look closer, however, and Lee Kan’s Asian Grill is much more. Kan and her husband, Simon Huang, opened the 4,500-square-foot restaurant in October. Since then, business has been steady, and it keeps picking up.

“When they first come in, they think we’re a regular Chinese restaurant,” Kan says. “Then they see our presentation and how we prepare our food, and they’re surprised.”

For one thing, Lee Kan’s is not simply an Asian grill. The food is nontraditional, mixing and matching cooking techniques from different Asian countries. Many of the dishes have American and European influences as well.

Two of Kan’s favorite examples of this are the grilled jumbo shrimp and scallops and the pan-seared sea bass. Both are prepared with an Asian/French soy/beurre-blanc sauce, or a white wine sauce mixed with soy.

“It tastes clean from the white wine,” Kan says. “Then you can taste the Asian influence, and it’s like, ‘Is that soy sauce or what?’ People guess and try to figure out what it is.”

The presentation of the dishes is also unconventional.

“The French influence is not only about the taste but also the presentation of the food. It’s always so gorgeous,” Kan says. “It’s interesting to take a Chinese dish and add a French sauce or to present it in a way the French would.”

Another dish that Kan’s customers appreciate is “Fried Rice for the Brazen Fool,” a medley of Asian dry red pepper, Thai pepper, jalapeno pepper, red pepper, and bell pepper with sweet onions, carrots, and egg. It’s very hot. “People order that, and we look at them and ask, ‘Are you crazy?'” Kan says.

The range of foods extends to the children’s menu, which features both grilled chicken with teriyaki sauce and macaroni and cheese. A nice touch to the children’s menu is the inclusion of instructions for making an origami swan.

Kan got much of her inspiration for cooking while traveling.

“Because I traveled around, I saw many other different countries’ food,” Kan says. “I always thought about how to arrange it differently and make it fun and not just traditional Chinese food.”

Kan is from the Chinese city of Canton. Her family moved to Memphis when she was 17 years old to join an uncle who lived here. Growing up, she helped out in the family kitchen. During the summer, she worked as a waitress in Chinese restaurants, learning about the restaurant business.

Kan and Huang also own the Hunan Gourmet Buffet on Germantown Road in Bartlett.

The main room of Lee Kan’s has a large fish tank. The restaurant walls showcase original artwork, including paintings by Memphis artist Billy Price Carroll and Collierville artist Rene Platten. One of those paintings features Kan and her daughter, Vivian.

Huang and Kan also have an 8-year-old son, Kevin. The family lives nearby. They decided to open Lee Kan’s in Collierville because they saw a need for unique dining in the area, the sort of place that feels like home.

“When I’m working at a restaurant, it’s not just about making money. It’s about developing relationships with the customers. You make friends with them,” Kan says.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Love To Eat

For an all-around sweet Valentine head to The Peabody. Peabody Deli & Desserts is selling gourmet chocolates, chocolate hearts, and chocolate-dipped strawberries. You can place your order at 529-4188.

Chez Philippe and Capriccio Grill are offering Valentine’s menus: four courses with a choice of appetizer (oysters Rockefeller or baby Arugula salad) and two entrée choices (surf and turf or pan-roasted Atlantic salmon) for $95 per person at Chez Philippe and three courses for $75 per person at Capriccio Grill. For reservations call 529-4188 or 521-4199.

Grill 83 is offering a four-course dinner for $75 per person. Chilled lobster salad with avocado purée and domestic caviar are on the menu as is “Duck Two Ways” — crispy Hudson Valley breast and duck leg confit. Call 333-1224 for reservations.

Jim’s Place will have a three-course Valentine’s menu for “sweethearts who call Jim’s Place their place” and for those who want a really romantic setting. Call 388-7200.

Paulette’s has a four-course Valentine’s menu ranging from $49.95 per person for a choice of appetizer, garden salad, dessert, and halibut with fresh jumbo lump crab meat and Creole cream sauce to $64.95 per person for the surf and turf of Maine lobster and Angus filet mignon. Call 726-5128.

Phillip Joyner will play the piano at Garlands on Valentine’s Day, while diners enjoy a four-course menu offering such treats as a lobster scallop bisque, braised lamb shank with truffle creamed mushrooms, and chocolate cayenne cake for $65 per person. Call 682-5202.

At Erling Jensen the Restaurant, you can get a five-course menu for $65 per person. Lobster will be one of the entrée choices and chocolate flan or red velvet cake will await you at the end of the fabulous meal. Call 763-3700.

Wally Joe restaurant will be offering a six-course Valentine’s menu for $80 per person in addition to its à la carte menu. Call 818-0821.

Di Anne Price will be performing at Cielo at 7 p.m., while you and your significant other enjoy such goodies as lobster and crab beignets and filet mignon in appelwood-smoked bacon. Cielo’s four-course Valentine’s menu is $75 per person. Call 524-1886.

The Beauty Shop is offering a four-course menu for $50 per person. You can chose to start the evening with foie gras ravioli before you move on to crawfish bisque and butter-poached lobster. Call 272-7111.

If you’re looking for some continental comfort food, Chef Jose Gutierrez and his crew at Encore will have the right thing for you and your Valentine. The three-course menu for $55 per person offers two entrée choices. Call 528-1415 or visit opentable.com.

Zanzibar will have live music by Billy Gibson, flowers, champagne, and a special menu for $60 per person that starts out with a “Teaser” of crab cakes with red beet and horseradish rémoulade. After that, you’ll hopefully be ready to “Start the Romance” with a choice of two salads, so that you can move on to the “Grand Duette,” a choice of three entrées including prime rib, duck, and salmon. Finally, the “Final Touch” will satisfy your sweet tooth with chocolate truffles and raspberries. Call 543-9646.

At Mikasa Japan, two special menus will be available for diners from Friday until Tuesday: dinner for two for $39.95 per couple and a sake dinner at which you’ll get a sample of premium sakes paired with items from the sushi bar for $29 per person. Call 683-0000.

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That Warm Feeling

Like romance, there’s a certain mystery and magic about baking. Even Eileen Goudge, author of numerous romance novels and, now, a baking cookbook, admits she doesn’t understand how things like baking soda and baking powder work.

“I don’t understand the chemistry of it,” she says. “I just know it works. It’s just like falling in love. You know it when you see it — or, in this case, when you taste it.”

And really, who couldn’t fall in love with birthday banana cake with buttercream frosting? Or apple brown betty with lemon sauce? Or applesauce cake, spiced with cinnamon and cloves, covered with maple cream-cheese frosting?

Trying to understand the chemistry of such things as pecan sandies is useless, as is looking for the particular gland responsible for that feeling in your chest when you first feel that certain something for that certain person.

Luckily, in the case of baking, it’s possible to re-create that magic on demand, and that’s what Goudge is up to with her cookbook, Something Warm From the Oven (Morrow Cookbooks, $24.95). On Thursday, she will discuss that book and tell stories of baking and romance at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library.

The cookbook grew out of Goudge’s romance novels, like Otherwise Engaged, One Last Dance, and the Sweet Valley High series.

“I love to bake,” she said in an interview from her home in New York City. “It’s my other passion in addition to writing. I’ve been baking since I was tall enough to reach the counter — even before. All my characters love to bake too, and my readers were always writing in for the recipes, so I decided to do a cookbook.”

The recipes come from family, friends, and readers, and she insists they are all within reach of the average person.

“I’m trying to convert people who are interested in baking but intimidated by it,” she says. “The main problem people have, judging from the questions I get, is they don’t have the right equipment. I just tell them, ‘Go to a store and buy the basic equipment, then take a shot and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.’ My recipes aren’t that complicated.”

Of course, you do have to get it just right for the magic to happen. And like love, sometimes it takes some work. So does writing.

“Writing a cookbook is different from a novel,” Goudge says. “In fiction, I can make things up. But some of these recipes I had never tried before, and I had to make them three or four times to get it right. I actually lost weight, though. I made a rule that I wouldn’t gnosh on batter, and my office is three flights up from the kitchen. I also chewed a lot of sugarless gum.”

In fact, on the day of our interview, Goudge had just made a crust for a chicken pie. She keeps “baker’s hours,” getting up around 3 a.m. with her husband, who’s a TV and radio reporter. She bakes (sometimes working out plot points for her novels while kneading dough), goes to the gym, and tries to be at her desk, writing, by 9 a.m. During the day she’ll get reviews on her morning’s kitchen work from her husband’s newsroom.

“One of the new recipes in the book is this amazing espresso cheesecake with cream-soaked coffee grounds,” she says. “If you make it with regular coffee, you can actually get a buzz off it. That was a big hit in the newsroom. My husband called and said it went in less than five minutes. I’m like a celebrity in that newsroom.”

Another new-to-her recipe that’s in the book is “the best coconut cake I ever tasted.” She says other people, even the ones who don’t like coconut, agree. And she admits that, just like finding the perfect soulmate, she has no idea how she did it.

“It was a combination of recipes,” she says. “I experimented, kept trying things, and the magic took over. I don’t know what I did, but people go into raptures about this cake. We even put it on the cover of the book.”

Raptures, mystery, magic, chemistry — Goudge says that’s why chocolate is such a big part of Valentine’s Day. Chemists will tell you that its molecular structure is similar to opiates, but that’s not the point.

“Chocolate is very sexy,” she says. “I wrote one novel, Such Devoted Sisters, where the heroine was a chocolatier, and I had a lot of fun with that. Baking is sexy — not in the slather-yourself-with-whipped-cream sense, but because it excites your senses. It brings up warm memories.”

And a cookbook filled with things like peaches and cream cake, banana streusel coffee cake, and chilled mango pudding with pineapple rum sauce is sure to help create some more of those warm memories.

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Full of Beans

If restaurant openings were a disease, the number of new Mexican restaurants downtown and Midtown might be considered an epidemic.

The Complex is chiefly known as a bar and live-music venue, featuring the city’s hippest alternative acts. But it’s also the site of El Pollo Grille and Mexican Cantina. Bert Jamboa opened the Complex three and a half years ago and since then has worked on adding a kitchen. Although he says that the restaurant is still a work-in-progress, it’s open and serving standard Mexican fare — burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and the like — as well as all-American and all-Mexican breakfasts, which means you can get your short stack or L.A.-style huevos rancheros. The restaurant is open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

El Pollo Grille and Mexican Cantina, 704 Madison (692-9211)

Another hidden treasure can be found inside the Comfort Inn on Front Street. Sgt. Jalapeno’s Tortilla Factory Co. is a Tex-Mex family affair. Melissa and Victor Ortiz opened the restaurant in mid-December, temporarily abandoning Ortiz Tortilla Company, their Southaven restaurant.

“We are still making our own tortillas. We only closed the restaurant in Southaven temporarily,” says Victor.

It’s not just homemade tortillas at Sgt. Jalapeno’s. It’s homemade everything. The Ortizes moved here from Brownsville, Texas, where they operated Zelda’s Bakery, which specialized in Mexican pastries. When they came to the Memphis area in 1999, they brought along the flavors of South Texas and their concept of “food fast fare.”

Food fast fare? It’s hard to explain but mouth-watering nonetheless. Try Sgt. Jalapeno’s smothered burrito, a 12-inch flour tortilla filled with Spanish rice, lettuce, tomatoes, your choice of meat, smothered with red sauce and topped with olives. It’s yours for $7.95.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Sgt. Jalapeno’s Tortilla Factory Co., 100 N. Front St. (526-0583)

Transplanting a little patch of their Mexican hometown of Guadalajara to Memphis is what Andreas Flores Jr. and his dad had in mind when they opened Quinto Patio on Beale Street across from the New Daisy Theatre. The restaurant serves traditional Mexican food for lunch and dinner, as well as Italian standards — a holdover from the restaurant’s former tenant, New York Pizza. A full bar will be available once the liquor license is in place, and a patio for outdoor seating is in the works as well.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Quinto Patio, 345 Beale St. (523-7288)

Rio Loco’s opened last week in the old Buckley’s space about a block west of The Peabody. You can try their jumbo lime margarita for $6 during happy hour from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Or you can stop by for one of the daily lunch specials and get a demi-margarita, the jumbo lime’s little brother, which costs only $3.

Rio Loco’s is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Rio Loco’s, 117 Union (523-2142)

Also opening: Las Margaritas Mexican Bar and Grille next week inside America’s Best Inns & Suites at 1837 Union; Garcia Wells Southwestern Grill in Overton Square this month; Happy Mexican Restaurante & Cantina next month at 385 S. Second St.; and Qdoba Mexican Grill at Poplar and Holmes in April.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

New Kid on the Block

Twenty-six-year-old Reinaldo Alfonso, who recently replaced the celebrated chef Jose Gutierrez at The Peabody’s grand eatery Chez Philippe, grew up in a busy Cuban kitchen in Miami. It was a flavorful world that revolved around good food and frequent family get-togethers. Inspired by the women in his life, his grandmother and mother, and “the whole Latin community,” he became fascinated with kitchen life and the special relationships that form over cutting boards and boiling pots. Every major event (and most of the minor ones) in the young chef’s life revolved around food.

“The family got together all the time, and we would cook and eat all day,” he says, allowing that Sunday feasts were particularly memorable.

“We always had rice and beans, tostones [fried plantains], vacca frita, which is different kinds of shredded beef, or maybe a chicken fricassee,” Alfonso says. “But no matter what we had, the table was never set until there was a good bottle of wine and lots of Cuban bread on the table. The wine and the bread, that was my dad’s thing. There had to be lots of bread for him to soak up all of the juices with.”

When he was 8 years old, the budding cook sat down beside his grandmother who was turning stale bread into pudding. He asked if he could help.

“She did the cutting. I did all the mixing and all the other messy work that kids love,” Alfonso says of his first kitchen duties. At 14, he took a job in a Spanish restaurant in Miami, washing dishes, mopping floors, peeling potatoes, and taking careful note of how the food was prepared.

“I started early, and I’m glad that I did,” Alfonso says, holding up his hands as if to say “look where it got me.”

The journey from his grandmother’s kitchen to the revered galley of Chez Philippe wasn’t terribly long. Alfonso’s commitment to fine dining and his desire to learn took him from Florida to New York and from the tutelage of one great chef to another. Although you can still hear Havana in his voice, Alfonso’s food took on a decidedly French accent.

“My food is 95 percent French, and my presentations are French,” he says. “But I use a lot of Asian ingredients — Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and even Indian — to heighten the flavor. I try to blend a little bit of everything I’ve learned, but I focus on simplicity and try to highlight ingredients for what they are. People are starting to realize that you don’t need to mess with food too much. They are coming back to the classics because the classic way of preparing food has been lost in the last few years.”

Alfonso likes simple pleasures. He likes to buy a pack of mini-Oreos, pour them in a bowl of milk, and eat them like cereal. He loves to fish and to scuba dive. There was even a time when his love for the water led him to consider a career as a marine biologist.

“I love fish. I love seafood. And I’m really happy about flying in the best, freshest seafood from all over the world,” Alfonso says. “Everything has to be extremely fresh and extremely well-done. I’m a stickler for details.”

At present he’s most excited about the yellowtail tuna — a buttery, fat-laden fish he’s shipping fresh daily from Japan. But that’s only the beginning.

“I will be using sea urchin soon,” Alfonso says. “I’m doing things slowly. I can’t bring out certain ingredients that might scare people off right away.”

With sweet and spicy appetizers like the “Lobster Cigar” (a spring roll stuffed with Maine lobster and daikon radish with Thai chili sauce) and entrées like roasted wild striped bass with peekytoe crab and leek ragout, Chez Philippe’s new menu already smells like a fresh ocean breeze. Steaks, ribs, and a miso-brazed lamb shank with cauliflower couscous and haricot verts (green beans) ensure that meat lovers won’t be disappointed either.

Chez Philippe’s desserts include ginger, pistachio, and star anise crème brûlée, an apple tart, and a banana spring roll with a heart of peanut and chocolate, as well as a variety of homemade ice creams.

“Over the past four years I’ve turned down several positions because I didn’t feel like I was ready for them,” says the young chef. “But this time it was different. This time there were more people motivating me to do this. There’s a little bit of weight on my shoulders, but I’m confident in what I do.”

Chez Philippe in The Peabody (529-4188)

davis@memphisflyer.com