Archive for Widowism

VINEGAR

January 15, 2012 Widowism 82 comments

There is one thing that all chef’s widows can agree on. We are attracted to excessively impassioned people. We live with artists, marry creative minds. We love visionaries, movers & shakers. Simply put, we all fell in love with a chef.

Part of falling in love with a chef is knowing that many ideas will come to the tip of your chef’s tongue. Some will be good, some great, and some not ever worth mentioning.

An idea that the Chef had way back when turned out to be one of the great ones…

During the opening months of The Greenhouse Tavern, the Chef ordered some very expensive wine, his favorite very expensive wine at that. When he opened the first bottle in heightened anticipation, he was shocked to discover that his dear bottle was corked. He moved on to the next bottle, crossing his fingers, and hoping for the best. It too was corked. And every bottle in the case opened after the first, was also corked. He had a case of corked wine.

Never one to waste he decided to try his hand at vinegar making. He had experimented years before when we lived in Brooklyn but after the birth of our second child, his acidic aspirations got put on hold. He came home one day excited and ready for a pro-biotic adventure. He cleaned out our 200 year old root cellar and proudly declared it his new vinegar cellar.

Four years and countless carboys later, the Chef’s vinegar program is not only an integral part of our restaurant but now about to be our first adventure in retail. Our full line of vinegars will be on the shelves soon and are already available for purchase at The Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat.

I am so excited that we are going into the vinegar making business that I feel like giving some away! I am going to send one of YOU amazing readers of Chef’s Widow, a chef sampler. That means you will get FOUR bottles of our brand new hasn’t hit the shelves yet Tavern Co. Vinegar!

To win, please leave a comment telling me how & what you like to use vinegar on or your favorite recipe that includes vinegar.

To double your chance at winning, show me some TwitterFacebook love. Tweet or share the link to this post on Facebook or the Twitter and then come back here and leave me a comment with your tweet or share.

Good Luck!!!

IRON CHEF AMERICA YO.

January 12, 2012 Widowism 2 comments

When we first found out the Chef was going to be competing on Iron Chef, my first thought was Oh Shit, I hope they don’t make him go up against Symon. For what seems like eternities, I totally convinced myself that yes, the Chef would totally be battling one of his besties on Iron Chef America. Why not? It makes complete sense for the Food Network to pit an Iron Chef against his former Sous Chef. Cleveland would go crazy and I am sure it would be a ratings mecca.

But that didn’t happen (thank god) and on January 22nd, the Chef will be going up against the winner of The Next Iron Chef, Jeffery Zakarian in a battle royale I like to call Burly vs. Delicate:

VS.

If you are in the CLE area I hope you can join us at one of our restaurants for our Iron Chef watch party/tweetup. The Greenhouse event sold out in less than a day so we opened our doors at Noodlecat for a second bash. We will have contests, Iron Chef free passed apps, and an Iron Chef menu you can order from. Hope to see you there!

If you can’t make it please watch and join our tweetup!!

TIPS FOR DINING OUT WITH KIDS

January 5, 2012 Widow Eats, Widowism 6 comments

As a restaurant family, we find ourselves dining out with our children often. Our kids started going to restaurants early on. In fact, Louisiana’s first real food eaten was at Lola. She was a mere 6 months old and we went out to dinner for my MIL’s birthday. As we stuffed our faces with some Michael Symon deliciousness, our girl decided that she wanted in on the fun. She reached across the table while our heads were turned and before we knew it she was chomping down on crispy pigs ear.