Category: People

Eater Maine has published an interview with Sean Wilkinson from Might & Main about the design/branding work his company has done with several Portland restaurants.

Can you have a house design but ensure you’re not copying yourself with all these restaurants?
I feel like as time has gone by, it’s easier for us to recognize we have a certain set of house aesthetics. We work really hard to make sure things don’t look alike but when you have a creative director in charge of decisions, things are going to be put through that person’s filter.

We try to make sure that the overall appearance for each restaurant is appropriate, and we turn projects down on a fairly regular basis because we’re afraid they may be a conflict. If somebody were to open a nordic-themed craft cocktail bar and asked us to design the menu systems, that’d be a no-brainer for us to say no to [because of Might & Main’s work with The Portland Hunt and Alpine Club], or if somebody were opening an oyster bar. We’re very conscious of differentiation in this town.

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about Maine native and food book author Nancy Harmon Jenkins and her new book on olive oil.

Jenkins, already a nationally known expert on the Mediterranean diet, has just written a book that focuses exclusively on olive oil. “Virgin Territory: Exploring the World of Olive Oil” is part primer on olive oil, part cookbook – it includes more than 100 Mediterranean recipes – and part autobiographical account of producing olive oil on her own Tuscan farm. It’s the sixth book she’s written about Mediterranean food.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about chef Cara Stadler.

Also on her 10-year agenda is expanding her business. She doesn’t want any more restaurants, but hopes to develop some food businesses that will give her employees a living wage, health care, and some growth opportunities so they’ll stay with her longer. She’d like, for example, to start some kind of fermentation company with [Josh] Fratoni, who is an expert on the topic. She also wants to start making and selling the hot sauces that [Saskia] Poulos has been experimenting with the past few years.

But for now, she’s still enjoying the national spotlight and the boost it has given to her business. While loyal locals keep Tao Yuan busy in winter, summer traffic was “way more intense” last year.

The Press Herald has published an interview with Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor, the chefs/co-owners of Hugo’s and Eventide.

Q: You are both owner/chefs. What’s the division of labor?

TAYLOR: He focuses much more on Hugo’s, and I focus much more Eventide. We’ve hired an old sous-chef for Honey Paw. Both of us are intimately involved with the menu at Honey Paw. If I have a flash of inspiration that fits better at Hugo’s, I’ve no problem saying that. And the same for him. We try to cultivate a collaborative atmosphere in the restaurant. I really like it when a cook says, “I’d really like to do this.” It’s much better if the cooks have a sense of ownership because it’s going to taste better.

WILEY: It sounds clichéd, but we have a really awesome community that helps us run the restaurants.

Taylor and Wiley are semi-finalist nominees for this year’s James Beard Best Chef: Northeast award. Along with their co-owner Arlin Smith, they’re currently in the process of launching a third restaurant, The Honey Paw.

Kathleen Lomen, a former vegetarian current staff member at The Farm Stand, has launched A Women’s Guide to Butchering, a blog on her chosen career path as a butcher.

I needed to find a way to BE the butcher and own my space. And it’s not just me. I’ve seen the women coming out of the wood work giving a go at breaking into this field and that’s who this website is for. Part anecdotal and part instructional, i want this to be a place for people to see a woman at work and also one who is still in her early beginnings of becoming a seasoned butcher.

The Press Herald has published an interview with Shannon Bard, chef of Zapoteca.

Q: But why in Maine?
A: I knew there was a need for traditional Mexican cuisine. I take traditional dishes and I modernize them and make them my own, using as many local ingredients as possible. People have their preconceived idea of what Mexican is, but they’ve had border Mexican (cuisine). A huge majority hasn’t had interior Mexican cuisine. That was the biggest challenge – people having ideas of what Mexican food should be. I could bring up traditional produce and fish from (Mexico), but it would cost a lot more money and I want to focus on local products as much as possible.