Maine Digital Press has posted the inaugural episode of the Maine Culinary Podcast. Their plans are to make it a regular semimonthly show. Shannon from Edible Obsessions, Dawn from Appetite Portland and I were interviewed for episode 1.
Category: People
Sun: Deux Cochon, Groceria Cafe, PFM Top 10, Where to Eat
Today’s Portland Daily Sun profiled Deux Cochon and its owner Adam Alfter,
“I love pickled pig’s feet, they are so good, but people are kind of scared of them,” said Adam Alfter, owner of the Public Market House’s newest BBQ joint, Deux Cochon.
“Probably about three people will eat it and I’ll eat the rest of them, but I’m cool with that, because those three people get to know what it’s like,” said Alfter.
reported on the upcoming return of the Groceria Cafe (aka Cafe at Pat’s),
“I had leased it for the last five years, and now I have it back with Greg Gilman, who is the original chef who built it with me. He’s coming back. Everybody’s excited,” [Jaime] Vacchiano said.
The cafe won rave reviews in local media, and one patron who dined at the cafe in its early years said Gilman’s return is great news.
and spread the word about Broke 207’s call for more affordable restaurants and the PFM Top 10 List.
Profile of Eric Simeon
Maine Ahead magazine has published a profile of Eric Simeon.
When you realized you really were a chef: I would never call myself a chef until I was the actual leader of the kitchen, which happened in Philadelphia in 2004. My dad, however, started introducing me as a chef to whoever would listen (especially waitstaff when we were out to dinner) way back in the ’90s.
Figa & Farrington
Down East has published a profile of Figa and chef/owner Lee Farrington.
Lee Farrington was just six when she began to understand the alchemical power of an open flame. “My earliest recollection is coring a tomato, dropping it in boiling water, and watching the peel come off,” says Farrington, who first learned to cook in her grandmother Mary’s Kentucky kitchen.
Frederick P. Dyer, 90
The founder of Dyer’s Variety on Portland Street, Frederick P. Dyer, passed away on Saturday at the age of 90.
“He was great at making Italian sandwiches. He was know for his Italians and his meatballs,” Kaplan said. “Back then, they sold a sandwich for 50 cents. He would spend seven days a week in that store.”
Jyang-Lee’s Authentic Chinese Treats
The Locavore column in Wednesday’s Portland Daily Sun is about Angela Fagin and her company Angela Jyang-Lee’s Authentic Chinese Treats.
Growing up in Nanjing, Angela used to eat dumplings made with whole wheat flour. It’s what her mother could afford; “dark flour” was much cheaper and not rationed like refined white flour. Naturally when her mother came to visit her at her new home in Maine, she was astonished that the dumplings that were the core of her daughter’s successful American business were not only made of whole wheat but that they sold at a premium because of it.
Also this week from the Sun is a continuation of Natalie Ladd’s reporting on the food stands at Hadlock Field.
A man of action and few words, he is surprised that people are remotely interested in what goes on behind the rolling metal gate that separates Stand D from the general concourse where fans roam; seeing and smelling their food and beverage options. With eight short days left until the first ceremonial pitch is tossed, the three-man, in-house, professional food service team is as busy as they will be all season.
Making Gelato & Maine Maple Sunday
Today’s Press Herald includes a report on Maine Maple Sunday,
This year’s sap is also unusually high in sugar content, consistently averaging 4 percent instead of the normal 2 percent or 3 percent. At that level, Harris said he can produce a gallon of maple syrup with only 21½ gallons of sap instead of the usual 40. Last year’s warm winter and low sugar content required an average of 47 gallons.
anda Maine at Work column where reporter Ray Routhier works with Mariagrazia Zanardi from Gorgeous Gelato,
Zanardi’s talk of the gelato’s “molecular structure” struck me. When eating ice cream, or gelato, or other similarly sweet treats, I had never thought much about molecular structure.
But Zanardi does, almost constantly. She studied gelato-making at a university in Italy, then moved to Portland and opened Gorgeous Gelato on Fore Street in December, with her husband, Donato Giovine. Giovine had a packaging business in Milan, and Zanardi had been a Spanish teacher before deciding upon gelato-making as a second career.
For some additional photos of Maine Maple Sunday go to Sweeter Salt.
JBF Awards: Krista Kern Desjarlais is Finalist
The James Beard Foundation announced the final list of nominees for this years awards at an event in the other Portland today. Krista Kern Desjarlais, chef/owner Bresca is a nominee in the Best Chef Northeast category (see page 8). She’s up against 5 other chefs from Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The winners of the 2011 JBF awards will be announced on May9 in New York City.
Update: the Press Herald interviewed Desjarlais this afternoon for an article about the nomination,
“I don’t even know what to say yet, I guess,” Desjarlais commented by phone on her way to Boothbay. “I don’t know, it’s awesome. It’s a great group of people to be nominated with. There’s not a whole lot of women that got nominated throughout the country, so I feel like that’s great, too.”
John Palanza, 89
South Portland baker and business owner John Palanza passed away last week. Palanza owned the Uncle Andy’s Bakery in South Portland for 45 years, from 1951 to 1996.
In the late 1940s, Mr. Palanza was hired by Fred Nanney, the original owner of Uncle Andy’s, to run the doughnut shop. In 1951, Mr. Palanza acquired Uncle Andy’s, growing it from a doughnut shop to a full-service bakery.
For more than 40 years, he produced breads, cakes, pies, doughnuts and assorted pastries for hundreds of loyal customers, many of whom would wait in line outside the bakery on busy weekend mornings and on holidays. The police department assigned a traffic cop to direct traffic past the shop during its busy times.
Gifford’s Ice Cream
Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram included a profiles of the company and the Gifford family.
Roughly 30 years ago, Randall Gifford left the fate of his Skowhegan dairy in the hands of two of his sons, Roger and John.
They had a choice to make: Continue the dairy business, or sell their father’s company and switch to making ice cream.
It was a big decision — at the time, Gifford’s dairy was one of the largest in Maine.