NYT Cooking Event: Potato & Sandwich Bliss
Also, meet the Jean Banchet Awards nominees, plus the weekend market schedule
A Mashed Potato Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
Attending an impromptu class on making brown butter mashed potatoes isn’t on my usual Local Food Forum rounds. But when I found out that the Wednesday morning session at Logan Square’s Loaf Lounge was being presented by the New York Times’ Cooking site, I navigated around my even-crazier-than-usual schedule so I could be there.
NYT Cooking was founded in 2014 and I was an early adopter. With all-stars including Mark Bittman, Melissa Clark, Ali Slagle, Sam Sifton, Martha Rose Shulman and more, it has long been my essential recipe site. I currently have 530 recipes stored there, and if my hamster wheel ever slows down long enough, I’m going to curate it and go on a wild cooking binge.
While visiting Chef Vaughn Vreeland’s rich, indulgent brown butter mashed potatoes starred in Wednesday’s show, they weren’t the only inducement to attend: There was also the promise of a take-home Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich. This happens to be one of my favorite comfort-food things to eat. One of the finest messes in the food world, this pileup is sensory overload between two slices of bread.
The mashed potatoes recipe is super-simple, with just a handful of ingredients. If you’ve made mashed potatoes at home, you’re already 90 percent of the way there. The difference with these is that brown butter — high-fat butter cooked until it caramelizes and turns color — is added for extra richness. The only trick in the process is tending the butter so it doesn’t burn.
So how rich is it? The photo says very.
Vaughn recommends russet potatoes over Yukon Gold or other new potatoes that have their own buttery flavor. He favors boiling the potatoes rather than baking (I typically steam the potatoes). While some people insist that you have to use a potato ricer to get a really smooth mash, Vaughn says you can do just as well with a hand masher and/or a hand mixer. And he said that if you like your mashed potatoes lumpy instead of smooth (my preference), then you be you.
Click the button below to get the recipe right from the NYT Cooking site — and then browse for dozens of great Thanksgiving recipe ideas.
And then there’s the Thanksgiving sandwich. There’s a recipe linked below, but there are few food preps that provide more leeway for you to put your own personal stamp on it. Trust that you’ll see my take on it in the days following Thanksgiving.
When the session wrapped up, each attendee was handed a goodie bag containing a sandwich, a small container of gravy that could be used like a French dip (being more primitive, I just poured some of the gravy on my sandwich when I got home), and what Vaughn said was a little something from Loaf Lounge.
Knowing what I knew about Loaf Lounge, I kind of thought I knew what it was. And fortunately, I was right.
Meet what must be, albeit indirectly, the most famous chocolate cake in America these days.
Loaf Lounge is owned by the married couple of Chef Ben Lustbader and Pastry Chef Sarah Mispagel-Lustbader. Both worked in some of the finest restaurants in Chicago before they started Loaf Lounge, their highly elevated sandwich and baked goods restaurant.
Sarah’s renown drew the attentions of the producers of The Bear, the streaming TV series about the chaos, conflicts and camaraderie in a Chicago restaurant kitchen. And serving as the show’s baking consultant, she created the chocolate cake that Marcus, as the pastry chef played by Lionel Boyce, toiled to perfect.
So I was thrilled when I opened the box in the goodie bag and saw that the little lagniappe was a slice of the cake, which of course I shared with Barb because I’m that kind of guy. And you know what? It genuinely is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever eaten.
The event was short, sweet, savory and delicious. NYT Cooking, y’all come back now, ya hear?
Is Your Favorite Chef a Banchet Awards Nominee?
In early September, Local Food Forum broke the news that The Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence — known as Chicago’s home version of the James Beard Awards — will be returning in January after a one-year hiatus. And now we can share the names of the nominees and one special awardee for the event that will be held on Sunday, January 28 at Venue SIX10 at 610 S. Michigan Ave.
Tickets for the event will go on sale in December.
The Awards are being organized by Michael Muser, the event’s longtime emcee, who is co-owner of Chicago’s renowned Ever restaurant and After lounge. He has teamed up with Chicago Chefs Cook (CCC) — a culinary collaboration that has staged a series of successful fundraising dinners and tasting events for humanitarian causes over more than a half — which is assisting on the logistical and philanthropic sides of the Awards.
Chicago Chefs Cook has selected the Virtue Leadership Development Program, founded in 2022 by Chef Erick Williams of Virtue restaurant, as this year’s awards charity beneficiary.
The program teaches local young adults of color value-driven entrepreneurship through training at the restaurant. Williams is one of the shining stars of our area’s culinary community, having been named both Jean Banchet Chef of the Year and Best Chef in the Great Lakes Region by the James Beard Foundation, both in 2022.
The Banchet Awards also has selected legendary former Chicago Tribune restaurant critic Phil Vettel to receive its Culinary Excellence Award.
Here are the nominees for the 2024 Jean Banchet Awards:
Restaurant of the Year: Kyōten; Jeong; Galit; Daisies
Chef of the Year: Paul Fehribach, Big Jones; Genie Kwon and Tim Flores, Kasama; Stephen Gillanders, S.K.Y., Valhalla, Apolonia; Paul Virant; Vie, Vistro Prime, Gaijin
Best New Restaurant: Indienne; Valhalla; Warlord; Obélix
Rising Chef of the Year: Margaret Pak, Thattu; Trevor Fleming, Emily Kraszyk, John Lupton, Warlord; Christian Hunter, Atelier; Damarr Brown, Virtue
Bar of the Year: Meadowlark; Cherry Circle Room; Best Intentions; Scofflaw
Pastry Chef of the Year: Tatum Sinclair, S.K.Y., Valhalla, Apolonia; Maya-Camille Broussard, Justice of the Pies; Valeria Socorro Velazquez Lindsten, Loba Pastry; Erin Kobler, Sepia, Proxi
Sommelier of the Year: Daniel Bennett, Sushi-San; Alex Cuper, El Che Steakhouse & Bar; Amber Pike, Andros Taverna; Christian Shaum, Bazaar Meat
Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Pompette; Boeufhaus; Torchio Pasta Bar; Daisy’s Po-Boy and Tavern
Heritage Restaurant of the Year: Boonie’s Filipino Restaurant; Rubi’s on 18th; Tuk Tuk Thai Isan Street Food; Thalaiva’s Indian Kitchen
Best Counter Service: Omarcitos Latin Café; Loaf Lounge; Flour Power; JT’s Genuine Sandwich Shop
Best Hospitality: Bronzeville Winery; Dear Margaret; Smyth; DeNucci’s
Best Restaurant Design: Fioretta; The Omakase Room at Sushi-San; Bistro Monadnock; Warlord
This Weekend’s Outdoor & Indoor Market Schedule
This is it for the 2023 outdoor farmers market season at Green City Market and The Lincoln Park Farmers Market. It’s wait-til-next-year for the latter, but Green City will be kicking up its winter indoor market in Avondale on December 3. Meanwhile, stop by this Saturday and wish your farmer and vendor friends a pleasant winter.