Martha's at the Plantation Hosts James Beard Dinner
On Sept. 4, the James Beard Foundation, the august keepers of culinary tradition, will arrive in Nashville for a six-course dinner prepared by some of the best chefs in the South. Chef Martha Stamps of Martha’s at the Plantation, along with Karla Ruiz and Garrett Wallace, will host the six-course dinner in the carriage house at Belle Meade Plantation.
Check your store-bought mayonnaise at the door, because this is a group that does things the old-fashioned way. Joe Shaw from The Standard will kick off the evening with passed hors d’oeuvres including open-faced BLTs with candied hog-jowl bacon and heirloom tomatoes. City House’s Tandy Wilson will chime in with house-cured salami and lima beans sott’ olio.
Donald Link of Herbsaint in New Orleans, named best chef in the South by the Beard folks last year, will prepare Louisiana shrimp brandade with thyme-roasted trumpet mushrooms, and Mike Lata of FIG (Food Is Good) in Charleston is kicking in an over-easy raviolo with Sea Island pullet egg, brown butter, Kabocha squash and chanterelles.
John Fleer, formerly of Blackberry Farm and now at Sunburst Trout Co. in Canton, N.C., will deliver black-eyed pea-dusted Sunburst trout with Benton’s Country Ham and field pea ragoût.
Hostess Martha & Co. are already prepping for the feast, putting up jars of peaches for the entrée of collard-wrapped lamb barbacoa with spiced peach compote. For dessert, the home team will serve a peanut-crusted sweet potato pudding pie with sky-high meringue and Jack Daniel’s.
The dinner, which marks the JBF’s first official trip to Nashville, will benefit an oral history project that seeks to preserve the lore and techniques of classic American cooking traditions. No doubt, this group of culinary luminaries could tell some stories of their own. (“Remember that time you spilled black-eyed pea dust all over that pullet egg you got in Sea Island? Man, that was messed up.”)
Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public. Admission is $150 for JBF members and $175 for non-members. Call 353-2828 for reservations.
Comments
day-um...
Posted 08/20/2008 at 08:08:03 AMThat's not a very good engraving of Jeff Woods.
Agreed, Claudia: this looks amazing (and wholly unaffordable). I wonder if this is a sign of outside culinary interest in Nashville, or just the city's perpetual luck of resting in a central location accessible to all.
Posted 08/20/2008 at 09:34:08 AMI would love to go to this, but can't quite justify maternity leave from the restaurant yet. Donald Link is a piggy hero of mine, and Cochon was my absolute favorite restaurant our last trip to NOLA. Go Nashville for having a JBF function.
Posted 08/20/2008 at 09:39:27 AMClaudia said it all. But how to blag tix? Maybe if we schmooze that guy in the engraving.
Posted 08/20/2008 at 01:23:02 PMThe way I look at it - I couldn't get on a plane (or drive) to San Francisco, NY, Chicago or even spend 2 days at Blackberry Farm to have a culinary experience like this for the price. Believe me, I've done it, I know. And they didn't even mention the old European (& pricey) wines that'll be poured. Plus it's right here at home! About time!
Posted 08/20/2008 at 04:13:14 PMCochon is amazing. The Louisiana cochon with cabbage, cracklins, and turnips is one of my all time favorite meals...
Posted 08/20/2008 at 08:13:53 PMI'm not trying to be antagonistic, but aren't some of you who are getting excited about this dinner the same folks who got a little upset about miro district having a "southern twist"? If I recall there was some mention of "why does everything have to have a southern twist" and "are nashville diners so unsophisticated that everything has to have a southern twist?"
Posted 08/21/2008 at 02:31:19 AMFleer is a southern as it gets. He is the reason that all of us are eating Benton's bacon. Ask alan he will agree.
Donald Link is as southern as it gets with a new orleans twist. (The housemade bread and butter pickles at cocohon, the tables look like picnic tables for god's sake)
And mike lata ask him about where he gets his fat back and prepare for a discussion on the delights of pork fat.
I agree that it is sometimes overdone, and often done wrong, but we live in the south, the JB awards have consistently recognized those who cook regional food, and James was a big proponent of it himself. He used to ship country ham from Kentucky out to wherever he was (according to pig perfect)
I just wonder if y'all are the same people who complain about the tea being too sweet.
Not me! I did say that I think Sam Tucker is the best pastry chef working in Nashville restaurants today. Was at Miro last night. The just-added lamb flatbread was so damned good.
Posted 08/21/2008 at 09:16:42 AMI was fortunate enough to visit with Mr. Benton at his "headquarters" in a cinder block building on the side of a country road in East Tennessee. He is truly a gentleman and infectiously passionate about what he does. I walked among the hams! He sent me home with a big load of bacon, country ham, prosciutto and sausage. My car smelled like Benton's for weeks, which explains the trail of chefs I kept seeing in my rearview mirror.
The dinner at Martha's sounds wonderful. I am rolling the change in my southern piggy bank right now, hoping to come up with the bacon.
speaking for myself here, i just felt a mediterranean restaurant with a pretty solid european inspired menu didn't need to twist in the direction of "southern". and really, the chef at miro is NOT southern twisting near as i can tell and for that i am grateful.
but i believe that this event is all about the south and southernness, so really i do not understand your comment. i'm certainly not against southern american cuisine. i love it. i just can't stand paula deen. so sue me.
Posted 08/21/2008 at 10:09:51 AMI have never been to Martha's for lunch. How is it?
Posted 08/21/2008 at 12:06:13 PM