Features
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CHALLENGES EXPECTATIONS OF MARKSVILLE COMFORT FOODS
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hen we arrived at the “Dinner on the Lot” experience in downtown Ocean Springs, the Food, Booze & Hiccups chefs were emerging from the brewery across the street—wearing shorts, sandals, fresh tans, and big smiles; arms full of canned beer. Stephanie and Michael Paoletti met us on the grassy corner lot, where white string lights twinkled and charcoal was already burning. After greeting us like old friends showing up to a backyard barbecue, and introducing us to our equally-eager table mates, the irreverently-creative culinary team began to dish out the courses. To start was a hearty duck and rabbit fat cornbread, griddled crisp and dusted with coriander sea salt and black pepper. It was served family-style in a rough hand-thrown bowl; Stephanie explained that it might have been made by local ceramicist Amber Jameson (it also could have been made by Jameson’s boyfriend Tyler). Next came an amuse-bouche that I can say in full sincerity was the freshest oyster I have had: it had been harvested locally via aquaculture the day prior. The Paolettis served it raw on the half shell with bright and spicy jezebel sauce, homemade lettuce oil, and a bright fuchsia begonia leaf from Ocean Springs’ Harbor Hill Farm. “Being born and raised here, I grew up eating the big Gulf oysters. They were gritty two-to-three biters—I thought they were the best thing ever. Now I’ve had a chance to try oysters from all over the East Coast, West Coast and whatnot,” Michael explained. “Now we have these guys that are harvested right behind Deer Island with the West Coast-method, so they’re actually suspended—so you don’t get the grit, none of that stuff. But you still get the Gulf water, the salinity.” This level of care in sourcing fresh, local ingredients—and even the locally-crafted dishware and napkin holders—is a consistent feature of the Paolettis’ culinary and personal ideology. Theirs is the only restaurant or caterer in Ocean Springs recognized by the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Outpost Program for their commitment to sustainability. “So that’s one big thing that we really are very mindful of is our imprint when we’re done,” Stephanie told me. 30
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Both chefs grew up in the South (her in Boca Raton, Florida, him in Ocean Springs) with Italian heritage, passionate about food from early ages and eager to experiment with different ingredients and flavors. “We don’t want to put ourselves in a box,” Michael said. “Like even though I’m Italian, I don’t want to cook
“Adventurous” is a fitting word to describe the Paoloetti’s culinary philosophy. Before our dinner Michael asked if we had any dietary restrictions, and I told him we’re very open-minded eaters. “Oh, we’re gonna test how open minded y’all are,” he’d replied in a way that seemed part challenge, part threat. On the night
2 0 2 2 S M A L L TOW N C H E F AWA R D S
Food, Booze & Hiccups
CHEFS STEPHANIE AND MICHAEL PAOLETTI REDEFINE FINE DINING
Story by Alexandra Kennon • Photos by Katherine Swetman
pasta every day. That’s just boring … We want to challenge people like a meal should. It should make you think. We also want to challenge people to step outside of their own box. Just because you grew up eating this way, doesn’t mean you have to eat this way the rest of your life. Like be adventurous and try shit, and have fun.”
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we visited, the couple’s combined culinary mastermind produced courses like a delicately-textured cured salmon with roe, fresh dill, crème fraîche, and saltcured lemon; a country-style pork and duck liver paté that played on a bánh mì with hot sauce aioli, pickled vegetables like purple-topped turnips, micro collard greens, and Calabrian chili paste; a
soft shell crab in a spicy marinade served half raw, half lightly-fried topped with tuxedo sesame seeds and fried garlic. And after all of that, there was still the Wagyu hanger steak from Louisiana’s Raines Farm, served boldly rare with Romanesco purée, Chantaney heirloom carrot roasted with sumac, and blood orange-infused olive oil, and with a quip from Michael: “I hate the term ‘chef,’ I prefer ‘butcher’.” Stephanie handles the desserts, an expertise she acquired by accident. She shared the story of how she was excelling in the savory realm of culinary school when at a competition with the American Culinary Federation, a pastry chef teammate cut her finger. “My coach was like, ‘Alright, you’re doing pastry today.’ I was very mad. And then I was very good at it. So, I just kind of stuck with it.” Her mastery on both sides of the kitchen were put on full display in the complex interactions of savory and sweet across the night’s menu. Our dessert, for instance, utilized the duck and rabbit fat cornbread we started the meal with as a base. The fatty, charred cornbread met the deep tang of a blueberry wine reduction sauce. Sweet notes from shaved vanilla bean and powdered sugar commingled with roasted turnips, which took on a buttery baked-apple quality. And a topping of intentionally-burnt cinnamon-nutmeg streusel gave a satisfying bitter-buttery-sweet crunch. Michael and Stephanie’s approach to menu planning is one of deep collaboration. “We’ll sit down and be like, ‘Alright, what are we getting? What’s cool right now that’s either coming out of the ground or out of the water, or what kind of meat haven’t we had in a while?’” Michael explained. “And we say, ‘Alright, well, we got these really rad beets in. So, we kind of want beets to be the star. But what do we want to do with them?’” The thrilling unconventionality of the Food, Booze & Hiccups experience is an eclectic testament to the unlikely story of how the culinary couple came together. Stephanie and Michael met when their time completing culinary programs at the Art Institute in Jacksonville, Florida serendipitously overlapped. She had enrolled before him but took a break from school to work at 3030 Ocean in the Harbor Beach Marriott. She was taking a wine and spirits course
