edible COLUMBUS | Winter 2010 | Issue No. 4

Member of Edible Communities

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Columbus Winter 2010

Celebrating Local Foods, Season by Season

® Issue No. 4

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contents

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DEPARTMENTS 4

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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EDIBLE EVENTS

9 FOOD & FILM Food Films for the Holidays

By Dave Filipi 10 NOTABLE EDIBLES 15 INSIDE OUR LOCAL FOOD STORIES 16 YOUNG PALATES Snow Days: Food-focused winter adventures turn meals into memories

By Rachel Tayse Baillieul 18 LOCAL AND IN SEASON 19 FROM THE KITCHEN 36 LOCAL FOODSHED The Mid-Ohio Foodbank: An interview with Matt Habash to learn what giving really means

By Tamara Mann Tweel 46 ARTISAN FOODS Middle West Spirits: A local micro-distillery that is reinventing the meaning of spirits, one batch at a time

By Megan Shroy 54 AT THE TABLE All You Knead: Chef Rick Lopez carves a distinctive niche in the Short North with Knead Urban Diner

By Nancy McKibben 58 BAKER’S DIARY Flour Power: Local whole grains produce cookies with personality

By Molly Hayes 60 BEHIND THE BOTTLE Liquid Gold: Local friends bring a world of olive oils home to Ohio with The Olive Orchard

By Michele Burke Mooney 63 OUR ADVERTISERS 64 LAST SEED Squirrels Don’t Swim and Ducks Don’t Climb Trees: This and other lessons on food, business and life from an attorney-turnedrestaurateur

By Peter Danis

FEATURES 24 AS SAWYER SEES IT Chef Jonathon Sawyer of The Greenhouse Tavern and his favorite foods of Cleveland

By Carole Amber 30 THE JOY OF COOKIES The story of Bierberg Bakery and their treasured German Christmas sweets

By Marta Madigan 40 THE WURSTMACHERS A meaty tale about the best of the wurst at Thurn’s Specialty Meats

By Nancy McKibben 50 LOVE OF THE LAND How small-scale women farmers in Central Ohio matter to our local food community

By Colleen Leonardi

Cover and Table of Contents photos courtesy of © Catherine Murray, photokitchen. net. Photographer and owner of Photo Kitchen, Catherine mixes her two passions of food and photography to create mouthwatering images.

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Letter from the Editor

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columbus Publisher & Editor Tricia Wheeler Assistant Editor Colleen Leonardi Copy Editor Doug Adrianson Designers Cheryl Angelina Koehler Jenna Brucoli

As the holidays draw close, I am counting my blessings. I could not have created this magazine without the support of my talented staff, the advertisers who believe in us, and the readers who have embraced our mission. Thank you for the opportunity to bring another business to life.

Peter Danis so eloquently sums up on our last page what I think we are all trying to find: “Let inspiration be your guide.” I hope this winter season allows you the freedom to have some time to find out what inspires you. Maybe there are some more food entrepreneurs in our midst!

With gratitude, Tricia Wheeler

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Social Media Amy Schmittauer Business Development Michele Burke Mooney Amy Reed Laura Schoettmer Contributors Carole Amber Janine Aquino Rachel Tayse Baillieul Kim Beeman Peter Danis Dave Filipi Molly Hayes Colleen Leonardi Marta Madigan Nancy McKibben Michele Burke Mooney Megan Shroy Tamara Mann Tweel Contact Us: P.O. Box 21-8376 Columbus, Ohio 43221 tricia@ediblecolumbus.com www.ediblecolumbus.com Advertising Inquiries tricia@ediblecolumbus.com Edible Columbus is published quarterly and distributed throughout Central Ohio. Subscription rate is $35 annually. $5 of every subscription is donated to Local Matters. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publisher. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.

Photo of toile by © Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

I want to celebrate and congratulate the entrepreneurs and innovators in our food community who take the leap to do things their way. In this issue of Edible Columbus you will meet Jonathon Sawyer of Greenhouse Tavern, the gentleman of Middle West Spirits, the families behind Bierberg Bakery and Thurn’s Specialty Meats, and four women farmers who will make you glad all of these entrepreneurs live, create and produce in our community.

Web Design Mary Ogle

Photo of Tricia Wheeler by Kaitlyn Griffin

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or the past 16 years I have supported myself as an entrepreneur.

I have given a lot of my time, energy and love to the businesses I have created. What they have given me is freedom. Freedom to get up in the morning when I want, to work as hard and as late as I want, to make decisions that feel right in my heart and to surround myself with people I care about and trust. By working for myself, I get to put my own personal stamp on how I spend my time.

Photography Troy Amber Kaitlyn Griffin Molly Hayes Catherine Murray Kristen Stevens Kit Yoon

The Perfect Gift for the Foodie You Love!

Support and celebrate our local food community. Subscribe to Edible Columbus or give a gift subscription to a friend.

For more information, email us at info@ediblecolumbus.com or call 614-296-5053. You can subscribe online at ediblecolumbus.com.

I want to become a subscriber to edible COLUMBUS. I have filled out the form below and am sending it along with my check in the amount of $35 (for 4 quarterly issues) payable to edible COLUMBUS to: edible COLUMBUS P.O. Box 21-8376 Columbus, Ohio 4322 Start my subscription with the next issue for Spring Summer Fall Winter You may photocopy Gift Subscriptions Available this form Name:_________________________________________________________ Address:_______________________________________________________ City:____________________________________________________________ State:______________________

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Code:________________________

Email Address (optional):____________________________________________ Subscribe to our free email newsletter at ediblecolumbus.com.

And follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/EdibleCbus.

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It’s Ohio’s newest way to experience local foods! Sign up for the newsletter, read the blog, use the interactive map and start planning your next food adventure!

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edible Events

EDIBLE COLUMBUS COOKING SERIES Edible Columbus Editor Tricia Wheeler invites readers to share her passion for cooking through the Edible Cooking Series. She will be sharing the knowledge she gained while attending the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Tricia combines classic French techniques with seasonal ingredients to produce wonderful meals that you can easily make at home.

All classes are held at HOME: M/I Homes New Home Sales Center, 4047 Gramercy Street, Columbus, OH 43219, 614-418-8888. To view the beautiful demo kitchen, visit homeateaston.com. Classes are held from 6 to 7:30pm and we are now featuring a lunch class on the same date from noon to 1:30pm. Classes are limited to the first 18 reservations. Each class costs $30 per person unless otherwise noted below, and includes tasting menu and all recipes. Reserve online at ediblecolumbus.com.

December 8—We have a special treat in store! Cheryl’s Cookies has a wonderful pastry chef behind all of the exciting flavor combinations they have created over the years. Her name is Elisabeth Allwein and she is our special guest pastry chef for the evening. Elisabeth will teach us the best cookies to make in our home kitchens, from three kinds of French macaroons filled with butter cream and chocolate ganache to her favorite sugar cookie cutout recipe. She will demonstrate great cookie gift-giving options and after class she will take us on a special tour of their new store at Easton. Evening only—$40 includes a $25 Cheryl’s gift certificate!

December 15—Holiday entertaining galore. I will share my favorite holiday entertaining tips from how to build a beautiful buffet table to how to assemble the perfect cheese plate. We will cook up an assortment of hors d’oeuvres that will be great to have in your entertaining repertoire: cauliflower popcorn, baby crabcakes, pear and Camembert quesadillas, cocktail dates and more.

January 12—Special culinary experience at Cheryl’s Cookies Test Kitchen, Westerville Location. Only 12 spots available. This class will be a hands-on brownie and cookie baking class in their test kitchen. It will include a tour of the bakery, a Cheryl’s goodie bag and take-home samples of the items made in class. 9–11am, $40.

January 19—Homemade gnocchi. Learn how to make these irresistible little dumplings from scratch. We will make two sauces to top our gnocchi: tomato pancetta and sage brown butter. We will start with a roasted beet and goat cheese salad and we will finish with homemade ice cream.

Photo by Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

February 9—Vegetarian comfort foods with ingredients sourced from the winter farmers markets. We will make braised fennel baked in a cream sauce, potato raclette, braised greens, quinoa salad and baby black bean burgers. Yum.

February 23—Get ready for Fat Tuesday. I love Cajun cooking. We will make the classics: gumbo, jambalaya, dirty rice and beignets. You will leave with all the recipes and confidence to throw your own Mardi Gras party!

Edible Columbus Editor Tricia Wheeler also offers customized cooking classes for your private party or corporate group. For more details e-mail tricia@ediblecolumbus.com.

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Food and Film

FOOD FILMS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

By David Filipi

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f you’re looking to inspire the food lover in your life with a lasting gift, instead of a nice Camembert or a slab of prosciutto di Parma, consider the gift of food on film. It endures and has zero calories! This list of suggestions has something for everyone—documentaries, classics, international hits and a couple that one might not necessarily think of as food films.

Babette’s Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987) Based on the story by Isak Dinesen, this classic film culminates in a lavish feast for a pair of pious sisters and their friends that proves food can move one’s spirits as well as the senses.

Photo courtesy of Pathé Renn Productions.

Big Night (Campbell Scott, 1996) Those who fantasize about owning their own restaurant likely envision a small place like the Paradise and the brothers Primo and Secondo, who struggle against all odds to keep the doors open while serving only the most authentic Italian cuisine. The party that concludes the film is a bittersweet joy for anyone who has experienced one of those perfect nights of food, drink, music and friends.

Black Gold (Marc & Nick Francis, 2005) Black Gold examines the global coffee trade, from the underpaid and often exploited workers and farmers who grow the valuable beans to the grocery stores and coffee shops where most consumers come in contact with the commodity. The film follows one man in his efforts to get a fair price for the co-op he represents.

Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee, 1994) Filled with close-ups of food preparation and sumptuous shots of Taiwanese cuisine, the film follows a widowed master chef and his three unattached single daughters who live with him. As the daughters search for love, Lee masterfully shows how food binds us together across generation, culture and gender.

The End of the Line (Rupert Murray, 2009)

A scene from The Secret of the Grain.

A sobering warning about our seas and oceans, this documentary examines the devastating effects of modern fishing techniques and environmental changes on the once-thought-limitless seafood supply.

Narrated by Ted Danson.

GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) Scorsese often uses scenes with food to great effect (think of the opulent dinner scenes in The Age of Innocence) but never so much as in GoodFellas, where grilled sausage, cold cuts, lasagna and veal cutlets all help provide authentic detail to the Italian American milieu. And let us not forget the prison scene in which garlic is sliced so thinly that it dissolves in the pan with just a little oil.

when she is forced to take in her niece as well as an unconventional sous-chef, causing her to rethink the priorities in her life.

The Secret of the Grain (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2007) Hailed as one of the best of 2008, the French-Tunisian film follows a FrenchArabic man on his quest to open a successful restaurant to bequeath to his family as a means of support. The success of the venture rests on his ex-wife’s fish couscous but on opening night the dish is delayed, causing a series of events somewhat reminiscent of Big Night. It’s a wonderful look at food’s position in any culture and is available in a terrific edition from the Criterion Collection.

Mostly Martha (Sandra Nettlebeck, 2001) Remade in the United States as No Reservations, this German comedy features a perfectionist chef whose demanding personality leads to rifts with friends and customers alike. Her world is upended

David Filipi is the curator of film/video at the Wexner Center for the Arts. He recommends the neglected classic Remember the Night (1940), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, as a great holiday film.

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Notable edibles

For a Season of Local Giving The Cookware Sorcerer

Generation Green These recycled glass wine tumblers are just one of the many green gifts you’ll find at Generation Green this season. 614-761-2222, generationgreenstore.com

When planning to make cookies, stop by the Cookware Sorcerer to find authentic cookie cutters in all sorts of holiday shapes, and this beautiful Cherry Springerle pin made in Germany. You can have a go at Bierberg’s classic biscuit and amaze your friends. 614-228-8678, cookwaresorcerer.com

The Greener Grocer For the baker in your life, the Greener Grocer at the North Market carries the full line of Stutzman Farms flour, spelt and oats, as well as local and seasonal produce. They can customize a fair-trade market bag with any of their artisan or seasonal goods.

614-223-1512, thegreenergrocer.com

Wholly Craft For fun yet practical stocking stuffers, Wholly Craft offers an array of locally made goods, like this handmade potholder, snack bag and ceramic bowl. Support your local artist or craftsman and visit Wholly Craft, or other stores where our Ohio artisans share their latest kitchen-related creations.

614-447-3445, whollycraft.net

On Paper offers a selection of food-inspired gifts, namely these letterpress recipe cards designed by a local company— perfect to give blank or filled with a selection of your favorite recipes. And the Victorian Christmas soy and beeswax candle embodies the sweet pine scent of Christmas.

614-424-6617, onpaper.com

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Photos by Kristen Stevens

On Paper

Vegetables Prayer Flags for Garden and Home

By Windsparrow Studio, found locally at Yoga on High, $28. 614-291-4444, yogaonhigh.com

North Market Spices

Cambridge Tea House Take your loved one to High Tea! Wrap up a beautiful tin of Harney’s Tea and a gift certificate from Cambridge Tea House in Marble Cliff. 614-486-6464, CambridgeTeaHouse.com

Vintage Kitchen Finds Here at Edible Columbus, we love our kitchens. So any way we can imbue them with beautiful things for an affordable price—well, we think that’s the best of both worlds. Vintage kitchen goods like this little lemon tray and sun tea jar found at Objects for the Home in Clintonville are classic. Columbus has many good vintage stores with treasures waiting to be found. Go find some.

Objects for the Home, 614-268-3380, objectsforthehome.com

This is the season for spices. Standard winter meals turn fragrant and flavorful with a dash of green chili powder on steamed vegetables, or culinary lavender in a homemade pie. For the holidays, North Market Spices features gift baskets full of their favorite offerings, like apple-woodsmoked sea salt and pumpkin pie spice— all the more reason to give a good selection of flavor-inducing ingredients this season.

614-224-4107, northmarket.com

The Hills Market The choice foodie gift for any Columbus native—a local foods artisan basket from the Hills Market.

All items are locally produced in Ohio and baskets can be customized. $30–$150. 614-326-3220, thehillsmarket.com

Aprons from SoBo in Clintonville

By Anna Maria Designs, $20.

614-447-8880, sobostyle.com

READ MORE ONLINE:

ediblecolumbus.com For Green Tips from Generation Green and more local finds for the holidays, visit our website and click on the “Resources” link to find our web exclusive articles.

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WINTER READS Classic Cookbooks for the Holidays

By Kim Beeman, librarian at the French Culinary Institute

FOR THE NOVICE COOK How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (Wiley Publishing, 2008, 1,056 pages, $35) Mark Bittman writes The Minimalist, an excellent weekly column for the New York Times dining section. He is also the author of one of my favorite cookbooks, How to Cook Everything. With recipes appropriate for nearly every occasion and ingredient imaginable, it is simple without being boring. Whether facing down an artichoke for the first time or planning a dinner party, How to Cook Everything has all the answers. It is also a great resource for more experienced cooks who are looking to add some variety to their repertoire. ² Other good options: The Gourmet Cookbook (Ruth Reichl), The Art of Simple Food (Alice Waters) FOR THE SERIOUS COOK The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller (Artisan Publishing, 1999, 336 pages, $50) Thomas Keller, the owner and chef behind The French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley and Per Se in New York, is famous for his high standards in the kitchen.

That desire for excellence is clear in his cookbooks. I know a handful of chefs who have cooked their way through The French 12

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Laundry Cookbook, and they all praise the book for its clarity and ingenuity. It is not, however, a book for the faint of heart or those with ill-equipped kitchens. The recipes call for ingredients and equipment (pig heads, silpats) that may not be found in many amateurs’ homes. Not all of the recipes are so complicated (like the delicious peanut butter truffles!) and the difficult ones make for a good challenge. ² Other good options: NOMA (Rene Redzepi), Alinea (Grant Achatz) FOR THE CHEF IN TRAINING The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine. (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2007, 496 pages, $75) Classic French techniques and recipes, from julienned vegetables to hollandaise sauce and demi-glace, are the cornerstones of a good cooking education. The French Culinary Institute has compiled a cookbook with more than 200 classic French recipes drawn from its curriculum, as well as contributions from some of their famous alumni, like Bobby Flay and Dan Barber.

The step-by-step photos are fantastic, and the book provides a solid foundation for anyone looking to improve their cooking in a systematic way. ² Other good options: The Professional Chef, Culinary Artistry (Andrew Page) FOR THE FRANCOPHILE Simple French Food by Richard Olney (Wiley Publishing, 1992, 448 pages, $19.95) Richard Olney’s Simple French Food is a thorough, accessible guide to rustic French food. From the very simple (eggs scrambled with cheese and white wine) to the very French (calves’ brains), Olney presents his

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Kim Beeman at the French Culinary Institute library with her favorite classic cookbooks for the holidays. recipes in a warm, conversational tone.

The depth of his knowledge about French food is evident; he knows his Nicoise recipes from his Lyonnaise. Though it was originally published in 1974, Simple French Food still feels fresh and relevant. A great gift for anyone interested in learning more about how the French really eat. ² Other good options: Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child), Ma Gastronomie (Fernand Point) FOR THE MEAT LOVER The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (Ten Speed Press, 2007, 544 pages, $40) Part textbook, part cookbook, part sustainability resource, The River Cottage Meat Book explores the world of meat lovingly and lavishly. Fearnley-Whittingstall, a British chef and farmer, shares his serious devotion to local, sustainable, delicious meat in this hefty book. With a wealth of information about the importance of ethical meat, as well as extensive information about different cuts and how to prepare them, River Cottage is technical and wellresearched without being dry or boring. A must have for the thoughtful meat eater. ² Other good options: Charcuterie (Michael Ruhlman), How to Cook Meat (Christopher Schlesinger)

Photo courtesy of Kim Beeman.

The food library at The French Culinary Institute (FCI), New York, is magical. I had the good fortune of spending many hours perusing the extensive cookbook collection during my studies at FCI. I think Kim, the librarian, might have one of the best jobs around. Not only is she a graduate of the school but also a knowledgeable authority on a wide range of cookbook subjects, genres and authors. Here, Kim shares her favorites.

—Tricia Wheeler

FOR THE VEGETABLE LOVER The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen (Ten Speed Press, 2000 (revised edition), 234 pages, $19.99) The Moosewood Cookbook is a sentimental favorite of mine. From the famous macaroni and cheese to the charmingly named zuccanoes, Katzen and the other cooks at the Moosewood Restaurant created an iconic vegetarian cookbook. The recipes tend towards homey comfort foods, but the newer edition has cut out a lot of the dairy and eggs, making for lighter, healthier dishes. The simplicity of the cookbook has not been lost; most of the dishes can be prepared in under an hour. A great book for new and nostalgic vegetarians alike. ² Other good options: Chez Panisse Vegetables (Alice Waters), How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (Mark Bittman) FOR THE YOUNG CHEF Fanny at Chez Panisse by Alice Waters (William Morrow Cookbooks, 1997, 144 pages, $19.99) This book is told in the voice of Fanny, Alice Waters’ young daughter. She talks about her relationship with her mother’s famous restaurant, Chez Panisse, and includes several of her favorite recipes. The recipes are what you would expect from the daughter of Alice Waters—a little French and very produce-oriented. The recipes require a certain amount of adult supervision, but are definitely child-friendly. The garlic mayonnaise, which involves adding oil drop-by-drop, is especially fun (if a little challenging). ² Other good options: Salad People and More Real Recipes (Mollie Katzen), Cooking with Children: 15 Lessons for Children, Age 7 and Up, Who Really Want to Learn to Cook (Marion Cunningham) FOR THE BAKER The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum (Scribner, 1998, 704 pages, $50) The Pie and Pastry Bible leaves nothing to chance. The recipes all include both weight and volume measurements, making the recipes nearly fail-proof, and the instructions are incredibly detailed. This book is

wonderful for both novice and experienced bakers alike. Beranbaum reportedly tests her recipes dozens of times, and her hard work is evident. The section on piecrusts explores myriad approaches to making a crust; that section alone is worth the purchase price. ² Other good options: The Professional Pastry Chef (Bo Friberg), Baking with Julia (Julia Child) FOR THE GLUTENFREE BAKER Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise G. Roberts (Agate Surrey, 2008, 250 pages, $17.95) For those with gluten intolerance or sensitivity, Annalise Roberts’ Gluten-Free Baking Classics has recipes for more than 100 different baked goods, from chocolate chip cookies to lemon coconut muffins. The thorough introduction addresses the flours and gums and other ingredients needed to bake gluten-free, and the rest of the book is equally clear and concise. This book is an invaluable resource for gluten-free cooks and bakers out there. ² Other good options: Cooking GlutenFree (Karen Robertson), The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Food (Bette Hagman) FOR THE ARTIST The Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal (Bloomsbury USA, 2009, 532 pages, $50) (Or the more expensive—and beautiful— edition, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.)

I think it is safe to say there is no cookbook quite like The Fat Duck Cookbook. Heston Blumenthal, a British chef famous for his fastidiousness and eccentricity, makes extremely beautiful food. With lavish illustrations and photographs, Blumenthal tells the story of how he developed his particular approach to food and gives the recipes for some of his most famous dishes.

He and his collaborators also delve into the science behind everything from ice cream to refractometers. The book comes in two editions, one small and one large; they have exactly the same content, but the brilliance of the book comes through especially loud and clear in the gilded pages of the large edition.

² Other good options: Essential Cuisine (Michel Bras), El Bulli 2003–2004 (Ferran Adria) FOR THE BUDDING MOLECULAR GASTRONOMER On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee (Scribner, 2005, 896 pages, $40) Molecular gastronomy, which loosely refers to the application of novel scientific methods to cooking, has become increasingly popular among chefs over the last several years. Though he does not delve into any molecular gastronomy-style techniques like spherification, Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking should be required reading for anyone interested in the science of food.

He explains oyster anatomy, the history of sauces in the Middle Ages, the behavior of egg whites, and everything in between. If I were allowed only one reference book in my library, this would be it. ² Other good options: Modernist Cuisine (Nathan Myhrvold, delayed until March 2011), Under Pressure (Thomas Keller) FOR THE READER The Art of Eating by M. F. K. Fisher (Wiley Publishing, 2004, 784 pages, $24.95) The Art of Eating collects many of M. F. K. Fisher’s most famous pieces, like “How to Cook a Wolf ” and “The Gastronomical Me,” in one place. Whether talking about dining alone (in “An Alphabet for Gourmets”) or how to eat while dealing with wartime shortages (in “How to Cook a Wolf ”), Fisher’s writing is always elegant and affecting. Few food writers since have lived up to her high standard of candor and eloquence. ² Other good options: Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris (A. J. Liebling), Blue Trout and Black Truffles (Joseph Wechsberg)

Kim Beeman is the librarian at The French Culinary Institute in New York City and a recent graduate of the professional culinary program there. Before coming to the FCI, Kim studied English at Harvard, got a library degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and worked in pastry and baking. She loves cookbooks and writing about cookbooks.

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AT F R A N K L I N PA R K C O N S E R VAT O R Y

An original.

CULI NA RY C L AS S E S F OR ALL AGE S Lunch Box Rules!, Wood Fired Flat Breads, Make Your Own Soup Bar and more!

1777 East Broad Street | 614.645.5923 | www.fpconservatory.org

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Discover Farm-Fresh Goodness

Inside Our Local Food Stories

THE SWEET ART OF SIMPLICITY Cheryl’s Cookies

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lisabeth Allwein values the indelible impression a fine cookie can make on your heart. As the product development chef for Cheryl’s Cookies for the past 17 years, she develops and tests all of the cookies created by the Columbusbased company, founded in 1981. Her enthusiasm for the process of making the next best Cheryl’s cookie is pure and true. And to listen to her explain the satisfaction gained from the taste of one delicious butter-cream frosted Christmas tree cookie is inspiring, and totally tempting.

Photos by Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

With a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales University and a prolific background as a gourmet baker and pastry chef, Elisabeth has created Elisabeth Allwein in the test kitchen at Cheryl’s Cookies. over 100 new products for Cheryl’s. The magic of enrich each line of cookies. Research is also an sweets captivated her at an early age. As a little important component of her work. Elisabeth girl she loved to bake, so much so that her mother peruses food magazines, searches for other recipes instilled a curfew—no baking after 8pm. Since then and takes several trips every year to bakeries and Elisabeth has nurtured her enduring fascination restaurants to make sure her approach is current with the way a tasty cookie makes you feel. with the latest trends in pastries.

“It’s not enough to be good,” she says of her work in the test kitchen at Cheryl’s Cookies. “I have to bite into it and go, ‘Ahhh…’” Elisabeth demands that ‘Ahhh...’ moment in each and every cookie they develop. She knows they’ve got the right recipe when she bites into a test sample and forgets she’s even doing a tasting—she’s simply eating.

A lot goes into something so simple. Cheryl’s Cookies is known for using the highest quality ingredients to make their hand-decorated and frosted desserts. While some of the recipes are straight from the kitchen of company founder Cheryl Krueger (who inherited most of them from her grandmother) Elisabeth is always experimenting with and sourcing better ingredients full of flavor, and developing new recipes to enhance and

At the end of the day, however, it’s all about her customers and how the taste of the cookie moves their hearts. Elisabeth admits that the best cookie is plain in its sweetness, full of real butter and sugar, and made with a tender touch. The rigor involved in making something so absolute is hard-won. Elisabeth is winning it for Cheryl’s Cookies, hoping that each and every cookie offers an ‘Ahhh…’ moment for each and every cookie lover, all around the world. 7 —Colleen Leonardi See our events page for a special cooking class with Elisabeth to go behind the scenes of Cheryl’s Cookies and learn some cookie recipes for the holidays. ediblecolumbus.com

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Young Palates

SNOW DAYS Food-focused winter adventures turn meals into memories

By Rachel Tayse Baillieul As the regular growing season ends, families need not forgo exciting food experiences. It’s easy to the beat the blahs by exploring the local food scene in wintertime. Establish a new family ritual to strengthen bonds for years to come.

Or, spice up the dreary days with a field trip or family cooking challenge.

CREATE FAMILY RITUALS When the year comes to a close, school breaks, holiday celebrations and visits from relatives can throw the family routine into chaos. It is sometimes difficult to maintain healthy eating routines and home cooking during this busy time.

Yet the smells and tastes of holiday cooking are the perfect background for creating new meaningful family rituals.

Meg Cox, author and parent, writes in New Family Rituals, “The special power of the ritual is that it can slow time and heighten our senses, and by doing so, we can intensify and deepen our family ties.”

Enrich your winter by creating a new family practice that will build long-lasting memories. You might celebrate the first day of winter by stringing local popcorn and hanging it on branches for the birds, or ring in the New Year with cocoa, made from scratch with Snowville creamery milk.

Perhaps this year and every future January 1 you will plant an indoor herb garden to bring new life to your culinary pursuits. Simple rituals that involve many senses and draw on the interests of the whole family are the most memorable.

PRACTICE CREATIVE COOKERY Cooking and eating challenges help families fight the winter doldrums. One family might choose to purchase an unfamiliar vegetable every time they go to the grocery store. Older children can help research cooking techniques and everyone can enjoy tasting the new recipe.

Another creative challenge is to transform your dining room into a restaurant. Children can write the menu, take orders, set the table and serve each other. Maybe they will be inspired to take on the role of the dishwasher!

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Your family could take on a tasting challenge at one of the many indoor winter farmers markets by purchasing and cooking a whole meal of seasonally available ingredients. Though snow may cover the ground, markets in winter offer culinary treasures of mushrooms, greens, root vegetables, stored apples, honey, eggs and locally raised meats. Kristin Marks, writer of the blog Cbus Mom and mother of two, visits farmers markets with her kids throughout the year. “Pearl Alley Market is awesome to grab veggies or nibbles here and there.”

There are indoor markets in Worthington, Clintonville and at the North Market too.

FOODIE FIELD TRIP When cooped-up children become too much to contain, it’s time for a field trip. Malabar Farm State Park, former home of writer Louis Bromfield, holds a maple syrup festival the first two weekends in March. Families can hike through the sugar bush, chat with historical reenactors about Native American and pioneer methods of extracting syrup and visit Malabar’s modern sugar shack. Hueston Woods and Hocking Hills State Parks have sugaring events on the same dates.

Cbus Mom Kristin Marks recommends the Maple Syrup Festival held at Stratford Ecological Center each March. “After filling bellies with a delicious breakfast of pancakes with freshly made maple syrup and farm-fresh sausage, the center offers a hike into the woods to find out how maple syrup is made. We observed how to tap a maple tree for sap and then saw the process of making syrup. I think my kids found it fascinating ... or maybe they were just waiting for a taste.”

Ohio is your oyster, so to speak, for wintertime food fun. Cbus Mom puts it like this: “There is nothing more satisfying than giving your kids locally made delicious food that tastes the way nature intended.” 7

Rachel Tayse Baillieul is a passionate about local foods, teaching workshops about seasonal gardening, preserving and cooking. Her website, HoundsInTheKitchen. com, features recipes, gardening tips and reflections on the sustainable food system. She lives, gardens and eats in Clintonville with her husband, 5-year old daughter, two hound dogs and four backyard chickens.

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Local and in Season WINTER FARMERS MARKETS

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Worthington Market, Griswold Senior Center, 777 High Street, 614-842-6320, every Saturday until spring Clintonville Market, Clintonville Women’s Club, 3951 N. High Street, 614-268-5525, December 4 & 18; January 8 & 22; February 12 & 26 Pearl Alley Market, 20 E. Broad Street, Downtown Columbus, 614-645-5061, Tuesday and Friday through February 25 Athens Winter Market, Market on State, Athens, Ohio, 740-593-6763, December 4 through March 26

Photo by © Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

inter is a time for turning inward to gather strength. The bright, open days of the Ohio growing season are over. While the fresh harvest is small, there is much to be gained from the energy winter crops provide. Storage and root crops make the list—onions, parsnips, potatoes, winter squash, turnips, cabbage and carrots. Come late February and early March, maple syrup starts flowing. Some of our local farmers, however, grow greenhouse crops and offer winter CSA shares. Which is why it’s so important to visit your local winter farmers market—because you never know what you might find. 7

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From the Kitchen Recipes by Tricia Wheeler Wine Pairings by Janine Aquino

POMEGRANATE, FENNEL AND PINE NUT SALAD WITH CRANBERRY BALSAMIC DRESSING Serves 4–6 For the Salad: 1 pomegranate, seeds removed 2–3 oranges, cut into suprêmes, or individual segments 1 fennel bulb, cleaned and sliced thin—save fennel fronds to garnish salad ½ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted in heavy skillet 2 heads Boston or red leaf lettuce For the Dressing: 1 small can cranberry sauce 1 tablespoon of brown sugar ¼ teaspoon ginger ¼ cup balsamic vinegar ½ cup olive oil

Photos by © Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

Salt and pepper to taste To remove seeds from pomegranate, cut into quarters, place quarters in a large zip-close bag.

“Spank” them against the counter—seeds should fall into the bag. Wash and spin lettuce, divide amongst plates; top with orange segments, pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and fennel slices.

Garnish salad with small pieces of fennel fronds.

Put all dressing ingredients except olive oil into a blender or food processor. Process until well blended; drizzle in olive oil and blend again. Add salt and pepper to taste. If dressing is too thick, add a little water. If it is too sweet, add more balsamic; too bitter, add more brown sugar or olive oil. Drizzle dressing over salad, or serve in small cups on the side.

WINE PAIRING A nice crisp, citrus Sauvignon Blanc from California’s Russian River Valley.

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FRENCH ROAST CHICKEN

WINE PAIRING

Serves 4–6 Buy a large, free-range organic roasting chicken, pair it with stuffing and roasted local root vegetables—and it will be special enough for any holiday meal.

1 5- to 8-pound free-range organic roasting chicken 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon butter reserved 2 medium onions, peeled and sliced into ¼-inch slices (keep slices together) 1 lemon, poked with fork tines 4 garlic cloves, minced 5 sprigs tarragon, mince 3 sprigs, reserve 2 sprigs 10–15 small new potatoes, halved 1 cup chicken stock ½ cup white wine Salt and pepper

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A nice smooth Pinot Noir with lots of cherry notes from California or New Zealand.

Remove any giblets from inside chicken, rinse chicken thoroughly with cold water and pat completely dry with paper towels. Let chicken and butter rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 425°.

Mix garlic and minced tarragon with softened butter. Turn chicken breast side up, and with your fingers separate skin from chicken. Spread half of butter mixture under skin. Spread remaining butter mixture all over chicken. Generously salt and pepper skin and cavity of chicken. Put lemon and tarragon sprigs in chicken cavity. Tie legs together and tuck wing tips under body.

Lay sliced onions side-by-side in a roasting pan. Place chicken on side in pan. Pour stock around onions. Roast chicken for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, turn chicken to other side and baste with stock from pan.

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Add potatoes to pan. Roast 20 minutes more.

Reduce the oven temperature to 375°.

Turn chicken breast side down; baste with stock and roast for 30 minutes.

Turn chicken breast side up, baste with stock and roast until skin is golden brown and juices run clear (thermometer reads 180°)—approximately 30–45 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan, cover and let rest 15 minutes before carving.

Place potatoes onto serving platter and keep warm. To make gravy: Skim fat from pan, leaving any juices that have accumulated.

Place roasting pan, with onions, over medium heat on stove; scrape brown bits off bottom of pan and add wine. If needed, add more stock to pan. Cook about 4 minutes.

Serve onion gravy on the side.

SIMPLE SAGE BREAD DRESSING Serves 4–6 1¼ cup onion, cut into small dice 3 stalks celery, with leaves, chopped into small dice 1 cup butter (2 sticks) 12 to 14 ounces dried bread cubes 1½–2 cups chicken or vegetable stock, warmed 2–3 tablespoons dried sage 1–2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper ¾ to 1 teaspoon salt Pre-heat oven to 350°.

Sauté onion and celery in butter in large skillet until soft, but not brown. Cool. Place bread in large bowl and pour onion mixture over. Toss to combine well.

Add sage, pepper and salt. Toss well. Add about 1¼ cups warm broth and again toss to coat. Let bread absorb broth. Taste and add more seasonings if needed.

Toss again. At this point bread should start to break up—but should not be mushy. Add additional broth, by ¼ cupfuls, until dressing starts to hold together.

(Use less broth if dressing is to be cooked inside a bird; more if baked alone in a casserole.) Bake, covered tightly, in buttered casserole for 35 to 45 minutes, or until just starting to brown.

ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLE MEDLEY Serves 4–6 6–8 medium-sized carrots, peeled and sliced into chunks 3–4 medium turnips, washed and chunked (no need to peel) 4–6 parsnips, peeled and sliced into chunks similar to carrot size

ROASTED BEETS Serves 4–6

Salt and pepper

I have made many “beet haters” into “beet lovers” with this simple preparation. The trick is to roast the beets until they slightly caramelize and get a little crunchy. I like to roast my beets separately, but you can add them to a root vegetable medley. Top them with local goat cheese for a delicious treat!

Pre-heat oven to 400°.

6–8 medium to large beets, peeled and cut into small dice

Toss root vegetables with olive oil and salt and pepper; mix in fresh rosemary sprigs. Place in large glass casserole or roasting pan. Roast in oven 20 minutes then stir. Roast another 20 minutes, until vegetables are soft and slightly golden brown.

3 tablespoons olive oil, or more if needed

4–5 tablespoons olive oil 4–6 fresh rosemary sprigs

Variation: When vegetables are close to being done, toss with a little local honey and roast about 5–10 minutes more until vegetables are soft and further caramelized.

Salt and pepper Pre-heat oven to 400°.

Toss beets with olive oil to lightly coat; salt and pepper to taste; spread in single layer on a cookie sheet with sides. Roast for approximately 20 minutes—then stir beets. Roast another 25–35 minutes, until slightly crunchy and a little caramelized. Do not let beets get too dark. ediblecolumbus.com

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CRANBERRY SPICED CHEESE CAKE Recipe from Southern Living, adapted by Tricia Wheeler Serves 8–10 2½ cups vanilla wafers, crushed fine ¼ cup butter, melted 3 8-ounce packages of Neufchatel cream cheese 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon cornstarch 4 large eggs 2 tablespoon vanilla extract Cranberry Sauce 1 14-ounce can of whole-berry cranberry sauce 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3 tablespoons brown sugar ½ teaspoon ground cloves Combine cookie crumbs and butter, stir well. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of lightly greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 350° for 8 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

In a blender or food processor, combine cranberry sauce, spices and brown sugar; process until smooth. Set aside.

Beat cream cheese with a mixer until smooth. Add sugar and cornstarch; beat well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating each until just blended. Stir in vanilla.

Pour half of batter into cookie crust; spoon ½ cranberry mixture over batter. Swirl gently with a knife tip. Top with remaining batter, then cranberry mixture and swirl. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 225°; bake 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and immediately run a knife around sides of cheesecake to loosen it from pan. Turn oven off and return cheesecake to oven and let cool for 1 hour. Remove from oven, and let cool on a wire rack.

Chill, uncovered, until ready to serve. Remove sides of pan. Garnish with fresh cranberries or sprigs of holly.

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WINE PAIRING A French dessert wine called Sauternes.

Small bites by the fire…

CRUNCHY COATED BRIE WITH FRESH CRANBERRY SAUCE

SWEET AND SPICY ROSEMARY NUTS

Recipe inspiration from Harrods Food Hall, London, by Tricia Wheeler

Serves 4–6

WARM FARMHOUSE OLIVES Serves 4–6 1 pound mixed olives

1 pound of your favorite nuts, or assorted nuts

½ cup olive oil

1 wedge, or small wheel, of Brie, cut into six wedges

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoons sliced orange peel

1 egg, lightly beaten 2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary

¾ cup bread or panko crumbs

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1¼ cup vegetable oil

3 tablespoons brown sugar

Serves 4

3 tablespoons maple syrup

Kosher salt Make cranberry sauce from cheesecake recipe. Set aside.

Heat oil to 180° in deep saucepan. Place flour on plate and lightly coat cheese wedge.

Dip into beaten egg, let excess egg drip off, then coat with crumbs. Fry Brie quickly, about a minute, until golden brown. Drain well on paper towel. Serve immediately with cranberry sauce.

3 garlic cloves, sliced in thirds

In a heavy-bottomed skillet, heat butter until melted. Add nuts and toss in the butter until well coated on all sides. Roast over medium heat until nuts start to brown a little. Watch closely—they can burn very easily. Add syrup and toss to coat; add chopped rosemary and cayenne pepper. Cook for a few more minutes; turn off heat and stir in brown sugar. Pour onto a cookie sheet in single layer to cool. While still hot sprinkle generously with salt.

With a vegetable peeler, lightly peel skin off an orange. You do not want the white bitter rind, just the bright orange peel. Scrape rind off the peel with the back side of a knife.

Slice peel into thin strips. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan; let sit for up to an hour to marinate. When ready to serve, heat olives on stove over medium-low heat for 5–10 minutes until they are warm. Pour into an earthenware dish. Enjoy!

WINE PAIRING A brut Champagne from France, a dry cava from Spain or dry Italian prosecco.

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AS SAWYER SEES IT Chef Jonathon Sawyer of The Greenhouse Tavern and his favorite foods of Cleveland

By Carole Amber, Photography by Troy Amber

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e are all familiar with good old Cleveland, Ohio, but did you know that Cleveland has real culinary prowess? In 2007 local favorite Michael Symon became an acclaimed Iron Chef on the Food Network and food writer Michael Ruhlman teamed up with Anthony Bourdain to air an entire episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations featuring the restaurant scene in Cleveland.

Most recently, The Greenhouse Tavern was named Best New Restaurant by Bon Appétit in 2009, and its owner and chef Jonathon Sawyer was named Food & Wine’s Best New Chef in 2010. Edible Columbus editors Tricia Wheeler and Colleen Leonardi, along with myself and Troy, had the pleasure of spending the day with Chef Sawyer to see Cleveland through his eyes.

Chef Sawyer’s unadulterated passion, New York moxie, love of his family and green thumb give him a coolness that Cleveland can be proud of. This red-headed chef tells it like it is.

We begin the day at The Greenhouse Tavern. The environment is rustic chic adorned with leather-back bar stools, wooden slab tables and a sunlit patio perched on East Fourth Street, a revitalized pedestrian street packed with bars and restaurants in the heart of downtown Cleveland.

Built two years ago, the tavern is set in a preserved historic building with repurposed and recycled materials. Each element of the restaurant has a story. The walls are covered in cedar barn wood sourced from Jefferson County, the custom light fixtures are made with local co-op bike spokes and many of the long tables are from old teaching labs at John Carroll University. This eclectic mix of furnishings adds depth and history to the space.

These walls are only the beginning of the green story behind The Greenhouse Tavern. Inspired by his time in New York City working with renowned chefs Charlie Palmer and Michael Symon, as well as “leaving the world a better place for my kids,” Cleveland-native Chef Sawyer opened Chef Jonathon Sawyer.

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SAWYER’S FAVORITE PLACES

The Greenhouse Tavern 2038 E. Fourth Street Cleveland, OH 44115 216-443-0511 thegreenhousetavern.com

Wonton Gourmet 3211 Payne Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114 216-875-7000

Superior Pho 030 Superior Avenue, Ste E Cleveland, OH 44114 216-781-7462

The West Side Market 1979 W. 25th Street Cleveland, OH 44113 216-664-3387 Featuring: Ohio City Pasta Stand: E-3 216-241-5444 ohiocitypasta.com Urban Herbs Stand: E-2 216-241-5444 urbanherbsonline.com The Cheese Shop Stand: H-8, H-9 216-771-6349

On the Rise Bakery 3471 Fairmount Boulevard Cleveland Heights, OH 44118 216-320-9923 ontheriseartisanbreads.com

Glidden House 1901 Ford Drive Cleveland, OH 44106-3923 216-231-8900 gliddenhouse.com

his restaurant with the intention of becoming the first certified green restaurant in Ohio. The certification requirements are rigorous and include meeting certain standards of water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable food, energy and disposables as well as approval of the Green Restaurant Association (GRA). In short, he and his team did it. The Greenhouse Tavern puts these methods to use through composting 23,000 pounds per month, using the latest water saving and solar techniques and converting kitchen grease into biodiesel fuel, to name just a few. The Greenhouse Tavern sets the green bar high.

After a tour of the Tavern, we head to lunch. Chef Sawyer takes us to favorite Chinese joint, Wonton Gourmet. (Superior Pho, another favorite and acclaimed by many as the best Vietnamese restaurant in Cleveland, was his number one choice. Alas, it was not open on Mondays.) We order a spread of sweet and spicy lamb, moist turnip cakes, calming shrimp dumpling soup and garlicky snow pea tips as we share stories of New York eats and Cleveland favorites.

Chef Sawyer then sends us to meet up with a few of his preferred purveyors at the West Side Market. With a history dating back to 1840, Cleveland’s oldest publicly owned market still attracts people from all over the world. Last year over one million people visited. Expect to find over 100 vendors offering homemade pasta, artisan cheese, baked goods, spices, candy, fresh produce, popcorn, seafood and meats.

The beauty of this market is the fervor of its merchants. Gary Thomas of Ohio City Pasta and Dean Tserdos of Urban Herbs and The Cheese Shop are expecting us. Sidled up to his fresh pasta counter, Gary tells us about his pasta operation.

At the market he sells directly to customers, but

he also has a large regional wholesale business that sells to over 400 restaurants. His team makes 4,000 pounds of pasta each week as well as compound butters and sauces. Spicy lime cilantro pasta pairs beautifully with sautéed shrimp and peanuts for a scrumptious weeknight dinner. His Butternut squash ravioli is his biggest seller. This dough is made with sage, while the Butternut squash is sourced from local farmers and combined with ricotta and Parmesan cheeses to make creamy pillows. Try these covered in a browned butter sauce.

At Urban Herbs, stop by for delicacies like porcini powder, flavored salts, spice blends and Dean’s favorite, the Tellicherry pepper. This black peppercorn is made from the largest, ripest 10% of Malabar fruits grown on Mount Tellicherry in India. Its flavor is more concentrated and developed than the traditional black peppercorn.

At The Cheese Shop Dean features “plenty of cheeses that people have not heard of.” I’m happy to see Columbus’ own Oakvale Farmstead Gouda, and I spy a beautifully marbled blue. It’s Valdeón, a Spanish blue from the northeast province of León and it is wrapped in chestnut leaves. According to Dean it “punches you in your face.” The texture is dotted with tiny crystals that are “formed when the milk proteins combine with the salt.”At first bite, it is instantly one of my favorites. The blue is concentrated, but the creaminess is the key. It keeps the headiness at bay and leaves me wanting more.

After our market adventure we pick up Chef Sawyer and his executive chef Brian Goodman and journey to Jonathon’s home to have a tour of his vinegar cave. As a self-proclaimed “fermentologist geek,” Chef Sawyer takes the art of making vinegar seriously. As he says “vinegar is an integral part in taste memory and cooking” and he prides himself ediblecolumbus.com

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Counterclockwise from upper left: inside The Greenhouse Tavern, outside The Greenhouse Tavern, products at Urban Herbs, pasta at Ohio City Pasta, Valdeon at The Cheese Shop, logo for The Greenhouse Tavern, inside the Westside Market.

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FOIE GRAS STEAMED CLAMS 1 tablespoon grade A foie gras ½ cup red onion brulee* or caramelized onion 16 pieces Mahogany clams (Cherrystones) 2 tablespoons butter 2 teaspoons sauternes vinegar** 2 tablespoons water The foie gras and clams is a super-easy one-pot luxury, in just three steps.

Add raw foie gras, red onion brulee and Mahogany clams to a cold 4-quart sauce pot, cover, turn the heat on medium and let them get to know each other. After two minutes, add water and vinegar; recover pot. Once clams are open, approximately 11 minutes, finish with butter to emulsify. Check seasoning, should not need any salt. Garnish with rustic grilled bread and enjoy. *To make red onion brulee: Season whole red onion aggressively with extra-virgin olive oil and salt. Roast in oven at 350° for four hours. **At The Greenhouse Tavern we make up to 15 vinegars at a time, five of which are aged in oak barrels. Make sure to use the best vinegar you can afford.

on perfecting specific varietals of vinegar. His home basement is made for aging, as it is 100 years old and steadily holds temperature.

Chef Sawyer makes 20–30 cases of vinegar each month from wine, cider and beer. The stone ledge of his basement is lined with 5.5-gallon jugs containing vinegars made from wines such as 1996 Bergerac and a 1992 Cote-Rotie that he believes is “the most exciting vinegar we have had in a long time.”

Chef Sawyer’s vinegar making process begins with his finds of “amazing wines as they turn.” Leave them out in the open and add 3 tablespoons of the “mother” (in a 5.5 gallon of wine). The “mother” is “a substance composed of a form of cellulose and acetic acid bacteria that develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids, which turns alcohol into ethanoic acid with the help of oxygen from the air.”

Basically the “mother” combines with oxygen and turns the wine into vinegar in about two months. The Greenhouse Tavern’s menu is largely built around these vinegars. As Chef Sawyer says, “It’s the vinegar that separates us from everyone else.” It’s used in aiolis, dressings, marinades, brines, pickles, sauces and more.

Soon it’s time to travel back to The Greenhouse Tavern to taste these vinegars. The menu is created from locally sourced ingredients and based on Chef Sawyer’s culinary philosophy: “The proximity of the farm and soil to a restaurant correlates to the quality of its food.”

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Sawyer’s Foie Gras Steamed Clams

part of the animal and is proud of his ingredients. “In our kitchen, if it is a mushroom it looks like a mushroom and it tastes like a mushroom,” he says. With a classic French background and training from chefs Charlie Palmer and Michael Symon, Chef Sawyer’s dishes embody French recipes interpreted with local ingredients.

As we are seated, artisan baguettes from On the Rise Bakery are delivered to our table and served with pork rillette. This rillette is made with pork cooked slowly with brown sugar and orange juice.

Our first course begins with house-made fromage blanc spread over grilled bread. This light and tangy cheese is made by boiling organic cow’s milk and cream, adding lemon juice, straining and cooling.

Then its whipped with fresh thyme and seasoned with salt and pepper. Chef Sawyer’s Devils on Horseback are his twist on baconwrapped dates. Hidden inside the date is bitter chocolate, adding depth and interest. With front-end smokiness, Dee-jay’s salty bacon, sweet dates and bitter chocolate, it is like a symphony.

Next to arrive are Chef Sawyer’s infamous pommes frites. We tasted simple frites sprinkled with garlic and rosemary. We tasted gravy frites with Mozzarella cheese and brown gravy. And we tasted animal-style frites with fried bacon, two fried eggs, whole-grain mustard, Mozzarella and cheese curd. One order may be enough for a meal. The best part about the frites is the ability to dip them straight in Chef Sawyer’s vinegars. Acidic, pungent and bold, this is what vinegar should be.

The star of the show is Foie Gras Steamed Clams. Luxurious and silky broth is home to mild clams (which, for me, serve as vehicles

to propel more broth in my mouth). The foie gras is very distinct in this dish, and is perfect. Buttery, rich and smooth, the Foie Gras Steamed Clams are a must eat. In fact, this creation won best dish in the Aspen Food & Wine Show. Chef Sawyer claims that this recipe is surprisingly easy and is kind enough to share it with us (see the recipe sidebar).

We top off the night with a sweet and sour Riesling Granita and a Coconut and Curry Pot de Créme. The first option zings on my tongue, and the second lingers. Both are nice, the second is outstanding. Jeni’s ice creams are available as well.

For those who would like to stay the night, Chef Sawyer’s recommendation is a quaint boutique hotel, the Glidden House.

Be sure to take this magazine with you, follow Chef Sawyer’s lead and take pleasure in the journey. You will find that Cleveland is positively worth the trip. 7

Carole M. Amber’s lifelong quest is to taste the best food in the world. She is a food writer and marketing professional with an international MBA. Her experience in food includes creating and operating a gourmet dining event company in Chicago, Illinois. She and her husband plan to launch a food blog this fall called CHOP SIZZLE POP. Join them on their quest for the best food in Italy as they visit working farms throughout the Emilia-Romagna region: chopsizzlepop.com.

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edible Traditions

THE JOY OF COOKIES The story of Bierberg Bakery and their treasured German Christmas sweets

By Marta Madigan

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hen I first walked into the Bierberg Bakery, I instantly felt at home—in my old good Europe. The tiny dark interior, jam-packed with cookie lovers, was filled with the familiar smells of honey, nuts and spices, which foreshadow the Christmas feast. Encountering oldfashioned baking goods also made me travel in time, launching a Proustian trip to past centuries, when sweets were reserved for special occasions. Children— if well behaved—would find candies left by Saint Nicholas the night before his feast day (December 6).

I bet the candies of long ago looked and tasted exactly like the ones baked by the Bierberg family today.

Santa Claus–trimmed Lebkuchen, or gingerbread, painted with dark chocolate and topped with an old image of Saint Nick, may surprise you with how barely sweet it is.

Everything here is handmade from scratch, using simple yet rich ingredients. When asked about the essence of her Christmas cookies, Helen immediately mentions the nuts—all kinds of nuts, predominately almonds. You will certainly find them in Vanillefinger, aka vanilla sticks. “They are just made of powdered sugar and almonds with no flour in them. They are so light that you can get about 50 cookies to a pound,” Helen comments. “Out of all the cookies, vanilla sticks are probably the most we make.”

A photo collage of the family, including Helen with her brother James and her grandmother Theresa in the bottom right photo, and Emma with a tray of cookies in the bottom left photo.

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Another key ingredient in Helen’s bakery is butter.

Julia Child would certainly approve of that. The thing with butter, however, is that it melts as you work on your dough. This is especially true when you try to

Photo collage by © Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

Apart from 26 varieties of cookies in different shapes, colors and sizes, the bakery offers an authentic Old World shopping experience: Here there are no computers, no labels on the cookies and, most importantly, no artificial additives in any item. The orders are taken on the phone by Helen Walsh—the owner and the force behind all this delicious business. She still uses old recipes and some of the original baking equipment her grandmother Theresa brought with her from Germany in 1905. To make Springerle—a delightful biscuit embossed with designs of animals and flowers—Helen grabs old German molds carved from pearwood.

The bakery offers an authentic Old World shopping experience: Here there are no computers, no labels on the cookies and, most importantly, no artificial additives in any item.

intertwine and twist back a long strip of it to make a pretzel loop.

Helen keeps her kitchen and her hands cool and she works fast.

Before they hit the oven, pretzels are rolled on a marble table and spend the night in a refrigerator. Equally buttery but slightly less complicated are the Russian sticks. They are delicious shortbreads.

“They melt in your mouth as you chew them,” says Helen. They seem to be the most popular cookies among all family members. Taste one and you’ll know why.

To produce a perfect cookie, good ingredients and the right kitchen temperature are not enough. It takes an unbroken chain of family baking traditions passed over a few generations. Bierberg Bakery history originates with Helen’s grandmother Theresa Hoehl, of Bad Brückenau—a charming spa town located in hilly Bavaria—who came to the flat grasslands of Ohio at the beginning of the last century. First, she started cooking and baking for the families in the South End. A few years later she met Ferdinand Bierberg, also of Germany. He was a tailor and a gifted amateur photographer who worked for Pontifical College Josephinum, sewing all the garments for the clergy. They married in 1910 and three years later Theresa opened her own business—Bierberg Feinbäckerei.

Photo courtesy of Rob Wilson, 2009

Theresa and Ferdinand had two sons: Gustav and Rudolph. Rudolph found more interest in the ingredients of Catholic faith than his mother’s cookies. He became a priest. Gus, however, followed Theresa’s footsteps in the kitchen. He was also trained in the Neil House Hotel—where the Huntington Center office tower rises today—and eventually took over Bierberg Bakery. In 1939 he married Emma Gremm, who came to Columbus from Heppenheim—a ravishing German town set on gentle vineyards, only half an hour away from Speyer (coincidently from where Gus’s father came). Emma was not a cook but her incredible ability to make egg noodles in a split second, help Gus with pies and run the store kept the business profitable. Apart from the traditional German cookies, the bakery became famous for its edible art—beautifully decorated wedding cakes created by Gus, who was not only a very skillful baker but also a true artist. He loved painting from old postcards.

His oil painting copy of Madonna of the Book by Botticelli still graces the shop.

Nearly 100 years old, Bierberg Bakery was not always located in the German Village. Gus and Emma moved it from 18th Street to its present address in 1971. The following year, the family faced a threat of closing down the business. On December 20 the kitchen caught on fire. “My dad left the syrup boiling on the stove and walked away,” Helen recalls. “We had to sell cookies from our house next door, which we were using for The Bierberg Bakery during the holidays. ediblecolumbus.com

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storage, so we did have something for sale but we ended early [the Christmas sale] that year.” Fortunately, the fire did not ruin the building nor Theresa’s priceless cookie recipes.

Gus took pains to translate them from German into English and to adjust the measurements for a larger-scale production. For instance, a recipe for Hammelburg cookies—named after a German town where Theresa studied her culinary craft—calls for four pounds of butter, four pounds of sugar, 32 egg yolks and six pounds of flour.

To cut out cookies from such heap of dough you need a lot of helpers. Luckily, Helen—who has been running the bakery for over three decades—has four children, two grandchildren and a handful of friends joyfully attacking the doughy monster each fall. Last year

Helen’s granddaughter Abby—the girl with the most sensitive palate in Bierberg’s kitchen—pointed out to Helen that the cookies were too lemony. Helen tasted them and indeed something was off. “I had to order another big jar of lemon extract and finally we got it right,” Helen laughs.

This year a new volunteer joined the “cookie club.” Helen’s daughter Jenny just married and now her husband is up for a lifetime of lessons in German baking traditions. This lucky man has a long but sweet way to go, as Jenny has been slowly taking over the bakery.

“If you reverse that pretzel dough, forget it! It will blow up,” Helen warns.

Below: The kitchen where all the sweets are made.

VANILLA STICKS VANILLEFINGER I came across this recipe when I started my research on Bierberg Bakery. It was published in the All-American Desserts cookbook, in a chapter called “The American Cookie Jar” (Harvard Common Press; ©2003 by Judith M. Fertig). I had no idea that Theresa Bierberg’s vanilla sticks were already famous—melting in mouths of many families nationwide. The book’s author writes, “They’re light and crunchy—and addictive!”

—Marta Madigan Makes 12 dozen cookies 1 pound whole natural almonds (skins on) 4 large egg whites One 1-pound box confectioners’ sugar, plus extra for dusting 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dust a flat work surface with confectioners’ sugar. With the electric mixer, beat the almond paste and vanilla with the other half of the egg-white mixture. Spread or roll out half of this dough out on the sugar-dusted surface to form a 6- by 18-inch rectangle. Spread half the reserved egg white icing over the almond mixture. With a paring knife, cut the dough into strips ½ inch wide and 3 inches long. Place on baking sheet.

Repeat the process with the remaining half of the almond mixture and egg-white icing. Bake until the cookies are lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Let cool on wire rack. Store in airtight containers.

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Photos by © Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

Preheat the oven to 275°. Grind the almonds to a fine paste in a food processor; set aside. With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites in a large mixing bowl until they hold stiff, but not dry, peaks. Add the confectioners’ sugar, 1 cup at the time, beating after each addition, then beat for 15 minutes more. Place half of the egg white mixture in a separate bowl to use for icing; set aside.

Bierberg Bakery’s Cookies & Sweets Almond Macaroons: almond meringues, plain or with dark chocolate

Honey Bars: honey and ground fruit mixture and almonds

Rum Balls: honey and ground fruit mixture with hot syrup, coconut and rum

Almond Spritz: round, rich, buttery almond cookies

Honey Nuts: hand-rolled honey cookies with hard white glaze

Buckeyes: peanut butter balls covered with milk chocolate

Lebkuchen (Gingerbreads): spicy gingerbread cookies painted with chocolate in all kinds of shapes

Russian (Shortbread): rich, buttery almond cookie with egg white and sugar coating

Coconut Drops: almond macaroon coconut cookies Fancy Macaroons: circle meringues with colored chocolate Fruit Bars (Wandering Jew Cookies): made with raisins and nuts

Marzipan: sugar and almond meal stars and discs and good-luck pigs dipped in pink-colored white chocolate Pecan Bars: round cookies with egg, brown sugar and pecans

Fruitcake: candied fruit and nut cake brushed with wine or rum

Pfeffernüsse (Pepper Nuts): round hard biscuit cookies with spices and fruit mixed in the dough.

Hammelburg (Star Cookies): lemony yolk-coconut stars

Pinwheel: little swirls of light and dark (with cocoa powder) dough

Hazelnuts: round cookies with egg, brown sugar and silvered hazelnuts

Pretzel: egg-yolk sweet pretzels

Hörnchen (Almond Crescents): little horn cookie with ground almonds

Springerle: German biscuits with pressed design Stollen (Sweet Fruit Bread): filled with cinnamon, sugar and raisins in the center and coated with white chocolate walnuts and cherries Vanillefinger (Vanilla Sticks): delicate almond paste with egg whites and vanilla extract Walnut Drops: walnut meringues Wilhelmson (Petits Fours): small pastries with moist green double-decker cake filling

Raspberry Tart: shortbread thumbprint with raspberry jam and meringue topping

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Even the most experienced bakers like Helen and Jenny occasionally face challenges with their pastry. In the warmer days of October— when the Bierberg family starts their three-month-long baking season—some of their cookies won’t rise. There is not much you can do about it except wait for colder weather. Also, the recipes—apart from ingredients and proportions—do not include any instructions.

And since each family member specializes in one or two dessert items, when Helen’s brother passed away, the bakery was left with no one to produce the anise drops. So far, they have not unlocked the secret to keep the delicate top from falling. Each year, however, they try to recreate this aromatic cookie with anise flavor.

You can find a taste of Bierberg Bakery during the Village Lights festival where irresistible aromas fill the air and over 10,000 luminarias will guide you through the streets of historic German Village. Drink a schnapps-fortified Glühwein at Juergen’s and a real hot chocolate with whipped cream at Yosick’s. Listen to an all-brass band performing around a fire next to the Kight Studio. Check out the outdoor illuminated Christmas tree at the Frank Fetch Park and look for a 19-foot-tall indoor Christmas tree in the “red house” (on Mohawk Street) where the host family serves delightfully creamy eggnog. Stop by Schmidt’s for a bite of chewy fudge and singalong Christmas carols with a high-school choir. There will be plenty of free attractions all over the place.

And make sure to save room for Helen’s cookies. Every hour during the festival they give away a box of seasonal sweets. Even if you don’t win it, Helen’s warm welcome, stacks of colorful cookies, her tasty signature fruitcake soaked with wine and rum, and marzipan goodluck pigs will spread a little Christmas magic in front of you. They did for me, when I first walked into the Bierberg Bakery. 7

BIERBERG BAKERY 729 S. Fifth Street (between Sycamore and Frankfort streets), Columbus, OH 43206, 614-443-9959.

Open daily 9am–5pm, October–December. Longer hours for the Village Lights festival.

The Village Lights festival takes place on December 5 from 6–10p.m. To learn more, visit gvbusinesscommunity.com.

Marta Madigan is a Polish freelance travel and food writer who, as an editor and contributor, helped begin the Polish edition of National Geographic magazine.

For NG she covered a variety of food related topics such as Spanish tapas, French cuisine, Polish Christmas traditions and Sonoma and Napa Valley wines. After she moved from Warsaw to Atlanta, she wrote a chapter on Southern cooking for a collective book on international cuisines that was published in 2008 in Poland.

She now lives with her husband in German Village and is about to bake her own German Christmas cookies—chocolate sandwich stars with refreshing After Eight mints in the middle—from a recipe she recently brought from Berlin.

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Local Foodshed

THE MIDOHIO FOODBANK An interview with Matt Habash to learn what giving really means

By Tamara Mann Tweel, Photography by Catherine Murray

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uring the season of giving, and all year around, the MidOhio Foodbank serves the hungry and those in need of food in many ways. In 2010 they celebrated their 30th anniversary as one of the largest food banks in the country. Director Matt Habash has been working with Mid-Ohio Foodbank for 26 years. When he started they were distributing about 3 million pounds of food a year; today they distribute about 38 million pounds to 535 different charities in 20 counties throughout Central and Eastern Ohio. Tamara Mann talked with Matt about their vision for the future and how you can give during the holiday season, and every season, to the hungry.

Tamara Mann: Where does all the food for the food bank come from?

Matt Habash: About 50% of it comes from the food industry, whatever the food industry is unable to sell. About 35% of it comes from the government. The USDA has been a big player. So has the State of Ohio; this past year they gave $12 million to all the food banks in Ohio collectively. We used this money to buy food from local producers. So most of that money was plowed right back into Ohio farmers. We are literally capturing their excess crops, which in Ohio is apples, potatoes, onions, cabbage, lettuce, beans, corn, peaches and more. Produce is now 20% of all the food we handle.

TM: Is the majority of that produce local?

MH: Yes. Feeding America, the national food bank network, did a study and found that somewhere between 3 billion and 6 billion pounds of produce are harvested and not sold or left in the fields. We are shooting to distribute 10 million pounds of produce this year. For us this is a way to put healthier food out into the system. We want to continue to capture all of the food that is available locally.

MH: We know from our hunger studies that we are providing about 80% of the food that our agencies are getting. With our online ordering system these groups can check in every day and see what is available. We have a saying around here—if everybody does a little bit, we can do a lot.

TM: This is one of the most visually exciting and environmentally progressive buildings that I have ever been inside. Why did you decide to move your warehouse to Grove City and create this space?

MH: At the rate we were growing we knew we couldn’t continue in our old space. We needed to build a bigger facility. The goal was to have a facility to store more food. This is three times the size of our old space and it is a LEED Gold certified building. This is the first warehouse to get Gold in Franklin County and one of the first Food Banks in the country to do that.

TM: Why was it important to you to build a LEED certified, or green, building?

MH: Recycling or repurposing is one of our core values. That’s what we are all about. So we said from the very beginning let’s build a green building because that is just who we are. When you think about what LEED certification is, it is about making it a healthy building and a very efficient building. We knew what it would cost to operate and we wanted to design very efficiently so that, for example, the freezer doors would open to our coolers as opposed to coming out into 90° heat. Being that environmentally conscious was very important to us. We did it everywhere we could think of: We brought natural light into the buildings; the plantings outside are all

TM: Where do you distribute the food?

MH: We work with 535 charitable organizations…. Over 70% of those agencies are run fully by volunteers. They are making meals and feeding people every day. From my perspective they are the real heroes.

TM: How much of their food are you providing?

Facing page: Matt Habash, director of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. At right: The foodbanks’s new facility in Grove City. ediblecolumbus.com

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native plants so they don’t require a sprinkler system. We even have waterless urinals. It saves 40 gallons of water a year per urinal. That’s a lot of water. We even have our own garden with a self-sustaining irrigation system that uses solar panels to harvest the energy to release water collected in rain barrels automatically.

TM: Knowing that problems are on the rise and more and more people in our neighborhoods need food, what is your plan for the future?

MH: To double the amount of the food we are handling. That is strategic goal number one. Over the last five years we’ve seen about a 44% increase in need. This is the worst I’ve seen it in 26 years of being here. Our double-digit increases are happening in the suburbs. People don’t think about that but Dublin has a pantry, Worthington has three pantries, Westerville has a pantry, New Albany is considering a pantry. If you are a two-income family and your mortgage is based on two incomes and you lose a job, it changes everything.

TM: With winter and the holidays approaching, what can people do to help?

MH: There will be plenty of opportunities over the holidays and on through the winter. And what I tell people to do is get involved wherever you are comfortable. What makes sense to you? Obviously, we will always take donations. So will food pantries. If you want to do it, though, don’t only do it on the holidays. Normally the holidays will fill up. But the reality is that January, February, March

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and April need volunteers. You can get connected. You can volunteer at a pantry or a soup kitchen. You can run a food drive in your book club or company. You can encourage people to do Operation Feed in the spring.

We are also trying to learn more about how to do local food. What does it mean? How do we capture local food? How do we teach people recipes? If you are on a fixed budget you are probably not buying much produce, it is just too expensive. I’m a big proponent of local food movements and trying to grow the local food movement. How does a food community feed itself is a question we are asking. What is the role of the food bank in the health of the community is another question we are asking. These are communitybased questions. We want to address this as a community. What can each of us do?

TM: If Edible Columbus invited our readers to take on one of those questions, could we have a meeting here?

MH: Absolutely. Our whole center was based on being a think-tank of experts. Give us ideas. 7 To learn more about the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, visit midohiofoodbank.org.

Tamara Mann Tweel is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at Columbia University. Her culinary writing has appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, Icons of American Cooking, and Museum.

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THE WURSTMACHERS A meaty tale about the best of the wurst at Thurn’s Specialty Meats

By Nancy McKibben, Photography by Catherine Murray

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or 124 years the venerable Thurn’s has supplied bacon and banter to customers from all over Columbus and points beyond.

Every week of every year, fourth-generation owner Albert Thurn orchestrates the curing, smoking and prepping of 500 pounds of sausages and 700 pounds of fresh, cured and smoked meats, crafting his products Monday through Wednesday, and selling them Thursday through Saturday. Located at the Greenlawn Avenue exit of I-71, Thurn’s houses a roomy store in the front of the building, and a large plant and smokehouse in the back.

Generations of Columbus residents have linked the name Thurn’s to the intoxicating aroma of smoked meats and the image of a long, well-stocked meat counter manned by smiling Thurn family members who greeted them by name—and not only them, but their parents and grandparents. (See the sidebar “The History Behind Thurn’s of Columbus” for a family history.)

A MEATY DRAMA IN TWO ACTS Thurn’s on a Wednesday morning is already two days into Act 1: The Prep. The high-ceilinged, ceramic-tiled plant is pulsing with purposeful activity when I step through the door to be greeted by Albert Thurn. He is a dark-haired, cheery man in his 50s, dressed like his three co-workers in a yellow rubber apron and high rubber boots.

While employee John Malaney labors to keep the tile floor and stainless steel vats spic and span, and Albert’s brother Anton grinds and seasons sausage, Albert shows me some of the fruits of their labor so far this week, rings and rounds of meat simmering in outsized kettles mounted on legs.

“This is braunschweiger,” he says, pointing to a ring of sausage, “and these”—a trio of small netted hams bounce merrily in the bubbling water—“are cottage hams.” Albert explains that simmering the already smoked meats like hams cooks them to a high enough temperature to make them safe for eating. The hams, of course, have also been previously brined, a process that takes up to 10 days.

smoldering log that he identifies as mulberry. “Bet you didn’t know it could grow that big.” I didn’t. “Mulberry darkens the meat and gives it a fruity taste,” Albert continues. “But I use only oak for the hams—they get too dark with the mulberry.”

Thurn’s contracts with local tree trimmers for all the red and white oak and mulberry that they cut. It lies in a pile in a lot behind the plant, drying for a year before it is ready for use. Also behind the plant and across the side street is the brick farmhouse that Albert’s grandfather built in 1926, that Albert now owns. Though the traffic on I-71 rumbles a hundred yards behind us, and Greenlawn Avenue in the front bustles with cars, Albert’s neighborhood is strangely bucolic.

“It feels remote—so peaceful,” Albert says. He waves a dismissive hand at the freeway. “I don’t even hear that any more. I sit out on the back porch and drink a Yuengling, and I feel like I’m a thousand miles away.”

SAUSAGE MAKING: A REAL GRIND Back inside, Albert introduces me to the hulking stainless steel chopping machine for wieners and bologna, which require a finer grind than the coarse, garlicky German bologna. Albert’s father purchased the machine in the ’30s. “The original Cuisinart,” Albert says with a smirk. “We also call it the buffalo chopper or the silent cutter.” This must be meat guy humor, because the machine comes on a few minutes later with the roar of a jet engine.

“And this is my dad. He’s 86.” Robert Thurn nods at me from the stainless steel table where he mans the sausage-stuffing machine.

“I bought the business in 1988, but Dad still comes in four days a week, from 6am to 11am.” Evidently in the Thurn world, retirement means an extra hour for the senior wurstmacher to loll in bed.

While Albert checks his meats, I chat with Mr. Thurn, who deftly slides 40 feet of locally sourced, translucent sausage casing onto the feeder of the sausage machine and creates a string of fresh sausages

Kettles of weisswurst, salami, knockers and some dozen or more lunch meat varieties each cook to a different temperature for a different length of time, all monitored by Albert, whose grasp of multi-tasking would test a Harvard business school grad. (See sidebar “A Guide to Thurn’s Selection” for a detailed explanation of the products in the Thurn family’s repertoire.)

SMOKEHOUSE SECRETS Then there is the smokehouse, a cast-iron chamber at the back where the meats are hung from rolling metal racks and smoked behind a cast-iron door. A rack of just-smoked ham hocks, bacon and neck bones waits nearby to be sliced, flesh as dark and shiny as mahogany.

Outside, Albert stokes the fire beneath the smokehouse from a small exterior door. He opens it to reveal a pit of white ash crowned by a The Thurn brothers ediblecolumbus.com

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while he reminisces about his World War II service under Patton.

“You don’t find our type of small establishments anymore,” he remarks. “People come from counties around to buy Thurn’s.” Mr. Thurn finishes stuffing his second 40-foot length of pork intestine.

“I’m retired, but I still like to come in. I love the craft.”

INTERMISSION Next Albert directs me to the two-room walk-in cooler where the finished meats hang. When I admire the weisswurst, a pale, mildly flavored sausage, Albert immediately wraps some for me to sample. A gigantic ham floats in one of the brining buckets, its bulk concealed underwater like some meaty iceberg, and Albert fishes it out for my perusal. “This is the grand champion hog of the 2010 Ohio State Fair. The buyer sent it here to make ham and bacon out of it.” I decide that the hog has come to a fine end.

The walk-in cooler represents the last step

of a process that began at 5am on Monday with the “boning out” of the 1,200 pounds of pork shoulder, pork belly and beef fronts from which all the Thurn products are created. On Tuesday, sausage making commences at 4:30am, and with Anton’s help, Albert works until 10:30pm, making dozens of sausage varieties and hanging the meats that will be smoked.

The cold smoking, which raises the smokehouse to a temperature of 150° Fahrenheit, begins Tuesday evening and continues through the night. On Wednesday morning the smaller pieces of meats are removed, and the steam coils are turned on to continue smoking the larger meats at a higher temperature of 210–220°, the hot smoking.

Finally, the finished meats are stored in the cooler.

“When the last meat comes out of the smokehouse and into the cooler, ready to go for Thursday, that is the best feeling,” Albert says.

“All the bright colors of the meat make you feel good—everything is blooming.”

A GUIDE TO THURN’S SELECTION Thurn’s prepares an impressive variety of meats, using a combination of traditional methods and recipes passed down from great-grandfather Alois Thurn, with some new additions by Albert, who has doubled the varieties of bratwurst and added new tastes like teriyaki, as well as the smoked cheese line. The pork (and 90% of the meat Albert buys is pork) comes from Ohio’s largest pork producer, J. H. Routh Packing Company in Sandusky. Because of Routh’s high quality and consistency of product, Thurn’s has used their meat since 1980. “They are still a family firm, not a conglomerate, which is unusual for an outfit their size,” Albert says. “Their pork comes primarily from family farms in northern Ohio, and a few hogs from Canada.” Thurn’s beef comes from Keystone Meats in Lima, also a family-owned firm that processes meat from Ohio farms.

I swooned for Thurn’s spicy Andouille sausage, which we ate in a lentil soup.

The cottage ham went into a soup of fresh green beans and potatoes and brought back delicious childhood memories. My husband and son declared the landjager, a kind of beef jerky, a winner, but they didn’t leave me any to sample. The bacon starred in a BLT and the smoked cheeses (two cheddars, a Swiss and a very spicy hot pepper) were outstanding. Here is a primer of Thurn’s meats.

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A selection of Thurn’s specialty meats. Below: The Thurn’s sausages.

Hams

Sausage

Hams are brined (cured), smoked and then simmered to a safe eating temperature. A large cut of meat like a ham can be fully smoked, which amounts to cooking it at a low temperature for a long time until it is safe to eat, but “most people find the taste too smoky.” (A word about ham salad, which in most establishments is composed of the dried up ends of lunch meats, ground and stuck together with salad dressing: Albert’s ham salad is actually made of ground-up ham! It is popular and delicious.) On offer:

Sausage (wurst) is a general name for any meat product that is ground and spiced.

Some of Thurn’s sausage is all pork, some is pork and beef. Summer sausage is generally larger in diameter and more heavily smoked.

It was originally intended to be eaten in the summer, and the smoking prevented spoilage in the warm weather. Bratwurst is sausage that is meant to be fried. Fresh sausage is unsmoked and uncooked.

t Cottage hams (small, smoked then finished by simmering in water) t Smoked baked hams (smoked and then finished by simmering in water) t Smoked hams (smoked from start to finish, available at holidays) t Fresh hams (cured, not smoked)

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ACT II: THE MEAT MARKET When I return on Thursday, the pace has shifted from the physical labor of prepping more than half a ton of meat to the sociable labor of selling it. Albert and Anton, 16 years his brother’s junior and a trained chef who cooks mostly for country clubs, and a third counterman, 20-year veteran Scott Huggins, each preside over a slicer and scale. They wear ties and white aprons and their shirtsleeves are rolled, ready for action. A customer strolls in.

“You can kill them in the city with a bow,” Albert remarks, straightfaced. And if that should come to pass, Thurn’s would be happy to process the bounty. Albert has processed all sorts of game: bear, goose breast, duck and goose for sausages, elk, caribou—even mountain lion. The company can also custom cure and/or smoke bacons, hams, game and tongue, and flesh out other customer whims.

“Chet!” Albert and Anton and Scott all greet the retired construction worker (“I worked for George J. Igel for 38 years.”) who buys bologna and souse. “They’re a good family,” he says to me. “My daughter used to baby-sit one of their sons.”

Business is steady. From the East side, Madlyn Evans of Evans Funeral Home buys a pork loin for herself, and ham salad, pulled pork, Swiss cheese and Colby cheese “for the boys at the funeral home for lunch. I buy a fresh turkey here for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” she says. “I’ve been coming for 50 years. It’s worth the trip. Their meat is just the freshest in town.”

Albert and his cohorts move briskly to slice and wrap their customers’ picks, but nobody seems to be in a hurry, and the banter is unceasing.

Inquiries about health and family segue into conversations about the Buckeyes’ chances in the upcoming game, and the way the neighborhood deer are doing a number on the flowerbeds.

Other customers are of a more recent vintage. Wearing a ponytail and slouchy jeans, restaurant and retail store designer Andy Dehus treks here from Victorian Village. “We heard about it from friends.

My girlfriend and I made it our mission to try everything they offer—it took us about a year. Their flavor and quality are far

t Bratwurst: Mild, hot, garlic, sweet Italian, smoked pork, Cincinnati style, smoked teriyaki t Sausages (cooked, should be reheated except for braunschweiger and liverwurst, which are spreads) t Andouille, smoked Polish, smoked Hungarian, bockwurst, weisswurst (Thurn’s also calls them “white wieners” and says they are popular with Cincinnati customers), wieners, franks, knockwurst, little pigs, braunschweiger, country liverwurst t Summer sausages (these sausages are cured, cooked and dried): Black Leona, Red Leona, Jadgwurst, Cervelot, Landjager (the best beef jerky ever!), Thuringer

even at the deli counter. I swore off lunch meat long ago, but the meats at Thurn’s have won me over. Popular with Thurn’s customers, they include familiar varieties like bologna, as well as traditional but less available varieties like souse and head cheese.

Originally made with a hog’s head, now souse is made with matured, cooked, pickled pork shank with a sprinkling of tongue bits for color, and head cheese is made primarily with tongue (you can see the chunks in the meat.) Finally, there is the delicious schinken, the German, smoked version of prosciutto. At Thurn’s you can find:

tongues; baby-back ribs; chicken wings; tasso (a spicy, peppery smoked pork used to flavor Cajun dishes)

t Baked ham; pressed ham

Other Items

t Roast beef t Pastrami t Corned beef t Smoked turkey breast t Canadian-style bacon

Sliced and Luncheon Meats

t Hard salami

These meats are the manly, robust versions of the thin, limp, unnaturally colored lunch meats you find in the average grocery, or

t Capicola t Schinken t Tongue (mustard, pickled or cooked) t Pepper loaf; honey loaf; veal loaf t Bologna, German bologna t Souse, head cheese t Blood sausage

Smoked meat Includes double and single smoked and peppered bacon; hams and pork loins and

Fresh pork Bulk sausage, shoulders butts, bellies, hams, whole and half hogs; back and spare ribs; loins; hocks

Snack sticks (jerkies) Landjager, teriyaki jerky, formed beef jerky, hot beef sticks, cheese beef sticks

Other delicious items that don’t fall into the other categories: ham salad; barbecued pulled pork; Swiss and baby Swiss, cheddar, Colby and hot pepper cheeses; smoked cheeses; free-range eggs. Cheeses come from R. W. Randles in Warsaw, Ohio, and Pearl Valley Cheese in Coshocton, Ohio, and are smoked at Thurn’s.

Holiday items Whole smoked hams and smoked baked hams; fresh turkeys and smoked turkeys and smoked turkey breasts; smoked ducks; smoked pheasants. Whole filets of smoked salmon and trout are available throughout the year, but are especially popular for the holidays. Albert suggests ordering ahead if possible, although he will always try to accommodate you.

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beyond that of most deli stores.” But Andy likes the atmosphere as well as the meat. “There’s something about the vibe of this place— it’s like a ’50s barbershop with meat.”

Andy’s girlfriend, Bethia Woolf, is at the counter buying lunch meat for her enterprise, Columbus Food Adventures, asking for suggestions for a “picnic for 15 people on a wine-tasting tour of the Ohio River Valley.” She buys roast beef, German bologna, Andouille sausage, schinken, capicola.

“The meat is really fantastic,” she says, holding up a sack and shaking it in my direction. “Smell that bacon! I love their smoked cheddar, their smoked pork chops, their smoked trout, their roast beef.” Her enthusiasm is not reserved for the meat. “I also come in for the chit-chat.”

Bernard Beiderman, a Worthington dentist and Civil War reenactor, comes in for the double-smoked bacon. While he waits for his purchase, he explains to me that “you can leave it in your haversack for a long time and it doesn’t spoil and it tastes very good.

Beats salt pork.”

Albert presents the wrapped bacon to Dr. Beiderman. “There,” he says with a twinkle, “enough for three battles.”

THE HISTORY BEHIND THURN’S OF COLUMBUS Albert Thurn’s great-grandparents, Alois and Maria, immigrated to Columbus from Germany in the 1880s and founded Thurn’s in 1886 on Front Street. The property at Greenlawn Avenue became the site of the Thurns’ plant and home in 1890, and the storefront moved to the Central Market at East Rich and South Fourth Street. In 1926 Albert’s grandfather Alois Jr. built a brick house next to the Greenlawn site for himself and his wife, Bernadine.

The original sites fell to construction projects. In 1958 the house and plant at Greenlawn were demolished for I-71. Albert’s uncles and his father, Robert, bought a site nearby, drawing a preliminary blueprint for the present-day building with chalk on the blacktopped parking lot. “The guy who negotiated the property settlement was a young man at the time,” Albert says. “He still comes into the store—that was 50 years ago and he’s in his 80s now.”

Business is up at Thurn’s. “We have more younger customers now,” Albert says. “Some hear us recommended and some remember coming in with their parents when they were children. Maybe their taste buds have matured.”

Thurn’s newest employee, John, has only three months under his belt. He has a different take on Thurn’s success. “It’s all family and they’ve all been there forever. Al’s a wonderful guy who would never ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do himself. There’s a lot of laughter—maybe that’s why they’ve been here so long.” 7 Thurn’s Specialty Meats is located at 530 S. Greenlawn Avenue in Columbus. Store hours are Thursday and Friday, 8am–6pm, and Saturday 7am–1pm; 614-443-1449.

Nancy McKibben has been writing and eating for years, and is happy to combine those loves with the opportunity to advocate for local food in the pages of Edible Columbus. Her novel The Chaos Protocol was a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award for Fiction in 2000, and she was the winner of the Thurber House Essay Contest in 2003. She is also a lyricist and journalist, the mother of six and the wife of one. View her work at leader.com/nancymckibben; contact her at nmckibben@leader.com.

family business when both his father and uncle suffered illnesses when he was still a young man. “I was real close to my grandfather growing up and that influenced me. He was very active in the business.” Albert bought Thurn’s from his parents, Robert and Mary, in 1988. In addition to brother Anton, sister Theresa works Saturdays and during the holidays, and sister Bernadine works when business is heavy.

Less than a mile east of Thurn’s, Greenlawn Avenue runs into Merion Village, named for the Merion family who first settled there in 1809. Albert is an enthusiastic supporter of the community of 6,000 that wraps south and east around German Village. “Young people are coming in and reviving the old houses and fixing them up,” he says. He backs this renaissance by serving as a member of the village association, sponsoring community activities, and donating hot dogs to events like the neighborhood block party.

Thurn’s continued to sell at both Greenlawn and Central Market until Mayor Sensennbrenner led the charge to level the market in 1965 for the Greyhound Bus Station. At this time all business moved to Greenlawn, where Thurn’s still welcomes customers every Thursday through Saturday.

With a family tradition that reaches back 124 years, it’s natural to wonder whether Albert’s son Alec, now at Ohio University, will one day end up at Thurn’s. So far, Alec isn’t saying, but Albert himself will welcome his customers “as long as I can.”

Albert decided to become a part of the

The sausage grinder.

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I AM:

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Help Support Ohio Sustainable Agriculture

a chef

an Ohioan a gardener

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an environmentalist

a consumer a wine enthusiast

A BEE KEEPER

a farmer

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Artisan Foods

MIDDLE WEST SPIRITS A local micro-distillery that is reinventing the meaning of spirits, one batch at a time

By Megan Shroy, Photography by Catherine Murray

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n winter, Ohio kind of looks like Russia.

Which is one of many local inspirations Brady Konya and Ryan Lang took into consideration when launching Middle West Spirits right here in Columbus. Contrary to Russia, Konya and Lang joke that Ohio isn’t known for vodka … yet.

The Columbus-based micro-distillery is one of two grain-to-glass vodka and gin distilleries in the state, and one of few in the Midwest. Grain-to-glass means Middle West makes everything from scratch, working with the farms that grow their ingredients. In short, Konya and Lang mash, ferment, distill and infuse—all in house.

Besides the weather, the two entrepreneurs draw inspiration from local resources as well, sourcing the majority of ingredients from Ohio farms.

All of their wheat comes from Northern Ohio, is milled locally, and they’re developing a supply chain of local farmers to do seasonal products that highlight Ohio agriculture, berries, fruits and spices.

Take, for example, their flagship spirit OYO Vodka. Konya and Lang spent months searching for the right soft red winter wheat: no chemicals added, the highest starch content and, of course, locally grown from 1,000 local farms within 100 miles of Columbus.

The result not only puts them at the forefront of the local buying movement for spirits, but also creates a flavor profile that is unlike anything else on the market.

“In a category that is defined by odorless, colorless and tasteless, we thought, ‘Why be one of 75 options on the shelf?’” said Konya. “OYO makes a statement that it’s OK to be different.”

And at first taste, you’ll realize that it is.

“Those who understand and embrace artisan spirits know that there’s a complexity to the spirit that is under-appreciated,” said Lang. “While most vodka distilleries use a standard filtration process that strips much of that flavor out, we do the opposite.”

Those flavors left in OYO make for a sweeter, smoother and more fullbodied vodka—“full of character,” as Lang puts it.

That character comes from the high-quality wheat, water run through a five-step filtration system and a state-of-the-art Kothe still with numerous points of contact. Each stage of the process affects the drink’s smell, taste and finish.

“Our unique flavor profile comes from the quality of our raw materials, the best possible technology available and the sensory of our distiller,” said Konya. “OYO’s flavor is meant to be embraced.”

Middle West Spirits launched this past July, though for head distiller Lang it’s a family business. Distilling since the early 1900s, his grandmother actually served jail time when she was tracked down by Pennsylvania Left: Brady Konya and Ryan Lang of Middle West Spirits sitting back and enjoying a taste of whiskey. Right top: The whole grain winter wheat used to make the vodka. Right middle: A batch of vodka as it slowly comes straight out of the distiller. Right bottom: The bottles set-up for production. ediblecolumbus.com

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“Those who understand and embrace artisan spirits know that there’s a complexity to the spirit that is underappreciated,” said Lang. “While most vodka distilleries use a standard filtration process that strips much of that flavor out, we do the opposite.”

VODKA AND ICE CREAM authorities and charged for bootlegging. Middle West has one of her original stills in its unique Weinland Park facility, located at the north end of the Short North.

The location was selected strategically, not only because it’s on the commercial and less explored side of the Arts District, but also for is proximity to Ohio State’s campus. Middle West has already explored a partnership with the university’s School of Agriculture.

“We want to relate to the university as an agribusiness, not a liquor company,” said Konya. “Our business can really be an extension of the OSU classroom.”

Interns from Ohio State are already at work, researching options like solar power and forecasting cost of grain. Konya and Lang hope to run the entire plan on solar panels, making them the first distillery in the country to do so.

Besides their signature craft vodka, the guys are beginning to play with gin and hope to launch OYO Whiskey in early 2011. When asked about the hardest part of launching a micro-distillery, the founders are in agreement—“education.”

“Our business model is so far from what other spirit companies are doing,” said Konya. “It’s not about manufacturing, it’s not about packaging, it’s all about the whole process of connecting the local farmer to the local customer. It’s all about the quality going into our product.”

The young entrepreneurs often joke that they’ve started a nonprofit.

Yet, they’re confident in this unique business plan.

“Our story is not like everyone else’s; we’re investing in this state … in this city. We’re investing in taste. We’re doing things differently because we believe that once people are educated, they will buy.” 7

Megan Shroy is a writer, publicist and self-proclaimed “Columbus Guru,” authoring the blog Columbus a la Mode, which covers trendy restaurants, events and hot spots in the capital city. During college she traveled abroad, studying Italian food, wine and culture at the Umbra Institute in Perguia, Italy. Megan earned a BA in communication from Wittenberg with a double minor in journalism and business management. Since, then she has been growing as both a writer and a community activist. She resides in Grandview, Ohio, with her husband, Brent.

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Though it sounds like an unlikely pair, the guys of Middle West Spirits are teaming up with Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in more ways than one.

Jeni has been a mentor to Middle West since the beginning, helping them get plugged into the vertical integration movement. In short, vertical integration is the process of sourcing locally from farmers and then building up those farmers to become true partners of the business.

For example, Jeni has a special relationship with Snowville Creamery, a small, family-owned dairy farm owned by Warren Taylor in Meigs County, Ohio (a story we featured in our summer issue). The partnership they’ve formed keeps both companies in business—Snowville always having leftover cream from their milk operation and Jeni buying up all that extra cream, and then some.

In the same way, Brady and Ryan want to find local farmers and form similar partnerships.

“We can absolutely affect a local farmer with the business we’re running,” said Lang. “Jeni’s operation has inspired us to be an agricultural business, and this is a responsible way of manufacturing.”

Jeni’s Ice Cream and Middle West Spirits are not the only companies heading in this direction.

“We’ve talked to Brothers Drake Meadery about this same concept; they are already working with local beekeepers to get their honey. It’s a tight-knit community, everyone’s out to help each other,” said Lang.

Brady and Ryan are already working with farmers to purchase free-trade products. It’s now about finding the right farmers and mills in the community that want to jump on board.

Meanwhile, Jeni and the guys at Middle West have also been partnering up in another way—they recently released a new flavor of ice cream: Oakvale Young Gouda with OYO VodkaPlumped Cranberries.

Artisan ice cream, craft spirits and buying local ... what could be better?

Share the “Spark” this Holiday Season!

McCoy Center Gift Certificates Make Great Gift Ideas!

McCoy Center Gift Certificates are available in any denomination.

To purchase, call the McCoy Center Box Office at 614.245.4701

JEANNE B. McCOY

COMMUNITY CENTER

FOR THE ARTS 2010 - 2011

LeAnn Rimes, Country Music Friday, January 21, 2011 – 8:00 PM Radio Partner: 92.3 WCOL

Popovich, Comedy Pet Theater Saturday, February 12, 2011 – 2:30 & 8:00 PM

Kobie Boykins, Space Exploration Friday, March 18, 2011 – 8:00 PM In Collaboration with COSI

The Lee Brothers, Culinary Arts

Sunday, April 10, 2011 – 2:30 PM Promotional Partner: Edible Columbus

CENTER STAGE GALA: The Neville Brothers

Saturday, May 14, 2011 – 8:00 PM

McCoy Center for the Arts 100 W. Dublin-Granville Rd. SEASON New Albany, OH 43054 SPONSOR 614.245.4701 www.mccoycenter.org

Promotional Partner CityScene Magazine Media Sponsor WOSU

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LOVE OF THE LAND How small-scale women farmers in Central Ohio matter to our local food community

By Colleen Leonardi, Photography by Kit Yoon

5050 Winter Winter 2010 2010

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ood comes from the land. It is our farmers, first and foremost, who act as stewards of our national palate. More and more, women farmers are finding a place in the field of small-scale agriculture, and this trend is redefining the meaning of our food.

According to the last U.S. agriculture census, almost 40% of Ohio’s 75,861 farms have at least one woman as operator—in other words, almost half of our farms have a woman serving a leadership role on the farm. And in a profession traditionally dominated by men, that says a lot.

The demand for local and organic foods has opened up pathways for women to grow on a small amount of acreage, sell at farmers markets and practice a holistic, sustainable approach to farming.

Many women are also committed to farmland preservation, and educating and mentoring within the local food community. And many of them make up the next generation of farmers. Women have been investing in this “delicious revolution,” as Alice Waters calls it, for decades, and it is finally changing the nature of our food.

Sharon Sachs, co-founder of the Ohio Farm Women Consortium (OFWC), thinks it’s time to bring visibility to Ohio women farmers.

“It’s so interesting to me how eloquent women are when they speak about their commitment to nature and to preserving natural resources.” Through her work with OFWC, Sharon is developing ways to link women farmers to service providers like the Ohio Farm Bureau and Innovative Farmers of Ohio to collectively target the real challenges women farmers face and help “foster and spread great ideas that benefit Ohio women in agriculture.” What brings women to farming, Sharon says, is a love of the land. And that love is part of what makes women’s leadership such a departure from what industrialized farming has become. “Women who are in food farming have a real understanding of the importance of our health and the health of our soils and the safety of our

Facing page: Lisa Schacht of Schacht Family Farm Market out in their field of U-Pick greens. Right: Mary Bridgman of Bridgman Farm with her dog, BB.

foods,” Sharon says. “They have a kind of spiritual identification to what it means to be a steward of the land.”

FROM GARDEN TO FARM TO TABLE Mary Bridgman of Bridgman Farm is one of our local stewards. She holds between her fingers an Aunt Molly’s ground cherry tomato, a baby of a tomato with a spark of flavor I savor before popping another one in my mouth. The little yellow fruit, fresh out of its paper-thin shell, becomes a treat for her dog, BB. As we sit on her front porch and watch her patiently grant BB one Aunt Molly after another, it’s clear they adore each other—but what’s more, they both love those Aunt Molly’s tomatoes.

This singular relish for the Aunt Molly is indicative of Mary’s passion for farming and its rewards. It’s palpable as we sit together and look out over her seven-acre produce farm. While pursuing a full-time career as a journalist, Mary had always dreamed of having a farm.

She began with a garden on her home property in Johnstown, Ohio, in the ’90s. Each season the garden grew steadily until she started selling her produce at farmers markets. Today, Mary owns 68 acres of farmland, renting 60 acres to another farmer while managing her seven acres to grow fruits and vegetables for farmers markets and local chefs. She now considers herself a full-time farm business operator, a far cry from a grower.

Mary’s beginnings are not unusual. There are many stories of women who started farming in a backyard garden, or on a few acres of the family farm. “Many times people think of farming as only large farms,” says Sharon.

“The fact that you can grow food for market on small acreage, and that there is an economic avenue for women on farms ... means there is a new opportunity to bring in revenue.”

That opportunity speaks to the demand for fresh, local produce. Small-scale women farmers are able to funnel their harvests directly into our farmers markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares, and even sell to local chefs, due, in part, to these alternative revenue streams. Direct marketing is also ediblecolumbus.com

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an important aspect of the work, and a skill that, some argue, women tend to be socialized to pay attention to. Not all women have it, many men do. But some say women are so good at relational skills, including communicating, collaborating and connecting with people, that it’s what, oftentimes, makes their products stand out.

Therese says. “Every field is different … it’s the dance with Mother Nature.” In this dance of food farming, “the only constant is change.” For Therese, like other small-scale farmers, her community becomes the constant.

She relies on her colleagues to learn how best to survive a season and improve her harvest. While this is true of most farmers, there is a distinct way Therese articulates her devotion to the craft and practice of sustainable farming and how that leads to the creation of a local foodshed—how, as one farmer, your life is about the people you serve, and the culture you create around your harvest.

“When it comes to direct marketing,” says Sharon “I can think about husband-and-wife teams where she goes to market and they sell more, and he goes to market and they sell less.”

Mary loves doing direct sales at farmers markets because of that When Lisa Schacht of Schacht human interaction. It’s there Family Farm Market in Canal that the value of her food has Winchester started farming with a face. “I love growing food to her husband, David, they saw a feed people’s body and mind,” need in a “bedroom community” she says as she recalls several for a local food community, and customers who buy from her Therese Poston of Confluence Farm and Naomi’s Garden with they stepped in to fill it. Since year after year, showing up each her lettuces.

1981, Lisa has been a full-time season at the farmers market farmer with David, whom she for her tomatoes. Mary knows credits as being the brains behind what flavors they like, what they tend to cook, and what they look their 60-acre produce farm. When you unpack all of Lisa’s roles as a for each week. By being in tune with her customers and building leader on the farm and in the community, however, you can’t help relationships with them, she is growing for her community. but credit her, too.

COMMUNITY VS. COMMODITY A project out of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network found that women tend to articulate the value of their land as a “community resource rather than a commodity.” When I ask Sharon if, in her work with OFWC, she has experienced this she says yes. “[Women] want to make a difference for their community. They understand they are caretakers of the land, and in that way it doesn’t belong to them in a narrow sense.”

Therese Poston of Confluence Farm and Naomi’s Garden echoes this understanding. Her 400-acre family farm (150 acres of which are tillable) serves not just her and her brother, Elias, but the Clintonville farmers market, where she has been selling her produce for 16 years. As we walk through her rows of lettuce, she talks about how she looks forward to attending Terre Madre, the annual Slow Food conference in Italy, as one of three delegates representing the Clintonville food community. There she’ll learn how, on a global level, other farmers are growing produce, what new practices and methods they’re working with and how it’s showing up in the flavors of the food.

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She serves as the first female vice-president of the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association, on the Governor’s Ohio Food Policy Council and has maintained many other advocacy and volunteer roles in the farming community over the past 30 years.

All of her service work, she says, is her way of giving back. When we visit, she moves between taking orders, to talking with regulars who are picking greens in her U-pick patch, to checking in on her rows of tomatoes, to discussing with David her presentation on local food issues at a high school later that week. Lisa’s position on the farm is myriad and she handles it with the diplomacy of a CEO. She sees the act of advocating within the larger community as essential to the relevancy and sustainability of their farm. She also seems to never, for a second, underestimate the value of their land.

“I live and breathe it,” she says about her life on the farm. As we stand in the crisp morning air under a sharp blue sky, Lisa leans down to pull some kale up out of the ground. “I can’t help but take a taste when I come out here.” And it’s then that her love of the land practically sings.

THE BITTERSWEET CHALLENGE While the growth of women farmers is a reality, it’s hard fought, and as with any good love story there is a hearty dose of the bittersweet.

Sharon sees OFWC as crucial because women farmers are aware of

“Women who are in food farming have a real understanding of the importance of our health and the health of our soils and the safety of our foods,” Sharon says. “They have a kind of spiritual identification to what it means to be a steward of the land.”

the challenges they face as a minority in agriculture, and they aim to overcome them. “[Women] do acknowledge that sometimes they’re discounted, ignored or not taken seriously even if they’re the principal farm operator,” Sharon says when we talk about women farmers and the attitudes they encounter when they visit farm equipment stores.

Another issue for women farmers is farmland preservation and the question of what happens to their land and the next generation of farmers. While half of those who come to beginning farmers programs are women, Sharon cites figures that show mixed growth in terms of younger women joining the ranks as parttime or full-time farmers. “If you look at the numbers, in Ohio, there are only about 2,700 women operators who are under the age of 35. And for women principal operators, that translates to about less than 400 under the age of 34.” Sharon thinks it’s essential for other women farmers to act as mentors with beginners to help them see farming as a viable career path.

Becky Swingle is part of this next generation of young women farmers who has made it her career. Having grown up on a farm all of her life, one could say it’s in her blood. Fresh out of college, she had a vision of growing vegetables in a sustainable way. Her family had a hard time seeing the value of raising produce for farmers markets, as corn and soy farming is what they do. But today she grows greens, peppers, potatoes, radishes and other seasonal vegetables on six acres of her family farm.

Together, with her brother Issac, sister-in-law Jane, and husband Greg, these young farmers run Honeyrun Farm and have a sustainable farming business. Becky has every intention of sticking with it, and expanding to more acres next year. She faces the challenges of attitudes about women and their role in farming, the rising cost of land, the changing climate, hiring help—the list goes on. But it’s what she loves. And for now, that love is good enough to make a go of it, season after season. 7 To learn more about the Ohio Farm Women Consortium and connect with one of its representatives, email Sharon Sachs at sachssd@aol.com.

Becky Swingle of Honeyrun Farm at the Pearl Alley Market.

Colleen Leonardi is a freelance writer, editor and choreographer. Born into a family of French and Italian cooks, she has always had a love of good food and the real living it engenders. Before moving to Columbus for graduate school she lived in New York City and edited children’s books at Scholastic Inc. Cooking food, writing stories and making dances are all a part of the same process for her—creating imaginative experiences for people to inhabit and enjoy over time. She lives with her sweet cat and even sweeter husband in the Short North and loves working as assistant editor with Edible Columbus. To learn more visit colleenleonardi.wordpress.com.

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At the Table

ALL YOU KNEAD Chef Rick Lopez carves a distinctive niche in the Short North with Knead Urban Diner

By Nancy McKibben, Photography by Catherine Murray

F

rom the back of his new restaurant, Chef Rick Lopez presides over an open kitchen that faces the dining room and allows him to survey his domain at a glance. Instead of a chef ’s toque, he sports a cap over his thatch of dark hair.

He might almost be cooking at home with his wife, Krista, the restaurant’s sole baker and part-time waitress, and their two daughters, Vivianna and Chiara.

“I spend more time here than I do at home,” Rick notes in the course of our interview. “Sometimes Vivvy, our 5-year-old, comes in and pretends to wait tables.

This is our life. Customers should feel like they’re a part of our home.”

After 25 years of successful restauranteuring in Columbus, he says Knead is his love child, his darling, his precious—“the restaurant I’ve always wanted to have.” And the diner can tell.

With a little help from an architect, Rick and a buddy designed and remodeled the restaurant’s interior. The feel is both retro and cozy: red walls with yellow and brown accents; high-backed, curved booths; rustic tables; a nifty rotating dessert case; waiters in jeans and Knead T-shirts; a dessert menu displayed on the side of a cabinet painted with blackboard paint.

“95% LOCAL.” A map of Ohio delineated into counties dominates one wall, with business cards from local food sources pinned to it at the appropriate locations. Anyone who buys locally will recognize names: Bluescreek Farm Meats, Blue Jacket Dairy, Oakvale Artisan Cheeses, Wishwell Farms, Elizabeth Telling and a host of less familiar suppliers as well. The number of locally brewed beers, most from Ohio and the rest from Michigan, Pennsylvania or Kentucky, is staggering. “Eating Locally Since 2010,” proclaims the slogan next to the map.

Rick explains that although he has always tried to source his food locally and support the small family enterprise, here at Knead he is making that effort more apparent to his customer. “If I walk over to North Market and buy bison at $10 a pound, and let people know I do that, and if I use small family farms for vegetables and Lynd’s for apples instead of factory farms—then people realize that it costs more. They understand. It’s good for the community. In this demographic, people care about that.”

FINDING A BALANCE The tension between the commercial side and the creative side underlies the entire restaurant business, the way Rick sees it. “When I first started, I didn’t care about the business side. But creativity always fights with the bottom line. Margins are so slim that you have to keep them in line or you won’t survive.”

Rick and Krista’s baked goods in the kitchen at Knead.

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A LOVE OF BAKING Krista Lopez, whose degree from Ohio State University is in fashion merchandising, knew that she would have to be involved in the restaurant business “if I ever wanted to see my husband.” So she gamely volunteered for the baking. “My mom was a high school home ec teacher—our nickname for her is Betty Crocker. And I grew up with fresh homecooked meals. I never saw a box of instant mashed potatoes until college. So I knew I had the ability to do the baking.”

What began as a necessity became a passion. “I love baking now; I find it soothing. And I value those hours of solitude.”

Krista recalls how tastes have changed since they began their first restaurant in 1996. “We were an all-Italian restaurant, and it was a challenge to lead people beyond spaghetti and meatballs—which we didn’t even have on the menu. Many people had never head of osso bucco and gnocchi and we were the only ones doing risotto. It was fun and exciting.”

With the recession, Krista believes that people are embracing comfort food again. “Before I was in the business, I thought that the restaurant business would be like retail, only selling food instead of clothing. It is totally different. People come into a restaurant hungry, which might make them a little grumpy.

They have much higher expectations buying food in our restaurant than buying a pair of pants at Macy’s.”

“Of course,” she says, “we want to please people. We want them to leave the restaurant happy.” For that reason, Krista sometimes finds the burgeoning of social media a tad discouraging. A bad review can live forever on the web.

“When the feedback isn’t at the table, then we don’t have the opportunity to find a way to turn the experience around for the customer. All we can do is try to sort out the valid criticism and learn from that, and then just disconnect from the rest.”

Still, “For every mean and nasty person, there are 10 really nice and kind people who give good feedback, and give us a reason to get out of bed in the morning and go to work.” Chefs, Krista thinks, are much like musicians and artists. “They create for themselves, but also for their audience. They crave that applause.”

Rick and Krista with their daughters at Knead.

Knead is intentionally smaller and more casual than his previous restaurants for that reason. “We keep the overhead low and focus on the food. No napery, not a lot of bells and whistles. But it’s not about the linens and plates and silverware. It’s about being able to create things that I’m proud of and feel good about cooking.”

After growing up in a family of food-loving Italians (“my dad was half Spanish, and did all the company cooking— my Grandma Demarco taught me to make gnocchi when I was a little boy”), Rick says he was “always around food. I waited tables and was in a band.

Food is a lot like music—it gives you immediate gratification, it’s either good or bad.”

Rick studied under Chef Hubert at Gourmet Market, which became Spagio’s, and was the sous-chef at Tapatio in the Short North, where he met Krista in 1993. After three years as the chef at the Westin Hotel, he and Krista married. “After the honeymoon, we started a restaurant. I dragged her in. She had never worked in one before, and I taught her how to bake.” Now Krista does all the baking for Knead. “She’s a million times better than me.”

EXPLORE, EXPERIMENT, CREATE Knead is the third Lopez restaurant. The first was Crescendo Pastaria, from 1996 to 1999, followed by La Trattoria La Tavola, from 1999 to 2010, when Rick sold it to his partner. The very success of his restaurants proved limiting.

“An Italian restaurant is limited to one cuisine,” Rick points out.

“If lasagna and veal saltimbocca always had to be on the menu, then I didn’t have much room to explore and experiment.” Knead overcomes that problem with a smaller clientele and a menu that changes from week to week through its focus on local and seasonal.

“Some days we can be all Mexican or all Asian or all Italian. I am able to create on a daily basis, instead of having to force the ingredients to fit the menu.” ediblecolumbus.com

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FUTURE KNEADS Rick is still tweaking the new restaurant, but when he dreams, he mentions a Sunday supper club that would be scheduled to fall on the day after Gallery Hop. “It wouldn’t have a menu and it would be prix fixe. I’d open a bottle of wine, we’d have a pot of something on the stove—it would be fun to do themes, like a cocktail party with ’50s and ’60s fashions.”

He also has cookbook aspirations. “An unconventional cookbook—sort of a journal of the journey, with stories as well as recipes. People often don’t know what goes on in a restaurant—it would be entertaining to read. I’d also like to be able to help people make their own decisions in the kitchen, help them see cooking as an adventure.”

In the short term, although the restaurant has a full liquor license, they are waiting for an extended Sunday license so they can serve brunch from 10am to 2pm on Sundays. They hope to have the license in hand by press time, but please phone or check the website to confirm that the brunch is operating.

Still, homemade pasta and gnocchi, which have been among Rick’s signature dishes over the years, will remain constants, although in ever-changing guises. And Rick is expanding the number of items that he makes himself. “Right now I’m making my own duck and pork belly sausage, and maple-curing bacon from Berkshire pork.

And I was surprised at how easy and delicious it was to make my own ricotta. I make sweet potato pirogis and jalapeño mustard. I can give people more quality for less price.”

Rick and Krista also make what he calls “comfort food, but more sophisticated.” To this end, Krista bakes “Swoozy Q’s” and “Jinkies”—the latter an olive-oil-based cake injected with lemon curd, which is perfectly sweet and delicious. Rick admits that he has a weakness for “goofy names”: his pizzas are the “Easy Cheesy,” “That’s the Old Peppa” and “The Fun Guy.” Clearly, Rick likes to push the envelope, but all in the name of better food. “Cooking is an art, but not like painting. More like an Etch A Sketch—if you mess up, you shake it and start over. We have to try things in life to realize they don’t work. I’ve never been afraid of that.” The restaurant’s name reflects this approach. “Kneading isn’t just for bread—you do it in sausage-making and a lot other cooking.

I think of it as being hands-on with our food. And it also refers to mixing together all of our experiences and background to form this new restaurant.”

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SOPHISTICATED COMFORT FOOD When my husband and I ate at Knead on a Friday night, the restaurant bustled, and with Rick visible in the kitchen, it was easy to feel that he was back there cooking his dishes just for us. We ate homemade bread and a lentil and a beet spread (I could have made an entire meal of the appetizer) and roasted golden beet salad with walnuts, smoked blue cheese, fennel, orange and arugula with a citrus shallot vinaigrette. My baked gnocchi with bacon (gotta love that home-cured bacon!) caramelized leeks, rosemary, fontina, gouda and parmesan cheese was perfection. My husband raved about his spaghetti and clams, which were wonderfully spicy. “Oh, a friend gave me some hot peppers,” said Rick. “So I used them.”

Before we left I visited the restroom, which was papered on one wall with pages from the classic ’50s Ladies Home Journal cookbook. But the essence of the restaurant was conveyed by an addition not in the original plans—Vivvy’s crayoned drawing of a cat, taped carefully on the adjoining wall. It was heartfelt and original, like the delicious food that Rick Lopez cooks for his customers every day and night at Knead. 7 Visit Knead Urban Diner at 505 N. High Street, next to the Hampton Inn and across from the convention center. Open Tuesday–Thursday 11am–10pm; Friday 11am–11pm; Saturday 9am –11pm; 614-228-2363; kneadonhigh.com

FESTIVE LAMB SUGO WITH PAPPARDELLE PASTA Courtesy of Chef Rick Lopez of Knead Urban Diner Serves 8 2 pounds artisanal pappardelle pasta like Rustichella d’Abruzzo (penne or fettucine will also work) 3 pounds boneless lamb shoulder 2 pounds lamb breast with bone in, or spare ribs (shank) Note: The bones are necessary to develop the gelatinous quality of the sugo. I recommend Bluescreek Farm Meats at North Market.

1 bottle good-quality wine like Barbera or (cheaper) Privitivo or Sangiovese 8 whole peeled garlic cloves 4 large cans whole peeled Italian tomatoes smashed or put in food processor 1 cups chicken or beef stock 1 tablespoon crushed fresh juniper berries ½ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg 4 springs rosemary 2 carrots, peeled and diced 1 fennel bulb, cleaned and diced 1 parsnip, peeled and diced 1 turnip, peeled and diced

Sauté all the remaining vegetables in olive oil, adding garlic last so that it doesn’t burn. Make sure your pan is big enough, and add more olive oil if needed. Sauté in batches if necessary. Vegetables should be caramelized and brown, but still a bit firm. When vegetables are cooked, add the reserved liquid (sugo) and the shredded meat. Let simmer for 45 minutes and add sea salt and black pepper to taste. Toss with cooked pasta and sprinkle with pecorino romano or toscano cheese. Enjoy with friends, family, a loaf of bread and the same wine you cooked with.

1 red onion, diced 1 shallot, diced

Homemade Pasta

⅓ cup smashed minced garlic

6 eggs from cage-free chickens

½ cup each, rough-cut celery and onion for braising

4 cups unbleached flour

½ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

Season lamb with salt and pepper. Use half the olive oil on moderately high heat and brown lamb on all sides in a heavybottomed sauté or braising pan. Remove lamb when brown, being careful not to burn the pan. Add rough-cut celery, carrot, onion, and sauté until caramelized. Deglaze with red wine and lower heat. Add lamb back in, with stock and tomatoes. Add whole garlic, juniper, rosemary and nutmeg.

Combine ingredients on a tabletop, making a well in the flour, adding eggs and kneading together, or throw into a mixer and combine until dough forms a smooth ball. Let dough rest 30 minutes, covered. Roll out on a floured surface, until it is the thickness of cardstock paper, keeping as square as possible. Flour surface and roll like a cigar. Don’t be shy with the flour! Cut strips, starting at one end, ¾ to one inch wide.

Cover and place in a preheated 325° oven for four hours or until the lamb falls off the bone. (If your braising pan won’t hold all the meat, put meat in a baking dish and make sure the liquid covers meat at least halfway, but do not submerge. Cover with foil.)

Unroll and cook in boiling water until pasta rises to surface, then let float for one minute. Add cooked pasta immediately to the sugo, and serve as recommended.

When lamb is done, remove meat and strain liquid. Set liquid aside.

Let meat cool, then shred with hands, removing bones and fat.

Strain the fat from the reserved liquid. (Or refrigerate overnight and remove hardened fat that rises to the top.)

Note: Pasta making is not rocket science, it just takes practice. The dough is very forgiving. If it seems too dry and hard, add a little water at a time until you have a smooth, not sticky consistency. If it is too wet, add a little flour at a time. The weather can affect your pasta; if it is humid, you will need less water.

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Baker’s Diary

FLOUR POWER Local whole grains produce cookies with personality

By Molly Hayes

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very December, we bake dozens of cookies.

Were I the moderate person I sometimes aspire to be, I would mean that we make 20 sprinkle-topped trees, say, and a double batch of almond stars. And we do. But by dozens, I do not actually mean cookies, but varieties: two dozen in a busy year, three dozen (or more) in a slow one.

Moderation is not my strong suit.

These cookie fests began innocently enough, as a post-finals wind-down my freshman year in college. But 20 years, eight addresses and three children later, they look rather more like a family tradition. Everyone pretty much knows at this point to expect butterscotch reindeer and pecan bars.

There are chocolate cream thumbprints and tiny lime zippers, cardamom acorns and raspberry linzers. There are tiny macaroons sandwiched with lemon and peppermint meringues glued with bittersweet ganache.

There are likely, at this moment, 40 pounds of butter in my presence, plus 20 more each of chocolate, sugar and nuts. Not to mention several sacks of Ohio whole-grain flours.

Whole grains have a year-round presence in our kitchen, a staple of our everyday baking.

I prize them for all the usual reasons: their vitamin load, fiber and protein boost. But come Christmas, as is probably apparent by now, nutrition takes a back seat to fullthrottle flavor. Cue the cornmeal, I say.

And also the oat flour, and the local, freshly milled soft whole wheat. Once you move 58

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beyond unbleached all-purpose in your cookies, you open up a new world of flavors and textures.

Each whole-grain flour brings its own personality, and over the years I’ve learned to meet them where they’re at. Some, like corn, perform best in combination with all-purpose, as the corn lacks gluten and the structure wheat provides. What cornmeal does have, and have in spades, is its signature sweet crunch and lovely warm hue. Folded into a simple rich shortbread, spiked with orange zest and fresh rosemary, cornmeal fingers make a nubbly, bright, fragrant accompaniment to tea.

Oat flour has for years been a not-so-secret weapon in tender chocolate chip cookies.

Oats’ sweet, nutty flavor complements chocolate beautifully, and dialing down the gluten helps guarantee a light crumb. We make these oat- chunk cookies all year long, but folding in a tin of peppermint bark ups the festive factor considerably.

And then there’s whole-wheat flour, surely the undermost dog of the lot. Even I think “whole wheat” and “cookie” look sort of wrong side by side. I also know that the wholemeal shortbread tin’s the one that, hands-down, I’m most likely to hide. This is not the queen’s shortbread, powder-fine and pinky-lifted. It’s an altogether different, altogether lovely little biscuit. Made entirely of whole-wheat flour, then baked twice for extra crunch, it is humble and nutty and completely addictive.

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Both shortbreads keep for weeks, which makes them great for giving. In theory, anyway. If you’re anything like me, cracking the tin each time the coffee brews, you may only have whole-grain crumbs left to offer. In which case you’ll know to make an extra few dozen, next year. 7 PEPPERMINT BARK COOKIES Adapted from Heidi Swanson, 101cookbooks.com Yield: 4 dozen Oat flour is easily made by chopping whole rolled oats in a blender or food processor for 30 seconds, or until they become powder.

The peppermint bark mixed into the dough melts during baking. For visible chunks in the finished cookie, reserve ⅓ of the chopped bark from the dough, and sprinkle over cookies when you rap the tray at the 10-minute mark.

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

oven on. Immediately sprinkle surface evenly with remaining ¼ cup granulated sugar. Let shortbread cool 15 minutes.

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed 2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla 1¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 cup oat flour (blended oatmeal) 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 1½ teaspoons espresso powder (optional) 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (two 3½-ounce bars) 11 ounces peppermint bark\ Preheat oven to 350°. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Grate or finely chop half of the bittersweet chocolate. Roughly chop remaining chocolate, and all of the peppermint bark, into chunks. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine flours, salt, baking powder, espresso powder (if using) and the grated chocolate. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and both sugars until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla, beating well and scraping down sides between each addition. Add flour mixture, mixing briefly, just to combine. Stir in chocolate and peppermint bark chunks by hand.

Scoop tablespoons of dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheet, six per sheet.

Flatten slightly with a damp hand, to ½ inch thick. Bake 10 minutes, then remove tray from oven and rap sharply against stovetop once or twice. Return tray to oven and bake another 2–3 minutes, until edges are just golden and center is no longer shiny. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes on tray (cookies will continue to firm up as they cool).

TWICEBAKED WHOLEMEAL SHORTBREAD WEDGES Adapted from Pure Dessert, by Alice Medrich Yield: 12 wedges Choose regular whole-wheat flour for cookies, as opposed to hard whole wheat, which contains more protein and is optimal for bread baking.

If you do not have a fluted baking tin, bake in a cake pan lined with foil or parchment, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.

Note that this dough rests 2 hours.

Carefully remove shortbread from pan (if using removable-bottom tin, place on top of upturned glass and lower sides down; if using cake pan, grasp lining overhang and gently pull). Using a thin, sharp knife, cut wedges, following earlier score lines. Place wedges, well-spaced, on a parchment-lined baking sheet and return to oven for 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Note regarding flours: Stutzman Farms, based in Holmes County, Ohio, mills and sells several whole-grain flours, including the whole wheat, cornmeal and oats called for in these recipes. Columbus-area sources for Stutzman Farms grains include the Greener Grocer and the Clintonville Co-op.

12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) salted butter, European-style (i.e., high fat) if possible

GLUTENFREE BAKED GOODS

5 tablespoons granulated sugar + ¼ cup for sprinkling

For those who go the gluten-free route, we have some good local bakeries producing yummy cookies, cupcakes and other desserts. Clintonville’s Pattycake Bakery offers gluten-free cheesecakes, cranberry almond bars, delicious ginger cookies, pumpkin whoopee pies and more. Another new bakery, Food for Good Thought, features handmade cupcakes, breads and cookies. They cater events, offer cooking classes and will make cupcakes on request! Visit either one to find glutenfree baked goods that taste just like the real thing.

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1½ cups whole-wheat flour ⅛ teaspoon salt Grease a fluted 9½-inch round baking pan with removable bottom (such as a quiche or tart pan) with melted butter.

Melt butter, then combine with sugar, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl. Add flour and mix, just to combine. Place dough in prepared tin, then pat to spread evenly in pan. Rest 2 hours, or overnight (refrigeration not required).

Place rack in lower third of oven, and preheat to 300° F. Score dough into 12 wedges, then bake shortbread for 45 minutes. Remove pan from oven, leaving

Pattycakeveganbakery.com, 614-784-2253 Foodforgoodthought.com, 614-447-0424

READ MORE ONLINE: ediblecolumbus.com Visit our recipe page to find Molly’s recipe for gluten-free Orange Cornmeal Shortbread Fingers, and visit our blog where Molly shares her monthly musings on food, cooking and other yummy things.

And visit our web exclusive articles online to find our “What’s in Your Cart” for winter. Michele Burke Mooney visits with Laura Miller of Follow Me! Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids to learn more about eating the gluten-free way.

Molly Hayes graduated from the University of Washington with two degrees, one Mellon Fellowship, and no idea when to buy a melon. Since moving to Ohio in early 2009, Molly and her family of five have been getting to know Columbus one ice cream scoop at a time. Molly writes about food and life at remedialeating.com.

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Behind the Bottle

LIQUID GOLD Local friends bring a world of olive oils home to Ohio with The Olive Orchard

By Michele Burke Mooney

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ehind each bottle of olive oil from The Olive Orchard is a story. A story of a group of five friends who work with growers in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Chile and South Africa to bring the finest olive oils to the United States. A story that transports you to parts of the world where the Dimarakis, Cutrera and Laleli families grow and harvest olives.

Fast forward several years to a point when Patricia felt called to her next passion, leading travel tours—Olive Odysseys—through Greece, Turkey and Italy. Extended family members stepped in to grow the The Olive Orchard.

Today, TOO is owned by three Columbus families: Jeff and Julie Boothman, Jeff and Caroline Haskett and Kieren Metts. Haskett and Metts are cousins of the founder.

It was at the home of owners Jeff and Caroline Haskett, along with owners Metts and Jeff Boothman, that I was introduced to the “best extra-virgin olive oil in the world,” an honor bestowed by Flos Olei 2010 (the official guide to the world’s best olive oils), from the Cutrera family farm in Sicily. When they asked me what I thought, I found myself describing the flavor as “rich, bold yet smooth” and 60

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apologized for sounding like I was tasting wine. But it was exactly what they wanted to hear. Jeff Haskett explained that olive oil is a lot like wine; they both come from fruit and their taste can change drastically based on soil, sun, weather, cultivar and extraction process. But, he cautioned, wine gets better with age whereas olive oil should be enjoyed when it is young and fresh.

I also learned that all TOO oils are single-origin, enabling you to know exactly where the olives were grown, harvested and pressed.

The company prides itself on being “totally transparent” and although, according to Boothman, you could ostensibly search

Photo by Kristen Stevens

The inspiration for The Olive Orchard (TOO) came more than a decade ago from a cousin, Patricia Haskett Hajifotiou, who moved to Greece. She fell in love with the Greek philosophy of savoring and sharing food: fresh, local ingredients prepared simply—and always enhanced with extra-virgin olive oil. In her culinary explorations, she befriended Hermes Dimarakis, whose family has been growing olives in the Peloponnese region of Greece for generations. Their premium olive oils sparked the birth of TOO and formed the basis of the company’s orchard-to-table philosophy.

THE OWNERS’ FAVORITE USES

Kieren: t Mixing the Greek Olive Oil with Champagne vinegar, salt and pepper— makes a fresh, light dressing for salads or blanched veggies. t Add a tablespoon of Sicilian Olive Oil to my morning smoothie. t Toss roasted root veggies with Thyme Olive Oil for a simple sauce.

Caroline: t Mixed greens, roasted beets, goat cheese, pistachios dressed with our Lemon Olive Oil and salt and pepper to taste. t Roasted seasonal veggies drizzled with our Orange Olive Oil. t Tossing our Crete Olive Oil over airpopped popcorn with a sprinkle of salt. t Mexi-salad: greens, grilled chicken, black beans, grated cheese—drizzled with our Hot Red Pepper Olive Oil. t Basil Olive Oil over freshly cooked pasta, with pepper to taste.

Jeff Haskett: t Drizzling our Greek EVOO on a sub sandwich. t Making a simple dinner out of dipping bread in the Sicilian EVOO—with cheese and wine on the side! online and possibly find the olive oil elsewhere, the goal of the company is to take the guesswork out of selecting an olive oil, always offering a hand-picked collection of premium oils and gift sets.

So how does a group in Columbus know where to look for products to import under its name?

For starters, TOO references Flos Olei to find the next olive oil it will bring to the United States under The Olive Orchard label. The group reads about the growers, their farming practices, their varieties and the ratings earned

by Flos Olei. From there, the group spends time tasting and getting to know the grower before importing its products under the TOO label.

The importing process, managed by Boothman,

GREEN OLIVE AND SUN DRIED TOMATO SALSANADE SALSA AND TAPENADE COMBO ½ cup drained green olives

1 teaspoon fresh cilantro

½ cup drained tomatoes (whole or cubed)

2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes

1 clove garlic

Hotter option: Replace sun-dried tomatoes with 1 jalapeño pepper.

1 tablespoon The Olive Orchard Greek extra-virgin olive oil ¼ cup white onion ¼ teaspoon cumin

can be, well, a process. But Boothman, whose career has largely been in logistics, works magic to ensure the product arrives fresh and available for purchase online.

Although I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about food, a short time with TOO was enlightening and educating.

I was introduced to the importance of selecting an olive oil from a single estate to know the exact source of its origins. TOO challenged me to visit a few retailers to see how many olive oils listed the grower.

What I learned is that most mentioned “A product of Spain” or “A product of Italy” but few mentioned the olive estate. Even fewer bottles listed the variety of olive used.

“Connecting customers to a grower, to an exotic location, is part of who we are,” said Jeff Haskett. “When customers purchase a bottle of Olive Orchard olive oil, they learn about its origin, the variety of olive used and information on our grower.”

Other tidbits I quickly gathered: All TOO olive oils are first cold pressed, meaning that the fruit of the olive was crushed exactly one time; always purchase olive oil in dark bottles (not clear glass, as light accelerates the aging process); different olive oils complement different foods (again, comparing olive oil to wine); olive oil should be stored in dark, cool place; and consuming 2–3 tablespoons of olive oil a day can help reduce heart disease risk.

TOO gave me a sampler set of naturally flavored olive oils from the Laleli Estate on the Turkish Mediterranean. Metts explained to me that within hours of harvesting, delicate adremittion olives are pressed simultaneously with fresh fruits and herbs, “never infused.” I was encouraged

Put in food processor and blend to desired consistency. Enjoy with bread, crackers or tortilla chips.

to take the sampler set of six flavored oils—Basil, Thyme, Garlic, Orange, Lemon and Hot Red Pepper—and “get creative.”

I tossed Basil Olive Oil with rigatoni, topped with shaved Parmesan and fresh basil; drizzled Thyme Olive Oil on grilled chicken; made a salad dressing with Garlic Olive Oil; sautéed green beans with Lemon Olive Oil; tossed peppers, mushrooms and corn with the Red Chile Pepper Olive Oil and folded into tortillas for vegetarian quesadillas; and poured Orange Olive Oil over vanilla ice cream (a recommendation from TOO). It was fun to experiment.

“At the heart of our olive oils is the philosophy of savoring and sharing healthful foods—and the stories behind them,” said Caroline Haskett. “Once you open a bottle of ‘liquid gold,’ the luscious flavor will inspire you to create your own culinary story.” 7 The Olive Oil products can be found at Beehive Bread, Hills Market, House Wine, Huffman’s, Twisted Vine, Weiland’s and Whole Foods Market (Dublin), as well as through Local Yokel. To learn more, visit theoliveorchard.com.

Michele Burke Mooney ranks cooking, visiting farmers markets and healthful meal planning amongst her favorite pastimes. Her experience in the food industry began at age 16, working in the restaurant business, and grew into marketing positions with Whole Foods Market and North Market. Michele is passionate about natural foods, supporting local food producers and getting creative with local farmers market findings during the growing season. ediblecolumbus.com

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The Edible Columbus Supper Club brings together an intimate group of people for prix ďŹ xe dinners at one of our Independent Restaurants.

It’s a great opportunity to enjoy a meal and conversation with like-minded individuals.

Our ďŹ rst dinner will take place on February 3, 2011 at Deepwood. The cost and details will be in our email newsletter and on our website at ediblecolumbuscom

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ADVERTISERS

Each season, please look quarterly for a free copy of Edible Columbus at the businesses marked with a star. You can also subscribe to the magazine at ediblecolumbus.com Athens Farmers Market athensfarmersmarket.org Back Room Coffee Roaster* 1442 W. Lane Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43221 614-486-8735 backroomcoffeeroasters.com Bluescreek Farm Meats* 59 Spruce Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 614-228-5727 bluescreekfarmmeats.com Bob Evans Bobevans.com Cambridge Tea House* 1885 W. Fifth Avenue Marble Cliff, Ohio 43212 614-486-6464 cambridgeteahouse.com Canal Junction Cheese 18637 Road 168 Defiance, Oh 43512 614-419-2350 canaljunctioncheese.com Columbus Realty Source 614-207-7878 columbusrealtysource.com Dine Originals dineoriginalscolumbus.com Franklin Park Conservatory* 1777 East Broad Street Columbus, Ohio 43203 614-645-8733 fpconservatory.org Generation Green* 6351 Sawmill Road Columbus, Ohio 43017 614-761-2222 generationgreenstore.com

Photos by © Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

Green Bean Delivery 1-877-827-Farm greenbeandelivery.com Greener Grocer* North Market 59 Spruce Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 614-223-1512 thegreenergrocer.com Hays Orchard 3622 Middleton Road Columbiana, Ohio 44408 330-482-2924 haysorchard.com HOME M/I Homes New Home Sales Center * 4047 Gramercy Street * Columbus Oh 43219 Homeateaston.com 614-418-8888

Huffmans Market 2140 Tremont Center Upper Arlington, Ohio 43221 614-486-5336 huffmansmarket.com Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams* North Market 59 Spruce Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 614-228-9960 jenisicecreams.com Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Clintonville 4247 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43214 614-447-0500 jenisicecreams.com Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Grandview* 1281 Grandview Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43212 614-488-2680 jenisicecreams.com Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Short North* 714 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 614-294-5364 jenisicecreams.com Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Bexley* 2156 E. Main Street Bexley, Ohio 43209 614-231-5364 jenisicecreams.com Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Dublin* 1 W. Bridge Street Dublin, Ohio 43017 614-792-5364 jenisicecreams.com Local Matters* 731 E. Broad Street, Third Floor Columbus, Ohio 43205 614-263-5662 local-matters.org Local Roots* 15 E. Olentangy Drive Powell, Ohio 43065 614-602-8060 localrootspowell.com Market District Kingsdale 3061 Kingsdale Center Columbus, Ohio 43221 614-538-0762 marketdistrict.com McCoy Center for the Arts Box Office: 614-245-4701 mccoycenter.org

North Market* 59 Spruce Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 614-463-9664 northmarket.com OEFFA 614-421-2022 oeffa.org Ohio Department of Agriculture agri.ohio.gov Ohio Farm Bureau 28 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 614-463-9664 ofbf.org Pams Popcorn The North Market 614-222-1850 pamspopcorn.com Photo Kitchen 614-309-3515 Photokitchen.net Radiant Wellness Center* 933 High Street, Suite 120B Worthington, Ohio 43085 614-638-2113 radiant101.com Taste of Belgium The North Market The Wexner Center authenticwaffle.com The Hills Market* 7860 Olentangy River Road Columbus, Ohio 43235 614-846-3220 thehillsmarket.com The Wellness Forum* 510 E. Wilson Bridge Road # G Worthington, Ohio 43085 614-841-7700 wellnessforum.com Trek Columbus Bicycle Store 1442 W. Lane Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43221 614-486-Trek(8735) trekstorecolumbus.com

Wexner Center 1871 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43210 614-292-0330 wexarts.org Whole Foods Market* 3670 W. Dublin Granville Road Columbus, Ohio 43235 614-760-5556 wholefoodsmarket.com Whole Foods Market* 1555 W. Lane Avenue Upper Arlington, Ohio 43221 614-481-3400 wholefoodsmarket.com WOSU wosu.org Yoga on High* 1081 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43201 614-291-4444 yogaonhigh.com

Two Caterers 6800 Schrock Hill Court Worthington, Ohio 43229 614-882-7323 twocaterers.com

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Last Seed

SQUIRRELS DON’T SWIM AND DUCKS DON’T CLIMB TREES This and other lessons on food, business and life from an attorney-turned-restaurateur

By Peter Danis

LET INSPIRATION BE YOUR GUIDE Many people ask me how we decided to start a restaurant.

In a word, “inspiration.” Laurie and I decided to change careers and swap our law books for cookbooks 20 years ago when our first daughter was born. We were fortunate enough to have a very liberal OB/GYN who allowed me to deliver our baby while the doctor stood behind me, talking me through the miracle of birth. As I cupped that child in my hands I knew that “life was too short to practice law.”

That moment provided the inspiration we needed to decide to do something on a daily basis that would capture the excitement and passion that we felt that night. It took us two years to develop our concept but the guiding light was our desire to work together, and to work with food. In a certain sense, Figlio was born the same night as our baby girl.

As the years passed, our dinner and wine menus have evolved at other moments of inspiration. For instance, we added Tommasi Pinot Grigio to our wine list when Laurie was inspired at a meal she enjoyed while on a girls’ trip to Italy. Laurie was sipping a glass when she noticed George Clooney dining at a nearby table. Talk about inspiration!

After two bottles of wine Laurie and her friends came up with the courage to introduce themselves to George, and in Laurie’s words, “That man is every bit as handsome and charming in person as he is in the movies. His eyes can only be described as seductive.” (With over 25 years of marriage under my belt I feel no sense of competition from George Clooney. He many have the looks and money but there is no replacement for the man who has delivered all three of Laurie’s babies!)

GET YOUR FEET DIRTY I am a big believer in finding a mentor. Mine was my father.

Dad was a great motivator who built a thriving construction business when he returned from the South Pacific after the 64

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war. He wasn’t afraid to get his feet dirty. In fact, he enjoyed it. I have kept my favorite picture of him tucked in my folder since the day we opened our first store. It is a picture of him on a construction jobsite on a bulldozer while he is wearing a suit and tie. Yes, a suit and tie. Dad loved to sneak out of the office to visit the jobsites and was always prepared to hop onto a piece of equipment, regardless of what he was wearing, to show his staff how a job could be done more efficiently. To him, work was play. In that same vein, with over 200 employees I no longer need to work the dining room floor, but I want to be there to see the food, instruct our staff and roll up my sleeves at the dish room.

Just like my Dad, I’m not afraid to get my feet dirty. I built this “sandbox,” and after 20 years I still love playing in it.

SQUIRRELS DON’T SWIM AND DUCKS DON’T CLIMB TREES I’ve borrowed this phrase from one of Pastor Jim’s Sunday morning sermons. That was the day the church members were asked to sign up for a variety of volunteer activities.

Pastor Jim asked us to volunteer only for activities that fit our talents. The person who works well with children should sign up for nursery duty while leaving the landscape duty to those who enjoy gardening. This is the philosophy upon which we staff our restaurants. We ask new employees about their “gifts”—those special talents that they possess— and then determine what job they should do in our stores.

In our first restaurant, John, a young man whose passion was camping, was selected to bake pizzas in our wood-fired oven. Twenty years later, John is now a kitchen manager who trains all the other cooks how to perfectly bake our pizzas. And on his days off John relaxes under the open skies around his campfire. Being happy at work is all about “fit.” Perhaps that’s why I love my job so much—it’s a perfect fit. 7

Peter Danis and Laurie, his bride of 28 years, are graduates of the Ohio State University College of Law. They founded Figlio Wood Fired Pizza in Grandview in 1991 and have a second Figlio in Upper Arlington as well as one in Dayton. They also own Vinovino Winebistro that they founded in 2005. While the word “figlio” means “son” in Italian, Peter and Laurie are the proud parents of three daughters. Figlio truly is their son.

Photos by © Catherine Murray, photokitchen.net

E

ach semester, I lecture in an entrepreneurship class at Ohio State University and present some of the lessons that I have picked up along life’s journey which have helped me in our business. In this edition of Edible Columbus I would like to share a few of them with you:

COLUMBUS – CENTRAL

Banana Bean Cafe Barrio Tapas Barcelona Restaurant and Bar Barrio Black Creek Bistro The Clarmont Columbus Brewing Company Cotters Restaurant at the Arena DeepWood Restaurant Due Amici Elevator Brewery & Draught Haus G. Michael’s Bistro Katzinger’s Delicatessen Milo’s Deli and CafÊ Old Mohawk Pistacia Vera Skillet Rustic Urban Food Spinelli’s Deli Tip Top Kitchen & Cocktails Tony’s Italian Ristorante SHORT NORT CTOR AN AGE Basi Italia Basil Thai Restaurant Black Olive Bodega Cafe Burgundy Room Short North Katalina’s CafÊ Corner L’Antibes Mozart’s Bakery at North Market Press Grill Rigsby’s Kitchen Spinell’s Deli Surly Girl Saloon Tasi CafÊ Tyfoon GAHANNA Mezzo Italian Kitchen and Wine GRAND EW Figlio Wood Fired Pizza Shoku Trattoria Roma Vino Vino Restaurant and Wine Bar Z Cucina Ristorante & Bar BEXLEY The Top Steakhouse COLUMBUS – NORTH

Alana’s Food & Wine Bel Lago Waterfront Bistro La Scala Italian Bistro Mozart’s Bakery and Piano CafÊ The Refectory Restaurant and Bistro Tutto Vino Wine Cellar and Bistro Wildflower CafÊ The Worthington Inn POWELL LucÊ Enoteca

HELP THE LOCAL ECONOMY ONE BITE AT A TIME. Purchase Dine Originals Gift Certificates for everyone on your list.

Deep discounts available for bulk orders.

Visit our website to purchase and print certificates today.

G E The Oak Room at the Granville Inn The Short Story Brasserie LANCASTER Shaw’s Restaurant & Inn LOGAN The Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls

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