9 minute read
IN THE KITCHEN
RALLY ’ROUND THE DINNER TABLE
The Billion Family Dinners Challenge: Take the challenge to help America track 1 billion family dinners and create a more loving and healthy society!
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Sometimes, thinking of a family dinner around the table can evoke feelings of “days gone by”—an ideal that isn’t attainable in today’s fast-paced, media-addicted world. But those in the Midwest, America’s heartland, aren’t ready to give up that tradition just yet. In fact, a team of entrepreneurs in Indianapolis believes so strongly in the benefits of shared dinners that they’re looking to bring them back into the spotlight through a national advocacy campaign—The Billion Family Dinners Challenge—via their mobile application, DinnerCall.
“The important thing to remember,” Gerry Hays, DinnerCall’s CEO says, “is that family dinners are rarely perfect, but they’re always worth it.”
The team says that dinnertime may prove to be the most influential 30 minutes of the day for families (and society overall). However, the team is careful to note they’re not just sticking to the traditional definition of the Normal Rockwell family.
“DinnerCall defines a family dinner as two or more people, sharing the same meal, without the distraction of technology. So even if your immediate family isn’t around, sharing a meal with your neighbor, some friends, a teammate, a few coworkers or even a stranger counts as a family dinner. We’re all part of a global family, and it’s important to cultivate those relationships just as much as with our immediate families.”
What makes dinnertime so crucial to our society’s health? According to Hays, people who regularly eat together enjoy significant benefits including lower obesity levels, lower substance abuse rates, more positive relationships and happier more secure children. What’s more, because people gain nourishment from both food and personal connectivity, they ultimately experience more joy and fulfillment in their lives.
Hays has seen the impact regular family dinners can have in his own home.
“By being more present in the moment and really connecting with everyone else around the table, I am closer to my three kids than I ever have been before.”
Given these clear benefits, imagine if every person spent more time being present at dinner and sharing a meal with others! Together, we could change the trajectory of love and compassion in our society.
“It’s been shown that just one more dinner together per week can breed these positive benefits,” co-founder and President Ashton Chaffee adds, “and that’s really what we’re trying to promote by rallying America to log dinners towards the Billion Family Dinners Challenge on DinnerCall. Whether you’re a dinner pro and get your family together for dinner regularly, or whether you’re just getting back into the swing of it, your participation in the Billion Family Dinners Challenge matters. Not only does it breed positive change for your family, but it helps encourage others to start building those same habits. Plus, if each household tracks just 10 dinners through DinnerCall, we’ll have collectively tracked 1 billion dinners in efforts to positively impact society!”
The app not only keeps dinnertime statistics—such as your total time spent around the table, average dinner length and how many people are eating at the same time as you on a national scale—it also allows you to store and share family dinner photos, provides conversation starters for the table and enables the sharing of key family milestones.
If you’d like to see your family—and our society—change for the better, participating in the Billion Family Dinners Challenge is easy:
• Visit BillionDinners.com • Download the mobile tracking application. • Grab family, friends or neighbors and begin tracking your dinners.
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(317)810-1330 Peacewaterwinery.com
FOR LOVE OF BEER AND PICKLES
BY JENNIFER CARMACK-BRILLIANT PHOTOGRAPH BY JENNIFER RUBENSTEIN
Right now in Indy, local is king. If you can think it, chances are, someone locally is making it. So how about really good pickles made with local craft beer? Yes, that’s happening, thanks to Indiana Pickle Company. Owner Rob Carmack came up with the idea while attempting to re-create a heirloom recipe from his childhood.
“Growing up on a small farm, my mother would take cucumbers from the fi eld and pickle them in a whiskey barrel. My entire adult life I have never found anything close to them, so I fi nally just asked Mom for the recipe and got to work” said Carmack.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I too loved these same pickles as a child. How could this be possible? Was the author a child pickle stalking thief? Not quite. You see, Rob is my ... brother. I bet you weren’t expecting a little twist in a pickle tale, were you? Anyway, Rob had this idea to make Mom’s pickles—only, instead of using a whiskey barrel, why not brine them in craft beer? Genius was born.
So what are these beer pickles? Rob rounded up growlers from some of Indy’s top breweries, picked cucumbers from his garden and hit the kitchen. What he ended up with will simply blow your mind. Complex layers of fl avors hitting your mouth at diff erent points and moments, leaving you in a pickle-lust haze wondering “where have these been all my life?” I’m talking about creations like dill chips bathed in Sun King Wee Mac Scottish Ale (fondly named Wee Willies), or how about Spicy Spear Splitters infused with Triton Rail Splitter IPA? And don’t miss sweet, juicy pear and plum brined pickles in Flat 12’s Walkabout or spicy baby carrots (Dragon Tails) with a kick of Upland’s Dragonfl y.
Th ese pickles are more than just talk. Th ey recently took top honors at Indy’s Hottest Kitchen Entrepreneur Challenge. I’m not just saying this because my brother makes them—stop what you are doing right now and get some pickles! You can thank me later.
You can fi nd jars at Goose the Market, and soon at R2GO, as well as other specialty markets and breweries.
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FarmtoForkMarket.org
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Title: Director of Operations and Wine Director, Neal Brown Hospitality Group Age: 31
Family: Husband, Rob; daughter, Jack; schnauzer mutt, Charlie Favorite thing to cook: Fresh, simple
vegetable salads Least favorite thing to cook: Caramel sauces.
“I always burn them, and not in that good burntcaramel kind of way.” Favorite food: Dry-aged rib eye, seared rare in a cast-iron skillet
What she orders: Rook’s mushroom XO dumplings, the roasted cauliflower at Bluebeard or a big bowl of Italian mussels at Pizzology First food-related job: Pantry/pastry cook at
Sola Restaurant in Chicago Dream restaurant: “An enoteca-style wine tavern with emphasis on accessibility and educating the guest. Instead of just local wines, it would feature global wines at all price ranges and simple dishes to complement them.”
Erin Till Neal Brown Hospitality Erin@NealBrownHospitality.com
Edible Indy: How did you get to where you are today? Erin Till: I helped open the original Pizzology in Carmel in 2009 as the sous-chef. (Till also interned in 2008 for Neal Brown at L’explorateur, which was located in Broad Ripple in Indianapolis and is now closed, while attending culinary school at Kendall College.) At Pizzology, I moved from sous to chef within a few months, then helped open the Libertine as the chef de cuisine in 2011.
EI: How would you describe your style of cooking? ET: Western European, but on the simple side. My food at the Libertine was rather simple, yet somewhat elegant in a feminine sort of way. While I enjoy eating works of art, accessibility has always been important to me. EI: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a chef? ET: Motherhood. After having a child, my priorities completely shifted. Chef hours and commitment were no longer conducive to being the kind of parent I wanted to be. My peers are doing some amazing stuff right now, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit jealous! During these last couple of years I’ve shifted my focus not only to wine, but also to developing our hospitality group into something awesome.
EI: Thoughts on the roles of female chefs within the local food industry? ET: There are some great women doing fantastic work in Indy’s food scene, but I’d love to see more.
Edible Indy: What does a typical workday look like for you? Melanie Miles: I get in early in the morning to make pastries and prep for lunch. Sometimes I help with lunch service; sometimes I m in my office working on finances. During dinner service, Toby and I trade off. Some nights, I cook dinner with our sous-chef, Mike; other nights, I act as front-of-the-house manager. When we started, it was just Toby and me, so we are used to doing whatever needs to be done.
EI: Tell us about your culinary background. MM: I started out in the music business in Nashville, Tennessee, but had to make a career change just a few years after graduating from college when I moved back to Indiana. I thought about opening a restaurant, so I enrolled in culinary school at Ivy Tech to learn classic cooking techniques and the business side of the food industry.
EI: What’s your cooking style? MM: I m inspired by Indiana comfort food and Western European cuisine. I like to take these two aspects and combine them. Title: Co-owner/Chef, Rail Epicurean Market
Age: 39
Family: Husband, Toby; kids, Luke, Emma and Redding Favorite thing to cook: Tortilla
Chicken
Favorite food: “I know this isn’t very gourmet, but nachos are my favorite.” What she orders here in Indy:
Egg rolls from Super Bowl Pho, coq au vin or suckling pig at Oakley’s Bistro, Caesar salad with blackened salmon from Local Eatery and Pub and Sam’s Benedict with the zucchini fritters at Tulip Noir. First food job: Dairy Queen
Dream job: “I’m doing it now at Rail.”
Melanie Miles Rail Epicurean Market info@preservationindy.com
EI: What are you most proud of accomplishing? MM: Opening Rail while eight months pregnant, and making it this far working side-by-side with my husband every day and raising three kids.
EI: Any local female chefs you particularly admire? MM: I worked for two very talented women chefs Keltie Domina, owner of Keltie s restaurant (which was located in Westfield and is now closed) and Rachanee Keovorabouth, executive chef at Thomas Caterers (Indianapolis). They showed me how working hard and being a strong leader is vital and earns respect from men and women alike.
