indiana’s top Chefs revisited

Revisited

over the years, travel Indiana has recognized some of Indiana’s top chefs. In this issue, we’re reflecting on some of our favorites from past issues and hoping to reignite the excitement to support local businesses and restaurants. these chefs are still doing what they love—creating dishes and memories that can only be made by family and friends sharing a meal together. Below are excerpts from three of our best top chefs features…

story by elizaBeth GranGer

Patrick Rice: The Tin Plate in Elwood

The table is set 24/7. The candle is lit at 6 o’clock every evening. But the guest never comes.

He’s still missing, or he’s already gone.

And the owners of The Tin Plate restaurant know that. That’s their point. The table honors military personnel who have sacrificed the ultimate: A few are still MIA (missing in action) or POWs (Prisoners of War), and many have died. It’s a way for restaurant owners Pat Rice and his son Patrick Rice to honor them and to encourage their diners to do so also.

The Missing Man table has been set for almost five years – the restaurant opened in 2015 – but the Rices’ commitment to honoring the military goes back much further. Pat’s Father is a US Army veteran. Pat was an Elwood police officer for 28 years. And Patrick’s service began when he was a youngster. Trumpet lessons in grade school led to his membership in the world champion Star of Indiana Drum & Bugle Corps during high school. He hasn’t stopped playing; he’s a member of Bugles Across America and still plays “Taps” at military funerals throughout Madison County.

Patrick said, “I voluntarily play for as many military funerals as are called for so the family does not have to endure the military honors ceremony with a recording. It’s done live.”

As for the restaurant, it’s something the father/ son duo had thought about for a long time. Both had already been in the food industry for years, and they were looking for a location in early 2015 when the building in Elwood’s American Tin Plate neighborhood came up for sale. There’s been a lot of remodeling – the new kitchen is much bigger than the original, for example.

The Tin Plate’s breaded tenderloin rapidly became their signature dish. Also popular are fried and battered cheese curds; ribbon fries loaded with pulled pork BBQ, shredded cheese, sour cream and jalapeños; and a roast beef Manhattan with red gravy.

But always, in the forefront, is that homage to the military.

“You’ll see a lot of restaurants set up a (Missing Man) table on Memorial Day or Veterans Day, then take it down,” Pat said. “Ours is there 24/7. It’s there 365 days a year.”

“Because those guys are there 365 days a year,” added Patrick. “They’re not there just two days a year. MIAs, POWs, those buried in the jungle, unknown – they’re there all the time.”

“And they’re missed everyday of the year,” Pat said.

The Tin Plate 2233 S. J St. Elwood (765) 557-8231

story by elizaBeth GranGer

Jake Burgess: FoxGardin in Fortville

In Fortville, this is the restaurant that Jane built.

Or, at least, influenced.

Meet Jake Burgess, Jane’s son. He’s owner and chef at FoxGardin Kitchen & Ale in Fortville. And is quick to talk about how influential his mother has been in his choice of careers.

So influential that Jane Teagardin Burgess is honored as the “Gardin” in FoxGardin.

A seemingly ordinary guy with strong ties to his family and to old-fashioned values, but with a modern, upscale twist.

Burgess grew up in Fortville, then a small rural community in Hancock County where he’d play outside with his buddies. “My friends called me ‘Little House on the Prairie’ when I was growing up because I’d have to be home every day at 5 p.m., no matter where I was, because Mom had supper on the table,” he says. “We’d be in the middle of a ballgame and I knew ‘I gotta’ go.’ I’d get home, eat supper, run back and say, ‘Where were we?’ And we’d continue the game.”

Burgess started working at 15, in the food business – at Mozzi’s Pizza in Fortville. His first day of work was 9/11.

He went off to Ball State to study hospitality. But after three years, he knew it wasn’t for him. He had continued to work in the food industry, graduating to fine dining. On his 21st birthday, he moved to Valdosta, Georgia, “to spread my wings.”

“I think Southern-style cooking is homey and family-oriented,” Burgess says. “I worked for some talented Southern-style-cooking chefs, in scratch kitchens, in really nice restaurants – and expanded my cooking.”

And then he returned to Indiana, to an upscale Indianapolis restaurant “I think Southern-style cooking is homey and family-oriented. I worked for some talented Southernstyle-cooking chefs, in scratch kitchens, in really nice restaurants – and expanded my cooking.”

where he honed his skills in fine dining.

One day, when visiting his parents in Fortville, Burgess saw that a downtown building was available, and he jumped at the chance to open his own restaurant. “I’d worked for somebody long enough,” he says. “I figured I could sleep in the restaurant and eat the food there if I had to.”

It’s for adults only because of the building’s layout, which makes it impossible to create separate bar and family dining areas. So now there’s also FoxGardin Family Kitchen, for the entire family, at 104th and Olio Road.

Much of the original FoxGardin décor pays tribute to not only the building’s history but also to local history. “Everything in the restaurant has a story,” Burgess says. Table tops from local barn wood, the original tin ceiling, 48-star American flags – a rustic Americana feel in a building from about 1890. Even trains that rumble through town, whistles blowing, several times a day.

The menu still has that Southern touch – fried chicken is accompanied by hot honey – but choices are expanded with perfect hand-cut filet mignon, the Fortville tenderloin, walleye, lobster, pork, duck. Comfort food, elevated.

FoxGardin Kitchen & Ale 215 S. Main St., Fortville (317) 485-4085 foxgardin.com

Huber’s Orchard, Winery & Vineyards

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story by Barney QuiCk

Dan and Amber Grunden: Harrison Lake Country Club in Columbus

The values that are central to the lives of Dan and Amber Grunden – awe at the bounty and variety the earth brings forth, teamwork, and creating art – are present in every plate enjoyed by the members and the public at Harrison Lake Country Club in Columbus.

Like so many husband-and-wife culinary teams, they each started out expressing themselves in other art forms. Once they came together, however, they made a life centered around the entire process of creating food, from seeds and animals to dishes that dazzle visually and synthesize

Experience the passion

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19816 Huber Road Borden, IN 47106 812.923.9463 www.huberwinery.com

Hopwood Cellars Winery

flavors memorably. Dan is the club’s executive chef, and Amber is the pastry chef. Additionally, she makes the salad dressings from scratch.

They live on a one-acre plot of land about ten minutes away that they call Veritas Homestead. It’s a fully functioning farm, on which a multitude of chickens, three milking goats, and two breeding pigs (as well as several dogs and cats) roam, and from which the Grundens harvest, year-round.

Dan, a Columbus native, earned a BFA in computer animation at the Illinois Institute of Art. He returned to Columbus to be near family and because it has, as he puts it, “little big city” appeal. “I thought I might work at a local graphics company, but I got hired as a busser at Bistro 310, an establishment that was a downtown Columbus fixture for many years. “I moved up to being a server and became really interested in what we were trying to do. The chef would explain each night’s special, going into the history of it, and I liked passing that along to my tables. He was also willing to answer my questions about technique. I remember wondering how he got his salmon crispy. I practiced at home until I had it down.”

He eventually rose to being assistant manager. Then the country club needed a food and beverage director, and he was hired, a move he calls “a big jump.” Amber, a native of Clayton, Indiana, studied photojournalism at Indiana University and worked at a portrait studio. She met Dan on match.com and, along with marrying him, formed the team that makes Veritas Homestead and the country club kitchen such magical places. “I spent a significant amount of money on art school, and as I think about it, I do use what I learned in my current life,” says Dan. “You have to think about color theory and filling space, and it really applies to plating.”

There is a connection between serving regulars and maximizing the freshness of the dishes’ ingredients, according to Dan: “Since it’s a private club, I’m basically cooking for the same people every week, so we’ve gone to weekly menus. That allows me to use what we have available from the farm.”

Harrison Lake Country Club 588 Country Club Rd, Columbus (812) 342-4457 HarrisonLakeclub.com