There were so many highlights during our weekend in the Rockies, but one of my true favorites was a five-course dinner sponsored by Fiji Water. The occasion, held at local haunt The Wild Fig, featured a special guest in the kitchen: Rob Wilson, the executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, and a roaring afterparty, where the wine, cocktails, and, of course, Fiji Water, were flowing.
Steve Mundinger for Fiji Water
Between the Voltaggio brothers lunch and the grand tasting tents, we enjoyed a lot of good food last weekend in Aspen. However, the highlight, by far, was an amazing six-course crawfish lunch, prepared by the master of New Orleans cuisine, Chef John Besh. Thanks to his appearances on the Next Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters, I was pretty familiar with the chef's cooking style.
What I wasn't prepared for was one of the most delicious and memorable meals of my life. Here you'll get a look at the lunch, which was paired with beer and properly titled Tails and Ales.
In my time spent with Momofuku's David Chang, I've learned that there's never a dull moment with the opinionated chef. When I found out he was demoing in Aspen, I knew I'd be there.
Chang, who was a Best New Chef himself at the 2006 Classic, showed his version of vacuum cooking. "Sous vide cooking will be more popular in the next 10 to 20 years," he declared. Although he recommended a water immersion circulator for home cooks ("they didn't pay me to say this, but PolyScience is the best one out there"), he demonstrated a similar, more affordable technique that he refers to as "sandbagging" or "ghetto sous vide."
He made fun of his jury-rigged concept, but I think it was classic avant-garde David Changian. With a large vat of water, the chef used an instant-read digital thermometer to gauge the temperature at about 140ºF, or 60ºC. Then he inserted a vacuum-sealed piece of meat for about 45 minutes, until the protein was just barely, but uniformly, cooked through. For more about what the Momofuku maestro had to say, read on.
One of my favorite demos at the Food & Wine Classic was Mario Batali's Best of Ligurian Cooking. It's been awhile since I watched his old show on Food Network, Molto Mario, and I'd forgotten how entertaining and knowledgeable the chef is. When it comes to cooking Italian cuisine, no one understands it as much as Batali. While boiling shellfish and blitzing up pesto, he shared much of his expertise with the crowd. To see how he recommends channeling your inner Italian, keep reading.
As YumSugar mentioned, one of the things that makes the Food & Wine Classic so special is the tasting tents. There are three large tents that are filled with food, wine, and spirits. She's shared her favorite finds and now I'm showing you mine.
When we were in Aspen for the Food & Wine Classic, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was so warm that I didn't really taste much red wine; all I craved were refreshingly chilled whites. That's when I realized: when the weather is hot, I rarely drink reds. How about you?
Aside from learning new knife skills and cooking techniques, being in Aspen is a chance to be inspired by fresh, new preparations. Sometimes these ideas can be rather involved, like the sous vide and smoking techniques at the Voltaggio brothers lunch; other times, they are shockingly simple.
For breakfast on my first morning at the Classic, I enjoyed a shot each of chilled blanco and añejo tequila at the Corzo booth. The Corzo was lovely, but even better was the chaser: an orange wedge offered up with cinnamon and sugar for dipping. The sweet, warm spices complemented the citrus perfectly. The combination would be great with tequila shots or served on its own as a party snack. As a huge fan of cinnamon, I was thrilled to have a new use for it. Do you have any unusual ways to employ cinnamon?
Despite the fact that many guests in Aspen had a chance to hit up the tasting tent five times, the last 30 minutes of the last Grand Tasting on Sunday rapidly deteriorated into a crowded, debaucherous food and wine free-for-all. In the midst of it all, we stumbled upon an Australian wine table that had been completely abandoned: there the whites and rosés sat, on ice, ready to be enjoyed, but there was no one there to pour them. It was as though the whole wine team suddenly took off, afraid they would miss their 15-hour flights back to Australia.
As the old adage goes, one person's trash is another person's treasure. While we still had the time, we dug into quite a few varietals. The most beautiful to stare at and to drink turned out to be the 2009 Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato ($10 for 375 ml) from Victoria, Australia. I've long loved the sparkle of a good Moscato d'Asti, but I'd never before come across a sparkling pink Moscato. The combination of Muscat Alexandria and Black Muscat contribute to the ballet slipper hue, and the wine is wildly easy to drink, with a floral-spicy perfume, red fruit flavor, and long, lingering, well-rounded finish. I can't wait to seek it out here in San Francisco. Have you ever had a sparkling pink Muscat?
Masaharu Morimoto's cooking demo in Aspen was exactly that: a demonstration. To be more specific, it was a mind-blowing demonstration of how stupefyingly skilled he is in the kitchen.
The Iron Chef began by making a fried fish cake noodle soup, first puréeing white fish with egg whites, potato starch, and soy, then piping the tacky, moist mousse into simmering fish broth to form udon-like noodles, which were finished with a flash-fry in vegetable oil.
But the real show began when Morimoto pulled out his mad Japanese knife techniques to create the most stunning sashimi platter that I've ever seen. Read more about it after the jump.
Quite possibly the king of Texas, chef Tim Love is known for his hearty cowboy cuisine. When I saw that he was scheduled to preform a seminar for the first time ever at the Food & Wine Classic, I knew I couldn't miss it. The crowded cooking tent was packed with enthusiastic carnivores eager to learn Love's secret to steaks. To find out what he had to say keep reading.
