Jeremy Iggers There is nothing wrong with talented chefs like J.P. Samuelson at jP American Bistro turning out dishes like roast chicken breast with fermented black bean sauce and mango salad and calling it American cuisine. And Doug Flicker has every right to offer duck breast with prune ravioli, asparagus, and portobello mushrooms at Mission American Kitchen. … Read more
Italian cuisine is scheduled for a six-round culinary bout against Midwestern newcomer Canyon Grille October 4 in Eden Prairie, in what is billed as an Italian Wine Dinner, and we are predicting a knockout. After the Champagne reception and passed tapas (Round 1), and a salad course of haricots verts and tomato tartare (Round 2), … Read more
Where does royalty dine when they visit our fair metropolis? When His Royal Majesty King Abumbi II, the Fon of Bafut visited Minneapolis last month, he stopped and his entourage attended a breakfast organized in his honor at the Sunnyside Deli & Coffee Cafe, 1825 Glenwood Ave. N. in Minneapolis. Actually, the Fon, hereditary ruler … Read more
Monday, September 17, the Campus Club at the University of Minnesota will host Jazz88 FM’s monthly RestauranTour benefit dinner. It’s a winning combination – a talented chef, Mary Cashman (formerly of the No Wake Cafe), an interesting menu: heirloom tomato salad, fig-stuffed chicken roulade, and apple galette with thyme whipped cream, a reasonable price ($50 … Read more
The rumor is floating around restaurant kitchens – or at least one restaurant kitchen – that the talented Steven Brown is leaving Harry’s Food and Cocktails to become executive chef for the new upscale restaurant at the Ivy Hotel, a Starwood Hotels luxury property scheduled to open later this year at 1115 2nd Ave. S. … Read more
We spotted Michael Kutscheid the other night in the dining room of his new restaurant, Sanctuary, looking proud as a peacock – and even more dapper than usual. The elegant new dining room and lounge, which Kutscheid owns with partners Roger Kubicki and Naomi Williamson, opened quietly last week on the ground level at of … Read more
Flooding in southeastern Minnesota last month caused heavy losses to some of the small farms that practice sustainable farming. Now some of the Twin Cities restaurants that serve locally and sustainably grown foods are lending a helping hand. Dine at any of the participating restaurants next Saturday, September 8, for their One Big Night Out, … Read more
My very talented co-blogger Ann Bauer is much too modest and self-effacing to mention this herself, but she just published another terrific piece in Salon.com, on the impact that global warming is having on the world’s top wine-growing regions. You can read it here.
When Jim Harkness, the new executive director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, dines at Little Szechuan in Saint Paul, he orders in Mandarin, and sometimes he throws in a Szechuan accent, just to mess with the waiters’ head. My Rake co-blogger and I will be having dinner with Jim this Sunday, September … Read more
If you drink a lot of pop or bottled water, then recent news reports have given you one more thing to feel guilty about. You have probably read about how producing all those plastic bottles requires millions of gallons of oil every year and that most of those plastic bottles wind up as landfill. And … Read more