….on over to Mangoes and Mojitos at: http://mangoesandmojitos.wordpress.com/ ? It’s where I’ve been blogging my own cooking adventures and food stories for almost two years now and will be the home of Town and Fork’s featured chefs of Madison from now on.
I’d be “over the moon” if you’d stop by.
Joy!
Kathy
I met Melinda back in December on a frosty afternoon in the quiet dining room of L’Etoile. This was before dinner service at the award-winning Capital Square establishment. I was there to interview her for BRAVA Magazine’s Women to Watch 2014 (January issue).
The moment she comes bopping out from the kitchen wearing a baseball cap turned backwards and a stained chef’s jacket, I know that this interview is going to be fun. It is in this same moment that I also begin to fantasize about what could be on that jacket. Is it chocolate ganache? Caramel sauce? A rich custard? We sit down together amidst tables dressed in their crisp evening wear of white and shiny glasses. The warm sun beaming through those magnificent floor-to-ceiling windows, glints off the silverware. It feels special to be there; a private pass.
Recently nominated for Food & Wine’s Best New Pastry Chef of the Midwest, I ask Melinda how she had come to focus on pastry. “I hate oysters!” she laughs. “I thought, I’ll never have to touch an oyster again!” Then, pushing her hat back off her forehead and bringing it back down into place, she says, “I was meant to be a chef. The industry grabs you. It tells you”.
At the time of our meeting, she, along with Chef Tory Miller and other members of Graze, had just returned from New York City where they had been invited by the James Beard House to create a meal from appetizers to dessert with cocktail and wine pairings. When I congratulate her, she beams over the Graze team’s Wine & Beverage Director, of whom, she offers, was the one who really shone that night.
Melinda believes that in order to become a truly talented chef and master of one’s craft, “you need to do something 2,000 times,” which is possible to accomplish when you work 80-hour weeks in the kitchen. She makes her point by telling me she wore out two chinois this summer processing seeds out of raspberries.
As for being a woman in the business: “I want to disprove what everyone thinks about women and pastry chefs. We don’t have to fight each other. We are good, strong. I don’t ask for special treatment. I take out the garbage.”
Her hopes for the future of her profession: “This idea of savory versus sweet needs to go away. There is no separation. We (chefs) are all the same. We can be everything.”
Favorite desserts at the moment: In her following response, it is clear that Melinda is expert at marrying both savory and sweet.
“We have a dessert that I am very proud to say is a collaborative effort between myself and my assistant. It is a gluten-free chocolate cake (though you would never guess, its texture is consistently that of a chewy brownie fresh out of the oven) and is served with maple whipped mascarpone. Rosemary olive oil caramel sauce is brushed on the plate and then we stencil dark chocolate leaves with sea salt as garnish. Citrus segments which play exceptionally well with the maple are also present. Still another ingredient which is never in short supply in a kitchen is carrots. I love carrot cake. I have one on the menu presently that is especially rich, with whipped fromage blanc cheesecake as a frosting. It is served with a carrot and ginger frozen custard and is garnished with little balls of rainbow-colored carrots that are cooked in a brown sugar simple syrup with raisins and more ginger. The sauce on the plate is a beet paint, which is a combination of well pureed beets, sugar, and cornstarch. This puree also gets baked into a chip as a garnish. Finally basil whipped cream and basil leaves garnish the plate. It really works well with the earthy flavors and brings a little bit of spring to an otherwise wintry dessert.”
The cookbooks Melinda keeps in the L’Etoile/Graze kitchen.
Melinda’s tips to the home cook: She has consistent success with Martha Stewart’s recipe for marshmallows. Also, when coming up with new recipes, she and her staff rely only on cookbooks and top food publications like bon appétit, because these recipes are tested by professionals again and again for quality and consistency.
I want to show Americans that French cuisine doesn’t exclusively mean sophisticated cuisine, that the French also eat simple and very good dishes every day. –Nanou (owner, chef of Chez Nanou)
I felt welcomed right away at this little Willy Street French bistro once home to Bon Appétit. It’s cozy with light sounds of stirring and savory smells of breakfast baking and lunch simmering –preparations being made for the day’s quiche and crepes.
The doorway to the kitchen looks as if it’s a doorway to a kitchen in someone’s home. Nanou’s home. She offers me a cup of coffee and we sit, speak as if I am a distant niece coming to visit her aunt for the first time in many years. She apologizes to me for not knowing the English language that well, but any gaps in our conversation are quickly filled in by her warm smile and genuine laugh.
My dream is that I wake one morning speaking perfect English!
Despite the very little French I know, it is easy speaking with Nanou. My time in her bistro in the quiet early morning hour just prior to opening, the place bathed in sunflower yellow, chairs still propped upside-down on the café tables is just so lovely.
Families gather and houses are full of joy!
Since Nanou was leaving for France to visit her family and was looking forward to a trip back home, I thought I’d ask her to tell me about her Christmas traditions as a child growing up near Provence.
Christmas Eve is the big family event. Preparations begin ten days before, where we cook the foie gras that will be served for Christmas dinner. We attend midnight mass and then eat the traditional meal of oysters, foie gras, escargots, chestnut-stuffed roast turkey followed by bûche de Noël.
Bûche de Noël or Yule Log was Nanou’s favorite holiday tradition. She remembers being six-years-old standing on a bench, leaning over the stove, mixing chocolate by hand, asking her mother Can I stop now? Is it done? And her mother’s firm reply, No! Be careful not to burn the chocolate!
Her least favorite Christmas tradition? Washing all the dishes after the meal!
Back in Madison Nanou is already serving escargots to her guests and says …many customers tried and loved it!
As of December 11th, Chez Nanou will be offering the same traditional French turkey and Bûche de Noël (with a choice of several flavors).
Cooking Class!
Nanou is offering a cooking class on Tuesday, December 17th at 6:00 pm to four lucky students only and as of this post, there are two spots left. You’ll learn how to make foie gras, canard á l’orange (duck), crème brûlée á la lavande (lavender-infused crème brulee). Each student gets to invite one guest to join them that evening at 7:30 where they will all sit down together with Nanou and enjoy a simple and good French meal. Cost is $65 per student. Guests pay $15. One glass of wine included.
cheznanoumadison.com
humble. sisters: Shelly Cross and Jill Long
Thanksgiving is about a week away and I am willing to bet you are thinking about pie. Perhaps you are feeling a little stressed about putting the perfect pie on your holiday table. Maybe you don’t bake but would still like to offer your guests a homemade pie for dessert.
Am I right? Well then, may I suggest we let the local professionals handle it this year? Walk through the door of humble. sweet and savory pies and into the talented and welcoming arms of Madison’s very own southern sisters of pie, Jill Long and Shelly Cross.
These sisters have flour, sugar and butter in their blood and souls filled with southern tradition. They grew up in a military family and moved about the United States during most of their childhood. They do, however call Arkansas their childhood home and agree that all this relocating has made them the best friends they are today. And they are here in Madison to stay.
Born to Bake
Jill and Shelly were raised as “latch-key kids” with the added benefit of having unsupervised access to the kitchen. Shelly says, “We wanted to bake something that was really good so our mom wouldn’t be mad at us for using the oven.”
Jill’s memory of her first baking experience was when she was nine years old. It involves climbing up on the kitchen chair to reach the Bisquick, making and then eating the Impossible Pie recipe on the back of the box.
Humble. is built on their grandparents’ pie recipes, however both Jill and Shelly enjoy researching and experimenting with new flavor combinations. The sisters agree that their customers tend to at first choose a more traditional pie but then, Shelly smiles and nods, “soon they begin to trust us and are willing to sample our other offerings.”
That was certainly my experience as a new customer. First I had the Not-For-Your-Toaster Pumpkin Tart with Maple Vanilla frosting – so good! I enjoyed the flaky crust and the just-enough pumpkin filling with traditional spices of cinnamon and nutmeg. The sweet maple-infused vanilla frosting drizzled over the top made me feel like a kid again. Then I had the Door County cherry galette, a perfect balance of sweet and tart, and again that delicious buttery light crust. I can say without a doubt, I trust these women. They know pie.
Humble is coming up on it’s one-year anniversary and I have to ask: “Any bakery mishaps?” Jill admits that she completely forgot to add the sugar to her scone recipe. It wasn’t until after she sold one and the customer left the store with it that she realized what she had done. She wishes that customer would come back so “we could make it right!”
“We want everyone to be happy!” she tells me from behind the counter.
How have they grown in this first year?
“Well,” Shelly says, “we are calmer and are able to produce a lot more pies a lot more quickly!”
And after learning that these sisters make thirty-two pie crusts a day, I had to ask them what I know you are all hoping for….pie crust advice!
Shelly says use a food processor when making the dough. Jill says keep it cold, move quickly and let the dough rest in the refrigerator at least over night before rolling it out.
They both believe in reading a recipe thoroughly and visualizing the steps before actually getting to it.
Shelly’s favorite cook book is The Southern Living Cookbook and her favorite comfort food when she is away from all those pies is mashed potatoes. Jill says comfort for her is a vegetable soup, but when her big sister makes fun of her for choosing such a healthy meal Jill quickly exclaims, “but with big meatballs…and corn bread!”
What pies will appear on their own Thanksgiving table? The sisters easily agree: a traditional pumpkin as well as their grandmother’s Alabama Pecan.
Lucky for us, both pies will be offered throughout the holiday season along with Bourbon Pumpkin, Cinnamon Apple, Chocolate Pecan, Coconut Pecan and Cranberry Relish with Sour Cream Sauce. Non-traditional dessert offerings include a galette of green beans over stuffing and a cranberry relish hand pie.
But hurry! This Friday, November 22nd is the last day to order your Thanksgiving pies! Humble. will be open November 26th and 27th and will have pie (primarily pumpkin and pecan) for purchase.
Visit their website for holiday hours and up-to-date menu items: humble4pie.com or their Facebook page.
Town and Fork’s very first interview and it has to be with owner, Carine Vigy, of La Baguette! I have spent many a chilly morning in this French bakery enjoying a croissant and coffee and reading A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s memoir of his time in France.
All the while I am embraced by the magic of this place, the softly played French music, the round, intimate wooden tables interspersed with iron garden tables. On the mantle of the faux brick fireplace, the collection of vintage aluminum lunchboxes — my favorite is the yellow one with an illustration of a little girl caught in a teasing wind, her umbrella giving out. The long wooden baguette molds hung on the walls.
Oh I love this place! The quiches, the tarts, the made-to-order sweet crepes on Mondays, pain au chocolat, croissants and fresh bread– all made daily by Carine’s husband and love of 18 years.
Olivier trained for four years on the west side of Paris to become a Boulanger. He is certainly a bread-baking gift to Madison and a culinary artist when it comes to pastry!
Madame Carine’s main role is to keep the front and back of the house running smoothly. From early morning until late evening six days a week she handles the accounting and the ordering. And, perhaps most importantly, it is she who maintains the warm and friendly atmosphere of La Baguette. Be sure, once you’ve step inside, you will feel instantly transported –from off the busy road of Mineral Point to a quiet café in Paris the moment Carine greets you cheerfully,
Bon Jour!
Carine was raised in the Seine et Marne neighborhood, an east side suburb of Paris where the rivers Seine and Marne meet. Her mother is an Italian-American native of Wisconsin, her father, a Frenchman. She was raised in France on Italian food and her fondest childhood memories in the kitchen involve making jam out of the mirabelle fruit from trees in her backyard.
Carine’s prized possession is a torn and tattered French cookbook her French grandmother gave her. She credits her mother-in-law, however, for teaching her how to cook French and it is her mother-in-law who does most of the cooking for her at home. Having her in-laws live with them is what helps Olivier and Carine be so successful at what they do.
The ingredients the Vigy family keeps at home are: mustard, shallots, garlic and herbs de Provence, as well as harissa, the secret ingredient her mother-in-law uses to flavor her soups and sauces — a spice she picked up in her travels to Morocco.
What is on Madame Carine’s bucket list?
Oh to travel, she says in a dreamy voice and I can tell she is somewhere far away from our little table.
Tahiti, Japan, Finland, Norway, South America….
And so on Sundays what does this full-time mom and bakery owner do with her one day off?
Family, she says gently.
Then with a small laugh, I want to sleep a little bit, but I don’t want to sleep and miss out!
Be sure to stop in soon on one of these crisp autumn days for La Baguette’s Pumpkin Tart with Crème de Chantilly Stars!
Read more about La Baguette’s specials on their Facebook page.
Town and Fork 