What will Eric pull out of his hat next?

The Genuine Hospitality Group Wine Director and Sommelier Eric Larkee is joining Michael and Hedy on the west coast of Florida this weekend for the Naples Winter Wine Festival.  The most successful charity wine auction in the nation since 2004 according to the Wine Spectator, it brings together the world’s finest vintners, chefs, wine collectors and philanthropists for a three-day gala hosted by the Naples Children & Education Foundation with proceeds benefiting local charities that assist underprivileged and at risk children.

With Larkee on pour patrol for a larger-than-life crowd at tonight’s vintner dinner for 30 featuring the wines of Shea Wine Cellars and Vega Sicilia with the genuine foods of chef Schwartz and pastry chef Goldsmith, we took the liberty of culling the essentials that you need to know from his noggin as we head into a brave new year of wine.  Below please find his four things to watch in wine in 2012, which you will find reflected in our restaurant group wine programs, and click here for tonight’s menu and here for background on the vintners.

1) 2009 Red Burgundy

“Usually considered a minefield, but ’09 red Burgundy is outstanding and drinking beautifully right now. In vintages that are great like this, the village level wines are even superb. At Michael’s, try Domaine Sarrazin ($39/BTB) and Remoissenet (48/BTB)

2) Grower champagne

“Sommeliers have been recommending these for as long as Terry Thiese and Becky Wasserman have been importing them. And those in the business have been drinking them. With an increased market presence and higher price to quality ratio compared to large negiociant houses, the tipping point has been reached. Grower champagne is not just for somms anymore.”

3) Greece

“With the current economic and political climate in turmoil, exploring Greece is more affordable than ever, and quality is increasing from small producers that are now being imported. Look for whites like Assyrtiko and Agiorgitiko. It’s actually easier to pronounce the names of the grapes after you’ve drunk the bottle of wine…”

4) Central European Reds

“Austria and Hungary especially are offering more tongue twisting varietals. What’s changed is these producers have stopped trying to make California wines and have re-embraced oak usage, working in a style more befitting to grapes like St. Laurent (a derivative of pinot noir) and Blaufrankish.”

New cheese of the week hitting the menu tonight.

Selles sur Cher from fromagier P. Jacquin & Fils Depuis 1947  in France’s Loire Valley has an ash-covered rind that develops blotches of gray and blue molds as it ages.  The cheese is sweet, nutty, and peppery with mildly tangy acidity. The texture varies depending on ripeness, but it is typically dense and chewy. Bradley’s got it coming on as the cheese of the week  tonight. A first for us!

Like many goat cheeses from the Loire Valley, the outside of Selle-sur-Cher is coated in edible ash. The ash is flavorless but adds a stunning visual contrast against the stark white goat cheese.

So much fish came in yesterday that Bradley had to get cutting before he could store it all.

Line cook Trevor shows off the biggest pompano I've ever seen. Trevor is tall, too!

Our walk-in fish drawer couldn’t accommodate all 400 pounds of whole fish!  Three sources all came in with a variety of beauties, the most stunning being African Pompano from George Figueroa at Trigger Seafood.

“It’s a pelagic fish that migrates southern waters of the gulf stream in winter,” he explained via text yesterday.  ”It falls into the jack and pompano family. Very cool looking. Mostly seen during this time of year.”

Pelagic fish live in open oceans rather than shallow, inland waters.  We also received cobia, myriad snappers, and yellow-dappled golden tilefish.

For more photos of what the kitchen was working on yesterday, see our set on Flickr. TBD on what accompaniment Bradley’s got up his sleeve for the cheese of the week and how the fish will become dinner…  We’ll tweet what we find out later this afternoon!

Our longtime intern, graphic designer Junior Narvaez, helped us with this ad running in the Caymanian Compass today!

Saturday, February 4, Grand Cayman’s first Slow Food Day, is fast-approaching and menus are set!  For the complimentary tasting at The Market at The Grounds from 9-11:00 a.m., all of our participating local chefs have done yeoman’s work connecting with their farmers and conceiving the local-ingredient-inspired dishes they will present, as follows:

Chef Thomas Tennant (Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink) + Farmer Donna Connolly: Donna’s soft scrambled farm eggs on garlic toast with grilled green onions & piave vecchio

Chef Keith Griffin (Private Chef) + Farmer Joel Walton + Rancher Paul Bodden: Island Spiced Pork with Scotch Bonnet ‘mustard’, fruity grilled plantation house vegetable salsa & sweet potato

Chef Sara Mair (Ortanique) + Hamlin Stephenson: Caymanian Sweet Potato Gnocchi with a Ragout of Pumpkin, Calalloo and Tomatoes Topped with House Made Goat Cheese Ricotta

Chef Nevin Patel (The Brasserie) + Patrick Panton: Patrick’s Farm All Natural Jerk Chicken with Heirloom Tomato, Chinese Long Beans and Local Eggplant Panzanella

Chef Paul Carroll (Hemingway’s) + Errol Watler: Pumpkin Soup with toasted coconut and Marinated Pepper and Tomato bruschetta with homemade cheese

All of the ingredients and recipes for these dishes will be available at the farmers’ booths at the event, and market goers are encouraged to taste, take home and test for themselves!  Thomas demonstrated his recipe, which you can preview here, from our food cart at this past Saturday’s farmers market for Cayman 27′s Daybreak; the segment will air the morning of February 2.  It’s an easy and tasty one to recreate at home, for breakfast or mid-morning snack.

Last but not least, chef Jonathan Waxman’s Farm-to-Table dinner later that evening at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink in Camana Bay will feature a menu utilizing ingredients from all Slow Food Day farmers listed above, as well as local fishermen, in recipes from his new cookbook, Italian, My Way. Click here for the menu and here to purchase tickets!

We always look forward to the specials at Harry’s Pizzeria.  Today is a prime example. Chef de Cuisine Manny Sulbaran placed an order for a regular in the MGFD kitchen, whole Poulet Rouge  heritage breed chickens (“I get to have fun, too!”), and the trifecta happened.  That’s when all three menu items have verbal specials: a pizza, soup, and snack. Today’s are all killer!  The pizza and soup both feature tender strips of this old world bird’s roasted white and dark meat.  The pie takes a Tex Mex spin with creamy cooling slices of local Lula avocado (that forager Chris Padin delivered from Homestead on Tuesday,) a sturdy, curdy layer of fontina cheese, green onion, picked jalapeno, and cilantro. Soup is a steamy, clear-as-can-be broth of shaved fennel, white onions, and parsley. MGFD line cook Danny Ramirez came over yesterday and made the kitchen smell like his grandmother’s by whipping up her special mojo marinade for today’s special crispy pork belly snack with papaya chutney and shaved zucchini.  Come in while they last, which should be through dinner service tonight if they are not 86 before then!

Strawberry Shortcake-approved.

MGFD in Miami is hosting a wine dinner on January 23 (yeah, that’s this coming Monday — I just found out, too!) with Argyle Winery’s Rollin Soles.  Soles has been producing fine wines from Dundee, Oregon since 1987, ranked among the top 100 Wines of the World by the Wine Spectator. Seven times. He is the only Oregon winemaker to hold this distinction. In Miami, we’ve poured his Brut Sparkling BTG, and we have a couple bottles of the Extended Tirage 2000 left in stock BTB.

Chef and Eric put their heads together to develop a banging menu for this $100 (plus tax and gratuity) affair.  The evening starts at 7:00 p.m. with a reception and Argyle’s Brut Reserve Willamette Valley, Oregon 2007 (63% Chardonnay, 37% Pinot Noir) with assorted pizzas, which might be Eric’s favorite pairing of the night.

“Sounds fantastic, pizza and bubbles,” he explains.  ”I think that sparkling wine is a beverage that gets relegated to special occasion too often and is great with almost every food. I could drink bubbles with my dinner every night.”

Then a parade of snacks including crispy pig ears, ricotta with jam and grilled sourdough, and thick cut potato chips with pan fried onion dip arrive with Argyle, Extended Tirage, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2001 (52% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir, 3% Pinot Meunier.) Second course features personal favorites, honeycrisp apple salad with radish, almonds, basil, and french feta, as well as local fish crudo with pickled kumquat, basil, extra virgin olive oil.  Soles offers Chardonnay here, specifically Nuthouse, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2008.  Braised lamb neck with chickpea stew, flat bread, cucumber salad, yogurt, wood roasted vegetables, and pickles is Eric’s most anticipated course.  Where else would you go here with the richness and brightness of lamb neck and its accoutrement but with Pinot Noir, specifically Reserve, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2009 and Nuthouse, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2009. Hedy makes the finish sweet with strawberry shortcake pie and its match in Brut Rosé, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2008 (50% Pinot Meunier, 40% Pinot Noir & 10% Chardonnay.)

Rollin received a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology from Texas A&M, which means Eric is likely salivating with anticipation to pick his brain, and a Masters of Science in Enology and Viticulture at the University of California at Davis. During his early winemaking years Rollin honed his knowledge and skills at some of the worlds’ finest wineries in California, Switzerland, and Australia.

To reserve your spot, reach our reservations department by phone at 305.573.5550 or email reservations@michaelsgenuine.com.

The man and his bearded little friend.

Tickets are now available for Jonathan Waxman’s pop-up at Harry’s on Wednesday, February 1, featuring dishes from the pages of his new cookbook: Italian My Way.  Hot off the presses from Schwartzy and Waxy, with supporting role by Eric Larkee, please find the menu below, and click here to purchase your seat while they last! Each ticket comes with a copy of the legendary chef’s cookbook which he will sign for you that evening.

Barbuto Pizzeria
Chef Jonathan Waxman at Harry’s Pizzeria

Welcome
JW rhum flip  blood orange, ruby grapefruit, Cuban rhum, meyer lemon-vanilla syrup

Passed
Bruschetta with pompano tartar
Grilled shrimp spiedini with haberno salsa
Arancini with lobster

First
Fritto Misto, Thai eggplant, onions, fennel
Salad of conch, arugula, purslane & seville orange

Second
Seasonal Pizza, local tomatoes, spinach, bacon, TBD cheese

Third
Whole Red Snapper
JW Chicken
Swiss chard gratin
Kale & Malabar Spinach wilted greens

Dessert
Passion fruit coconut semifreddo

To Drink
Sparkling: Ca’del Bosco, Cuvée Prestige, Franciacorta, Italy NV
White: Vinosia, Falanghina, Campania, Italy 2010
Red: COS, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, Nero d’Avola & Frappato, Sicily, Italy 2008
Beer: Draft, upon request

Spotted pigs come in sandal form, too!

On Saturday night we welcomed April Bloomfield and her chef Peter Cho from The Breslin into our kitchen for Genuine Bloomfield, our Cayman Cookout dinner and main event on the rock this past week, hosted by Camana Bay.  It was a festive evening with special guests including Food & Wine Editor in Chief Dana Cowin, Anthony Bourdain, Sandra Ripert, chef Laurent Gras, and the Premier of Cayman Islands, Honorary McKeeva Bush, flanked by ministers and cabinet members, security in tow.  Guests enjoyed a menu of hors d’oeuvres, four delicious courses with wines from Austrian vintner Schloss Gobelsburg, and Hedy’s salted caramel peanut candies for a sweet finish.

Eric on quality control patrol, with the Italian Mule. It passed with flying colors.

We have one guest in particular to thank for a new specialty cocktail on the menu in Cayman today, and likely tomorrow in Miami — one Ottavia Bourdain and her penchant for Amaretto Di Saronno.  Our wily and ambitious Wine Director Eric Larkee took it upon himself to design a drink to pair with each course using this sweet, almond-flavored Italian liqueur made from an apricot base, so that Mrs. B did not feel left out as her dining companions received their sequence of new pours. Why Amaretto?

“Because I like the sweet taste, it doesn’t give me a hangover, and it has the added advantage of embarrassing my husband when I drink it throughout a meal,” Ottavia explained this morning from the Cayman airport waiting room. “[Eric] did very very well, particularly impressive because I’m told I’m a difficult woman. I loved the Italian Mule, the ginger gave it a spicy component I really enjoyed.”

Matched with the second course, pork shoulder with vegetable giardiniera, my favorite was the Italian Mule, as well. This exotic concoction gives the Russians a run for their money with a splash of la dolce vita in Hedy’s homemade Cayman ginger beer, an exotic brew accented with mint, vanilla bean, lemon, lime, peppercorns, lightly toasted cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise.

Lounging with the Eater crew, who also joined us for dinner on Saturday night.

Friday was the big day for prep, and the two chefs joined Thomas in the kitchen to cut wahoo, marinate chickpeas and lentils, crisp and fill crispelle with braised local rabbit, and roast pork shoulder till tender.  In the afternoon, Michael and Eric stopped by the Eater Lounge (read: two high tops and a bucket of Caybrew) around the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman pool.  When he got wind that Eric was toting along some piercing acidity in the form of Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling, one of the upcoming dinner’s wine pairings, Food & Wine’s Ray Isle popped by  to say hello (Eric is also featured in the magazine’s February issue offering pairings recommendations for seafood!)

7:00 p.m. on Saturday arrived fast and furious, as we welcomed more than 100 guests for Genuine Bloomfield. Here are our behind-the-scenes pictures of the memorable evening — from the kitchen prep and pre-dinner bell book signing, to finished dishes.

Bawk!!

Healthier Choice Eggs Farm is an all-natural poultry farm on-island that we visited Tuesday for the “Eggs” episode of Genuine Cayman.  Located in the district of East End, HCE was started by Caymanians Kevan and Donna Connolly in 2009, from an idea of wanting to do something with all the local, wild chickens that were in the yard.  1-day-old chicks are imported through assistance from the Cayman Islands Agriculture Department and raised on a diet of natural chicken feed mixed with various seeds and greens.  From that a poultry business was formed.

“I used to hate chickens! But turns out chickens saved my life,” explains Donna. “I started with 200 little fuzzy balls… Chickens  are not what people think they are, they are finicky! You lose some at first.  I lost 71 of the original 200. They have to be warm, no draft… It took months of research to find the best way to produce the best product.”

Healthier Choice Eggs are all natural, home grown, preservative free, hormone, free, steroid free and are always guaranteed fresh. They are farmed from a mix that took a while to master but produces a tastier egg which has a thicker egg white and a yolk which keeps its shape better and has a nice deep yellow color.  Chef Thomas is paired with Donna for Slow Food Day’s farmers market at The Grounds tasting, and will be presenting soft-scrambled farm eggs on garlic toast with grilled green onions and piave vecchio from the MGFD Cart.

Donna keeps mostly Red Sexlink (a cross between Leghorn and Rhode Island Red) and a few of the white variety. Brown chicken, brown egg; white chicken, white egg.  There are three well-ventilated, clean pens — a progression… You have the youngest chickens together, the teenagers in the middle and then the “old girls” last, which go to the slaughter house and make for a great locally- and humanely-raised bird.  Farmer Patrick Panton is taking a page from Donna’s book, too, and has begun a small poultry operation on his produce farm in Bodden Town, as well.  Thomas has sampled the chicken in the MGFD chicken and began buying it for the restaurant a few months ago. He’s been really pleased with the product so far.

“Right now I light the cages to trick them to keep egg production up in winter,” Donna explains. “Everything they do, they do in a pattern.  A chicken will lay an egg-a-day at their peak, as few as one every 3 days.”

Mr. Rooster holding court. Or so he thinks!

There are two roosters on the grounds, although we only traded power stares with one of them on our visit.  You’d think he keeps the hens in line, but Donna begs to differ.  ”You don’t need rooster for eggs,” she says. “We got self-sufficient women here!”

Production has been steady, and Donna’s customer base has grown to include individuals in the surrounding community, a gas station, and of course the farmers market at Camana bay.  Restaurants are next on the list.

“I’m thinking about ramping up and expanding,” she adds. ”I’ve got big plans.”

Healthier Choice Eggs poultry farm is located on Austin Conolly Drive in East End. Eggs can be purchased at Market at the Grounds on Saturday mornings in Savannah, every Wednesday at the weekly Farmer Market at Camana Bay and East End Texaco. Eggs can also be delivered by contacting Donna 925-7701 or emailing healthierchoiceeggs@gmail.com.  For photos of our farm visit, see this Flickr set.

Shooting Michael's new show, Genuine Cayman, this morning in Camana Bay.

As we’ve shared here before, Genuine Cayman was greenlit late last year with support from Cayman Islands Department of Toursim and Camana Bay, the mixed use town center in which MGFD Grand Cayman is located.  We’re shooting our second and third episodes (after last summer’s pilot with farmer Patrick Panton) with our producer Emma Gladstone while on-island this week for the Cayman Cookout, the kickoff of Culinary Month.

Hedy and Tamera chatting it up, talking pastry outside of Black Trumpet.

We’re focusing on eggs and lionfish first, and today is excursion day where we go out into the field to bang out the first part of each episode.  This morning we will head to the East End, about an hour’s drive from the Seven Mile Beach main tourism district, to meet Healthier Choice Eggs Farm’s Donna Connolly and her orange-egg-yolk-laying chickens.  Michael and Hedy are taking Tamera Clark along for the ride, the new pastry chef and manager of neighboring Black Trumpet Deli (where Hedy discovered Steven Smith Teamaker teas!)  Her baker Steve Henshaw goes through 15 dozen eggs every couple of days baking their own bread and even puff pastry in-house – a challenge on a humid island like Grand Cayman.  They want to check out Donna’s eggs and maybe switch from their current supplier to go more local and more natural. In the afternoon we’ll meet up with Jason Washington of Amabassador Divers to cull lionfish.  Newly Scuba dive-certified, as of last year’s Cayman Cookout, chef Jose Andres is joining us for that adventure, which I will document for Eater Miami.

PNS farm egg sandwich with house smoked pastrami, frisee, parsley & parsley aioli on a toasted la Parisienne mini brioche bun

This morning I popped by MGFD to shoot Hedy’s Lemon Meringue Pie in a Jar for an upcoming piece Gail Simmons is penning on 2012 dessert trends… and of course pastry sous chef Trew and line cooks Brad and Danny weren’t going to let me leave empty-handed — or stomached.  From time to time, I’ve happened upon Michael, chef de cuisine Bradley and the cooks making their own breakfasts of fried eggs with smoked meats of all sorts.  Now it was my turn, not to make, but to enjoy.  Line cook Brad asked if I had eaten breakfast – my brainwaves must have given me up – and the next thing I knew, the picture above happened.  Woahly cow.  I love my job!  Click Savory and Sweets & Things for today’s brunch menu and stop on by for dishes you too can devour, such as those below.

Trew slices molded Tcho dark chocolate for s'mores.

THE most delicious Spanish Tortilla we have had on the menu to date, in my opinion because of the amazing 2-week cured ham and the addition of slices raw brussels sprouts added to the batter, that melt like butter into the potatoes once cooked.