Here Plantation House's Joel Walton and his fennel with chef Thomas.

On Saturday, farmers and chefs gathered at The Farmers Market at The Grounds to celebrate local foods for Grand Cayman’s first of many more Slow Food Days.   From chef Niven Patel of The Brasserie cooking farmer Patrick Panton’s all-natural chicken to smokey, jerky perfection in their Caboose, to the largest crowd I’ve seen turn up at The Grounds of supportive locals eager to taste the freshest products the island has to offer, it was a great day for the island. “I’ve seen this market for years, but never like this,” a seventh generation Caymanian woman pulled me aside to share. “This is Cayman.”

Line cook Richard on the all-important stuffing duty!

if things weren’t delicious enough in the morning, the celebration concluded back at Camana Bay with chef Jonathan Waxman’s farm-to-table dinner at Michael’s Genuine.  The family-style menu of dishes from his new cookbook, Italian, My Way, featured locally-sourced ingredients like lionfish, Thai eggplant, fennel, green onion, green tomato, chicken, bacon, and more — the show-stopper being what may be the best fish he has ever tasted.  2-pound yellow eye snappers were stuffed with parsley, green olives, and thick slices of lemon, and after a generous shower of extra-virgin olive oil, some Cayman sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper, roasted in the wood burning oven. The meat was as plump and juicy as I can remember a snapper being.

Secondi: whole roasted yellow eye snapper.

Click here for our photos of the entire day.  Huge thanks to Kerry Forbes from the Cayman Islands Agricultural Society and Alan Markoff of Slow Food South South for their partnership on the event, to his Excellency The Governor for championing local agriculture, and the generous support of our sponsors including Foster’s Food Fair, Camana Bay, Bon Vivant, Books & Books, Home Gas, BlackBeards, and Cayman Free Press.   And of course to the folks without whom this event would not have been possible, nor delicious: chefs Sara Mair (Ortanique,) Niven Patel (The Brasserie,) Paul Carroll (Hemingway’s,) Keith Griffin, and Thomas Tennant (MGFD,) and farmers Hamlin Stephenson (Hamlin’s Farm,) Joel Walton (Plantation House,) Donna Connolly (Healther Choice Eggs,) Paul Bodden (Old Brown Ranch,) and Patrick Panton (East End Garden.)  We will make all of their recipes available online later today in this post.

The Slow Food Day 2012 gang.

Thomas' sausage smells great!

Tonight Camana Bay hosts singer/songwriter John Legend for a concert on The Festival Green off the harbour, so MGFD Grand Cayman executive chef Thomas Tennant thought what better excuse then to roll out our food cart!  I popped into the kitchen last night to find everyone hard at work after my late bar meal of house salad with smoked yellowfin tuna and roasted local turnips, and our tuna tartare – a favorite Schwartz dish rarely seen on the menu at home.

Eddie's pigskins before & after (now ready for the frier.)

Apparently afterhours is when all the action takes place, namely prepping housemade pig products.   The first stage of chef de cuisine Eddie’s famous chicharron was in the turned-off oven drying out, a two-day trick that makes for the fluffiest skins I’ve ever tasted.  Thomas was filling natural pig casings with all sorts of sausage mixtures including one made from the restaurant’s pate, another of Jamaican jerk pork with allspice, as well as barbecue pork.  Merguez was on his to-do list, as well as hot dog - a more complicated preparation which according to Michael includes double grinding, freezing, and blending. I’m guessing the smaller, angel’s hair-like sheep’s intestine he was untangling was for the dogs.

"The world's most tangled shoelace!!" says Thomas.

Even if you don’t have tickets to tonight’s 7:00 p.m. concert, you can still patronize the MGFD Cart, which will be rolled on The Crescent in Camana Bay beginning at 5:00 p.m., hopefully with a shorter line!  I’ll be there to document the finished products, trying not to 86 our menu all by myself.  And, since meat in tube form without beer doesn’t really count, I recommend washing it all down with Schonramer, Gold Fest (Schonram, Germany 16.9 oz,) my favorite new beer now on our list here in Cayman.  Sign me up for a sippy cup!

The venue in the distance, from our apartment balcony. Michael thinks we should sell seats!

Waxy & Schwartzy, manning the oven. What a team!

After a barrel of laughs, a skillet or two of local Swiss chard gratin, and some “JW Chicken” manhandling at last night’s Barbuto Pizzeria with chef Jonathan Waxman, this morning we bring him along for the ride as we head to Grand Cayman for our first Slow Food Day - and some the beach time, of course.  See my behind-the-scenes photos here, and visit the live-of-this-morning Brown Paper Tickets page for Vetri Pizzeria.  Following Gabrielle Hamilton and Jonathan Waxman, the third dinner in our chef pop up series features James Beard Award-winning chef Marc Vetri flying south to share recipes from Rustic Italian Food, his new cookbook.  Enjoy a welcome cocktail, hors d’oeuvre, 4 courses, including a signed copy of the book, tax and gratuity for $160 all inclusive. Gotta run to the airport… More on what we’re up to on-island later, and thanks to everyone at Harry’s and MGFD who made Barbuto Pizzeria a great night!

Chef de Cuisine Bradley Herron's daily game plan.

Later today, Hedy, Michael, and Bradley plus the peanut gallery of yours truly and Ellie, will get our pork on as the strategy talks continue for our offerings at Cochon 555, coming to Miami for the first time on April 1. See New York’s recent winner here, and stay tuned to the competition’s website for the announcement of our competitors and ticket sales.

More Bradley game-planning...

Of course it’s only fair that, in honor of the more imminent pigskin faceoff known as the Super Bowl, we share our winning game day pork recipe for your use at home.  I tested this puppy, a new one from Bradley’s arsenal including past winners like Honeycrisp Apple Salad, and it is as easy to prepare as it is delicious.  I used a standard, but no less delicious, ground shoulder from Publix, but you could get fancy with heritage meat if you can find it, like we get for the restaurant from Jim Wood at Palmetto Creek Farms. Try your hand — two are preferable — for a mid-game meal this Superbowl Sunday, and let us know what you think and send us a photo.  Mine was gone before I could snap one!

Super Porkwich
by Chef de Cuisine Bradley Herron, Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink

Makes 4 sandwiches 

1 pound ground pork (shoulder meat, for its fattiness)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon fennel seed, crushed
2 teaspoons chili flake
Kosher salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
1/2 a fennel bulb, shaved thin
2 cups of arugula
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons capers
4 Kaiser rolls, split and toasted

Back to the Future: Right, Hedy's winning Strawberry Basil Panna Cotta from 2010, and left, Adriana's winning Lemon Passion Fruit Meringue Pie from Saturday night's event.

For the second time in three years participating in the Taste of Cayman food festival at Camana Bay, Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink has won best dessert by the judges, this time with Lemon Passion Fruit Meringue Pie.

Beth setting up the sweet station, with Adriana torching her soon-to-be winning meringues in the back! (photo credit to TGHG Director of Operations, Mr. Charles Bell!)

According to pastry chef Adriana Duran, the game plan was to offer a dessert that embodies what the Caribbean means to her – fruits and freshness.  Combining the tartness and acidity of lemon and passion fruit with graham crumbs and a thin white chocolate layer in the middle, topped off by smooth meringue was the right mix.

“I got the proposal to Hedy, she liked the idea and we just worked on it,” Adriana explains. “I guess that since the beginning I felt that we could win with this dessert.  Everything played a role, from its simplicity but bold ingredients, to the nice presentation.  My belief is that when you like what you do and you put enthusiasm and love into what you cook, you are one step ahead.”

Amen, Adriana!  For manager Beth Clarke’s photos from the event, including executive chef Thomas Tennant’s captivating lionfish chowder recipe demo, visit her Flickr set here.

What will Eric pull out of his hat next?

Update: See Ellie’s documentation of the magical meal – including a live magic act performance – here!

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.

Here’s how many of these items arrived to the table last week! We’ve got golden heirloom tomato chutney with the Selles-sur-Cher, a fregola, orange, and radish salad with the African Pompano, and housemade organic ricotta with meyer lemon jam. Heard that food porn Monday!

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.