Confession: on my iPhone I carry around pictures of the dishes Stephanie Izard made when she was guest chef at Revolver Restaurant in Findlay, Ohio. These pictures liven my taste buds and take me back to that meal again and again, particularly her “shaved brussel sprouts with Carr Valley “cocoa Cardona” goat cheese, trumpet royale mushrooms, basil, lemon, maple syrup, and extra virgin olive oil.” (Yes, I saved the menu and am quoting from it.)
Saturday
May
18
From Plate to Palate, with Amanda McGuire : November 2009
It was at this dinner that Revolver’s chef/co-owner Michael Bulkowski and co-owner Debi Bulkowski introduced me to Steph. I felt like I already knew her and her food from Top Chef. But to actually meet the winner of one of my all-time reality TV shows was a bit mind-blowing. Thankfully, I played it cool. Steph, my husband Dan, and I chatted about her menu for the evening, and we picked Steph’s brain for restaurant recommendations in Chicago, her hometown. She enthusiastically gave us a top ten list.
Completely down-to-earth and humble, season four winner of Bravo TV’s Top Chef Competition, Steph is beyond a sweetheart; she’s a talented chef who cares about “From Farm to Table” practices. Her food is simple and elegant, robust and hearty. It’s food I want to eat every day, if I could.
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Stephanie Izard Interview, with Amanda McGuire
How has your life changed after winning Top Chef? How has it not?
[I] never used to have random people come up to me on the street so that took a bit of getting used to...it is fun! [I] get to meet tons of cool people. [I] also get to travel the country invading kitchens and cooking with amazing chefs. I think the biggest challenge is making sure parts of life do not change...family and friends still come first!
What advice can you give to home cooks who are just starting their food adventures and beginning to learn about food?
Experiment and have fun! There are so many resources now, from TV shows to cooking magazines and of course thousands of great cookbooks...just give things a try. And do not be afraid to switch up some ingredients in a recipe, it is an art after all and everyone’s tastes are different.
As viewers will see in your Tasty Life video, you have a soft spot in your heart for goats. Were goats the inspiration for your upcoming Chicago restaurant, The Drunken Goat? Tell us what we can expect from the menu at Drunken Goat.
The name of the restaurant actually stems from my last name, Izard, which is a type of goat that lives in the Pyrenees Mountains. But I do love goats!, especially goat cheeses. I have also just started working with goat meat a lot and when done right it is amazing! The new place is going to be very fun and casual with a rustic contemporary American menu; some finger foods, some small plates to share and some family style dishes. It is all about the experience... great food, good friends, tasty wines and beers and a fun atmosphere.
Here is Steph’s Blog Post of Her Experience at Prairie Fruits Farm
we recently took a trip down to prairie fruits farm in champaign, illinois. i have been a huge fan of their cheeses for the past few years, having tasted them at chicago's green city market. lesle cooperband, who owns the farm with her husband wes jarrell, was more than happy to have us out for an afternoon of cheese making and meeting the goats that make it possible.
the farm was beautiful and the cheese operation was very impressive. as leslie said to me while we were making cheese, 90% of the process is cleaning and sterilizing to make sure the final product is as high in quality as the milk they start with.
not only was i impressed with the cleanliness and the the tight ship they run, but also with the care they give to their goats. these goats all are genuinely happy. we spent a few minutes over by the baby goats who were just so excited to come and say hello and get a little TLC. i asked leslie if they were all running over because they thought we had food and she said no, they just want to say hello. so cute.
the highlight for me was of course getting to milk a goat. chippy was nice enough to be my first. three of my goals in life have been to milk a cow, hug a monkey and beat someone up (strange, i know, and i would never pick a fight for the last one, i just want to see if i could knock someone out). i figured milking a goat was much closer to a cow than i have ever been, so it was a start.
milking a goat definitely feels a little weird. i just did not want to hurt the goat although i am sure they are used to the whole thing. most of the milking is done by machine which is much more efficient, but i wanted to try it the old fashioned way. still want to try a cow at some point, but this satisfied me for now.
back in the creamery, we got to work with leslie and her assistant alisa and learn the steps of making cheese. first they start with fresh milk from the goats as well as fresh local sheep's milk. the milk is pasteurized in large tanks, then rennet is added and allowed to sit for about 45 minutes while curds and whey separate. i was able to join in on the action with cutting the cheese (ha) and ladling it into the moulds. having tasted many of the cheeses from their final states, it was very interesting to see the process and even to taste the cheese curds. it really is a science and i have a lot to learn.
looking forward to another trip back so i can learn more about the process and how they make the delicious cheeses that they do. plus, i can say hello to my new goat friends.
visit Prairie Fruits Farm for more information.
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Apart from obsessing about food and wine in Connotation Press and on her blog The Everyday Palate, Amanda McGuire also writes book reviews which have appeared in Fifth Wednesday Journal, Literary Magazine Review, and Mid-American Review. Her poems have appeared in Noon: Journal of the Short Poem, The Cream City Review, 27 rue de fleures, So To Speak, and other literary journals. She teaches at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.