The folks at Cuisine Unlimited have catered Salt Lake magazine’s annual Dining Awards extravaganza the last couple of years—giving us a gorgeous setup, great food an tterrific service at the event, held at UMFA.

So we are glad to see that Inc. Magazine just unveiled the Inc 5000— its Fourth Annual Exclusive List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies—and that Cu9isine Unlimited is on the list. (Along with 78 other Utah companies.)

And it’s good company—music website Pandora, 7-Eleven, Brooklyn Brewery and Radio Flyer ( yes, the wagon-maker) are all on the list, too. A great achievement in this economy.

Congratulations, Maxine Turner et al! 

Friday night in the thunderstorm we drove out to Tooele. Yes, Tooele. To eat.

Word had reached me of a little restaurant on Main Street called Sostanza that was serving food way beyond its geographical expectations–having recently eaten my way through Utah’s small towns and sampled food at more than anyone’s share of so-called “homemade” cooking, I was intrigued by the mention of fennel oil and daikon sprouts on the menu.

Some questionable kitchen decisions: the shrimp riding the red gnocchi (above: roasted red pepper pesto, artichoke hearts and spinach leaves mixed with the dumplings) were lightly fried—they should have been grilled, broiled or boiled. But six out of eight appetizers were fried, too, so I suspect that frequent frying is part of the bridge from culinary theory to practice.

Chef Steven Berzansky learned to cook in a Navy-sponsored program run by Johnson & Wales, the esteemed culinary academy in Rhode Island. But he’s cooking for small town Utah. The menu is an apparently idiosyncratic list of dishes, some that match the Italianesque name, like lasagne, bruschetta and steak, others only pasta by association, like soba noodles topped with shredded beets, and some straight from the American canon, like pineapple upside-down cake. We tasted bits of all parts with glasses of prosecco and a Pugliese red, served by a friendly and competent but somewhat theatrical server, who referred to the two of us as “we.” As in, “Are we ready to order?”

The Diing Companion  ordered the soba-beet dish, I ordered the red gnocchi and we split the brined chicken and the upside- down cake.

Okay, Sostanza is not a great restaurant, but it deserves far more praise than the underhanded “best restaurant in Tooele.”

It has heart—one of the owners, Spiros Makris, was on hand, greeting guests. And soul— Chef and his staff are enthusiastic, industrious and on the cutting edge of the food revolution in geographic terms, the far edge where most chefs would fear to go. It’s the kind of place that makes me cheer.
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Saturday was the Fall Festival—Aki Matsuri—celebration in what’s left of Salt Lake City’s Japantown, at the Church of Christ.  I’m not sure how the holiday is celebrated in Japan; in Salt Lake City, it is celebrated with face-painting and a bounce house for kids, a choral singing of Amazing Grace in Japanese, a raffle, a craft fair, an awesome drum concert and some great Japanese food—gyoza cooked to order and premade sushi.
Sunday was a day of judgment in Park City; I helped judge the St. Regis Chef’s Challenge at the Park Silly Sunday Market.

Michael Le Clerc of 350 Main

was cooking against Seth Adams of Riverhorse on Main,

using a pantry of ingredients  pulled by the J&G Grill kitchen at the St.Regis—including tai snapper, filet mignon, tiger shrimp, passion fruit puree, baby fennel, shallots, asparagus, mitake mushrooms, fresh corn, red cipollini onions, carrots, peaches, plums, fingerling potatoes, salad greens, and assorted fresh herbs including basil and chervil.

While the chefs and their audince volunteer sous chefs chopped and sauteed, the audience asked questions and nibbled appetizers—beet and chevre on a kettle chip and white bean mousse tarts.

The challenge: to create 3 plates and 1 drink in 45 minutes. food. Chef Michael presented a Peruvian shrimp ceviche with corn, lime, asparagus and fennel; a Mediterranean-style Tai snapper crusted in herbes de Provence with basil vinaigrette and goat cheese; tournedos of filet with peppercorn glaze, mitake mushrooms and buerre noisette; and a melon smoothie with a splash of white
wine, garnished with marinated peaches and vanilla powder.

Chef Seth offered up seared filet with mitake mushrooms, seasoned with horseradish and a chipotle pan sauce accompanied by fresh corn-asparagus succotash and fingerling potatoes; pistachio-crusted Tai snapper topped with caramelized plum and crystallized ginger sauce; and a green salad with shrimp, goat cheese and olives finished with a fresh avocado dressing. His drink creation was a passion fruit and summer melon smoothie made with white wine and yogurt, garnished with fresh peach.

In the end, everyone was a winner, as they say: Le Clerc’s drink and beef beat Adams’ dishes; Adams’ snapper and shrimp got the judges’ nod over LeClerc”s vrersions.

As a semi-pro, several things stood out: the effectiveness of a classic buerre noisette to deepen flavor, the use of powdered vanilla to enrich a gentle fruit flavor, the versatility of the ancient dish called succotash, not to mention the coolness of the word,  and the apparently bottomless appetite of the American public for cooking as a spectator sport. Good times.

It’s not even noon on Sunday and I’ve already learned something.

I’m sure a lot of my more learned wine friends already know this bit, but for all you newbiew and amateurs, take a look.

Now that I don’t keep a corkscrew in my purse, because I’m always having to give them up at the airport security line because I forget that the foil-cutter can be seen as a threat tto the homeland, I find myself without a wine opening tool more often than I used to. Thank the lord for screwcaps. But this could also be useful. Although I often wear clogs…

Watch carefully.

End of summer signals fair season, a time of dubious but locally cherished merriment.

In Texas, where I come from, the big news this time of year is what they’re going to fry this time. In the past, Twinkies, oreos, snickers bars and even Coke have all been battered and fried. This year, I hear iit’s fried beer. Yes, you do need an ID to buy it.

The Utah State Fair is a week away  It’s not a huge event, and, I maintain, not a s culturally significant (after all, the corn(y) dog was invented at the State Fair of Texas)  But both fairs, like all fairs are the culinary common denominators’ time to revel.

And this year’s ads for the Utah State Fair really ramp up the anticipation—so oddly edgy that—USA TOday picked the spots to feature in the PopCandy section. Take a look:  Utah state fair ads. And more..

The Downtown Farmers Market at Ancestor Square, St. George kicks off tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. to noon.

Vendors sell basically anything and everything homegrown, homemade and locally produced—kind of like its counterpart in SLC. So, if you’re planning to head south for the weekend, stop by.

The market runs weekly, every Saturday, until Oct. 31 with live music on the center stage from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

Ancestor Square is located at the corner of St. George Boulevard and Main Street. Free and open to the public.

Click here for more info.

Today they say I’ll be able to see again, so the weekend will be joyful, joyful.

What am I going to do?
1. Eat al fresco. This is the sublime time to eat outside; hot days make cool nights even better. Favorite outdoor patios right now: Kimi’s Mountainside Bistro at Solitude. Right at the foot of the ski slope, a green hill in the summer, with a fireplace in the middle of the table in case the evening gets chilly, a good chance of sighting grazing moose while you dine, and a menu that includes some fantastic dishes like this grilled salmon on greens with nuts, dried fruits and goat cheese.

2. Go see Lion King . The groundbreaking musical has breathtaking costumes and puppets designed by the brilliant Julie Taymor, which by themselves I expect to be worth the ticket price. I’ve wanted to see it forever

If you take your tickets or receipt with you and dine at Faustina before the show, you’ll get a free appetizer. Like a mini lobster pot pie, king crab in gazpacho, chicken pillow pastry, polenta and short rib…

Sunday, I’ll be judging at the Park Silly Sunday Market St. Regis

3. Sunday I’ll be judging the St. Regis Chef’s Competition at Park Silly Sunday Market, starting around 1 on lower Main Street. Come see me! I’ll be able to see your!

In a way, chefs are competing every night.

A pro chef manipulates dozens of variables—including a limited supply of ingredients, an unknown number of customers ordering an unknown number and type of dishes, a given number of tables to be turned an optimum number of times during a single evening—with the prize of ending up in the black with a reputation for good food and service. Oh, and somehow accounting for the current mysterious public perception of hip.

At any rate, chefs seem to thrive on this kind of pressure and tend to be highly competitive people. Add the American public’s obsession with food to this willingness to fight and it’s no wonder that chef competitions have become such a  popular spectator sport.

This weekend, Park Silly Sunday Market‘s chef competition pits Chef Michael LeClerc, Executive Chef and Owner of 350 Main Brasserie here against Chef Seth Adams, Executive Chef at Riverhorse on Main. And although we keep hearing about how Park City’s Main Street restaurant scene is fading, this competition is a reminder that there is still plenty of culinary starpower here.

I can’t wait to see what they cook up.

Yes, I’m one of the judges and I have to say this is one of the best parts of my much-envied, little-understood job. The down side is obvious: there are more bad restaurants than good restaurants out there and I have to eat at all of them.

But cooking competitions feature the best and the brightest chefs, and encourages them to work at the height of their culinary ability and imagination. For onee, they don’t have to worry about pleasing the public’s palate at a price that pumps up the bottom line. They just have to cook the best, most inventive, most exciting, beautiful and satisfying food possible, The goal is to thrill the palate of just  two ro three people.

One of them being me!
Come join the fun at Park Silly Sunday Market this weekend. We’ll be on the Main Stage on lower Main Street. starting at 1.

Editor’s Note: Publisher Margaret Mary Shuff checks in on an SLmag hall-of-famer; and likes what she sees, hears …and tastes:

I don’t know what it is, the action, the crowd, the bustling waiters, the host always at attention?

…But Cucina Toscana makes me feel like I am in a very cosmopolitan city.

Avalone mushroms sliced razor thin over medallions of veal in a demiglace; steaming spaghetti with a  fresh pomodora tomato sauce over a bed of freshly grated parmesan; Caesar salad made from crunchy romaine and a dressing of virgin olive oil, anchovies, mustard, capers, lemon juice and fresh-quartered figs drizzled with sweetened balsamic.

Hungry yet?

This is just a teaser of the flavors to be found at Cucina Toscana.

Salads prepared tableside; huge casseroles of piping hot food dished out in front of salivating patrons; creamy hot chocolate made from 12 different varieties; biscotti on the side and homemade gelato to die for.

I can’t stop talking about the food. It’s seductive and exciting to dine in a place where the customer is king and the the food is fit for one.

The last five days or so have been a blur.

Literally, a blur. I had eye surgery last Thursday—a weird procedure that wasn’t Lasik or cataracts—and I haven’t been able to see clearly since. I have these “bandage contacts” on my yes that throw everything out of focus.

Can’t drive, can’t read, can only type if I set my font size at 24.

That’s left nothing for my brain to feed on except itself. And left to itself, my brain thinks about food.

So, here’s a list of the top five topics my brain’s been chewing on, randomly. Blilndly, you might say…

1. Synesthesia. That’s a “neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway” Here’s an easy explanation for kids. Or maybe the illustration will help you understand…My husband says that 4 is red and 5is blue and they are best friends. I used to have a reviewing buddy who claimed he couldn’t taste the food if the restaurant was too loud. So I’m wondering, is it the trauma of the surgery that’s caused my lack of appetite or is it that I can’t taste because I can’t see the food well, therefore food is unappealing? Discuss. (note: the explanatory picture is not intended to represent my husband’s brain.)

2. Does Paula Deen really put mayonnaise in every single recipe she makes? For some reason, her show is always on when I’m at the eye doctor’s office so I have had the chance (that is, been forced) to experience a TV show that America loves and I’ve never seen before. And so far, I haven’t seen her make one single thing that didn’t call for a decent-sized dollop of commercial mayo. Comments?

3. Salt Lakers love Thai curry. They love Indian curry. So why is Kimi’s at Solitude the only place in SLC I’ve been offered Indonesian curry? The fragrantly seasoned beef Africaan comes over rice with a dish of chopped scallions, mandarin oranges and banana slices to add as you please. It’s fun, delicious and—I suspect—easy on the kitchen budget.

4. What do you think they did with those  500 million eggs??  One large egg is equal to about 1/4 cup. You do the math if you want to, but I’m going to jump straight to the conclusion: no more factory-farmed eggs. Buy local, buy organic. When it comes to eggs, that means Clifford Family Farms to me.
Any others?

5. Finally, a piece of news that gave my brain real fodder: how cool is it that our own Downtown Farmers Market gets national ink along with the big guys like renowned food destinations Austin, Charleston, Portland, etc. Salt Lake City is rapidly becoming a true food town.  Congrats to the Market vendors! Congrats to the Downtown Alliance! Congrats to Utahns good taste!

Editor’s Note: Publisher Margaret Mary Shuff is a veteran of the Wasatch (Front and Back) dining scene. Here she recalls recent dining discoveries (and re-discoveries) from both.

Salt Lake

Hungry for Chinese food, three of us headed to the Hong Kong Tea House in downtown Salt Lake for dinner this week.

(Courtesy: your heart out)

Word on the street was it was really good but at 6 p.m. only one other table was occupied.

A tad concerned, we ordered anyway.

After a while the Dim Sum platter arrived, steaming hot and delicious but absent a dipping sauce of any sort, we settled for everyday soy sauce.

Still hungry, and with our taste buds now wide awake, our threesome ordered fresh pork fried rice, beef short ribs with black pepper, shrimp with locally grown pea pods and and a chicken chow mein.

Presented on a lazy susan, every bite was a treat and we ate until stuffed.

By then the restaurant was full, affirming the truth of the many Salt Lake magazine awards hanging on their walls acclaiming ‘HONG KONG TEAHOUSE, BEST CHINESE.’

This restaurant is deserving of this prestigious award.

Check it out for yourself.

Park City

Searching for a quiet lunch place in Park City to meet and eat, we headed to Spruce Thursday in the middle of a raging rainstorm.

Located in the Waldorf Astoria at The Canyons, the portico and the helpful valets kept us dry.

Although San Francisco-based, Spruce has a sophisticated and elegant mountain ambiance; the lunch menu has a stick-to-your-ribs food selection.

The watermelon salad with a tad of arugala and feta cheese was a good palate cleanser.

It was followed by short rib chili and corn bread, a boudin blanc (a light and delicious sausage) over sauerkraut and braised apples and a french omelet over a bed of fresh, sauteed spinach topped with a slice of creamy cheese.

We had a taste of each plate, confirming them all delicious.

(or there’s always the soup)

And then as if not satiated, we shared a plate of made to order cookies; double-chocolate, chocolate chip and a best-ever oatmeal cookie.

No matter the weather you must give Spruce a try. It’s a great respite in the middle of a workday in the middle of the mountains.