Taste of the Nation is a good taste of Charlotte

Who can keep up with all the great restaurants opening up around town? The annual April fundraiser Taste of the Nation is like a big crib sheet, a chance to get a taste and a feel for a place.

I've been one of the judges wandering around with clipboards several times over the years and it's always an eye-opener to see which young chef really puts in an effort and takes chances. If there's a new ingredient or a new method, somebody will try it. I had my first bite of seared pork belly and my first sous vide egg there.

Of course, that makes it sound more high-faluting than it is. If you just want to get a couple of drinks, eat some good bites of food and hang out with friends, you can do that too.

And the ultimate reason, either way, is to raise money to raise money for Share Our Strength and the fight against childhood hunger. That's really what Taste of the Nation is about.

This year's Charlotte edition of Taste of the Nation is 7-10 p.m. next Wednesday (April 11) at the Wells Fargo atrium. Regular tickets are $85, although if crowds aren't your thing, you can get a VIP ticket for $100 that gives you entry into a quieter seating area and an hour to peruse the food before the main doors open.

This year's restaurants: Amelie's, American Roadside Burgers, Brixx, Central Piedmont Community College (they always do something over the top for their chocolate display), Chima, E2, Electrolux, Enso, Fern, Flatiron, Gallery at Ballantyne, Halcyon, LaVecchia's, Mama Ricotta's, Mert's, Mimosa Grill, Queen City Q, Rocky River Grille, Savannah Red, Upstream, Vida Cantina, Village Tavern, Vivace, Whole Foods, Wolfgang Puck's Pizza Bar, and Zink American Kitchen.

Need details or tickets? www.charlottetasteofthenation.com or call 704-376-1785.

Taste of the Nation is a taste of now

The men in the white coats came to take me away Wednesday night. About time, right?

It was my annual stint judging Taste of the Nation, the annual hunger-relief fundraiser at the Wells Fargo atrium. For most attendees, it's a real eat-drink-and-tarry event. For me, it's a annual spin around the room with chefs in white coats. I'm always placed on a judging team with a couple of chefs, which is always enlightening, and the chefs who are representing their restaurants are competing to top each other. Also enlightening.

I almost always pick up a trend or notice something new. That's the first place I had seared pork belly, long before it became a fine-food cliche. Another year, chef-instructor Joe Bonaparte led students at the Art Institute table to produce pig head. Not a crowd-pleaser, maybe, but impressive.

This year? One of the winning dishes was The Gallery At Ballantyne's chicken pate (it's in the bottom picture): Softly cooked balls of Baucom's Best chicken rolled in pecans and local honey and served in a little pool of sauce made from Junior Johnson's cherry moonshine. Clever, but also wonderfully delicious. Another winner was the ceviche sushi from Enso, which also had an eye-catching display involving an ice table with their logo.

Other great dishes: Gene Briggs at Blue did a beautifully cooked short-rib tagine with ginger chickpea puree and Marcona almonds, and Mimosa served a hollowed-out hush puppy filled with a spicy seafood sauce. The picture at the top is coconut shrimp ceviche from Vida Cantina, which also had subtly spiced pork carnitas served on corn tortillas from a local tortilleria. Nice touch.

But here's what grabbed my attention. I was judging with AI instructor Mark Martin and CPCC instructor Pamela Robertson. At one table, I struggled to scribble down the dish name, which was one of those typical chef mouthfuls: Braised something something with a fennel puree something and a rhubarb something else. I whined to Martin, "why can't chefs name a dish without including everything down to the detergent they used in the dishwasher?" He laughed and agreed. Robertson chimed in thoughtfully, "That's changing though. Simpler is the way to go."

A few tables later, we encountered the perfect example. At Ember Grille's table, they were using eye-catching, two-sided bowls to serve a poached local farm egg topped with a crisp sheet of pancetta sliced as thin as paper, a Parmesan truffle vinaigrette and a finger-long strip of brioche.

Gutsy move: Cooking perfectly poached eggs for hundreds of people at a folding table takes courage -- and a water circulator. Basically, it was a sous vide egg, brought up to a precise temperature so each one was perfect. When we tasted it, using spoons to break the pancetta so it fell into the egg, we were all silent for a minute, just admiring. It was simple, it was elegant, it let the egg and the hint of bacon shine. The softness of the egg and the crispness of the circle of pancetta brought texture.

Nicely done, chefs. When you keep it simple, food shines.

Food calendar: Don't miss the Hmong egg rolls

Get out your calendars and scribble these down:

• Saturday (that's tomorrow): The Matthews Community Farmers Market reopens for the season. And for forever -- the winter market was such a success, they're going year-round. Address, hours and more details: www.matthewsfarmersmarket.com.

• Also Saturday (that's still tomorrow): The Davidson Farmers Market opens for the season, from 8 a.m.- noon in the space next to the Davidson Town Hall, between Main and Jackson streets. Details on vendors and special events: http://davidsonfarmersmarket.org/.


• Wednesday, April 13: Taste of the Nation, the annual Share Our Strength fundraiser to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina and Community Culinary School of Charlotte. Features small plates (some of them are pretty big) from a bunch of Charlotte-area chefs, plus entertainment, drinks and a silent auction. 7-10 p.m. in The Wells Fargo Atrium at MLK Boulevard and South Tryon uptown; tickets are $85 and parking is free in the parking deck off MLK. Details: http://www.charlottetasteofthenation.com/.


• April 16: The First Hmong United Methodist Church Egg Roll Sale, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Kilgo United Methodist Church, 2101 Belvedere Ave. Egg rolls made by the Hmong women's group are $10 for a dozen or $5 for six. Walk-ins are welcome, but pre-orders are appreciated. Call Xia Her at 704-953-8650.


• April 30: Slow Food Charlotte event with winemaker Tony Coturri. 6-10 p.m. at the Atherton Market in SouthEnd. Features chefs making local-food pairings to match Coturri's organic wines. Tickets are $50, must be purchased in advance, and benefit the Slow Food Charlotte Farmers Fund, which brings continuing education to the sustainable farming community. E-mail pecanlanefarm@gmail.com for tickets.

Taste of the Nation, Charlotte edition

I reported for duty at the Wachovia/Wells Fargo Atrium on Wednesday night for my semi-yearly stint as a judge for Taste of the Nation, the annual restaurant event that raises money to fight childhood hunger.

This year, I had a slightly different assignment: Besides eating and deciding which of two dozen restaurants got the six awards (2 for hot food, 2 for cold food, 2 for presentation), I also was attempting to Twitter live while taking pictures and notes for today's blog. That meant juggling clipboard, pen, forks, small plates, Blackberry and cohesive thoughts. When can I expect to evolve a couple more hands, Mr. Darwin?

I looked at it as a practice run for the May 2/3 James Beard Foundation Awards events in New York. My Raleigh News & Observer compatriot, Andrea Weigl, and I both are going, and we're both planning to Tweet live from two food-heavy food awards events.

How'd it go this time? I need to add my reading glasses to the above list of juggled items. Looking back over my Tweets this morning, I saw that I raved (justifiably so) about Mez' amazing miso-cured black cod, but dropped the word "cod." And my spelling of raspberry would have gotten me drummed out of third grade.

Anyway, here's a roundup of highlights. Overall, I have to say Charlotte chefs are pushing themselves hard. When the Taste of the Nation food is good, it is very good. The six judges had the longest debate we've ever had to settle on the winners.

I'm editing the dish names for brevity - chefs love to include every ingredient. We mere mortals just need the basic idea:

Winners

Cold dish: Gallery at Ballantyne, for duck confit with hazelnut brittle and pickled ramps, and Upstream for a tender ahi tuna wrap with hearts of palm.

Hot dish: Mez, for that amazing miso-marinated black cod, and Mimosa for a many-layered plate of seared diver scallop over a house-made agnolotti (like ravioli) filled with shredded pork belly and fava puree in a pool of lime-flavored sauce.

Presentation: Gallery (left), for a cool display of layered mango panna cottas and the duck confit served in eco-friendly bamboo, and 131 Main, for butter-poached lobster, seared tuna pops and accompanying sauces served in celled "boats" that looked like those paper cooty catchers we used to make as kids.

Highlights:

• That deft and sophisticated marinated black cod from Mez. It was marinated for 48 hours in mirin, soy sauce, sake, brown sugar and miso paste. If it had gone 49 hours, I think it would have been mush. But it was perfect, with a texture that was like fish made of silk.
• The pork belly lettuce wrap from Embers at the Westin. Hot, cold, sweet, spicy. Props for making their own kimchee and chile paste.


• The cute lineup from Art Institute (right): A choice of three tiny sandwiches (bacon, pulled pork or seared tuna) served with a small shooter of their own bitter ale. Everything was made by students, including curing the bacon, baking the breads and brewing the ale. Nice.

Personal favorite:

When French chef Jean-Pierre Marechal of Savannah Red was explaining his dessert, raspberry goat cheese ice cream on a black pepper tuille. "It is eunuch," he assured me. Come again? Oh - unique. That's a relief.

Downlight:

Restaurants that fall back on dishing up steam-table pastas with creamy sauces. Not only will it just be gummy pasta, people don't buy $60 tickets to eat something that tastes like it came from a bag labeled "Bertolli." It's an event - push yourself a little.

Y'all come: Taste of the Nation, CPCC Literary Festival

Two events in two days:

I'll be a judge tonight at the annual Taste of the Nation (yes, it is a rough job - thanks for your sympathy). If you're looking for a fun food event, this is a great way to spend an evening and raise money to fight childhood hunger. Tickets at the door are $60, or $85 for a VIP ticket that gets you to the food tables earlier. For the money, you get live music, beer, wine and spirits, an auction, and samples of food from a couple of dozen restaurants.

Thursday night should bring a lively discussion at Litfest 2010, part of the Sensoria Celebration of the Arts at Central Piedmont Community College. "Communicating Your Hunger" is a panel discussion at 7 p.m. in the Culinary Arts Building on the central campus. (That's the spiffy new brick building with the columns at the corner of 7th Street and South Kings Drive. There's free parking in the Employee Theater parking deck, or look for the signs.)

Amy Rogers of Novello Press, Charles Jenkins of WBT and I will talk about blogging and social media, trends in cookbooks and food writing, ethics of restaurant reviewing, and using food to explore family heritage. But it's a Q&A format, so I suspect the talk will be more free-ranging than that. Come and bring lots of questions. Tickets are free, and it starts at 6 p.m. with a reception. The panel discussion kicks off at 7 p.m.

Details: http://sensoria.cpcc.edu

Food calendar: Make sure you have these on the list

Coming up:

How's this for the perfect name for a chef? Patrick Maisonhaute. Maisonhaute is executive chef at The Eseeola Lodge at the Linville Golf Resort, the featured restaurant for Wednesday's annual Taste of the New South, the fundraiser for the Levine Museum of the New South. Tickets are $85 for Levine members and $100 for nonmembers. Call the Levine, 704-333-1887, for details.

It's not too late to get a ticket for Taste of the Nation, 7-10 p.m. April 14 at The Atrium in uptown Charlotte. Tickets are $60 ($85 for a VIP ticket that gets you to the restaurant tables an hour earlier). For that, you'll get food samples from more than 20 local restaurants, from 131 Main to The Liberty. You also get wine and beer, a mixologist's table, live and silent auctions and live music. It all raises money for the childhood-hunger organization Share Our Strength. Tickets and details: charlottetasteofthenation.com.

Breakfast: It's not just for cupcakes anymore. Polka Dot Bake Shop, 1730 E. Woodlawn, has added muffins to the lineup and is now open for breakfast. If you need a muffin fix, the shop now opens at 7:30 a.m. Muffins are $2.50 each; flavors include sweet potato cream cheese, lemon poppyseed, blueberry streusel and bran.

Beer Week, cooking classes and more

Get out your calendars and scribble these down. Or click and drag them. Or do whatever you Mac users do:

• Foam fans, the first Charlotte Craft Beer Week is coming March 18-28 (yes, that's more than a week, but they're very excited). It starts from 7-9 p.m. March 18 with a Tap the Keg reception at Rock Bottom Brewery and continues with events all over the city. Get the full schedule here. Personally, I'm dying to know more about Freak Fest at Common Market. Isn't that usually held every Friday night?
• Taste of the Nation isn't April 14 (7-10 p.m., in The Atrium uptown), but if you buy a ticket in February, you get a $10 discount off the ticket price of $60 or $85 for VIP. Go to charlottetasteofthenation.com and enter the code "TASTECLT" in the promotional code field. This year's event features 25 restaurants, plus a mixologist event, silent auction and live music. Money raised goes to Share Our Strength to work toward ending childhood hunger in Charlotte. Details: 704-334-6134.
• Cooking Uptown, 1707 E. 7th St., will bring back Thursday evening classes in March. Owner Karen Cooley also has her lineup of April classes, and she's added a Lebanese class for March 20. Go to cookinguptown.com for the schedule.
• Heidi Billotto will teach a special Chef's Choice class at Johnson & Wales from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Feb. 20. The theme is "Easy and Elegant Dinner Party for Four," and the cost is $140. She also has Saturday morning classes through February at Reid's Fine Foods. Go here to register for the JWU class; go here for Reids.