TRAVEL: MINGLING AND MUNCHING AT THE CHEF'S GARDEN

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Jeni and Farmer Lee Jones—united once again at the Chef's Garden

Another year at the Chef’s Garden in celebration and support of Veggie U. Each year some of the most talented chefs come to the outskirts of Lake Erie, to cook for and mingle with a few hundred party guests who are there to imbibe the latest wines and sample the latest flavors.

Some of our good friends always meet us or come along from Columbus. This year our friend, the photographer George Lange came in from New York just for the event, which raises money for Veggie U, a fantastic program that teaches kids how to grow real food and cultivate healthful diets.

We were filled with so much inspiration from Farmer Lee Jones and the whole Veggie U family during a pre-party tour of the farm. Our day began with tastes of tiny shoots of herbs and assorted greens. My favorite was the tiny baby hyssop, or maybe the world’s smallest basil or the wasabi-flavored leaf that was the size of a pinky nail yet packed such wallop. George and I shared an "A-ha!" moment during the tour as we stood before the edible flowers. We decided that from then on, we would eat everything the hummingbirds were eating because everything those beauties eat—we learned—is always the sweetest thing around. Naturally.

As the party began more than one notable chef was wanderin' about again. It's always a pleasure to see and talk with people I read about in magazines or run into at other events. One such person is Bob Waggoner who until recently I had never taken the time (shame on me) to Google. Upon doing so I learned that he was the first Michelin starred American chef in France—at 26-years-old no less.

Bob is such a passionate and personable guy, the right guy, no doubt, for a new PBS show in the works where he travels around and hangs with all the top chefs in the country still slaving away during the grueling 15-hour kitchen shifts that Bob knows so well. I am excited to DiVo the show and become a regular viewer.

One of my favorite shows in the old days was Great Chefs—Great Cities. I can still sing the jingle in my head. There was almost no talking and just a handheld camera over the chef in their kitchen making their signature dishes. I would sit with my notepad and scribble down the recipes and found after many tries at things like quail and marmalade that the chefs usually had omitted some key ingredient. I didn't mind because the trial and error only helped me learn more about cooking. I love shows that spend time with chefs exploring regional cuisine. I think we can expect more of that from Bob on his new program.

Martha Hall Foose was there this year, too, and lucky for us. She is gorgeous, has at least two really great dresses, a smile that lit up the party and a James Beard award. I had heard of her book, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, but now that I own it, my mom and I are going to make our way through it recipe by recipe. We started with the egg salad on tonight’s dinner plates (my mom makes us dinner so that we can work more).

Martha shared stories with me about her recipe for orange sherbet, which looked very pretty. (The images of her easy-on-the-eyes, wood-slatted White Mountain ice and rock salt machines in her book made me a little sad when I thought about the metal and plastic Cuisinarts we used for the recipes in our upcoming book.) I will get back to you on our favorite recipes from her book. For the record, fried chicken is going to happen soon, followed shortly by Chinese Grocery Roast Pork also. If you are like me and want cookbooks to take you somewhere, get your hands on this book. You will not want to put it down. Her writing is luscious and it brings the South to life.

I was so pleased to meet Martha who also gave me a bit of insight on what a book tour is like. I'm not sure if next summer I will facing 60 cities in 90 days as Martha did, but from the sound of it I think I need to start preparing immediately.

Another attendant was New York City chef Wayne Nish. We had a nice conversation about our ice cream and it was very nice to watch a top American chef eat too much of our ice cream. Nice guy too boot—a nice guy with some nice jeans, I might add.

Chef Bradford Thompson was there helping Farmer Lee Jones and representing the children's anti-hunger group Share Our Strength. Bradford was one of two Food & Wine's recent Rising Chefs at the event (as well as another James Beard Award winner) and also, I'm happy to report, was eating a little too much ice cream. I hope that I get to work with him again. Between sentences I've just contributed to his very worthy Share Our Strength cause at the SOS Web site.

Some good, good friends of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in attendance included Jean Mackenzie (Mackenize Creamery near Cleveland), Slow Food Columbus' Bethia Woolf and Colleen Braumoeller and Jonathon Sawyer from Cleveland's Greenhouse Tavern.

First off, it’s hard to believe we met Jean Mackenzie only last year at the Veggie U event and ever since her splendid goat cheese has flavored our Goat Cheese with Roasted Red Cherries. Delovely. 

Second: YAY! I loved seeing Bethia Wolf and Colleen from Slow Foods Columbus up there. Love to see the Columbus scene represented! Lucky us! It was great to hang out!

  

To Mr. Sawyer: congrats on the Food & Wine Rising Chef award this year! WHOOT! (And a great cover photo, by the way.) It was great to see you and your family and restaurant family.

If you haven’t been to the Greenhouse Tavern, get up there. You will love it. But make sure to stay the night within walking distance of the place because you will want to drink too much. The bartenders are creative and given freedom to play.

As for the food, Jonathon and the team at the Greenhouse Tavern is committed beyond decency to sensual deliciousness. The "nose-to-tail" thing he does is off the hook. He does it right, and I think he has some very good peeps that have made and drunk the collectively created Kool-Aid (or in their case maybe it's sour beer). His restaurant defies the usual mom-and-pop thing. He is a very energetic, inspirational person and his whole team completely supports his vision completely, which yields impeccable and very detailed service.

New friends by way of Veggie U and the Chef's Garden include Brian Schlatter of Canal JunctionFarmstead Cheese. Brian makes exquisite grass-fed, raw-milk cheeses and though they were barely holding on in the heat of the day Saturday they were still really delicious.

Mike the Cheese Guy at the North Market and Katzinger's in German Village carry Brian's cheeses and how I excited I am to know that. Mom will be dispatched to one of those locations soon. Too sweet. Sounds like the makings of a dinner picnic in the park, with daughter My daughter Greta rolling up to the spot on her new Paradise Garage trike.

I'm already looking forward to next year's Veggie U event. If you haven’t been, I hope to see you next year. It’s a an amazing celebration of food and proceeds go to an even more amazing cause.

To more pleasures,

jeni

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Comments

[Vic Cherikoff]

Hi Jeni,

I'd love to get a few of my flavors to you to try. You might have heard about Wattleseed, Lemon myrtle sprinkle and Forest anise as new ice cream flavors. Although you'd be a rare person if you had.

Emeril Lagasse made my Wattleseed famous when he made ice cream and we currently supply the extract to Vosges Chocolates in Chicago.

Let me have an address for the samples.

Cheers,
Vic

[Jeni]

Vic, Thanks so much for contacting us! I would love to get in touch. Could you e-mail so we can speak directly?
E-mail jeni@jenisicecreams.com

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[Hailey Erickson]

Hi Jeni!

I'm using your website as a model for my menu management project in my first semester of baking/pastry school!

What is that adorable font that you use in jenisicecreams.com?

[Ann L. Miller-Tobin]

Jeni- What an awesome time you had. Great that you got to go. Veggie is in my hometown back yard. I grew up in Huron Ohio. As a foodie and dessert baker I am happy to see Veggie U doing so amny good things in Ohio and in Erie County! Yummm my, well your Salty caramel is melting all over my NY cheesecake so I guess it's time for dessert!