Wow! I was going to write every week, hopefully twice, but with restaurant weeks all I could do was work and sleep. Restaurant week is insane, basically we do a month’s sales in two weeks. And the hard part is, with the same staff! I am so proud of my staff; they work so hard and we have an awesome time together doing it. It’s such a rush to look around on think ‘wow this is really happening! This is my life.’ I am fortunate and honored to work with such a dedicated and talented staff

Creativity usually slows down when work increases. I find that when I work a ton it is hard for me to be creative, yet this week I stumbled on an appetizer that Alexander, one of my crazy line cooks, announced was the best thing he’s seen all week. I think that was a compliment… yeah it was.

I had some Nesenkeag Farms Yellow Finn new potatoes and Red Thumb fingerling potatoes that had just been delivered and I was trying to figure what I was going to do with them. I also had some excellent corn form Rhode Island and I wanted to use that.
I decided to make scalloped potatoes and then the ideas just came…. Crottin, an aged goat from Vermont Butter And Cheese Co., a little cream, a little rosemary, a little chiopotle and I had Scalloped Local Heirloom Potatoes with aged goat cheese.

I wasn’t done there. Grabbed some green zebra tomatoes and some other heirloom toms and made a quick tomato and basil relish (evoo and lemon juice) to serve on top. While we were plating I realized it needed a little more. Ran down stairs and grabbed a bottle of vincotta (wine must, similar to vinegar meets reduce red wine) and garnished the plate.

The potatoes were smooth, earthy, and rich with the cream and aged goat giving a velvet tongue feel with a slightly pungent punch. The corn added to the creaminess yet gave a slight crunch that was a welcome addition to the intensity of smoothness. The tomato relish, with its slight acidity and herbaceousness of the basil, worked as a perfect foil for the scalloped potatoes and the sweet-tart vincotta brought it all together with appearance and flavors….yum

Here I am at Nesenkeag farms