Photographing the chefs and food that went in to The Culinary Mistress, we ended up setting up our roving photo studio in some. . . nontraditional spaces in order to accommodate the schedule of a chef: dining rooms during service, kitchens, back hallways crowded with ladders and spare 4-tops. My favorites were the chefs we photographed who were in the process of developing their next restaurant: Stewart Woodman prior to the opening of Heidi’s, Stephen Trojahn during the Gastro Truck off-season, and Steven Brown during the lead up to the newly-opened Tilia. Since these chefs didn’t have restaurants for us to invade, they opened their homes to us. And since there wasn’t the crush of responsibilities generally pressing down on an executive chef in the restaurant, we were able to have some great conversations.

Steven talked about the gastro-pub trend of the past several years, and about how the public’s growing embrace of craft beers has mirrored his own shift toward a cuisine that is much more approachable and affordable, but still well thought out and crafted. Based on Zimmern’s review, it sounds like Tilia is a perfect realization of Steven’s latest food thoughts, as well as exactly what tons of people (me included) are looking for these days in a restaurant.

Chris’s recipes, prepared by Sea Change Executive Chef Erik Anderson, reflected his cool, and went perfectly with author Geri Wolf’s art direction: vivid reds and oranges in all three of his dishes, giving a very contemporary, saturated look to each plate. The carrot broth in particular, being poured from above in the book photograph, photographed beautifully.

A couple other things to pass on. The serious portrait poses fit beautifully with Geri Wolf’s art direction for the overall aesthetic of the book, but when you meet Sameh you sense immediately that he is FAR from as serious as he looks here. No one portrait can reflect every facet of a person’s personality; Sameh has an easily-accessible serious side that we explored on these portraits, but hopefully I’ll have a chance to reflect his other sides on another shoot someday. Also, we got to sample the small plates pictured below, and if you think all hummus and baba ghanoush are created equal, think again. Sameh’s subtle spicing took dishes I thought I knew and transformed them completely.

Congratulations to the Wadi brothers for all the accolades that they have recently received!

Now I’ve definitely got a certain amount of loyalty to the Birchwood Cafe – it’s the neighborhood deli in my neighborhood, after all – but I’ve got to shout out to the Cheeky Monkey Deli in St. Paul too. Beautiful fresh bread. These amazingly airy homemade potato chips. Organic meats. It’s the good stuff.

Cheeky Monkey is my friend Sarah’s neighborhood neighborhood deli, so I called her up to see if she’d be interested in letting me take pictures of her with a meatloaf sandwich – one of the signature dishes at the deli. As it turns out, Sarah orders the meatloaf sammie every time she goes to Cheeky Monkey. Her husband Craig has traveled the menu, but not Sarah. And, as she told me, every time a meatloaf sandwich lands in front of her she makes this face:

and that’s one of the reasons she’s my friend. : )

Here are a few more photos from our lunchtime shoot. Thanks loads to the fine folks at Cheeky Monkey for their hospitality and for plating up such photogenic and delicious food. Hopefully we can collaborate again.

What’s your favorite neighborhood joint? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

The magnificent Pot Roast Sandwich. Oh, the pickled onions. Ah, the horseradish sauce. . .

The Brothers has been around for a long time, in several incarnations; I remember eating at one in Southdale Mall when I was a kid and my mom was a secret shopper for Dayton’s (speaking of old school). Regardless of the location, The Brothers has always been the kind of place that serves bowls of pickles on the tables and slow roasts its pastrami and corned beef on the premises. Which is the only way to go when it comes to a deli, as far as I’m concerned.

I talked to Jeff, the head brother, by phone a couple times to set things up – telling him that I’m a big fan, that I’d love to shoot some during a lunch rush sometime. Our two phone conversations lasted about 15 seconds combined (Jeff’s clearly a guy who has 14 hours of work to do in an 8 hour day), and next thing I knew my assistant TJ and I were there ready to shoot.

Jeff’s crew is a well-oiled machine. All of his employees have been with him for years – many for more than ten – and they know how to get a lunch rush fed. As I tiptoed around everyone, it kind of blew me away how calm everyone was, even though the line was out the door and down the skyway for much of the lunch rush. Each person had their station, and everyone knew exactly what was needed. It was beautiful to watch.

Salad station

Soon-to-be Corned Beef Sandwich

The Grill Captain

Jeff surprised me by asking if I’d be interested in shooting some food shots to put up on the walls of the restaurant. Based on our amazingly quick phone conversations I figured he would have his head down and would forget about me a minute after I was done shooting. But as it turns out, my photos now hang over the deli bar and behind the counter, and there may be more coming shortly. You gotta love it when personal work turns in to paid work.

Next time you’re in the skyways, keep an eye out for a two foot by three foot reuben floating over The Brothers deli bar – that’s my work. Sweet!

Josh is one focused dude, like the other chefs I’ve met this year. He’s organized, straightforward, always moving. And man, can he cook. For last night’s Sample Circuit in the Living Room he sent out a huge assortment of dishes, forming a huge spectrum from comfort food (beef tamales, pigs in the blanket with Fisher Farms pork), to gourmet (curried king crab sushi roll, crostini with rare beef, roquefort, and smoked tomato marmalade), and points in between (truffled deviled eggs, scallop and kobe beef sliders).

Aside from actually eating and photographing all this amazing food, my favorite moment from the night illustrates another side to Josh. It was getting to the end of the evening, and the pigs in a blanket had run out. They were, after all, delicious, and made of pig. My friend Val noticed the absence of the pigs, grabbed Josh, and pretty much demanded more. (You’ve got to know Val to understand that this isn’t particularly surprising behavior.) It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Josh to blow her off, say sorry, how about some lamb meatballs instead? But he said he knew where there were ‘a few more,’ ran off, and three minutes later came back with a small plate loaded with pigs in blanket, just for Val.

That, my friends, is how to build a fan club.

Last image from the night: not the best picture I’ve ever taken of my wife Johanna, but we just had to get a shot of these Diva Glass Slippers given to her and Val. Like a coozy, but for your wine glass! Brilliant!

Johanna really wanted an Obama one, too, but all that were left were white Obamas, and that just didn’t seem right.

Asher and the gang on the line

Given the fact that 20.21 resides in the Walker Art Center, and is one of the most upscale of Wolfgang Puck’s current restaurants, you’d maybe expect the snootyness index to be high, but despite the dramatic dining room space and fusion menu, everything about 20.21 feels pretense-free. And everything I’ve tried there (granted, on two trips only) speaks hospitality through attention to every detail. Example from last night: a simple mini cheeseburger, perfectly cooked with a honey curry ketchup that put it over the top.

Both of my trips to 20.21 have been with the Sample Circuit, but I’ll definitely  be going back on my own.

Roasted Alaskan Halibut with Pineapple Sambal

Sweet Corn Soup Shot with Croutons and Chili Oil

Tempura Shrimp with Pickled Ginger Vinaigrette

Korean Beef Short Rib Satays

Chocolate Dipped Cookie Lollipops

The view on the deck

Now that’s a subject! First of all, you’ve got to know that I love cheese. Second, beautiful as the new Santorini is, it’s not actually the Mediterranean. It’s a very nice restaurant in an Eden Prairie strip mall. Tough to muster maximum excitement for that kind of setting. But you throw in some flaming imported dairy, held by a guy who’s been serving this dish for over 30 years? My attention had been piqued.

But first, chef Craig Johnson. Great guy, fun photo subject in part because he actually did the non-standard things I asked him to. Case in point.

Then it was time for Tony and saganaki. A testament to his true professionalism: no eyebrows were harmed in the making of this image.

As I’ve reported in these very blog pages, what Executive Chef Hakan Lundberg does with ingredients is unique to Minnesota. Hakan really gets a kick out of opening a window on to the process for his diners, and last night he and his #1 sous chef were in the dining room creating fois gras lolipops and fruit ‘explosions’ for the crowd. Cool for foodies to be able to see the magic in motion and interact with the chefs.

Fruit explosion magic being perpetrated by sous chef Shawn

Team Cosmos’ version of the Sample Circuit was unique in relation to the others so far this year: much higher degree of difficulty on all the dishes, lots more variety, but no banquet table service, only passed trays.

The Cosmos shrimp cocktail

For those in attendance on their first trip to Cosmos, I’m sure the sample they received has them intrigued and definitely wanting more.

Plenty more photos from the night on the Sample Circuit Flicker stream (supplied by yours truly).

I’m really not embellishing when I say that I loved each course, but I did have favorites. Like at the Valentine’s Day dinner earlier this year, I thought the BW’s Executive Chef, Marshall Paulsen, did an amazing job with the early courses in particular. This time around a beet and chevre terrine with tangelo and melted leek sauce had a great mix of flavors. The pairing with Lift Bridge Brewery’s Farm Girl Saison was perfect as well.

Beet and Chevre terrine

The next course was spot on as well: trout with coppa cured at neighboring Craftsman Restaurant, fiddlehead fern, sunchoke chips, parsley almond pesto, and wild ramps, paired with Lake Superior Brewery’s Kayak Kolsch. Beautiful mix of textures, and I couldn’t get enough of the coppa.

Fried Fiddlehead Ferns

Trout with Craftsman Capa, ferns, parseley pesto, and wild ramps

As with all events at the Birchwood, this one put all the emphasis on the local, the creative, and the communal. When owner Tracy Singleton got up to speak, it was to draw attention to the farmers in attendance who supply the restaurant, Peace Coffee, and Eureka Recycling – who composts over 90% of the Birchwood’s waste. Just a super fun, delicious evening, liberally lubricated with great Minnesota beer.

Marshall Paulsen and his kitchen crew cranking out the plates

Plating of the Bison Ribeye

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