BY CAROLE M. AMBER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICHOLAS HINSCH

The sweltering center of summer means that it’s grilling time. This July, swing by Trattoria Roma for a bite of summer available to CMH readers upon request and free of charge. When the chef’s food philosophy is “It’s got to be good,” you know that you are in for some tasty bites. At Trattoria Roma, the fare is made-to-order Italian served with a smile. Currently marking its 20th year, Trattoria Roma gives guests plenty of reasons to love it, including frequent wine tasting dinners and live music on the last Saturday of the month.

The Grandview eatery has been lucky to have Chef Matt Prokopchak for the last 10 years. His gastronomic background includes slow evenings spent cooking with his grandmother. He professes that he “loves to eat” and continually expands his palate with unique flavors. Rather than reading about recipes and chefs, his culinary curiosity is piqued by researching the histories and details of ingredients. (Recently, he’s been intellectually devouring Paul Freedman’s Food: The History of Taste.) When it comes to cuisine, Chef Prokopchak champions an open-minded philosophy: “There’s always going to be something new to learn.” Now, he tempts me with a preview of his amuse-bouche by asking, “Who doesn’t like bacon and cheese?” Bubbling and hearty, this one-bite bliss begs to be devoured.

This morsel begins with a soaked rosemary stem that emanates a fresh aroma. Speared on the sprig is a perfectly round cherry tomato with a prominent grill mark. Placed just below the tomato is an oozing bundle. Surrounded by crispy imported Italian pancetta is a block of smoldering, smoky mozzarella where you can still smell the fire from the grill. The skewer is finished with a drizzle of house-made olive oil and basil ribbons. All of this comes steaming off the grill.

After sliding this resplendent array of elements into my mouth, I am bowled over by the rich and salty goodness, which is followed by a juicy sweet pop of tomato. The luscious briny flavor is complemented by the buttery smooth cream of the cheese. The fragrant basil oil and spicy black pepper linger, creating a bite that’s decadent. Hot and gooey, Chef Prokopchak’s amuse-bouche takes care of business (TCB) using a combination of TCB (tomato, cheese and bacon). It’s seriously good.

My guess is that after having one, you’ll want one more. This flash-grilled treat will excite your taste buds and provoke your thirst – something that would be oh-so-deliciously followed by a long swig of Prosecco. Do yourself a favor and take care of business for free at Trattoria Roma this month.

For more on Chef Matt Prokopchak’s creations, visit www.trattoria-roma.com.

ONE BITE BLISS

BY CAROLE AMBER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT CUNNINGHAM

With its sun-kissed days and warm nights, June offers the perfect time to cultivate and sample locally grown produce – a notion that plays into the latest CMH amuse-bouche. Available upon request and free of charge by Rigsby’s Kitchen all through this month, this one bite of bliss is unexpected, layered and packed with flavor. You won’t want to miss it.

Kent Rigsby, chef and co-proprietor of Rigsby’s, is open and humble as we chat about his background and what led to this bountiful bite. Much of Chef Rigsby’s training was completed during his time in the San Francisco Bay Area where he spent nearly a decade honing his skills cooking French, Russian and Italian fare. As a resident of San Francisco’s Little Italy, he developed a taste for urban cafés and traditional Tuscan cuisine. This fondness would later inspire Rigsby’s, his upscale gem in the Short North that opened in 1986.

You can count on his eatery to provide the freshest homemade flavors using pure local seasonal ingredients. As Chef Rigsby says, “We have never bought a jar of mayonnaise.”
When our conversation veers toward his amuse-bouche, I sneak a peek at the deep red delicacy sitting before me.

This beet tartare – not to be confused with beef tartare – is made with the ingredients found in traditional beef tartare but is vegetarian. Sweet, salty, bitter, sour and – dare I say – a bit umami (a newly purported earthy taste), the yin and yang of this clever bite is exquisite.

Its base is a crunchy endive with a clean, naturally bitter finish. The hearty beets are mixed with pungent capers, Worcestershire sauce, cornichons (pickled gherkins) and Tabasco – all bound by Rigby’s homemade mayonnaise. This tartare makes for an unexpected and scrumptious twist on the beet.

Sitting on top of the beet tartare is goat cheese mousse made with Lake Erie Creamery goat cheese, whipped with cream. This fluffy addition rounds out the bite and adds just the right amount of lusciousness. The bite is sprinkled with basil chiffonade, bringing the nosh back to savory. Lastly, this complex little medley rests on top of a syrupy beet gastric composed of reduced beet juice, sugar and red wine vinegar. Be sure to sweep your endive through this vibrant sauce before taking the plunge.

Not only is Rigsby’s CMH amuse-bouche an unusual offering, but it is a delicious one, too. It is a must try bite. Leaving your mouth peppery hot, it is sensationally complemented by a cool spring rosé. Celebrate the weather by taking a trip to Rigsby’s in June to enjoy a mouthwatering amuse-bouche.

For more on Chef Rigsby’s creations, visit www.rigsbyskitchen.com.

BY CAROLE M. AMBER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL ALTIMIER
AND ALLYSON KEENAN

Columbus is a wonderful place for food lovers. As the home of the very best ice cream in the world (Jeni’s), the most perfect Parisian macaroon in America (Pistachia Vera), an eclectic mix of local meats and produce (North Market) and many acclaimed chefs (M Restaurant’s Brian Hinshaw), Columbus speaks foodie.
Those foodies loved life in the kitchen stadium as Rick Bayless, widely considered one of the premiere chefs in the world, accepted WOSU Public Media’s invitation to appear in their sold-out, one-of-a-kind event and television program, Chefs in the City.

Bayless claims an enormous role in his field. He is a chef, restaurateur, author and television personality with a wall full of awards to his credit. Just a smattering of those include winning the first edition of Bravo TV’s Top Chef Masters, the IACP Cookbook Awards’ Cookbook of the Year and multiple James Beard awards (think Oscars for food) including Best International Cookbook, Chef of the Year and Humanitarian of the Year.

The three Chicago restaurants of Chef Bayless specialize in exquisite Mexican cuisine ranging from upscale offerings at Topolobampo to a bit more casual at Frontera Grill. Meanwhile, XOCO features bold street food including world-class mole. His fresh ingredients are sourced from local Illinois farms through the Frontera Farmer Foundation, a nonprofit he created to provide grants to small farms, hoping to foster their sustainability through capital improvements.

The170 guests that filed into the Battelle Studio at COSI were greeted with Ohio-made wines, delectable Luck Bros’ coffee and hors d’oeuvres from Basi Italia and Chile Verde. Then, they were seated at large dressed-up tables – a collection of people and props transformed into the studio audience for the TV program.

This was Chef Bayless’ first trip to Columbus and a short diversion from his nationally syndicated show Mexico: One Plate at a Time, airing in Columbus at 2:00PM on Saturdays on WOSU TV. It follows the chef on his travels through Mexico and documents the entire meal-preparation process, from the purchase of ingredients at Mexican markets to the slow simmering of entrees 
at home.

“It’s all about encouraging people to cook,” says Chef Bayless. “The show is educational, teaching where in Mexico each dish comes from. Then, we show people how to make it at home. When we started, many of the ingredients were hard to find, but now, they are widely available.”

Bayless enjoys the autonomy offered by working with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), WOSU’s parent network. “With PBS, you get to do the show that you are passionate about,” he says. “Other networks have you do the show that they want you to do. You can come up with an idea, and if enough programmers like it, it will get picked-up. We are in the eighth season of a show that most people didn’t think would work.”

THE REVIEW

During the program, the audience watched as Bayless and a selection of celebrated Columbus chefs focused on local ingredients while dicing, searing and discussing the culinary secrets of coffee-rubbed Ohio New York strip, rosémary sugar-cured Ohio pork tenderloin and Chef Bayless’ famed gazpacho moreliano.

The audience savored 13 courses throughout the evening including Chef Bayless’ grilled lamb with honey-pasilla glaze, a rich and full-flavored taste with the perfect hint of sweetness lingering atop the earthy lamb. 


Chef Wilhelm Novak of The Westin Columbus Hotel served braised duck mini-tacos held together by a light and crispy taco shell that worked perfectly as a backdrop to his buttery duck and bold, pea shoot salad while Chef Travis Hyde of Z Cucina di Spirito offered a nutty, manchego polenta that soared as one of the highlights of the night.
Kudos to Local Matters for helping to shape the event into one that celebrates local ingredients as well as the Columbus Culinary Institute student chefs for their work as the food service staff.
The event generated $53,827 for WOSU TV’s educational programming for children and airs again later this summer. Check dates and times at www.wosu.org.

Visit www.wosu.org to find future airings of Chefs in the City.

ONE BITE BLISS

BY CAROLE M. AMBER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICHOLAS HINSCH

In the spirit of stepping out into the spring air – why not venture north for a bite of France? Alex’s Bistro on Reed Road is the site of CMH’s one bite bliss this May. For those of you who are new to this column, CMH works with Columbus’ chefs to create a one bite wonder for CMH readers free of charge. Just swing by Alex’s Bistro any time this May and request the “CMH amuse-bouche” to enjoy your complimentary bite.

I would be remiss not to highlight the wine list at Alex’s Bistro. The entire front bar and cocktail tables are covered with wine labels from the actual bottles savored by Alex’s customers. Enveloped by the wooden bar and slow legs of tannins crawling down my glass, it was as if I were paying homage to fine wines everywhere. From the nearly 200 different wine selections individually picked by Alex, it is possible to try a 1948 Chateau Larrivet Haut-Brion, a 1966 Chateau Lafite Rothschild or a 1989 Chateau Talbot St. Julien.

From a cuisine standpoint, Chef Alex came to America 37 years ago in search of “the dream, of course.” Upon completing his schooling in France, he headed directly to our country’s capital city to test his chef whites at the Washington Hilton Hotel. After gaining experience in several restaurants as well as opening La Fontaine Bleu in Gettysburg, he finally moved to Columbus to open Chez Alexis on 5th Avenue. After much success, he decided to go “more casual” and opened Alex’s Bistro in 1983. The rest, as they say, is history.

The most exciting thing about Alex’s Bistro is that you can make special requests. With about one week notice, Chef Alex will plan, source and prepare almost any classic French dish you can imagine. So next time you have a hankering for duck a l’orange and chocolate soufflé or veal with morel cream sauce and crêpe suzettes, you know who to call.

Now for Alex’s Bistro’s one bite bliss – the foundation is a crisp cold cucumber, spread with homemade tartare sauce of mayonnaise, red onion and capers. Whipped on top is a hickory smoked salmon mousse and a red onion and caper spear. Be sure to belly up to Alex’s Bistro bar this May and select your favorite French vino to compliment your free one bite delight.

For more on Chef Alex’s culinary creations, visit www.alexsbistro.com.

ONE BITE BLISS

BY CAROLE M. AMBER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICHOLAS HINSCH

As winter melts away, I hope that you join CMH on the “one bite bliss” tour around Columbus. This April, I find myself bellying up to a thick oak table at Spagio European and Pacific Rim Cuisine to have a charming conversation with Chef Hubert Seifert about a range of mouth-watering options.

For first-time readers, CMH has arranged for you to enjoy an amuse-bouche, exclusively prepared and available free of charge, at one of Columbus’ finest restaurants for the duration of each issue.

Spagio’s Chef Hubert is no stranger to culinary challenges and welcomes my request to prepare an amuse-bouche. This time, he ups the ante. He prepares four – yes, four – amuse-bouche offerings so that I can choose the one best suited for CMH readers, and each one is better than the previous. The first is a perfectly round crab croquette made of Chef Hubert’s moist jumbo lump crab mixture, dusted with corn meal, fried and served piping hot with a roasted red pepper coulis. The second is a delicate brioche cup filled with the chef’s jumbo crab mixture and topped with a juicy cherry tomato half and fresh fragrant cilantro. The third is a brioche cup filled with candied walnuts, sweet Italian gorgonzola and topped with crisp bacon, salty olive tapenade and balsamic reduction with a lingonberry perched on top. I’m giddy with choices. Each one is absolutely delightful.

Of the four amuse-bouche offerings prepared by Chef Hubert, the most outstanding is the fourth – the most unexpected. It is the bite that showcases the largest depth of flavor and the one that takes the longest to prepare (it’s 30 years in the making). It is Chef Hubert’s Antipasto amuse-bouche.

His Antipasto amuse-bouche excels on all counts. The base of this bite is a buttery, light brioche cup made from a 30-year-old recipe that the chef’s wife Helga perfected in Europe. Helga’s secret is “lots of eggs and lots of butter.” (I’m sure that the decades of experience help.) The brioche cup is filled with a mixture of grilled eggplant and roasted sweet peppers that will knock your socks off. Its sweet burst of unanticipated richness is truly a treat. The eggplant has been marinating for days in a syrupy submersion of seasoned balsamic vinegar and honey. Then, the eggplant is married with sautéed sweet peppers, herbes de Provence and left to marinate overnight once more. This multiple-day technique allows the flavors to meld, condense and develop. Once the perfected antipasto mixture fills the brioche cup, it is topped with a melted creamy square of buffalo mozzarella, covered with a drizzle of homemade basil oil and sprinkled with red sea salt harvested in Hawaii (where the ocean meets the lava). All of this in one bite? It must be tasted.

Please do yourselves a favor and go to Spagio this April for this complimentary one bite wonder to indulge your senses. Be sure to ask for the “CMH Amuse-bouche” and let us know your thoughts on www.cmhmag.com.

For more on Chef Hubert’s creations, visit www.spagio.com

As I continue my quest to challenge Columbus chefs to create a most extraordinary single bite, the CMH amuse-bouche carries on. This month, Sage American Bistro is the restaurant of choice, and Chef Bill Glover is the man behind the flavors. As always, this one bite wonder is available to all CMH readers upon request and free of charge. Be sure to include Sage in your dining line-up for March and ask for the “CMH amuse-bouche.”

Now let’s get down to the good stuff – a most delectably focused bite in which every ingredient is aligned to highlight the star. This wonderfully gamey treat reflects Chef Bill Glover’s food philosophy that every taste should be clean, focused and elegant. It looks like Columbus loves this philosophy as reflected by numerous “Best New Restaurant“ awards earned in 2009.

Back to the bite. The truffle aroma is distinct (arguably among the top five flavors in the world), and the presentation features towering vibrant green and bright white cubes with succulent brown and creamy taupe atop a crostini square. The square foundation is crunchy toast that provides the texture for a bite with complex flavors: tart apple, gamey poultry, smoky cognac and the savory one-two punch of hummus and truffle.

Texturally, the toasted crostini immediately contrasts the velvety smoothness of the white bean hummus. The apple cubes – crisp and acidic – provide a starchy crunch underscored by sheared, verdant chives. The aroma is dominated by the luscious white truffle vinaigrette playing against the star of the show – a French pheasant and cognac sausage. Each and every flavor points to and accentuates that meaty, mouth-watering bird – a suitably rich, bold protein that grounds the bite. Chef Glover admits that pheasant is his favorite type of poultry because “it takes so much finesse to cook perfectly,” adding, “my first time ever eating pheasant I was at a neighborhood Christmas party. It was served with what was more or less apple butter. The apple and pheasant was such a strong sense memory from my young days. That kind of memory has prompted me to put flavors like these together over the course of my cooking career.”

“I just knew this would work based on the components. The sweet, the salty, the sour, but you can’t overwork it,” he contends. Indeed, this scrumptious bite is meant to be savored.

BY MADAME D’AFFINOIS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT CUNNINGHAM & NICHOLAS HINSCH

Early on in my years in Columbus, I was invited to a neighborhood BBQ. I entered the yard through the back gate and immediately knew this was no typical BBQ. Tables were set for 20 people in the garden, guests were mingling with glasses of Italian Prosecco and a tall, crazy, blond guy was running around holding a small bottle of viscous balsamic vinegar imploring each guest in turn to, “Try this. It’s off the hook.” This was my first formal introduction to Tim Mackness.

I quickly recognized him as the somewhat surly, intensely loyal, loved-by-the-regular-patrons bartender at Frezno, a restaurant bar located at 630 N. High St., in what is now the Union Station space. I soon appreciated not only his skills as a bartender, but also his encyclopedic knowledge of local purveyors and his ability to make something out of anything in the kitchen. Have leftover asparagus? He’s got a recipe. Looking for the best porcini? He knows the best supplier.

Hot into the farmers’ market season, I was looking for insider knowledge of the North Market – what to buy and from whom? I knew Tim would be the best guide. Let’s call him the culinary curmudgeon.

Tomatoes
Somerset Herbs
Margaret Wince
“Margaret is a great source for heirloom and hybrid tomatoes. Her lemonboys with yellow color and a slightly citrus finish are spectacular. She is also a great source for both potted and cut herbs.”

Arugula
Wayward Seed Farm
Jaime Moore and Adam Welly
“Love the arugula – tender and peppery!”

Mushrooms
Toby Run Growers
Tim Rockwell
“This is THE ‘shroom guy. Doesn’t matter what he brings. He harvested them yesterday and they’re going to be great.”

Asparagus
Anderson Orchard
Steve Anderson
“He’s known for his sunflowers, but you should know him for his Ohio asparagus. He just lets it grow – no fertilizer or anything – so it has a sweet, not bitter, finish.”

Seedless watermelon
Hinkle Farm
Glen Hinkle
“His yellow, seedless watermelon at the end of July and August tastes like candy.”

Brussels Sprouts
Wishwell Farm Produce
Jason Wish
“He’s the only guy with brussels sprouts – and better on the stalk than loose. He also does half-runner green beans that
are fantastic.”

Grapes
The Orchard
Vicky and Bill Thomas
“As you expect from The Orchard – they’ve got apples. Damn good ones. But what you should also know is they have some very special grape varieties 
including reliant and canadice. Just terrific.”

Cherry Tomatoes
Toad Hill Organic Farm
Tim Patrick
“Look for chefs from some of the most respected local restaurants shopping here. He supplies them with greens and an incredible selection of cherry heirloom tomatoes in all shapes and sizes.”

White Peaches
Rhoads Farm Market
Kathy Rhoads
“She is the only one with white peaches and they are out of this world. Also look for her blackberries – they are giant and delicious.”

ARCHITECTURE PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRAD FEINKNOPF

PORTRAITURE AND FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT CUNNINGHAM

REVIEW BY MADAME D’AFFINOIS

They had me at the charcuterie plate. Reading the menu online before my first visit to Details (Details, 791 N. High St.), I was more than hopeful. The staff experts behind its launch (Rich Rosendale, Drew Garms, Chris Dillman, Matt Eisenzimmer) couldn’t come with better curriculum vitae, and seem to have attracted some of the best servers and bartenders in the Short North to join them. Awarded, lauded, certified and with proven reputations in Columbus, these guys know their way around a charcuterie plate and are not afraid to use it. Home pickled delicacies, avocado butter in the chili and fresh ingredients in the cocktails – not to mention my first sighting of Elderflower Liqueur in Ohio – promised a lounge-sized translation of Rosendales’ philosophy and reputation gained over the last two years next door (Rosendales 793 N. High St.). As it turns out, the translation is almost perfect, and that’s both superb and disappointing.

Let’s start with the superb: these people know food. Maybe it was the large group of Slow Food Columbus members who haunt the bar, or the buzz in the restaurant community leading up to the soft open, but this place seems to attract foodies and people who love them. The bartenders and servers know the intimate details of each dish, enthusiastically share the finer points and are genuinely interested in opinions and reactions (as evidenced by an admirable willingness to switch out a cocktail when a dining companion realized she’d made a poor choice).

The much-anticipated charcuterie plate did not disappoint: beautifully arranged selection, which varied somewhat on my multiple visits, of pâté and sausage accompanied by a lovely pickled relish side. It was exactly what I was hoping for and would stand up to the ‘would my French uncle compliment it’ test any day. For $11, it will never be mistaken for a healthy serving at a good price, but it makes a nice companion for a few other small plates and is a real treat. If you are lucky, the lamb sausage will be part of the selection when you visit – it was delicately spiced and the clear favorite.

Also on the small plate menu, the eggplant caponata and tuna tacos stand out for entirely different reasons. In the caponata you’ll find excellent execution of a traditional Italian favorite: a roasted eggplant spread with diced vegetables, pine nuts, and a tiny bit of sugar and vinegar – Grazie mille! In contrast, the tuna tartar tacos are a decidedly modern and creative take on the small plate taco – a lightly fried wanton shell holding fairly naked ingredients of sushi-grade tuna, avocado, pickled scallion and ginger. Both dishes were constructed with ingredients of the highest quality, lovingly prepared and simply presented. It is at this point that I begin to note a respectable theme: it’s the food that’s the thing.

In addition to the small plates, Details offers soups, salads and sandwiches – great lunch or a casual dinner. The deconstructed chef’s salad, chili burger and Old Fashioned sandwich continue the theme: great ingredients, simply prepared and standing quite nicely on their own. The salad is lightly dressed (a rare but respectable restraint), and the sandwiches arrive with condiments on the side. On a cold day, the hot Old Fashioned sandwich with lovely toasted grill marks and dripping cheese was just the thing. Only with the Godfather sandwich did they this miss the mark. Clearly care was taken choosing the combination of meats but a cold bread and olive-pepper relish did little to bring cohesion to the flavors.

What’s a small plate without a small cocktail? Beverage Director Chris Dillman applied his extensive experience and knowledge in crafting a wine list and cocktail menu that matches the philosophy of the bar and rivals the growing East/West Coast competition for – dare I say it? – the most thoughtful and purposeful artisan cocktails. I was pleased to see a few updated classics in the featured list (not your grandmother’s Singapore sling), recognition of delightful if underused liquors (rye regains its rightful place at the bar), serious investment of bartender labor hours (thank you for muddling, shaking, infusing and layering) and the introduction of unusual ingredients (crème de violet and the aforementioned elderflower to name a few). National artisan bragging rights aside, the cocktails are simply fantastic. My favorite: The Aviator, a gin cocktail both beautiful to view and delightful to drink. Also of note: wines from United Estates Wine Imports, a local purveyor specializing in small-production southern French wines.

With all of this going for it, what’s not to like? Very little, but there is still room for improvement to be sure. Dining (or mini-dining) experiences rest not solely on the food, drink and service but on a combination of many environmental factors. The hours are one thing to be admired. With a kitchen open until 10 PM Sundays, 11 PM weeknights and midnight Thursday through Saturday, Details provides a chic locale for those late Columbus nights. Atmosphere, flow of the space and aesthetics, however, are much more subjective and personal. Here is where the similarities between Details and Rosendales seem more like the sins of the father visited on the son. The interior design is polished but cold, with a black, white, grey and red palette that seems more early 80s than 2009. With slightly less pretentious flatware than next door, Details manages to convey a more relaxed atmosphere, but still doesn’t exude the kind of warmth that makes me want to order multiple courses and stay a while.

To be fair, many of the challenges are inherent in the space. Directly behind the bar, the narrow location leaves room for standing or walking, but never both, and the upstairs seating is visually cut off from the bar and the street, leaving the unfortunately ubiquitous plasma screen as a stand-in for a view. Some issues with atmosphere will surely be worked out over time, like the large logo window decals blocking the street view from the window seats (so directly that my date walked by without seeing me, nor I him, below the neck).

As the name suggests, these people are obsessed with the details. Even when it is not to my taste – and that isn’t often – they do it with conviction and passion. For those trying to fit their Rosendales-size culinary dreams in their personal stimulus-package budgets, a few small plates from this menu along with an expertly constructed cocktail from the bar will provide the experience – if not the bargain price – you are looking for. The Details crew delivers an unapologetically superb point of view about food and drink. The charcuterie plate may have called me in, but the chance to dine out on the philosophy of this talented bunch will keep me coming back for a long time.

Details is located in the Winders Chevrolet Building. The building, built in 1924, sits in the heart of the Short North Arts District of downtown Columbus.

VIEW BRAD FEINKNOPF’S CMH CONTRIBUTOR BIO

VIEW MADAME D’AFFINOIS’ CMH CONTRIBUTOR BIO