The Thursday before Thanksgiving I trekked up to the suburbs to see Tyler Florence give a cooking demonstration followed by a book signing and a local Macy’s. Apparently he’s been traveling around the country promoting his two new books, Stirring the Pot and Dinner at My Place, and Atlanta was lucky enough to be one of the chosen cities. This is the second time I’ve seen him do this sort of thing (The first was last fall at a local Belk’s) and just as I expected from last time it was a delicious and entertaining evening.
One of the things that amazes me most about Tyler is how easy going and relaxed he is when standing in front of a group of enthusiastic foodies. He chats with the audience like a group of friends who are gathered around his kitchen waiting for him to finish with the dinner preparations so we can all eat. While he got things organized, and the sound guy got the microphone situation under control, he chatted with us about how his life is going and what’s new and interesting for him. It turns out that he’s been pretty damn busy; he’s opened a cooking store in San Francisco that he hopes will rival Williams Sonoma and Sur la Table, he is opening a new restaurant called Bar Florence that will be in the hotel where Alfred Hitchcock shot Vertigo, and perhaps the most impressive is that he has been named the Dean of Culinary at Copia which was started by Julia Childs (The food geek inside of me squealed when he mentioned that he has all of her personal cookbooks lining the shelves in his office!). On top of those three fantastic accomplishments he has also been named the Executive Chef at Julia’s Kitchen which is the restaurant located at Copia. After hearing all of this it is now my mission to make it out to San Francisco and visit all of these locations! And maybe drink a glass of wine or four.
Since this event was two weeks before Thanksgiving Tyler had a holiday theme going, which I should’ve expected given then perfect timing. He created a menu of ham, cranberry chutney, roasted mashed sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts and each dish had that unique Tyler Florence twist to it! All the recipes he used were in his two newest cookbooks so I of course bought them both as the food we had left me practically drooling.
The ham recipe he used called for a fresh ham which had not been cured or seasoned in any way. I was half expecting your normal style ham with the sugar glaze and all, however this tasted much more like a pork tenderloin which was pleasantly surprising. It was a simple preparation that involved rubbing the scored skin of the ham with a mixture of olive oil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme (any one else singing Simon and Garfunkel? Okay, maybe it’s just me), salt and black pepper. The cranberry chutney was a delicious mix of savory and sweet which was a fancy upgrade from the overly sugared cranberry sauces you occasionally find at this time of year. Cranberries, apples, ginger, a bay leaf, a stick of cinnamon and apple cider vinegar were combined in a pot and after simmering for a bit it yielded a cranberry dish that’s a far cry from the canned cranberry sauce my dad and I enjoy. However, it was the last two side dishes that were the most unique.
The sweet potato dish as created by roasting a few sweet potatoes in the oven alongside a couple of bananas and then tossing it all into the food processor to smooth it out. The banana helped to eliminate the stringiness that i usually associate with sweet potatoes and the banana flavor was incredibly subtle. The combination of these two completely different foods was amazing and not something I would have ever thought of. (Fun fact, this recipe appears in his Dinner at My Place book under the section titled Baby in the Kitchen). The brussels sprouts were done in a way that was completely new to me; instead of cooking them whole they were pulled apart so they were individual leaves. Apparently this cuts down on the bitter taste as they are able to all cook evenly which is something that’s difficult to do when they are left bundled into little heads. They were cooked on the stove with crispy pancetta, balsamic vinegar and chicken broth and then tossed with dried cranberries. It was, again, the perfect mix of sweet and savory.
Tyler also recommends using a natural salt like kosher salt or seal salt rather than your standard table salt. His reasoning behind this is that in the post-WWII society there was a concern that the population of the United States wasn’t getting the correct amount of iodide (Turns out an iodide deficiency leads to thyroid problems, sounds like fun!). To help combat this rising problem a few well known table salt brand names added minimal amounts of potassium iodide, sodium iodide, or iodate to the salt. This gives it a metallic taste that becomes even more obvious after you’ve switched to the natural salts and it’s rather unpleasant. I’d been using sea salt for a while as my everyday table salt, but I was still using Morton’s for cooking. Well, Tyler convinced me and now I’ve switched completely over! I swear, that man could convince me to change just about anything, it’s kinda sad isn’t it?
The night ended with a book signing and thanks to my sister we were second in line. Tyler stood up on his chair and took a picture of the crowd so that he could prove to people back home that there are actually quite a few people to show up for these events. (Side note, this is the part of the night where the Apple geek in me was excited, he captured the photo on his iPhone 3G!). I all got a chance to chat with Tyler as he signed both of the books I had purchased and then he was even kind enough to let my best friend and I pose for a photo with him. So my friend Amy and I finally fulfilled our high school dream of meeting Tyler. A great ending to a delicious night!
L-R: Me (Sarah), Tyler Florence, my best friend Amy
You can find both of Tyler’s books on Amazon here and here.
You can find more information about Copia and Julia’s Kitchen through these links.
