Old World Tools in a New (Old) World Kitchen

Step into the kitchen of Restaurant Eugene or Holeman & Finch Public House, and you’ll find any number of interesting tools --- old world and new --- all equally essential to the craft. One of Chef Hopkins’s latest is the Fabio Leonardi MR9 1 HP Tomato Milling Machine from Bologna Italy. Fabio Leonardi made the first tomato crusher in 1917, the same year Fabio Leonardi Bologna was founded. Many familiar staples on grocery shelves and dinner tables, from tomato sauce to ketchup, would be unimaginable without the advent of Fabio Leonardi products. It’s a tool custom made specifically for turning raw tomatoes into a crush of juicy pulp. A visit to the Leonardi website is truly a new old world experience. When was the last time you saw navigation links like “meat grinder” “sausage stuffer” and “tomato grinder?”  

At Restaurant Eugene we believe everything should contemplate tradition, knowing that at its' core, tradition is a means to pass the best in life from one generation to the next. We also have top of mind, that everything can be improved upon --- even, and especially ketchup and those other grocery shelf staples. It is precisely for this reason that we have the Fabio Leonardi MR9 1: so that we can provide the best of old and new to our guests.

Perhaps you enjoy spending five minutes trying to get ketchup to come out of a bottle. We mean no disrespect to your tradition, but we think ours tastes better. The Fabio Leonardi is here to help us make more (and better) ketchup as well as Bloody Mary mix and other tomato sauces. Other mills handle 5 pounds a minute. The Fabio Leonardi churns through 20 pounds a minute. This might not help you get a 10 o’clock burger at the Public House, but it does guarantee you’ll find plenty of home-made tomato-based goodness while Restaurant Eugene or H&F way. You can now pick up our Bloody Mary mix at the H&F Bottle Shop. Meanwhile, come check out our milled makings, and other delectables old and new at the restaurant soon.

Cooking Up Good Vibrations

The name Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor conjures smiles in culinary and literary circles alike. On Tuesday, August 23^rd, those two circles formed a veritable venn diagram at Restaurant Eugene, as Chef Linton Hopkins, an avid reader, hosted Smart-Grosvenor – she insists everyone call her Vertamae –  for the latest dinner in our “Eugene Author Dinner Series.”

Vertamae is best known as the author of Vibration Cooking: or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, recently reissued by The University of Georgia Press with a new foreword by Psyche Williams-Forson. Referring to the book, Williams-Forson concludes, “Each time I read it now, I put it down with a sigh and think to myself, Ah done growed ten feet higher jus’ readin’ ‘bout you…Vertamae.” Guests, including poet and Emory professor and archivist Kevin Young, Joe Dabney, author of The Food, Folklore, and Art of Lowcountry Cooking, and Atlanta-based singer Virginia Schenk,  got high on stories Smart-Grosvenor shared from her travels, her stint as a “Space Goddess” in the Sun Ra Arkestra, and her childhood in South Carolina.

 Recollections of her mother, who worked as a domestic, formed the basis of her book Thursday’s and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap. Long before The Help captured the imaginations of readers and moviegoers, Vertamae was telling it like it was. A poet and frequent contributor to PBS and NPR, she is equally captivating whether she’s discussing a poem by Baraka, the best way to cook greens, or American politics. She once wrote a letter to Time magazine after it ran a piece that dismissed soul food as tasteless and ‘a fad.’  She ardently defended “the short-lived fad that brought my ancestors through four hundred years of oppression.” Elsewhere she insists, “Cooking is a creative thing. Cooking is one of the highest of all the arts. It can make or break life."

 As Williams-Forson notes, “Vertamae… is herself regardless of time and place. Rather than limit herself to being a writer, commentator, performer, mother, culinary artist, or friend – she is all of these things at once and in contradiction.” John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, has acknowledged that Vertamae is ‘very important.’   

In the acknowledgements to Vibration Cooking, Vertamae thanks several musicians, including “John Coltrane and Miss Billie Holliday for singing and playing everyday as I sat in my corner in the kitchen, trying to get my thing together.” Chef Hopkins got his thing together over some hush puppies, souse with hot sauce, and champagne compressed watermelon. The puppies were paired with a low country punch consisting of Myers rum, Coca Cola reduction and fresh lemon. Dopff & Irion’s gorgeous Gris complimented Jamaican style fish escaviach over a bed of red rice with garlic. This was followed by another low-country favorite, crab cakes with late summer succotash. The main course was steak with beautiful black sauce, onion pie & greens a la shepp. For dessert, palettes were pleased with coconut custard pie, sassed up by Marchesi di Gresy’s marvelous Moscato.

The title of Vertamae’s underground classic comes from her philosophy, in life and in the kitchen. “When I cook,” she writes, “I never measure or weigh anything. I cook by vibration.” If you’re looking for good vibrations, pick up a copy of this indispensable work of literature, and head for the bar at Restaurant Eugene. Vertamae (the Latin root words that give us ‘Vert’ mean both green and truth) will delight your soul, and our chefs and servers aim to do the same.

Foie Gras - Our Story

Over the past five month's Restaurant Eugene and Holeman and Finch Public House's Chef Linton Hopkins has been targeted for harassment and protest by the Animal Protection and Rescue League because of our choice to include foie gras on our menus.  The first complaint from Rebecca Weston came in March and stated that if we did not immediately remove foie gras from our menu we would be subject to protest, but that if we did remove it, positive reviews of our restaurant would be posted on Yelp.  This felt a little coercive, but nonetheless, prompted us to do some soul searching.  Sourcing and ingredients are very serious matters here.  Chef Hopkins is steadfastly opposed to the industrialized farming of animals, as well as vegetables for that matter.  

We had multiple conversations with our foie gras farmer, Guillermo Gonzalez, to be sure we felt comfortable with his animal husbandry and other practices.  Chef revisited his culinary school field trip to Hudson Valley Foie Gras.  We conducted thorough research into the issue, invited our guests and staff to give their input, read the book The Foie Gras Wars, and reached out to our chef and restaurant friends to see how they felt about foie gras and the APRL accusations that it is inhumane.  We reviewed the APRL literature, including their video.  We spoke to experts around the country about foie gras, and the APRL.


Here is some of the information we received from Guillermo:

A Day in the Life

Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras is committed to the highest standards of animal welfare, and utilizes humane techniques in the raising and feeding of ducks. Ducks are never individually caged and are allowed to roam free range.

The ducklings are received when they are one day old. They spend the first 5 - 8 weeks in a barn, under heat lamps and on bedding of wood shavings while they develop their feathers. They walk about, flap their wings freely, and have access to all natural feed and water. Once they have enough feathering, they are brought out to the walnut orchards, where they continue to roam free range for about two months. Here again, they have access to all natural feed (no hormones or antibiotics), water and shade.

During the final two weeks, they are housed in temperature-controlled barns, where they are kept in groups of about 12 ducks per pen measuring about 33 square feet. They are fed twice per day by the same feeder, using a pre-measured quantity of feed.

Natural Capacity

The first evidence of foie gras is found in ancient Egyptian history, some 45 centuries ago. In the wild, ducks and geese gorge themselves prior to migration in order to temporarily store fat in their liver and skin, which they use for energy during migration. The managed feeding in foie gras production utilizes the duck’s physiological capacity to transform the excess feed into fat and store it in the liver and skin.

Each feeding takes only a few seconds and the pressure applied has been studied to be non-injurious to the duck. A funnel is inserted down the duck’s esophagus, which deposits food as it is drawn out of the esophagus. Ducks do not have a gag reflex, throat or stomach, and the esophagus serves as a holding area for the feed while it is digested. The duck’s esophagus, as with any waterfowl such as the blue heron, which is able to swallow large, live fish, is expandable and pliable. For these reasons, the feeding is not harmful to the animal, as proven by scientific studies. Since the process of producing foie gras is physiological rather than pathological, the fattened liver, or foie gras, created by managed feeding, would return to its normal size if the process stopped.

Here is a letter Guillermo's veterinarian wrote to the US Senate.

Here are some photos of the Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras Geese.

After all this soul searching, we decided that we felt ok about farmer Guillermo Gonzalez and his Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras, and we wanted to dialog with the APRL to explain our position.  We scheduled a meeting with some APRL representatives in Atlanta, including Rebecca Weston.  Several people attended.  Chef Hopkins had ordered a copy of Dan Imhoff's coffee table book on CAFO's (a book we give to all of our young cooks) for each person and explained that he too felt strongly about animal welfare and good animal husbandry, and that as a result he refused to purchase any meat that was raised inhumanely, and that from his perspective the real battle was against industrial farms.  Chef Hopkins's explained the painstaking level of attention to detail that goes into all the sourcing at Restaurant Eugene and Holeman and Finch Public House.  He pointed out that many of the photos in the APRL literature also appear in the CAFO book and are attributed to industrial foie gras farms in Israel and France.  He also verified that each of the APRL representatives at the table was a vegan who didn't believe in eating meat of any sort.  Our hope was to excite this group into real action on a real issue.  We invited them to be a part of summit on good meat and share their perspectives with a wider audience.  We felt the meeting went well and our mutual points of sympathy were understood.

Unfortunately, this group would not be reasoned with and has taken a bafflingly myopic view of animal welfare.  When we reached out to them to discuss plans for the good meat summit, they questioned whether or not we were still serving foie gras.  Soon after, they showed up at Restaurant Eugene and Holeman & Finch Public House to protest foie gras.  Their posters and placards had the same photos of the Israeli and French industrial farms that appeared in the CAFO book.  They also had signs that read "Linton Hopkins is a hypocrite," "Restaurant Eugene is not green," and "Honk if you love animals."

In the end, it is a personal decision for everyone whether they choose to eat foie gras, oysters, bacon, broccoli, cheese, or peaches.  We are here to give you that choice every night, and to instill in you the confidence that we wouldn't serve it if we didn't believe in it.  We care deeply. We try hard, and we are always examining our practices in order to improve them.  We thank our friends and guests for their patronage and support, and we thank Rebecca Weston and the APRL for the opportunity to have a public discourse on foie gras.  We won't be bullied into making the choice someone else wants us to make, but we will always do our best to make careful, informed decisions.


Here is our public statement about the issue.

·       Everyone at Restaurant Eugene and Holeman & Finch Public House cares deeply about all of the food we serve at our restaurants, especially the quality of life and welfare of the animals which provide the meat for our menus.  We are vehemently opposed to concentrated animal feeding operations and only buy from farmers whose animal husbandry practices and ethics we know to be of the highest quality.

·       We recognize that an animal sacrifices its life in order for us to eat it, which is why our kitchens are dedicated to using every possible part of the animal so that nothing goes to waste.  In fact, at the Public House, an entire section of our menu is dedicated to “parts,” because we believe that the needless waste of animal life is profane.

·       We also recognize that eating meat is a choice that not everyone makes, which is why we devote entire sections of our menus to vegetables.

·       We believe in the rights of animals to have a healthy and humane life and death.

·       We also believe in the rights of people to choose to eat what they want.

·       We will not be bullied or coerced into making menu choices based on anyone’s extremist beliefs. 

·       Producing foie gras is legal and based on a 5000 year old tradition.

·       We have confidence in the practices of the American foie gras producers from whom we purchase our foie gras, namely Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras. 

·       We have met with the APRL and believe that they are misinformed about foie gras production in the United States. 

Thank you for reading this.  We hope to see you for dinner soon.

A Summertime Standard - Soft Shell Crab

A few years ago, Chef Hopkins considered the "Tower of Crab" to be one of his signature dishes.   Guests raved about it, and we toy with the idea of bringing it back every now and then.   Whether or not in tower formation, you can bet that when the season is right and the fishmongers can deliver incredibly fresh soft shell crab, it will on our menu.  We thought guests might like to know a bit more about what a soft shell crab actually is...seriously, haven’t you ever wondered why their shells are soft? 

Actually, the term “soft-shell” refers to crabs that have recently molted their exoskeleton, and are therefore still soft. Most soft-shell crabs in the US are of the blue crab species and at their freshest from April to September. Folklore, says that the soft-shell crab season begins with the first full moon in May, which is when the blue crab fattens up and begins molting to accommodate its summer growth. This is how soft-shell crabs have become so closely associated with summer: it's the season in which they are the freshest and the largest. The extra fat makes soft-shell crabs particularly flavorful. 

The actual shedding of the shell can take anywhere from one to three hours. Once the shell is shed completely the crab must immediately be removed from the water or else its new shell will begin to harden again due to chemical reactions with the sea water.  Virginia and Maryland crabbers have a trick to telling when these crabs are about to molt: a pink dot, which is the new shell just barely peeking through the old one, appears on the crab’s back fin about one week before they “bust,” or shed.  There are five different sizes of soft-shell crab, determined by the width of their shell. They are whales, jumbo, primes, hotels and mediums.

 

The blue crab’s scientific name, Callinectes sapidus, means beautiful savory swimming.  We agree.  They are beautiful, and are known to have be sweet and tender, yet with a mildly tangy flavor.  We have just received a delightful shipment of jumbo soft-shell crabs from the Chesapeake Bay area, which will be fried in cornmeal and served with a cold cucumber cream soup poured tableside. 

Come enjoy a dressed-up summertime favorite.

Desserts are Serious Business at Restaurant Eugene

Some restaurants treat dessert like an afterthought.  Not here.  Chef Linton Hopkins works closely with Pastry Chef Aaron Russell to ensure that just as much attention is given to the meal's finish, as to every other part.

Pastry Chef Aaron Russell delivers three and five course dessert tasting menu's every night at Restaurant Eugene.

As always, a fine dish begins with fine ingredients.  “My favorite is cooking with fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh herbs,” says Russell, as he brings a blowtorch to a Ras el hanout (a Moroccan spice blend infused) crème brûlée, just one of the dishes on his dessert tasting menu.  His love for seasonal fruits and ingredients follows the philosophy of the restaurant; his menu is constantly changing depending on what is freshest and best.  Currently on the menu: a lavender lemonade soda, peach-chardonnay sherbet, and a phenomenal citrus shortbread, all made with fresh, in-season ingredients straight from farms throughout the Southeast.

Caramel Ganache at Restaurant Eugene.

In addition to freshness and seasonality, Russell's desserts bring tremendous sophistication. There are things on the tasting menu that you will not see in other places. The kabocha mousse is made with a Japanese squash that many liken to pumpkin, but that is freshest in the summer, and his crème brûlée is laced with Ras el hanout, a Moroccan spice blend popular across Northern Africa.  “Ras el hanout” translates from Arabic to “top of the shop,” a term the refers to its use of top shelf spices.

Recently, Restaurant Eugene and Chef Russell have introduced both three- and five-course dessert tasting menus. They are available every night of the week, and come with optional pairings. The intention of the tasting menus is to show dessert’s versatility, as well as to elevate dessert to the same highly regarded level as the rest of the restaurant's offerings. Says Chef Russell, “it is not often that a restaurant’s owner regards its dessert service as seriously as the rest of the dining experience. Chef Hopkins’ energetic pursuit of excellence in every facet of this business is manifest in these tasting menus.” 

Green Apple Sorbet with Buckweat Strussel.

Dessert Tasting Menu's are available every night.  Stop by to try them by themselves or as the sweet finish to a divine dinner.

Author Dinner, Volume Eight: John T. Edge

Last night, Restaurant Eugene, was positively pleased to host Southern Foodways Alliance Executive Director, John T. Edge for our Eighth Author Dinner.  The series, which has featured authors as diverse as Mark Kurlansky, Rajat Parr, Gabrielle Hamilton and Bill Shore, is an expression of Chef Linton Hopkins love of books, learning and, of course, food.  With the Author Dinner Series, Chef Hopkins aims to clearly demonstrate the relationship between fine dining and the cultural life of a city.   To have a strong sense of identity, a city needs fine restaurants, as it needs fine art, music and literature.  Restaurant Eugene Author Dinners are the synthesis of this idea.

Blair Hobbs' Cheese Boxes

Author Dinners, limited to about sixty people, begin with a reception.  In this case, since the book was the Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook, we served Blair Hobbs' cheese boxes, Ari Weinzeig's benedictine spread and Jared Richardson's fried chicken livers with Brian Caswell's Sriracha and citrus remoulade --- all from the book, and paired with our own Coca-Cola cocktails.   Chef Hopkins noted with delight that one of the things that makes this particular community cookbook so special is that the recipes really work. 

Linton Hopkins Cheese Straws on the line.

Guests mingle and chat with Author and Chef until being seated, communally in the elegant dining room, where they are greeted with a little bite of something delicious.  Last night, Linton Hopkins' spiced pecans and cheese straws, David Sweeney's spicy fermented cabbage and Eugene Holeman's beaten biscuits with Allan Benton's country ham and sorghum.

Oven-bound Billy Reid's Tomato Pies.

The room had the feel of a family reunion of sorts as the author and chef shared a few words about the menu and the theme of the night. Then dinner proper begins:  Billy Reid's tomato pie; Greg Sonnier's bbq shrimp and Tankie's cornbread, Austin Leslie's fried chicken with Madge Castle's killed lettuce.  Each course brilliantly paired by our Director of Wine & Spirits.

After the main course, there is pause for a few more words from John T.  He read from a piece he'd written for Gourmet Magazine on Austin Leslie, whose creole fried chicken had just been savored.  (See above link or the article.)  Then, one final bite: Dana Logsdon's banana pudding.  Guests depart with a signed copy of the book in hand, glowing a bit, and certainly enriched from an evening of delicious discussion.


We hope you will join us for our next Author Dinner, August 23 with the legendary Vertamae Smart Grosvenor.

Mt. Valley Spring Water

At Restaurant Eugene, we pay extraordinary attention to our source ingredients.  From the pantry items, most all of which are homemade, to the vegetables, the grains, the seafood and meats.  Right down to the water we pour table-side.  We want to showcase the absolute best of everything the south has to offer.

Mt. Valley Spring Water was first bottled in 1871.  Chef Linton Hopkins remembers drinking this Arkansas quencher as a young boy on hot days touring farms with his grandfather, Eugene Holeman, the restaurant's eponym.   But nostalgia alone wouldn't place it on the menu at Restaurant Eugene.  The product has long been appreciated and even celebrated for its good taste.  It has twice won the title of “Best Tasting Non-Carbonated Bottled Water in the World” at the prestigious Berkley Springs International Water Tasting Competition.  

Bottled at the source near Hot Springs, where it is scrutinized and tested daily, the water is guarded like a museum-quality antiquity.  The spring site and the 2000 acres surrounding it have been carefully protected for over 140 years.  It really is a precious, ancient thing.  Geologists have determined that the cycle beginning with rain water falling on and filtering through the rocks and soil of Cedar Mountain into a deep subterranean aquifer and up again into the spring takes 3,500 years. Along the way, the water collects minerals and special qualities.  Some believe it has healing properties.  It's relatively low in sodium.  High in calcium and magnesium, and even naturally contains fluoride.  See for yourself.   Perhaps what's most outstanding about this water is that it has a naturally high pH.  The alkalinity gives it a wonderful mouth feel and is a great compliment to food and wine which are typically more acidic.

Mt. Valley Spring Water has been served in the United States Senate and enjoyed by multiple U.S. presidents.  Calvin Coolidge was the first American president to serve Mountain Valley Spring Water in the White House. Following a heart attack in 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower drank the water on the advice of his physician. Bill Clinton enjoyed the water, and even spoke at the re-dedication of historic company headquarters and visitor center. 

Other notable connoisseurs of the water included Elvis Presley and boxing champions Joe Louis, Gene Tunney, and Sugar Ray Robinson. Rodney Dangerfield even sang it's praises on Larry King Live. Consumption of the water has not been limited to humans: thoroughbreds such as Secretariat, Nashua, Kelso, Bold Ruler, and Sunday Silence were trained on this famous spring water. 

Most importantly, this water really is a southern treasure --- a taste of the place and the land, which is the most compelling reason of all to include it on the list of fine products we serve to our guests.