Month: August 2013

The culinary world in general is a small and intimate one, and in a town the size of Charlottesville, it’s akin to an extended family. Like most extended families, Charlottesville’s culinary clan can be dysfunctional or wild from time to time, but when faced with a tragedy within, ranks are closed and everyone responds with their heart and soul. On August 18 at Glass Haus Kitchen, a veritable who’s who of the local culinary world gathered to raise money for two of their own, chef Melissa Close-Hart of Palladio Restaurant at Barboursville Vineyards and her husband, Matthew Hart of The Local, who lost their home to a fire in mid-July.

The event’s organizer, Mike Yager of Glass Haus, explained how it all came about. “We heard Melissa had a fire. I ran over to her house. I saw the damage and came back and started scheming right away,” he said.

Glass Haus chef Ian Boden, who attended culinary school with Close-Hart and prepared the night’s first course, said, “As cooks and chefs, we don’t have a lot of perks in this world, but one of the things we do have is the community we are a part of. It’s always a pretty tight-knit community, so our reaction to any kind of a disaster is to feed people. It’s what we do.”

Each of the night’s five courses were prepared by a different area chef—Jeremy Butterfield of Stonefire Kitchen and Diego Gottardo of Palladio; Craig Hartman and Brooks Tanner of BBQ Exchange; and Curtis Shaver of Hamiltons’ at First & Main, plus the night’s hosts, Boden and Yager.

“Personally, what I want to get out of this is to hang out with a bunch of my buddies and do something good for somebody in the community,” Yager said. “Melissa is like a mother to me. My mom in Arizona deemed her my ‘Virginia Mother.’” And Yager wasn’t the only one in the kitchen with that kind of a connection.

Hartman, one of the elder statesmen of the Charlottesville culinary scene, came from his Gordonsville ’Q joint to help out a longtime friend and colleague.

“We hired Melissa at the Clifton Inn after her first internship from the New England Culinary Institute,” he said. “We fell in love with her right away—her cooking and everything about her.“ After leaving Clifton—which donated to the silent auction—and opening a place in Colorado called the Cliff House, Hartman needed a sous chef. “Right away I thought of her, and oh my gosh, what a job she did.”

All told, about 90 guests filled Glass Haus for the event, including a few other culinary luminaries from around the region who chose to eat rather than cook. Chef Tomas Rahal of MAS; Gay Beery of A Pimento Catering and her husband, Josef; Collins Huff and his wife, Ramona, of Gryffon’s Aerie meats; and chef Amalia Scatena of Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyard were all in attendance, to name a few.

When it was all over, attendees had consumed pickled okra, corn gnocchi, striped bass, achiote pork, and oatmeal cream pie, with wine donated by Barboursville and Pollak vineyards.

Said Close-Hart between tears, “It’s meant a lot to us—all this food, friends, and family coming together to help us out in a time of need. The food is awesome, with the Charlottesville heavy hitters in the kitchen. Even if you didn’t know me and Matty, to come here for this dinner would be amazing. We’re just so thankful.”

Choosing wine is never easy, but it’s always a pleasurable challenge. The mere thought of heading to the local wine shop makes me giddy with anticipation, with so many possibilities looming behind those doors. But finding quality, everyday drinking wines under $20 is difficult, and even harder if you don’t know what to look for.

As a rule of thumb, wines from appellations neighboring some of the most famous in the world are about a third of the price, without compromising integrity. The areas of the Rhône and Loire valleys are some of the best examples. Domaine du Coing Chardonnay from the Loire Valley is versatile and crisp, due to being unoaked, allowing the fresh fruit notes of pears and quince to display prominently. Its lowly designation of a Vin de Pays, meaning “country wine,” makes its value underappreciated by the French—lucky for us ($10.99 at Market Street Wineshop).

Another great Loire Valley find is a Sauvignon Blanc made by Michel Langlois. Right off the bat, it’s pretty obvious they saved some money on label design, as it’s not much to look at, but that’s not nearly as important as what’s inside. The wine shows classic notes of grapefruit and refreshing minerality that come from the limestone and clay soils of its origin. This wine is best suited for those who prefer a fuller bodied, yet dry white wine ($12.99 at Market Street Market). In the Rhône Valley, value wines are easy to come by with plenty of Côtes du Rhône and village appellations to choose from. These wines, in a nutshell, are declassified Chateauneuf du Pâpe and Vaqueras wines, which come with much stricter wine laws and a hefty price tag. Michel Chapoutier’s Bila Haut is a Côtes de Roussillon Village-designated wine made from syrah, grenache, and carignan grapes ($13.99 at Market Street Market). It shows the savage aromas of syrah, the jammy spiciness of grenache, and the dried herb characteristics of carignan, making it a full-bodied, mineral-driven red wine suited for grilled meats and duck. The Chapoutier line of wines spans from high end, single origin appellations to organic and middle-of-the-road whites and reds.

I’m a sucker for Italian wines across the board, but the whites from Campania take the cake, and are often priced affordably, which make them a realistic option. They have personality, floral aromas, bright acidity, and an oily texture unmatched by other regions. The Cantina del Taburno Falanghina is optimal, with hints of lemon peel, pineapple, and supple ripe pear. It is well suited for seafood and light appetizers ($16.99 at Market Street Market).

Moving north to the Piedmont region, where some of the finest wines of the world are crafted, the G.D. Vajra Langhe Rosso comprises a mélange of pinot nero, dolcetto, nebbiolo, barbera, and albarossa. It is a lighter-bodied red wine with noticeable tannins (almost) rivaling its big brothers, Barolo and Barbaresco, while showing similar notes of bright cherry and violets. The family-owned and run winery makes fantastic expressions of those as well, but at an affordable price, this bottle can be enjoyed with greater frequency ($15.99 at Beer Run). It’s a solid match for charcuterie and aged hard cheeses, which cut through the sharp tannins.

The Folk Machine Tocai Friuli rivals its Italian heritage in the new world. It is round, creamy, and ripe, with candied lemon rind, grapefruit, and plenty of aromatics. This producer focuses on making quality, esoteric wines and has succeeded with this one. Serve it with Vietnamese food and the puzzle is complete ($14.99 at Greenwood Gourmet).

Austrian wines are often affordable and quaffable, with many Grüner Veltliners on the market that are thirst-quenching and don’t require much thought. Meinklang in Burgenland makes a Pinot Noir that is organic and biodynamic ($16.99 at Market Street Market). With this grape gaining popularity in the U.S., prices are going up in regions like Oregon and California, and have remained steadily high in France’s Burgundy region, but this one hovers within our everyday threshold. It is fresh, with notes of white pepper and jammy fruit, and easily packable for a picnic of prosciutto, cured meats, and cheese—it even has a screw cap! The wine is vegan and vegetarian friendly, even if the picnic foods aren’t.

Finding inexpensive local wines proved more challenging than anticipated, with many selections hovering right around or just over the $20 mark. The Pollak Vineyards rosé is made from the saignée (meaning “to bleed”) method from cabernet franc grapes. It’s refreshing and reminiscent of strawberry and rhubarb jam, but with a dry finish and vibrant acidity. Perfect for end-of-summer weather ($16 at Greenwood Gourmet).

Tracey Love is the event coordinator at Blenheim Vineyards, the sales and marketing associate for the Best of What’s Around farm, and proprietress of Hill & Holler.

It’s true what people say: All the great things are simple, and they are especially so if they’re old and cherished. To enter Nancy and Michael McCarthy’s Batesville home is like stepping back in time. Through its iron bar front door to the original wood paneling that follows the space throughout the open floorplan, it’s hard to believe that this is the original Craigs Store, built in 1822—a structure that was once a stage coach stop, a post office, and a general store and that has surely witnessed many lives and daily occurrences in a time that now seems a very distant past.

The McCarthys bought the property in 2008, around the same time they purchased Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie, the beloved pizza joint in North Garden. The house fell in their lap; they were not actively looking to relocate. In fact, they’d just completed a chef’s kitchen in their Downtown Charlottesville residence.

“I just had a very dramatic reaction to it,” said Nancy. “It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I remember walking in the master bedroom and getting teary eyed.”

The kitchen sits on the right corner of the large first floor of the two-story house; it is small and dark, but charming and absolutely perfect. The family who lived in the house in the late 1970s and ’80s did most of the renovations and used materials found around the property.

“The house really lends itself to family life,” said Nancy, looking over at her two young sons, 3 and 1. “It’s very functional. If you are standing in the kitchen making a meal, you can see what the kids are doing and that makes it really easy.”

The McCarthys haven’t done much to renovate the 1970s-era kitchen, aside from changing a light fixture, replacing the old hood fan with a new one, and adding stylish crown molding. But they like it that way; it reflects their new way of life, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. They do have plans to add a soapstone countertop, but are not ready to alter the feel of the house.

“The simpler we live, the happier I am,” she said.

Simple is only in terms of space and finishes, because what the house lacks in that department, it makes up in spectacular views of pastures and nearby farms and an overall peace that is lost in most modern dwellings.

“It’s really majestic and beautiful. We got to sit on the front porch a lot when we first bought it, because we didn’t have children,” Nancy said. “We used to sit there at night and listen to nothing and everything; you could hear the cows chewing the grass.”

Standing at the stainless steel sink, one can work a pizza dough and look out to the hilly meadows in the sun and feel completely at ease. During the “Snowmageddon” a couple of years ago, the silence and white landscape was worthy of a postcard.

“We felt like we were at the end of the earth, because there was nobody driving by,” she said.

Little objects dispersed around the house remind them of the tradition they bought into: the framed 1899 ABC license that hangs in the first floor bathroom; the kitchen cabinets made out of wood from the property; the current playroom that was once a post office. Everywhere you stand, history surrounds you with welcoming warmth—especially the kitchen.

“Food is the heart and soul of our family,” said Nancy. “It feeds us, literally.” It is not surprising considering Michael is a trained chef who bakes between 40 and 150 pizzas every day. Over a lunch of pizza with Virginia ham, figs, blue cheese, golden raisins soaked in cherry vinegar and balsamic, the McCarthys’ reminisce on the old days of city living and the new freedom of living in the country, entertaining relatives, and using the kitchen every day as a family.

“It’s neat to live in a house so old, where so many people have lived in before,” Nancy said.