Twitty’s tradition
We’re all familiar with Thomas Jefferson’s affinity for gastronomy, right? The garden at Monticello remains just as impressive now as it was 200 years ago, and this town can’t get enough when it comes to what Jefferson loved to eat and drink. But what about his slaves, the people who did the gardening and cooking for him?
On May 29-31, world-renowned culinary historian Michael Twitty will host “Cooking in the Enslaved Community,” as part of Jefferson’s Virginia Summer Festival, recreating meals that Jefferson’s cook, Hannah, likely prepared for him. The cooking demonstration and other related events will take place at Jefferson’s retreat Poplar Forest, just south of Lynchburg, so it’s a bit of a haul from Charlottesville. But for the plentiful history buffs and foodies in this town, it could be worth the drive.
According to Poplar Forest director of programs Wayne Gannaway, Twitty will hold a cooking demonstration and tell the story of Hannah, the enslaved woman who lived year-round at Poplar Forest. She cooked elaborate meals for Jefferson and his visitors in the main house’s fancy kitchen, and had a very different set of cooking ware and ingredients when she prepared meals for herself and her own family.
“More and more we’re trying harder to tell the whole, broader story, the story of the people who were there year-round when Jefferson was up in Monticello,” Gannaway said. “And one way to understand the lives they led is to understand their foodways traditions.”
Twitty will demonstrate the preparation of a typical meal that Hannah would have cooked for her family, including proteins like rabbit and locally-caught fish, and other rationed and foraged ingredients like new potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, collard greens and lard.
“Food can be sort of a doorway to understanding another culture and another time,” Gannaway said.
To order tickets for the event, visit www.poplarforest.org/events. Gannaway said guests won’t be able to sample the grub prepared by Twitty, unfortunately, but a local African-American diner will provide food for the social event before the presentation.
More marketing
If you work downtown and love the breakfast sandwiches at Market Street Market (and how could you not love the breakfast sandwiches at Market Street Market?), it’s your lucky day. MSM owners Steve and Raphael Strumlauf have taken over the small coffee shop at the ground level of the SNL Financial building at 212 Seventh St. NE and made it an outpost for their gourmet grocery store.
The hole in the wall became open to the public in addition to SNL staff when La Taza began running it several years ago. Strumlauf said that since he and his partner were asked to take it over, they’ve remodeled, added a high-end espresso machine and focused on getting the word out to non-SNL employees. They officially reopened the doors in early March.
“We do all the espresso-based drinks and coffee—it’s like a little European coffee bar,” Steve Strumlauf said. “We bring over food from Market Street Market every day.”
In addition to those brecky sammies—think flaky biscuits stuffed with thick-cut bacon and semi-runny fried eggs—the new café offers fresh croissants, muffins, salads and lunch sandwiches, all made fresh down the road at the corner of Fourth and Market.
Strumlauf said the new spot offers an Internet ordering system so folks in the neighborhood can request specific items from the main store and pick them up at the café—so long as the order is in by 10am. The coffee shop is open 7:30am to 4pm Monday through Friday and staffed by Tom Walker, a sunny dude who Strumlauf said regulars requested be kept on after MSM took over.
“We redid the entire thing, pulled everything out and put in all new everything—except for Tom,” Strumlauf said.
Cure-all
Think the bacon craze is going away? Get your head out of the trough.
Charlottesville will hold its first-ever festival devoted entirely to the pig belly product on May 30 at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion. The Cured Central Virginia Bacon Festival will feature two to three bacon dishes by at least a dozen C’ville restaurants, as well as stand-alone porky concoctions. Currently signed up to lend their swine-serving skills are Ivy Provisions, The Barbeque Exchange, Brookville Restaurant, Citizen Burger Bar and many others.
Starr Hill will provide beer for the event and relaunch its Smoke Out, an award-winning rauchbier (a smoked German style) that brewmaster Robbie O’Cain said “pairs with just about every dish offered by these great local restaurants. It’s bacon and beer–what more do you need?”
In case there is more you need, Bold Rock will have hard cider on hand, local wineries will offer up the vino and the Buzzard Hollow Boys will trot out the entertainment. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 the day of the event. For $60, very important people get bacon-themed demonstrations and access to a VIP area and their own bathrooms.