Author: Chiara Canzi

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Abode Magazines

Mellow yellow: A vibrant city kitchen stays surprisingly calm

To keep things affordable, Alloy sourced a lot of the materials—cabinetry, plumbing fixtures—from IKEA, and mixed in other elements like butcher block counters and a stainless steel backsplash. Photo: Andrea Hubbell

Stephanie Tatel and Christian McMillen had only a vague idea of what they wanted their new kitchen to look like—nothing too firm or detailed, but they knew it had to be functional for a busy family of four. Enter Alloy, a Charlottesville-based architecture and design studio that specializes in construction and production.

“We didn’t really know what we wanted and, in a way, they kind of told us what we wanted,” said McMillen.

From the beginning, Alloy, McMillen, and Tatel worked together to make an old and tired space look and feel more modern.

“Part of the reason we went with them is that we share their design aesthetic,” said Tatel. “We didn’t want a country kitchen.”

The original 1950s-style kitchen, with a brick fireplace and an impractical entryway that cut counter space in half, made way for stainless steel appliances, wood countertops, and white cabinets with frosted glass doors. The end result is a bright, functional space that meets all the family’s needs.

McMillen and Tatel bought the property in August of 2012 and spent some time remodeling the kitchen and basement office. During the couple of months of construction, the family relocated to the basement with a makeshift kitchen—inconvenient, sure, but made for some fond memories. Even now, reminiscing over before-and-after photos, their kids’ giggles are proof that sometimes dismantling and rebuilding can be fun.

“There is nothing from the old kitchen left,” said McMillen—only the hardwood floors from the dining room remained in place. The old cabinets were poorly maintained and were replaced with sleek IKEA cabinets, white on the bottom and with frosted glass for over the counter.

“[Alloy] helped us figure out where to save money,” said McMillen, like the installation of a stainless steel backsplash. “We didn’t want an overdose of stainless steel,” but just that little bit of sheen added extra texture.

The light feel of the space is broken only by the bright red marmoleum floor, a durable bio-based linoleum. Although the kitchen’s overall footprint remained the same, a few key alterations transformed the space into something much more functional. First, the refrigerator now sits where there was once a fireplace. The awkward entryway was also closed off to give the family uninterrupted countertop and cabinet space. The result is a perfect balance between functionality and style.

The butcher-block countertops run throughout the U-shaped kitchen.

“The wood gives it a much warmer feel. It offsets the cold of the stainless steel,” said Tatel.

Tatel adores the big white ceramic sink that sits opposite the row of glass cabinets. Even though it takes up a bit of counter space, it organically fits with its surroundings.

“The space is big enough for more than one person to be here at one time,” she said, looking around the kitchen. “It’s open but not completely open.”

Next to the kitchen is a dining room that features clearstory windows and a big dining table. The same space is home to a mini mudroom with floor-to-ceiling cabinets and a custom designed coat-and-backpack rack. For a high-traffic area, it doesn’t seem frenetic.

“It feels peaceful to me,” said Tatel.

The breakdown

Kitchen: 196 square feet

Dining/living: 298 square feet

Deck: 285 square feet

Primary materials or finishes: Cabinets from IKEA, Pella windows.

Lighting: Ceiling lights from Y-Lighting.

Plumbing fixtures and appliances: Sink (BREDSKAR), faucet (TARNAN), range (FRAMTID), dishwasher (RENUG), and refrigerator (NLITID) from IKEA.

Other notable, custom, or innovative features: Custom deck screening, maple butcher block countertops by McMaster Carr, stainless steel backsplash by NHE. A large center island is topped with limestone, and the bar (bottom right) is kyanite, a mineral that, in its raw state, is a blue crystal that expands irreversibly when heated. The home’s original architecture featured a double parlor separated by a large arch. Dixon (below) designed the renovated kitchen, which stands in the same footprint as its earlier incarnation, to employ the same element, keeping it separate from—but visually connected to—the dining room.

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Abode

Light hearted: An 1817 farmhouse upgrades with a bright, modern kitchen

Photo by Christian Hommel

The idea of uncovering a buried treasure is not impossible in Virginia. With its rich history, the Commonwealth allows a homeowner to embark on a farmhouse renovation and suddenly find herself unearthing historical documents dating back to the early 1800s. At least, that’s how it happened for Julie Dixon. While removing the attic flooring in her 1817 Dillwyn home, Dixon came upon letters documenting the property’s early existence.

45Rosney_House-
The home’s original architecture featured a double parlor separated by a large arch. Dixon designed the renovated kitchen, which stands in the same footprint as its earlier incarnation, to employ the same element, keeping it separate from—but visually connected to—the dining room. Photo: Christian Hommel

Named after Rosny, an obscure French poet, the house was built by the Bolling family, direct descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Anyone familiar with the area will recognize the names of three other Bolling-built houses: Chellowe, Saratoga, and Indian Gap. Dixon and her husband bought Rosny in 2000 and began a master kitchen addition in 2006.

“The new kitchen stands in the exact footprint of the earlier kitchen, which has been moved to a new location on the farm and is now our guest house,” said Dixon.

1Rosney_House-[edit]
Photo by Christian Hommel
The family was determined to marry the old and the new. Just as they removed heart pine flooring from the attic and reused it in the kitchen, they took inspiration from the home’s previous life when concepting the renovation. Rich Lee Industries bar stools complement the stain of the hardwoods; modern “sparkling wine”-colored cabinetry is accessorized with vintage-inspired ice box hardware; the mantel and doors were salvaged from old houses in the area and stripped of years of paint.

“We wanted to fit all the elements of modernity into this addition so that we could preserve the old part of the house as purely as possible,” she said.

Even the bones of the farmhouse were taken into account. The home’s original architecture employed a double parlor that was divided symmetrically by an arch. Dixon, an architect at Rosney Co., said this feature has been repeated in the new kitchen to add consistency to the lines and feel of the original property. It separates the kitchen and adjacent eating area without visually disconnecting the two.

3Rosney_House-[edit]
A large center island is topped with limestone. Photo by Christian Hommel
For anyone who cooks, it’s Dixon’s stove that steals the show. A massive French Lacanche range, dark in base color with silver and gold accents, it is nestled between two great windows and directly in front of the sink on the kitchen’s limestone-topped island.

Dixon said she has learned to love cooking (vegetarian for her, but pork and beef dishes for her family, since her husband raises and slaughters cattle on the farm) in part because of the stove, but also thanks to the kitchen’s ambience.

19Rosney_House-[edit]
The bar is kyanite, a mineral that, in its raw state, is a blue crystal that expands irreversibly when heated. Photo by Christian Hommel
“This room contains abundant natural light and connects seamlessly to the outdoors. In this case, it gets light from three sides and spills directly onto the porch outside,” Dixon said.

Above the island hang three modern light fixtures from Restoration Hardware and track lighting on the ceiling that gives off enough brightness to recall a warm summer day. Said Dixon, “It feels like sunshine. It’s bright even on a rainy day.”

61Rosney_House-
Photo by Christian Hommel

 

The breakdown

450 square feet

Primary materials or finishes

Reclaimed heart pine floor mantel and doors; Kyanite countertops from Kyanite Mining Corporation in Dillwyn (bar); Limestone countertops and backsplash from Paris Ceramics (kitchen); Lacanche range.

Lighting

Mrs. Howard custom iron fixture (Charlotte, North Carolina); Restoration Hardware pendant lights; Low-voltage cable lights from Farmville Wholesale Electric.

Plumbing Fixtures 

Perrin & Rowe faucet

Other notable, custom, or innovative features

Leaded glass display on upper and bar cabinets; reclaimed pocket doors to pantry and office; ice box hardware.

Categories
Abode Magazines

In the middle: A centralized kitchen undergoes an overhaul

Photo: Christian Hommel

“This was a typical ’60s ranch house,” said architect David Day of Kamilla Schenck’s Bellair residence. As the floorplan dictated, small rooms crowded the space, making the living and sleeping quarters feel disjointed, so the house was gutted.

“The only things that remained were the main floor structure, the basement, the walls, and most of the windows,” said Day.

Interestingly, while most of the living and sleeping spaces were moved from their original location, the kitchen stayed in the same spot and got bigger.

“The kitchen really worked where it was,” said Day, who worked with builder Shelter Associates Ltd., on the project.

The renovation, which took 11 months, focused on amplifying open spaces and bringing in natural light. Schenck and Day wanted to retain the integrity of the house and respected its previous life, so they preserved small reminders in design details.

“We kept all of the original floors and in the infill, where we removed wall, we moved [the wood] 90 degrees, so you can walk around and find the floor plan of the original house,” said Day. “Really, it’s a way to tell the story of the house.”

The kitchen is open and light, but it also offers privacy, like a box with open corners. It is exactly as Schenck envisioned it.

Photo: Christian Hommell
Photo: Christian Hommel

“From the very beginning, the thought was the feeling of it more than how it looked,” said Schenck. “I am Swedish, so I wanted the Swedish clean design with functionality being the primary driver, but I also spent time living in Spain and I wanted some warmth.”

The cabinets wrap the space on each side, but do so with a muted clear maple color and modern stainless steel fixtures. Opposite the wine cellar is a wall of cabinets with space-saving shelving and a Thermador refrigerator faced with maple panels that blend in. Schenck designed the space with her children in mind. Drawers with everyday utensils are at arm’s length, while other more delicate items are stored higher up.

“I wanted [the space] to be simple and peaceful, and that’s why I stuck to very few materials and colors,” said Schenck. “I wanted it open, but not exposed, and David was really good about creating the opening feeling without making it too open.”

From the kitchen, the view spans to the living room, with its masterfully designed fireplace and vaulted ceiling, to the light-filled dining room, and the entrance of the property.

27March_Kitchen-
From the small sink in the granite-topped central island, the eye has an uncomplicated view of the living room and its vaulted ceilings. Photo: Christian Hommel

Unsealed black granite countertops stretch from the stainless steel sink wall, to the wine cellar, to the central island, to the cooktop wall. The massive central island sports a small, round sink Schenck decided on mainly to ease the cooking process. The main kitchen sink sits at the opposite end of the room, so far that carrying a big pot of water to the stove could be pretty inconvenient. Schenck’s children also use the tiny sink to wash their hands and get ready for a meal.

The stove is a sleek Gaggenau induction stovetop that heats up water in no time and whose surface never gets hot. Schenck preferred it to a gas stove for accuracy and safety. It is also so seamlessly mounted that when it is not in use, Schenck is happy to have an additional working surface for her baking endeavors.

58March_Kitchen-
Muted maple cabinets warm up the spare space and conceal the refrigerator. Photo: Christian Hommel

What made this project so successful, said Day, was the attention to detail in the partnership between the owner, architect, and builder. Day said all the parties worked together from day one, consulting with each other to solve each problem.

Schenck spent a lot of time designing the space and had help from her mother on vacation from Sweden. She recalled days spent delineating the location of appliances and cabinets with tape on the floor. Always, of course, with the architect’s trustworthy eye as a guide.

“I told him how I wanted it to feel and he created that feeling,” she said. “To make this feel and look simple is hard.”

Categories
Living

My Chocolate Shoppe makes its debut on the Downtown Mall

Mary Beth Schellhammer, the owner of My Chocolate Shoppe on the Downtown Mall, invites customers to watch her craft her handmade chocolate treats, which range in style from the traditional, like old-fashioned caramels, to the hip, like her chocolate-dipped bacon. Photo: Elli Williams

Valentine’s Day may have come and gone, but who says it needs to be a special occasion for you to treat yourself to some chocolate? 

It’s finally here. A Downtown shop devoted entirely to chocolate. It’s as if it were custom made to satisfy my cocoa-infused taste buds. If there is anything in this world I positively could not live without, it’s chocolate. Fudge? Nutella? Chocolate dipped strawberries? Handfuls of M&Ms? My fellow chocoholics know exactly what I’m talking about, and My Chocolate Shoppe sets out to be the fulfillment of our dreams and desires. Literally.

Located on the second to last block of the Downtown Mall, My Chocolate Shoppe has moved into the old Painting & Prose gallery and bookstore, nestled between the Old Dominion Bookshop and The Young Mens Shop.

Owner Mary Beth Schellhammer has filled the new store with 29 types of handmade chocolaty treats, ranging from subtle flavors like pineapple ginger and rosemary mint to classics like caramels and truffles. The chocolatier’s path to her career was not linear, and she found herself running a chocolate business almost by chance.

“I worked in the corporate world selling office machines and I did that for 15 years,” she said, sitting in the back of the shop just days before the February 8 grand opening. Corporate America could only hold her attention for so long, though, and she craved a career that combined her love for cooking, flavor creation, and contagious positive energy. She enrolled in a personal chef course at L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Maryland, cooked meals for busy families in Fredericksburg, catered wedding receptions and dinner parties, and, as if that weren’t enough, began making her own desserts. One of these desserts was a rosemary-mint chocolate.

“People were asking me ‘Do you have other flavors, where can I get this? How can I get more chocolate?’ So before I knew it, I had a chocolate company,” Schellhammer said.

After opening her first shop in Fredericksburg two years ago, she began experimenting with original caramel and fudge recipes.

Provenance of the cocoa and the uniqueness of the products are essential components of a successful chocolate shop, and Schellhammer has taken both to heart. She uses 100 percent pure Belgian chocolate, shipped and delivered to her door—2,500 pounds at a time. And when those materials arrive by the ton, they go into small, controlled batches, with recipes Schellhammer is proud to call her own.

“My caramel recipe is mine and is not going to taste like anybody else’s caramel,” she said. “I also make my own peanut butter cups. It’s all about quality ingredients and everything is done in small batches.”

Schellhammer treats chocolate with assertion and firm fondness.

“Chocolate is very temperamental. It’s much harder to work with than what people think,” she said. “But I love the way it makes people smile. No one comes here mad, or if they do, they all leave happy.”

And not only do her chocolates induce instant bliss, but they’ve won two major state awards. In 2008, her grapefruit-lavender chocolate won Best New Food at the Virginia Food and Beverage Expo, a trade show sponsored by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In 2010, her Mexican Chiapas coffee bean-infused chocolate won the same category.

After these victories, Schellhammer posed herself a serious question: Should she keep going strong wholesaling her award-winning chocolate to Europe and start manufacturing, or should she switch gears and open a boutique retail store in Virginia?

“I decided mass producing was not where I wanted to go,” she said.

If you want to see for yourself, Schellhammer invites the public to come in and observe as she mixes, melts, and dips her chocolates and fudge. And while you’re there, you’ve got to try the ultimate sweet and salty combo: chocolate-dipped bacon. That’s right, bacon. The slices slathered in milk or dark chocolate are her best seller, and a perfect example of the balance of flavor she strives to achieve.

Speaking of balancing flavors, how about the classic s’more with…some more chocolate?

“There is never enough chocolate in a s’more,” Schellhammer said. “So we dip the entire thing in chocolate. I think it really balances everything out.”

Eventually, Schellhammer hopes to turn the back of the store into a chocolate school and event venue. Her vision is to hold workshops and classes for aspiring chocolatiers, and use the space to host birthday parties and other formal events.

And to all milk chocolate lovers out there, Schellhammer has a challenge.

“I will convert anybody in this town who doesn’t like dark chocolate,” she said. “My dark chocolate is not bitter, doesn’t have the aftertaste. Dark chocolate has so many health benefits and it’s a blank canvas. You can do so much more with it.”

I’m ready. Bring it on.

White out

One thing you won’t see much of
in the new shop is white chocolate. Candy-makers have a tendency
to use too much sugar in their confections, Schellhammer said, but she tries to strike a balance between sweetness and other flavors.
“A lot of people will add so much sugar to chocolate and it makes it so overly sweet,” she said. “White chocolate is all sugar, and that’s why I don’t do much with it.”

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Abode Magazines

From start to Finnish: A Belmont kitchen gets the Scandinavian treatment

A trained chef, Ingrid Cordano started designing her kitchen before anything else in the house. She wanted it to be an oasis for her, but a convenient gathering spot for her four-person family, too. Photo: Christian Hommel

Ingrid Cordano and her husband are experts in kitchen design.

“This is the third kitchen we’ve designed during our marriage,” she said. And it shows. The Cordanos’ Belmont home is a modern treasure that feels fresh and light at first pass: long, straight lines converge into interesting architectural features punctuated by bright, lively colors. And everything has been carefully conceived.

Photo: Christian Hommel
Photo: Christian Hommel

The Cordanos bought the Belmont lot a few years before they began working on designing their forever home. They chose to work with Latitude 38, a local design and build firm that specializes in ecofriendly construction with a distinctly modern aesthetic. Construction began in October 2012 and the house was ready for move-in in June of 2013.

“For me, the kitchen needs to be in the center of the house,” she said. “It’s where I spend 85 percent of my time. It needed to have access to what is going on around the house, especially with young kids.”

Ultimately, Cordano wanted a kitchen that was accessible to the family, but not so much so that she would get no alone time. When she is cooking, Cordano is focused, so she designed a space where the most often-used items—dishes for everyday dinner, silverware, or even napkins—would be at the easy disposal of her daughters, ages 6 and 4. Take the dishwasher: It sits adjacent to a low drawer that stores plates, cups, and pots, so emptying it does not become an Olympic event of coordination and agility.

Photo: Christian Hommel
Photo: Christian Hommel

Cordano is a chef and an engineer by trade. After graduating from UVA, she and her husband moved to New York City, where she attended culinary school and became a personal chef. “That justified having a big kitchen,” she said, with a proud smile.

The space is indeed large, but it doesn’t overrun the nearby TV room or the central staircase that leads to the sleeping quarters.

Modern appliances and light, non-contrasting materials adorn every surface of the space, another hint that the kitchen was built before the rest of the house.

Cordano admits to one extravagance.

“I designed a lot of the kitchen around a dish-drying cabinet,” she said. “In Finland, where I was born and spend a lot of time, we have things called drying cabinets instead of having a dish drainer on the counter.” The cabinet rests on one end of a butcher block countertop that runs the entire length of a wall of windows.

Convenience is king in Cordano's kitchen, where she and Latitude 38 incorporated smart features like a drying cabinet, appliance garage, and large drawers for pots and pans. Photo: Christian Hommel
Convenience is king in Cordano’s kitchen, where she and Latitude 38 incorporated smart features like a drying cabinet, appliance garage, and large drawers for pots and pans. Photo: Christian Hommel

Cordano’s Finnish heritage is evident in other design choices, too—from the white IKEA cabinets to the appliances to the white speckled countertop. The eye moves from place to place with ease and relaxation.

“I know white is trendy, but for me, white is timeless,” she said. “I wanted something that felt Scandinavian.”

The sink sits next to the drying cabinet. The opposite leg of the U-shaped space is reserved for the big refrigerator and the cooktop, which is surrounded by more cabinetry.

The long butcher-block countertop is a handy office space for Cordano, who admits to moving her computer to that spot for late-night Internet browsing. During the day, the countertop houses small appliances used in everyday cooking.

Her favorite feature, however, is the view from the window above the butcher block counter. The light hits the right spots all day long and the sun shines through big, wide windows, which are elevated enough from the working space that they preserve a little intimacy and privacy from the neighbors.

“I think that it is within everyone’s grasp to design a good kitchen,” she said. Her advice? “Just write down all the tasks that you have to do in the kitchen on a day-to-day basis and you can fine-tune the design based on that.”

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Living

Cabin in the wood: Rustic and modern mingle in this mountain home

Wood is a unifying theme in the Nellysford kitchen--seen in beams overhead, lining the walls, and in the red oak floors. Granite countertops and white cabinetry modernize the space. An adjoining porch makes room for the whole family. Photo: Christian Hommel

In Dick and Sandi Averitt’s kitchen, beauty lives in the details. And the details in this mountain home are all wood: beams across the ceiling, paneling on the walls, and rich red oak floors running throughout the space. The Averitts’ cabin, their second home, underwent a complete renovation over the last 14 months that focused on keeping the feel of the nearby Wintergreen nature views while adding a touch of modernity.

Take, for instance, the granite countertops on one side of the kitchen, which plays off the wide white enameled country sink on the other. Flecked with a deep wine color, they’re reminiscent of the hills that surround the open-floor-plan cabin, and they include specks of white and silver seen in the stainless appliances.

Sandi, an avid cook, didn’t want to give up modern amenities, like a top-notch stove.

“I wanted a gas stovetop,” she said. “I have long found that I prefer gas cooking. That was an absolute must.” The stovetop sits in the middle of a long slab of countertop that looks directly to the center of the dining area—perfect for entertaining.

The dark, rich tones of the wood—both in the walls and on the floor—are complemented by several window panels and a massive screened-in porch that has 180-degree views of the surrounding wilderness and seats the Averitts’ extended family of three kids and seven grandchildren.

ALLOY Construction, a design-build firm based in Charlottesville, oversaw the renovation, which took a little over a year, including a weather-related delay when a strong summer storm knocked a century-old tree onto the cabin, thankfully without devastating damage.

Because this is the Averitts’ second home, they didn’t skimp on amenities. They installed an elevator, added a grand, two-story fireplace, transformed the loft into the master bedroom, and adorned the outside of the cabin with a 12′ wrap-around porch.

But the kitchen serves as the home’s hub because of its accessibility. The Averitts worked with ALLOY to make sure the layout was logical: The dishwasher sits next to the sink so that putting dirty dishes away is easy. The oven is encased next to the stovetop, so that steaming casserole dishes can move from one to the other without much effort. And revolving shelves adorn both corners of the counter, complete with accordion-fold doors and two round shelves to maximize cabinet space.

When Sandi is at the cabin, cooking becomes a daily occurrence—on purpose.

“I am just delighted about the way the kitchen turned out,” she said.

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Living

With only six ingredients, tiramisu is a classic crowd pleaser

Caffe Bocce’s classic Italian tiramisu features Marsala wine and “really strong coffee.” Photo: Elli Williams

For being one of the most popular and most recognized desserts in the world, tiramisu’s provenance and time of origin is still a bit of a mystery. There are those who say that it was first created in the Tuscan city of Siena as an homage to the Grand Duke Cosimo III de Medici in the 17th century. But there are accounts, like the 2007 Washington Post investigation by Jane Black, that place the birth of the dessert in its most plausible context: a he said, she said battle among cities and chefs in northern Italy. Regardless, it makes for a pretty great story.

As for the dessert itself, tiramisu is fairly simple and always tasty. Although there are regional variations, the original recipe has only six ingredients: eggs, sugar, mascarpone cheese, coffee, biscuits, and cocoa. Translated from Italian it literally means “pick me up,” most likely in reference to the shot (or more) of espresso used to soak the cookies.

I first tried my hand at creating tiramisu as a teenager, both as a way to connect with my heritage and impress friends and crushes. It is almost impossible to mess up this dessert, but parents, take it from someone who started young: Keep an eye on your kids during the whisking step. Those egg whites tend to splash all over the place.

According to my mom, who is the de-facto tiramisu expert in my opinion, the most important ingredient is the coffee. Caffe Bocce pastry chef Joy Kuhar agrees.

“Really strong coffee” is what gives tiramisu that familiar kick, according to Kuhar. If the coffee is top quality, even bottom shelf cookies stand a chance. (Not that Caffe Bocce uses bottom shelf cookies—they’re imported straight from Italy.)

The original recipe calls for savoiardi, or ladyfingers—soft and chewy baked treats that originated in the Duchy of Savoy in the 15th century as sweets prepared for the annual carnival festivities. Savoiardi can be found almost everywhere today; my favorites are at Foods of All Nations. They’re pillowy soft and topped with a thin layer of sugar that gives an extra element with a light crunch.

Dip the savoiardi, one by one, into warm espresso, which needs to be brewed especially for the dessert and be free from any external flavor. Once the cookies are soaked, arrange them in the bottom of a cooking pan or loaf terrine, and cover them with a layer of zabaglione, the light, slightly whipped custard—or, as I like to say, the Italian, lighter version of eggnog.

The zabaglione is made in a few easy-but-very-important-to-keep-separate steps. First, separate the egg yolks from the egg whites; whisk together the yolks with sugar until a cream is formed. Next, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the mascarpone cheese—which you can pick up at Foods of All Nations, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s—to the yolk cream, then finally add the whipped egg whites. That’s it. The zabaglione is done.

According to Kuhar, tiramisu is by far Caffe Bocce’s most popular dessert

“Our customers say it’s the best they have ever tried,” she said.

For a little pizazz, Kuhar adds Marsala wine to the mascarpone cream, plus whipping cream and vanilla extract. She then lets it sit for about 24 hours before serving.

“It keeps really well and it gets better and better with time,” she said.

If you’re making it yourself, my mom and I recommend adding some liqueur to the newly formed mascarpone cream. We prefer limoncello or orangecello, both handmade by my mom, or Armagnac, a French brandy. For those not of age, try adding orange juice.

Once the zabaglione is ready, cover the coffee-soaked savoiardi with a generous layer of the cream and repeat the process for as many layers of cookies as desired. The last step is to cover the tiramisu with a thin layer of cocoa powder.

“I use bitter cocoa,” said Kuhar. “Everything is so sweet in the dessert and the cocoa cuts the sweetness.”

One silly, but important note of caution: Once you are ready to dive into that delectable stack of ladyfinger and coffee goodness, be careful not to inhale the cocoa. It happens to me every time.

 

What’s your favorite dessert in town?

Let us know in the comments below for a chance to win a $50 gift card to one of the restaurants participating in Restaurant Week!

Categories
Living

Country strong: A reconstructed barn sets the stage for an open kitchen

Photo: John Robinson

The view from Ken and Britton Horne’s large living room windows could easily be mistaken for a depiction from the Civil War, with rolling hills spreading out at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, cows slowly ruminating, resting under huge trees, lonely structures in the distance. The occasional noise of a passing car is the only contemporary interference.

The scene is not coincidental. The Hornes’ homestead is a precious relic in its own right: A pre-Civil War post barn from Greene County, it was deconstructed, moved, and put back together in its current location a few miles from Charlottesville by the owner of Joseph Joseph & Joseph Antiques, Frank Joseph.

The 1839 barn is now a modern, airy family home with open spaces, earthy colors, and a country vibe that’s instantly relaxing. The current barn is also smaller in size than the original, since most of the wood from the missing square footage was not salvageable.

“With a barn, there is a lot of flexibility; the open floor layout was definitely what we wanted,” said Britton, a therapist and social worker.

The project began in 2010, and in April of 2012, the Hornes finally called it home.

“It’s nice to be out here. It’s a slower pace being outside of town,” said Ken. “We love being close to town, yet close to nature.” Nature is right out the door and in the house at the same time. The Hornes have updated the barn to an idyllic retreat with heated wooden floors and modern appliances, but have left some of the uniqueness intact. The staircase to the second floor (the sleeping quarters) is made of tobacco drying sticks, while the banister that runs the entire length of the structure is built with wood from the original structure’s feeding cribs.

The openness is extended to the kitchen, a simple and sophisticated space with a large eat-in island, long black soapstone countertop, professional range, and custom-made cabinets from Saine Cabinetry.

“We had an architect who helped us design the house,” Ken said. “But we were working with the space, where to place the kitchen sink and the oven-range with the exposed beams. How to deal with the beams—that was our biggest issue in the kitchen.”

The wide wooden beams converge diagonally to a focal point that is now hidden by the countertop and a deep white ceramic sink. The beams made it impossible to place an overhead hood for the range and any upper cabinetry. But the lack of wooden shelves fits the minimalist and rustic style the couple was going for.

“What I found myself really loving is the sink in front of the window and looking out to the garden or the sunrise,” Britton said.

For the Hornes, the only downfall of the kitchen is its accessibility. “We end up constantly snacking,” said Britton. “Our daughter, who is 1, opens drawers and gets her chair to steal food off the counter. We are trying to reconfigure where we keep things.”

The stainless steel refrigerator sits along the short wall that divides the kitchen from the mudroom, which is where the Hornes placed the pantry.

The materials were kept local, when possible. Large wood scraps and extra siding from the original barn made the kitchen island stand out from an all-wood interior. Along with the wood, original or reclaimed, the soapstone countertop was sourced locally.

“A few friends had recently put in soapstone and we liked the look and heard it was a good, durable surface,” said Ken. “We liked the idea of supporting the local Alberene Quarry as opposed to foreign sources, like Brazil.”

“Trying to make a house out of a barn can be a challenge,” said Britton. “We definitely had to make some adjustments, tweak some of the design, and open it up to let light in. We wanted to honor the barn, yet needed it to be livable and didn’t want the eye to be distracted.”

Categories
Living

Local chefs share their favorite seasonal ingredients

Horse & Hound chef Luther Fedora mashes butternut squash and potatoes to complement a seared sea scallop wrapped in bacon. Elli Williams

Where I come from in the Lombardy region of Italy, fall is gray, cold, and sad, but the produce brightens up the season, turning it into a time for eating at the family table. Now that I’m settled beneath the Blue Ridge, where the deep reds and golds transform the landscape every year, the local food reminds me of the basic dishes with simple, earthy ingredients from home—like the potato stew or classic Milanese minestrone my mom prepared on especially dreary nights.

Have you walked around the farmer’s market since the leaves started changing? The excitement of fall produce is not in its variety or exoticism, but rather in its traditional presence and, in a way, its strength and simplicity of flavor. Squash, kale, turnips, apples. You have to pair these vegetables with food that can stand up to them.

Brian Helleberg, chef and owner of Fleurie on the Downtown Mall,  grows much of what he cooks with. His ingredients of choice nowadays are beets, but turnips, different varieties of squash, beans and spinach are close behind. Fleurie’s local tasting menu features a range of locally available seasonal dishes, like crab meat sautéed with a puree of butternut squash, a pork cheek braised in white wine with a celery root puree, and steak served with a red wine risotto, leeks, and a side of seasonal vegetables.

Dessert gets a more traditional treatment with a customer favorite and cousin to the classic fall-time pie: apple tart. He described it as a “super, super simple dish that needs to be done right.” And that means fluffy puff pastry, a puree of apples and thinly sliced apples on top.

Brookville owner and chef Harrison Keevil is in transition, seeing out the last of the green vegetables like cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, and eagerly looking forward to the next batch of autumnal ingredients

“I am really excited about cabbages to come in, and of course apples and potatoes,” he said. “These are the ingredients that get me through the winter.”

Keevil braises and purees the crunchy, leafy cabbage and pairs it with the restaurant’s revered pork dishes. He’s also experimenting by making his own sauerkraut for the first time this year.

A fall seasonal menu would be incomplete without apples. Keevil’s favorite variety is Granny Smith, for its tartness. To make the restaurant’s signature apple sauce, the fruits find themselves nestled in a pan with onions, butter, salt, pepper, and vinegar to “boost up the acid.”

“It’s got a nice acid and we pair it with pork belly so that the acid cuts through the rich fat of the pork,” Keevil said.

Down the street at Horse & Hound Gastropub, butternut squash is mashed with potatoes and served with a seared scallop wrapped in bacon.

Co-owner and pastry chef Brooke Fedora says the key to fall cooking is simple ingredients, just “good, earthy food.”

Nearly every year since the restaurant opened, Horse & Hound has offered a Thanksgiving pick-up menu for classic food-lovers who would rather spend the day watching football than slaving over a hot stove. Customers can choose from either a package or a la carte menu and place their order by the Tuesday before turkey day. The meal—smoked or herb-rubbed turkeys, and enticing sides like sausage or sage stuffing, macaroni and cheese, and collard greens—is then prepared from scratch and ready for pick up the day before Thanksgiving.

“Luther’s collared greens are insanely crazy good,” said Fedora of her husband Luther, who’s also co-owner and chef.

Angelo Vangelopoulos, owner and chef of the Ivy Inn, is serving grilled quail, with sweet potato gnocchi, collard greens, and spicy peanuts. The sweet potato puree holds the dish together, collecting the juices and enhancing the flavor profile.

Horse & Hound chef Luther Fedora mashes butternut squash and potatoes to complement a seared sea scallop wrapped in bacon.

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Living

Bone Doctors’ sauce is the best way to slather up

Is necessity the father of invention? Orthopedic surgeons David Heilbronner (pictured) and Bruce Wilhelmsen started Bone Doctors Barbeque Sauce after Heilbronner’s hobby helped raise funds to send his daughter’s soccer team to Italy. Photo: Elli Wiliams

The best embellishments add to—not detract from—whatever it is they’re embellishing. No one knows this better than David Heilbronner and Bruce Wilhelmsen, whose Bone Doctors’ Barbeque Sauce took more than two years to fully develop.

Like most good stories, this one has humble beginnings. Seven years ago, Heilbronner’s daughter’s soccer team was raising money for a trip to Italy to play in a tournament. Since Heilbronner’s hobby had always been cooking, he thought, why not bring the barbeque and homemade sauce to the park? Rumors quickly spread that his sauce was the real thing.

That fundraiser was the confirmation: They had something special. Finding a name was the easiest part—both business partners are orthopedic surgeons.

“We literally spent two and a half to three years playing in our kitchen,” Heilbronner said. “Almost like running a little laboratory, adding this and taking out that, torturing our family and friends, and we came up with our first sauces, our Original Sauce and our Carolina Bold sauce.”

The Carolina takes inspiration from early Scottish settlers in Eastern North Carolina, who used vinegar to cut through some of the grease and fat from the hogs.

In the world of barbeque, differences are seen regionally: the Memphis-style barbeque sauce has hints of paprika; yellow mustard is the base for the South Carolina variation; the smoky red sauce belongs to Texas; the sweet sauce to Kansas City; the mutton dip to Kentucky; and the vinegar-based original to North Carolina.

Keeping the company based in Charlottes-ville was a conscious decision. Since the earliest barbeque traditions really began in Virginia, said Heilbronner, “we thought it was important to continue that tradition.”

According to Heilbronner, at last count, there were more than 700 barbeque sauces on the market in the United States. Perfecting the product in such an environment became paramount.

“When we first started developing our product, we were using the typical ingredients of ketchup, high-fructose corn syrup and the like,” said Heilbronner. “But we started thinking about what we wanted to produce. We wanted to do something that was going to be different from what’s currently on the market.”

Today, the company offers four different varieties of barbeque sauces with no high-fructose corn syrup, no additives, no preservatives, and all are gluten-free. The team is clearly doing something right, earning a spot in the Top 10 Best BBQ Sauces by About.com and a 2011 Silver Finalist spot in the Outstanding Food category for the sofi Awards, the highest honor in specialty foods from the Specialty Food Association.

The team’s attention to detail extends to its packaging, too. In the retail world, a label needs to catch the consumer’s eye within three seconds. With the help of a marketing company, they came up with a brilliant idea: Put real people on the label.

“Faces tend to draw the eye much more than a cartoon character or just plain words,” said Heilbronner. “We wanted something that was going to really stand out.” Each bottle depicts someone different: a surgeon general in the U.S. Army from 1862 to 1864; a French Greco-Roman wrestler in the late 1890s; and a female fire-eater.

If you want to try one or all of Bone Doctors’ Barbeque Sauces, you can find them at retailers across 27 different states and Canada. Locally, Bellair Market has a signature sandwich that features one of the sauces, and you can stock up at Whole Foods Market, Market Street Wineshops, C’ville Market, Feast!, The Happy Cook, and Greenwood Gourmet Grocery, to name a few.

When it comes to sauce, are you for sweet or spicy? Leave a comment below!