Food + Beverage

New Sources of

The combination of COVID and winter’s cold have cranked up cravings for familiar, hearty foods. But members are expecting a more elevated style of their favorite fare, and their clubs’ chefs are delivering.

By Marilyn Odesser-Torpey, Contributi ng Editor

IT’S COLD IN READING, PA. in January, just the ti me when diners are looking for some real sti ck-toyour-ribs dishes, such as braised short ribs or chicken and waffl es. At Berkshire Country Club in Reading, Executi ve Chef Bradley Fisher, CEC, CCA, adds his own upscale twists to these favorites.

His braised short ribs with a Zinfandel and wild cherry reducti on are accompanied by whipped Gorgonzola potatoes and haricots verts. The butt ermilk fried chicken and waffl es are smothered in white gravy, Colby Jack cheese and red-hot maple syrup.

“We have been fortunate in the fact that our membership has uti lized the club as their primary source of dining during the pandemic,” Fisher says. “I believe they feel safe here at the club and know they will be getti ng the highestquality food items, such as our seasonal specialti es prepared by passionate and creati ve chefs.”

Upscaled comfort classics have also been making up most of the dishes that are now ordered for takeout, Fisher adds. He off ers two or three on his winter menus, which he planned to change in the middle of February.

During 2020, product shortages due to the pandemic had Fisher, like many club chefs, doing some menu reshuffl ing. Last spring, pork was in short supply. And for Thanksgiving, none of his suppliers had 14- to 16-pound turkeys, even though Fisher had preordered 100 for member-takeout orders and to give each Berkshire employee one for their own family dinners.

“I ended up cleaning out my local supermarket of 14- to 16-pound turkeys and served roughly 60 family to-go packages with all the trimmings for curbside pick-up on Thanksgiving Day,” he says. “We gave the employees a brine-in-bag turkey breast for their holiday dinners.”

New Sources of COMFORT

SECOND NATURE

Roel Smith, Executi ve Chef of Cascade Hills Country Club in Grand Rapids, Mich., goes by the belief that it’s just as easy to create upscale comfort food as any other kind of dish. Dishes fi tti ng this defi niti on for Smith include shepherd’s pie with bison, venison or elk, and variati ons of chicken and dumplings or pot pie featuring pheasant.

One favorite is Smith’s “noodle casserole” that he says is a highly versati le recipe he prepares in cast-iron pans. He made one recent version with orecchiett e pasta and Asian accents. including fresh ginger and teriyaki sauce. Instead of mixing fi sh in with the noodles, he sears ahi tuna and puts it on top (see recipe, pg. 38). For even more fl avor and texture, he garnishes the dish with dehydrated oyster mushrooms mixed with teriyaki, and fi nishes it with a sprinkling of sriracha panko. “This deconstructed casserole is comfort food our members can relate to, but it’s sti ll something new and diff erent,” Smith notes. Being in the Midwest, comfort foods become hot sellers as soon as the cold weather sets in, Smith reports. And aft er COVID closed the club’s dining room, the Cascade Hills kitchen has been turning out a great deal of comfort fare for family to-go packages.

ALWAYS IN SEASON

Some comfort classics are on the menu year-round in one form or another. Mac and cheese, for example, can be “classed up” with the additi on of local spring asparagus, and smoked meats such as brisket always fi nd favor with members. As a Southern club, it’s no surprise to fi nd shrimp and grits, fried chicken and country-fried steak on the menu at Reunion Golf & Country Club in Madison, Miss. But Executi ve Chef Billy Kistler puts some surprising spins on these and other comfort classics. Shrimp, for example, is paired with smoked tomato grits. Whole chicken is brined with sweet tea and aromati cs before roasti ng. Instead of regular breading, Kistler uses dried French-fried onion pieces to make a crunchy, fl avorful crust for his chicken-fried cube steak, which is served with a white gravy made with queso.

“Comfort food is the basis of dining, and I wouldn’t want a chef who can’t make me a good beef stew and cornbread. [Our members] are asking for family-oriented foods like what they would eat at home.”

— Patrick Williams, Executi ve Chef, The Country Club of Litt le Rock

SEARED AHI TUNA AND “NOODLE CASSEROLE”

Chef’s Note: “This recipe is more than adaptable— I hope you can use it as a guideline and can make your own tweaks to suit your taste!”

YIELD: 2 servings INGREDIENTS:

2 8-oz. ahi tuna steaks (sesame-seed crust optional) 3 cups cooked orecchiette pasta 1 tbsp. olive oil sesame oil for searing 1/4 cup minced onion 1 tbsp. minced garlic 1 tbsp. minced ginger 2 cups mushrooms (golden oyster mushrooms work really well) 1/4 cup diced red pepper 1/4 cup shredded carrot 1/2 cup edamame white wine for deglazing pan 1/2 cup chicken stock 3 cups heavy cream salt pepper

PROCEDURE:

1. Heat pan and olive oil, sauté minced onion, add garlic and continue to cook until fragrant. Add ginger and mushrooms and continue to sauté until mushrooms are cooked and ginger is fragrant.

Deglaze with white wine. 2. Add chicken stock and reduce by half. Add heavy cream and reduce by half. 3. Add pasta, red pepper, carrot and edamame. Toss pasta and vegetables in pan sauce until hot. 4. Meanwhile, season the ahi tuna and sear with sesame oil to desired temperature. Let rest, then slice. 5. Place pasta on plates (NOTE: Chef uses small cast-iron dishes).

Top with tuna and garnish with sriracha panko, dehydrated teriyaki mushroom powder and scallions (see recipes that follow).

A hamburger steak is stuffed with bleu cheese and wrapped in bacon. Simple ingredients such as sous vide pork belly and compressed watermelon are glammed up with unagi (eel) sauce and pickled watermelon rind.

One of Kistler’s signature dishes is chicken-fried bacon, a thick slab that is breaded and served with sawmill gravy dipping sauce, maple syrup and candied pecans. Another signature is redfish “on the half shell,” with skin and scales left on and cooked over an open flame to keep it moist. The fish is topped with lump crabmeat and house-made pepper jelly, and plated with boiled potatoes. (See recipe at www.clubandresortbusiness.com)

Collard greens are also standard Southern comfort food, and Kistler prepares them in numerous different ways. One favorite preparation is braised with tasso (Creole-spiced) ham, ham hock, chicken stock, apple cider vinegar, onion, sugar and salt. These collard greens “go with everything from the sweet tea roasted chicken to the bacon-wrapped meatloaf,” Kistler notes.

“To me, all food is comfort food when it’s enjoyed with friends and family and brings people together,” he says.

COZYING UP DURING COVID

During the pandemic crisis, members of The Country Club of Little Rock (Ark.), have not been asking for red snapper or filet mignon, according to Patrick Williams, the club’s Executive Chef. Instead, he says, they want foods that conjure up images of coziness, such as meat loaf and fried chicken.

“They are asking for family-oriented foods like what they would eat at home,” Williams notes.

Selections usually found on buffets, such as lasagna and macaroni and cheese, become upscale club fare when served in individual casserole dishes. Other old favorites gaining newfound

INGREDIENTS FOR THE GARNISHES:

fresh scallion, for garnish sriracha panko, for garnish dehydrated teriyaki mushroom powder, for garnish

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SRIRACHA PANKO:

panko sriracha, to taste vegetable oil other seasonings, to taste

PROCEDURE:

Mix ingredients and dry out on sheet tray in convection oven at lowest temperature.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SRIRACHA PANKO:

mushrooms teriyaki, homemade if possible

PROCEDURE FOR THE ITALIAN MERINGUE:

Dehydrate mushrooms and teriyaki in convection oven at lowest temperature, then run through a Vitamix.

SUBMITTED BY ROEL SMITH, EXECUTIVE CHEF, CASCADE HILLS COUNTRY CLUB, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

“[Our] deconstructed casserole is comfort food our members can relate to, but it’s still something new and different.”

—Roel Smith, Executive Chef, Cascade Hills CC

CLASS ACT

At the end of 2020, Bradley Fisher, CEC, CCA, Executive Chef of Berkshire Country Club in Reading, Pa., helped a group of students from the Hospitality Management Program at Penn State University’s Berks County campus who needed to find a new way to satisfy a major requirement of their curriculum around complications caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

And in the process of helping the students, Fisher and diners at Berkshire CC enjoyed new benefits as well.

Each year, the Penn State program has the students create on-site pop-up restaurants as a major assignment, doing everything from concept and menu development to marketing. When that wasn’t possible because of COVID, Fisher stepped in to hold Zoom classes that included breakout sessions with three groups of the students, during which each group came up with concepts and menus.

The discussions in these sessions included everything from sourcing ingredients, costing out the menu, plating ideas and executable preparation for each dish. The group with the winning concept would have one of their dishes featured on Berkshire CC’s a la carte menu for the month of December.

“We had planned to include only one of their dishes on our dining room, but were so impressed that we featured three,” Fisher reports.

Particularly well-received by the membership was the char-grilled venison loin with chocolate Cabernet wine sauce, accompanied by carrot and roasted garlic puree, crispy potatoes and caramelized shallots. The recipe was inspired by a menu item suggested by the Penn State team that was finessed and rounded out to fit the club’s menu by Berkshire Sous Chef Christopher Harris.

“Venison was a good choice for our December menu, because it is a hearty comfort food and it was in season in Pennsylvania, so we could source the meat locally,” Fisher notes.

Berkshire CC’s Executi ve Chef Bradley Fisher stepped in to hold Zoom classes that included conceiving and preparing new dishes, to help fi ll a void for hospitality management students who couldn’t create pop-up restaurants as their usual curriculum requirement.

The collaborati ve eff orts of Penn State University students and Berkshire CC Sous Chef Christopher Harris produced a popular new char-grilled venision loin dish (see recipe at www.clubandresortbusiness.com).

SHADE PRODUCTS & CUSHIONS FOR EVERY LOCATION, BUDGET AND DESIGN

“To me, all food is comfort food when it’s enjoyed with friends and family and brings people together.”

— Billy Kistler, Executi ve Chef, Reunion G&CC

Recipe

COUNTRY CLUB AT LITTLE ROCK FRIED CHICKEN

with Seasoned Flour and Hot Sauce Marinade

YIELD: 2 servings of four pieces each

INGREDIENT:

whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SEASONED FLOUR:

4 cups all-purpose flour 2 tbsp. ground black pepper 2 tbsp. garlic powder 2 tbsp. onion powder 3 tbsp. kosher salt 1 tsp. cayenne 1 tbsp. paprika flour for dredging

INGREDIENTS FOR THE MARINADE:

4 cups Louisiana Hot Sauce 4 large eggs

PROCEDURE:

1. Prepare marinade by mixing hot sauce and eggs thoroughly. After washing chicken, submerge in egg mixture for 24 hours. 2. Dredge chicken in flour, shaking off excess, and fry for 15 minutes at 325º .

OKRA FRITTERS

with Housemade Pepper Jelly

YIELD: 12 fritters INGREDIENTS:

1 cup all-purpose flour 4 cups okra 1 cup onion, fine dice 2 eggs 1/4 cup buttermilk salt and pepper, to taste housemade pepper jelly (see recipe below)

INGREDIENTS FOR THE HOUSEMADE PEPPER JELLY:

1/2 cup red bell pepper, fine dice 1/2 cup green bell pepper, fine dice 1/4 cup jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, fine dice 2 cups sugar 1 cup corn syrup 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar 3 tbsp. poppy seeds

PROCEDURE FOR THE HOUSEMADE PEPPER JELLY:

1. Place all ingredients except poppyseeds in a saucepan, cook for 5 minutes. Put aside to cool. 2. Add poppyseeds. 3. Serve at room temperature.

FINAL PROCEDURE:

1. Chop okra. 2. Mix flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. 3. In another bowl, mix eggs, onion and buttermilk. Combine dry and wet ingredients. 4. Add chopped okra and check seasoning. 5. Cook in oil on stovetop. 6. Garnish with pepper jelly and fine slice of scallions.

SUBMITTED BY BILLY KISTLER, EXECUTIVE CHEF, REUNION GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB, MADISON, MISS.

popularity include scalloped potatoes with three cheeses (asiago, boursin and parmesan) and loaded twice-baked potatoes.

Williams’ mac and cheese gets a fl avor boost from a combinati on of aged cheddar, smoked cheddar and Velveeta. And chicken soaks in a marinade of hot sauce and eggs for 24 hours before it hits the fryer.

“To give just the right fl avor—a litt le spicy, but not mouth-burning—I don’t season the chicken, I season the fl our,” he notes.

Presenti ng the food on individual dishes and ring molds of different shapes can make a big diff erence in how a dish is perceived, even for takeout, Williams adds. His bacon-wrapped meatloaf glazed with sweet chili and ketchup, for example, is sold in twopound loaves, for takeout in their own baking pans.

Comfort food is “the basis of dining.” Williams says. “I wouldn’t want a chef who can’t make me a good beef stew and cornbread.” C+RB

MORE ONLINE

For the Berkshire CC recipe for Char-Grilled Venison Loin (above left ) and Chef Billy Kistler’s recipe for Redfi sh on the Half Shell, see the online version of this arti cle at www.clubandresortbusiness.com