Oktoberfest - The Season Finale
I worked in kitchens for years, enough years to really burn me out with horrible hours, awful pay and complete lack of holidays off with my family. Despite all of that, I still miss it.
There is a huge, beautiful energy in the act of creating, not just a meal, but a memory for your guest. It's addictive and lives on in your blood stream long after you have given the whole thing up.
And so, every once in a while, I like to get my hand back in to cook a meal, to craft an event, to make something really special. And as I get older, doing that creating with someone young, someone excited to do the work of finding the magic that makes food an experience, is very appealing.
To my immense fortune, and yours, we have found exactly that person.
Meet Gable Garcia, an up and coming line cook at The Boiler Room Restaurant in Omaha.
Gable is the son of friends and grew up about 30 minutes away from our farm, in Knoxville.
He left the area to attend the culinary program at the Omaha Metropolitan Community College and he's been hard at it since, creating beautiful food and traveling to dining hot spots for fun and inspiration. (He recently visited my old stomping grounds in San Francisco).
Now, he is joining me to co-chef our Oktoberfest farm-to-table dinner at Whippoorwill Creek Farm!
Beth and I had the idea of doing an Oktoberfest style dinner, something very German, but as we talked with Gable about the dinner something much more Iowa meets Germany began to emerge. So we sat down and hammered out the menu for the event and I am presenting it here for your inspection. We think you will approve.
Gable and me (he's the tall one).
Menu
Warming Spiced Winter Squash Soup, Pepitas, Creme Fraiche
Apple, Fennel and Arugula Salad, Pickled Dried Cranberries, Candied Pumpkin Bits, Cider Vinaigrette
Potato, Bratwurst and Sauerkraut Pierogi, Blaukraut, Herbed Cream
Tru Normand of Watermelon-Lemonade Sorbet
Braised Beef Shank and Oxtail, Polenta, Balsamic Kale, Herbed Bread Crumbs
Apple Hand Pie, Earl Grey Ice Cream
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