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By: 99/1 Food Service Management, Rebecca Tibbitts
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Wednesday, 07 November 2012 14:26 |
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Every November since the 1950s, the third Thursday in November creates a childish excitement in the wine world. One minute past midnight into that famed third Thursday starts a frantic worldwide shuffling of millions of cases of Beaujolais Nouveau. Beaujolais is a tiny area in Burgundy, France that spans about 35 miles long and 5 miles across and produces a light, fruity red wine from the Gamay Noir grape.
 The Gamay Noir grapes in Beaujolais are picked by hand (the only other region in France that legally has to do this is Champagne) to ensure the most ripe, luscious fruit. Once harvested, the grapes are fermented by a method called carbonic maceration- this is a technique usually used only for Beaujolais and other light reds. Also called “whole berry fermentation”, this technique does not start with the usual crushing of the grapes but pays careful attention to keeping the grapes whole in a sealed, carbon dioxide rich environment.
The carbon dioxide permeates the skin and allows the fermentation to occur within the grape skin. While regular wine usually starts from crushed grapes, called must, put in a big vat to ferment, the technique of carbonic maceration starts with whole grapes but under the weight of the vat of grapes, those grapes at the bottom are crushed and then begin ferment like most wines.
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By: 99/1 Food Service Management / Chef Tim Tibbitts
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Thursday, 25 October 2012 13:16 |
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It’s that time of year again. Oct 15th brings joy to eaters all over the region as Stone Crab season officially opens for another year.
Stone Crab is to me the jewel of our waters. It’s also an amazingly sustainable fishery. Stone Crabs have the unique ability to regenerate their claws. So when harvesting, fisherman take one claw from the crab and return them to the water to regenerate that claw again and again. One claw is left to allow the crab to defend itself from predators. To be kept, claws must be a minimum of 2.75 inches in length from the tip of the immovable finger to the first joint.
99% of all Stone Crab claws harvested are cooked on the boats then put into freezers immediately in order to let the meat release from the shell for easy extraction.
The two main ways people enjoy the claws are simply cracked from the shell and eaten warm with drawn butter or cold and eaten with a tangy mustard sauce. Both have their merits. However, if you go outside the box there are endless ways to prepare these delicious creatures of the deep.
Here are some suggestions to enjoy the beauty of our Stone Crab!
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By: 99/1 Food Service Management Rebecca Tibbitts
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Wednesday, 10 October 2012 19:29 |
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Champagne is such an art and is definitely worth celebrating. October 26th is International Champagne day! But before you just pop a cork and enjoy, brush up on some of the details surrounding the topic.
 There are some technicalities that are necessary to cover when talking about sparkling wine. The name “Champagne” is frequently misunderstood. To call a wine “Champagne”, it must come from within the tiny area in Burgundy, France called Champagne. As you may recall, a region of origin or appellation dictates certain wine practices like irrigation use, grape variety(ies), alcohol level, grape yields and labeling necessities. Champagne is a region of origin/appellation for a certain sparkling wine we know as “Champagne”. Technically, to be champagne the grapes used are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Meunier and only these in various combinations. Sometimes you will see a Blanc de Blancs, a Champagne made from 100% Chardonnay grapes or a Blancs de Noirs (100% Pinot Noir grapes) but mostly it is the combination of white (Chardonnay) and red (Pinot Noir) grapes. Other regions of origin/appellations produce other sparkling wines and these sparkling wines can come from an assortment of grape varieties depending on the region and the producer.
There are two names synonymous with Champagne: Dom Pérignon and Veuve Clicquot. At first glance, most think that these are simply names of Champagne brands, but in actuality they are names of pioneers of Champagne. Dom Pérignon was a Benedictine monk who is coined the inventor of Champagne as he dedicated much of his work to perfecting wines and discovered one could catch the bubbles of the carbon dioxide from fermentation. Only because of experiments like Pérignon’s do we now know fermentation as a simple chemical equation of sugar + yeast = alcohol + carbon dioxide. Madame Clicquot (nee Ponsardin) was widowed by an owner of vineyards for Champagne and took over the business. When she did, she renamed it Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin (the French word for widow is Veuve).
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By: 99/1 Food Service Management / Chef Tim Tibbitts
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Wednesday, 26 September 2012 10:46 |
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Everyday it boggles my mind when you walk through the food store how many products there are on the shelves. It’s crazy what you can buy these days and at the same time I find it a little sad that people don’t find time to cook themselves anymore. I saw a joke the other day, a young guy was talking to his friend and said “I’m going out to eat some locally sourced organic free range antibiotic free food, our as my grandparents called it-food”. It’s so true. Why have we lost the ability to provide for ourselves? Cooking is a very easy thing to do. It takes time and patience sometimes but it always pays off in great food.
 Take for example BBQ. In North America BBQ is big business. Competitive teams travel with massive trailer-rigged grills and compete for big money. And they do it all in the name of good, tasty food. The key ingredient of which is time. I have a huge soft spot in my heart for great BBQ. Such basic down-home food makes me feel so good when I eat it. It’s not fancy or haute cuisine but no less delicious and satisfying.
There are a few different styles of BBQ in America and all are based on the region they come from. The big guns are: Kansas City, East Texas, Memphis, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Each has their own style and flavor and a real uniqueness to each region. Instead of buying BBQ sauce for your next grill out, why not make your own. Try each of these and see which you like best.
Kansas City Sauce:
- 225gr Ketchup
- 40gr tomato paste
- 40gr water
- 40gr white wine vinegar
- 35gr brown sugar
- 5gr black pepper
- 5gr chili powder
- 4.5gr mustard powder
- 4.5gr salt
- 4gr cayenne powder
- 1gr garlic powder
- 0.75gr onion powder
- 0.25gr ginger
- 0.1gr cumin
Mix the above in a heavy bottom pot. Simmer, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, until reduced to 250gr total, about 20 minutes.
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By: 99/1 Food Service Management, Rebecca Tibbitts
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Tuesday, 11 September 2012 08:50 |
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I like to pride myself on finding a great deal on something that is of great value. A few years back, I took courses from the International Sommelier Guild that allowed me to take my prudent nature and find some great value wines at a great price. The thousands of dollars achieving Sommelier status has paid itself back in the bargains I have found because of my knowledge!
The wine list at Flying Fish is made up of a lot of new world wines (Chile, USA, Australia, South Africa, Argentina) that are not the run-of-the-mill household names that one would usually find on a wine list. The price point is intentionally kept on the low side (wines start from $30 and go to $110) because a lot of the varieties and names on the list are unknown and trying something new at a lower price point is always more enticing than trying something new that is expensive.
 One of my favorite no-fail “bargains” is a classification in Italy called Indicazione Geografica Tipica or IGT. IGT denotes a wine that is a typical indication of a certain geographical area.
Prior to 1992, there were three classifications for Italian wine: table wine, Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC), Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG). The DOC and DOCG are very specific to appellations.
Chianti, for instance, is a DOCG and has very specific rules winemakers must adhere to in order to label a wine as a DOCG. Some of the rules include grape variety, irrigation, ripeness of the grapes at picking, ageing and labeling. There are 32 DOCG and over 300 DOC regions in Italy. You can recognize DOC and DOCG by the pink ribbon along the capsule of the bottle of wine.
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