Cheese, especially American cheese, may possibly be the biggest food story of the latter part of this decade. Our singular interest after 9/11 to get back to our roots has led many people to leave corporate desk jobs to become cheese makers and mongers.

Liz Thorpe, VP at New York’s famed Murray’s Cheese, is one of them. A Yale grad with a nose ring, Thorpe freely admits in the beginning of the book that she wanted a job at the cheese counter at Murray’s because “I thought it would make me cool.”

It has. Thorpe has basically redefined American cheese as Murray’s managing director, climbing like a good Yalie all the way to vice president. While American cheese makers for the last ten years have been quietly creating a revolution in the farm and field, Thorpe has been chronicling it.

Her new book, “The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey Through the Making and Selling of Cheese in America, From Field to farm to Table,” (whew — that’s a bigger mouthful than a really ripe morbier) looks …

Continue reading Not-so-stinky-cheese lady »

Though the Piedmont region of Italy is best known for its truffles (the pig-sniffing kind, not the chocolate imitaion), the locals in Maranzana get duckie every August with Festa dello Spumante, celebrating the bubbling wine with a wine-sipping festival.

If you’re not planning to be in Northern Italy this August 13, you can enjoy a version of the festival on this side of the Atlantic at Valenza, in Brookhaven.

Chef Matt Swickerath plans a special menu similar to the street foods of Valenza, with bottomless Tosti Asti Spumante (Atelie, Italy) for $15.00 per person on the evening of August 13.

No plane ticket required, and you don’t have to keep this liquid at four ounces.

Continue reading Valenza, Italy, in Atlanta »

Is this Atlanta? The recent drop in heat and humidity has me wondering. Sunny, pleasant weather by day, cool breezes and clear skies at night. And it’s July.

Celebrate by dining al fresco — these restaurants offer a cool kick to eating outside.

FRENCH AMERICAN BRASSERIE ****
30 Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd., Suite 125, Atlanta. 404-266-1440.

When FAB opened Downtown, I’ll admit I missed the cozy quaintness of Brasserie Le Coze’s truly French dining room. But the first time I stepped out of the elevator and onto this restaurant’s rooftop dining area, I got over it. Breezy, with a FAB view of the city’s burgeoning Downtown scene, plus all the accoutrements from the kitchen, from champagne and oysters to chef Stephen Sharp’s take on the restaurant’s signature skate wing with Pantelleria capers and brown butter.

PARISH ***
240 N. Highland Ave., Atlanta. 404-681-4434
The funky New Orleans-style dining room at this Inman Park restaurant is fun, but oh so loud. Ask the hostess to head your …

Continue reading Top five for Friday: Al fresco dining »

You may have noticed that AccessAtlanta has a new look, and is easier to navigate these days. That’s because we’ve got a snappy team of designers who are always trying to make things better for you.

But my recent review of Abattoir seems to have a lot of you seeing stars, and not the correct number of them. So let me be clear: Abattoir’s rating is four stars. Sorry for the confusion.

If you look below the review at the “key to AJC ratings,” you’ll see that our stars are white, not black. Above the review, Abattoir’s rating yields four white stars — four out of five.

That’s the chicken liver and foie gras with Armagnac pictured, btw. Watch out: it’s addictive.

Continue reading Abattoir seeing stars: How many? FOUR »

The blogosphere of late has been abuzz with bees and okra: Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful responses! I love reading about how your families prepare this truly Southern delight.

Chef-owner Jay Swift of 4th & Swift in Midtown caught the okra bug, too, and sent me this photo of the heirloom okra he’s getting for the restaurant from “farmer Jeff,” Jeff Collins, from Collins’ farm in Griffin.

The red streaks are gorgeous, aren’t they? Swift says the flavor is superior, too, and plans to use it fried as a side dish with a little remoulade and some fresh lemon.

“I don’t want to cut it up like you would for a gumbo or something because it will lose the visual appeal. I think … we may serve it in a frito misto or try braising it whole with some fresh tomatoes and basil,” Swift told me via email.

Keep the okra chain going — tell me all about how you’re cooking it and where you’re eating it at local restaurants.

Continue reading More okra .. this time at 4th & Swift »

Rosebud (you know, it used to be Food 101 Morningside?) is hosting its third annual Jerry Garcia Tribute Dinner.

Chef Ron Eyester took the helm of the business end of the restaurant earlier this summer, and he’s continuing his tradition of combining his favorite music and food with tribute dinners, offering a playful five-course prix fixe menu inspired by the lyrics of his favorite Grateful Dead songs.

The dinners are apparently so popular that the restaurant will hold the tribute on two nights: August 5 and 6 at 7 p.m. The prix fixe menu is $49 per person, not including tax, gratuity and alcohol.

Live music from the local music scene will be featured, too. Reservations are required: 404-347-9747. Or go to the spanky new website.

Be sure to dress in your best Garcia garb: Tie-dyed shirts and Birkenstocks are encouraged, but not required.

Continue reading Rosebud hosts Jerry Garcia party: 3 times the charm »

The end of summer break when I was a kid always brought with it a flurry of activity — new school clothes had to be bought, as well as all those notebooks, pencils, pens and books. Camps and clubs for school always started back at least a week or two before the actual dreaded first day.

But there was another rite of the end of summer for me that went unnoticed by my schoolmates. My grandmother and I would put up fruits and vegetables from our garden. There were always so many cucumbers and tomatoes that we had to pickle them, or they would “go bad.”

And the fig tree – which is still there — was a wondrous place of winding, itchy discovery, yielding bags of fuzzy orbs that my mother and I made into wonderfully sticky preserves.

By early August, I found myself in my grandmother’s small, box-shaped kitchen, tending bubbling masses of gooey fruit and watching her add pickling spices to her crisp candy slices, while the steam from the stove made my hair-do go flat.

“Putting up” …

Continue reading Time for pickles and preserves »

This time of summer brings with it the first crops of corn and okra, and myriad ways to cook both.

Last night I indulged in an old-fashioned favorite: fried okra patties and chicken-fried steak with sliced tomatoes for dinner.

Although we are from this area, my family makes fried okra differently from most other families from around here. My paternal grandmother always mixed together cornmeal, flour and water with sliced okra, and then dropped the gooey mixture into hot oil in a skillet to make little patties.

Most folks I grew up with — and indeed, restaurants in the area — fry okra by tossing it in cornmeal and then skillet frying it. Some spots that do it up right? Rathbun’s cuts okra spears lengthwise and serves it with a spicy remoulade-like sauce (pictured). Five & Ten in Athens has just about the best fried okra I’ve ever eaten. Others I love — Rexall Grill in Duluth and Spiced Right Barbecue in Lilburn. But all these restaurants toss and fry, rather than make …

Continue reading Fried okra: tossed or patties? »

How about a lobstah roll, New England style?

Legal Sea Foods is just one of the restaurants in the Downtown dining district participating in Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week. This year the event is extended to two weeks, beginning on July 27 through August 9.

What’s the deal? The following restaurants will offer three-course, prix fixe meals for $25, including an appetizer, entrée and dessert:  30 Tables, Atlanta Grill, Avanzare Steakhouse, Café Circa, Django Gypsy Saloon, Durango Steakhouse, French American Brasserie, Hard Rock Café, Il Mulino, Legal Sea Foods, Max Lager’s American Grill & Brewery, Morton’s The Steakhouse, No Mas! Cantina, Pacific Rim Bistro, Peasant Bistro, Ray’s in the City, Rise Sushi Lounge, Room, Sear, Stats, Terrace on Peachtree, Thrive, and Trader Vic’s.  No tickets needed, but reservations are suggested.  The fixed price of $25 does not include beverages, tax and gratuities.  Check out the restaurants’ menus and also view new restaurants that have …

Continue reading Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week: two weeks, not one »

Author and blogger Julie Powell is living proof that being in the right place at the right time might just make dreams come true.

In her case, the right place was the blogosphere, and the right time was in 2002, when Little, Brown & Company decided to offer her a book deal of her Julie/Julia project — a blog where she chronicled her efforts to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

The resulting book, “Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen” is the kind of fairy tale result we all dream of.

Now, of course, the fairy tale gets even more happily ever after since the book has been made into a film, “Julie & Julia,” starring Meryl Streep as Child and Amy Adams as Powell, with Nora Ephron (no stranger to food editing and books based on cooking) writing for the screen and directing. It opens across the country on August 7.

A newish (to me, anyway) social network, gather.com, is extending the opportunity to anyone else out …

Continue reading Julie & Julia: Live your dream »