From Beard’s Table to Ours: Bridging Fine Dining and Home Cooking! James Beard Honorary Dinner at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago

Our journey begins at the unforgettable James Beard Honorary Dinner as part of Charlie Trotter’s Guest Chef Series. We were treated to an extraordinary multi-course tasting menu featuring stunning creations from talented chefs including Freddy Money, Trevor Teich, Carolyn Nugent, Alen Ramos, and David Breeden.

Yet Beard’s legacy isn’t only about high style fine dining. At heart, he championed honest, ingredient-driven cooking that brings people together. In that spirit, we’ve been experimenting at home with several of his timeless recipes, adapting them for today’s kitchens while preserving their soul.

Visit the Gloria Goodtaste's website to view the full stories and available recipes highlighted in this podcast with pictures and additional info to further enjoy this episode.  Go to: https://www.gloriagoodtaste.com

Photo Courtesy of James Beard Foundation>

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello everyone, and welcome to Food for Body, Mind, and Spirit. I'm Gloria Good Taste.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

And I'm Tech Tom, her co-host for this program. Today we're exploring how legendary food connects fancy restaurant experiences with what we cook at home.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

That's right. Our theme is From Beard's Table to Ours, bridging fine dining and home cooking. We're diving into the world of James Beard's influence and starting with a very special dinner that we attended.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

We had an incredible opportunity to go to Charlie Trotter's guest chef series in his iconic space, now hosted by his son Dylan for the James Beard Honorary Dinner. It was such a special night.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Let's start with James Beard himself, the man that they called Dean of American Cookery. His influence is everywhere in American food. And like Charlie Trotter, a creative genius that has continued to influence today's culinary world. Tom, do you think we should describe that evening and maybe talk about some of the dishes that we had that night?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Absolutely. The dinner was an eight-course menu with contributions from several famously talented chefs. The room felt electric, like we were part of something really special, honoring Baird's legacy.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Did you feel that? Did you feel that when we were there?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

It had special energy.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

It did.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Even the chefs or the uh waiters had that special energy when they approached the table.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

I know. I you could just feel it in the entire place. I mean, it was amazing. It just was. Let me walk you then through some of the highlights. We started with a beautiful amous of watermelon tuna tatar and puff mushroom by Chef Trevor Tech. It was so fresh and elegant too. Then came one of my favorites. Chef Freddie Money from Michelin Starred Atlas brought us Roots Run Deep. Beet Gazpacho. Yes, I'm saying that rice. B-E-E-T. Gazpacho. Can you imagine that? Beet meringue. Beet Tatar, smoke goat cheese, asparagus, and peas. The colors, they were stunning, and the flavors, they were so layered.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

The beef gazpacho in the crystal clear glass was a real surprise. It was really eye-catching and it really tasted great. Expecting beets to taste like beets, and it didn't taste like beets, it tasted like something else. But it was delicious.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

That's when you wanted more than just that little bit in the glass, right?

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I did. I wanted a second one.

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It was. The dish was so beautiful when they presented it. It was almost a shame to start eating it.

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I love the lobster chawamushi with buckwheat fracaccia and yuzu brioche. That was a collaboration between Chef Taish, Carolyn Nugent, and Alan Ramos. Silky, savory, but with a bright yuzu pop. The shamamushi, for those that don't know what shamamushi is, a savory Japanese egg custard. And also, the rolls were spectacular.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

They were. They were perfectly, perfectly made.

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I wanted to go to their bake shop in Colorado to get a dozen, okay, because they were that good.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Will you take me there? I would love that.

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It's called Pale Polut Bake Shop.

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Oh. The rolls were beautiful. I couldn't believe how perfect they were.

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And it's located in Parker, Colorado, which is southeast of Denver.

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Oh. Oh my goodness, they have their wonderful things. No wonder they have lines and lines at their at their bakery.

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And then there was the French butter, which was served as a like a little thimble, a little spiral, uh, with uh herbs in it, and it was soft and spreadable and delicious, and it disappeared in an instant with those rolls.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

I couldn't imagine how they they imagined they they had that formation of that.

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I have no idea. I can think of certain ways that none of them would work.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Wizards, wizards. Oh, yes. Well, then we had pan roasted soave with ratatouille and beautiful vegetable pureees, and the Durham Ranch Bison four ways by Chef David Breden. Well, that was a favorite for me because I love things like ratatouille and see that. And Tom, there was something about that ratatouille on that plate.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

It was really special. It was not like a typical ratatouille. No. It was uh little strips that were layered in uh Q-shape, and then they were placed on a plate, and they were about an inch and a half wide by a half inch, uh, inch and a half long by a half inch wide, and it took one bite, and it was gone. It tasted delicious. But I wanted a second and a third. There was only one on the plate. How was I disappointed?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Well, anyway, it doesn't surprise me because actually Chef Frieden has a lot of formal training, didn't he?

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He worked at the French laundry and in Thomas Keller's restaurant group for almost 20 years.

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Oh my goodness, no wonder that dish tasted so good. And of course, you're not gonna forget about the desserts, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yes, and the desserts, the Fraset, Sarah Bernard Reimagined with strawberries and that Grand Mernier cream, plus the chocolate tart that I'm still talking about with custard and uh walnut praline's uh crust around the outside of the uh tart.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

That was delicious.

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It was Mr. Robochon's favorite tart.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Oh. Well, I don't know if it was whose tart it was, but I know it was Gloria's favorite tart.

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And I had kokudu ice cream. I wondered, what is kokudu ice cream? I don't know. And kokudu ice cream is made from kokudu sugar in Okinawa. So it's a Japanese sugar.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

When you go to these, it's amazing all the things you learned.

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You would not learn, you had served and you experienced, okay? Absolutely. Now I ate kokudu ice cream. I never had koko ice cream again.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

All right. Well, I I have to tell you the food was out of this world. It really was. Well, but the whole thing really wasn't about food. It was about a celebration of creativity, seasonability, and honoring of James Beard on a weekend that was devoted to his awards in a place where Charlie Trotter's spirit still remains really strong.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

So after an evening like that, how do you bring it home?

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Well, that's the best part, Tom. James Beard was all about making great food accessible. He loved simple, honest ingredients and cooking with joy. So we've been playing around in the kitchen, as you well know, with some of the recipes and adapted them. Oh, just a bit for today.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

You call that playing around in the kitchen? Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Well, anyway, first up, let me let me tell you about my first up one. It is whole orange almond cake. All right. And this is his authentic recipe, not mine. It's gluten-free and uses two whole oranges. Now, this particular recipe I'm going to tell everyone is absolutely delicious. This is a recipe that you should make if you want to make a cake, because number one, it's easy to make and it has relatively no fat ingredients.

unknown 8:34

All right.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

So actually, what you do is you take two oranges, and you know, when you get up in the morning, just throw them in a pot and boil them while you're having breakfast. All right. In 30 minutes, guess what? Take the oranges out and let them cool a little bit while you clean everything up. But then just cut the oranges up. And of course, if you use naval oranges, you won't have to worry about the seeds. But if they're seeds, take them out. Everything else, you just cut them into some pieces. You'll have some juices that'll be around. Save those juices. Those are always good. All right. And put them then in your food processor. I mean everything. I mean the skins, I mean all the pieces of orange, and then you just put the top on and puree them. Can you believe that, Tom? So I did.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

I saw it.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

You end up with this orange puree.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Right.

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Which is really nice. Right. All right. So you put that on the side and you say, okay, the rest of this will be hard. No, it isn't. The only hard part is that you need about six eggs. That part is a little difficult because you have to actually put six eggs inside of the mixing bowl without the shelves. Okay. All right. Now, you put them in and just put on the mixer, get them so that they're a little bit thick. Then guess what? All you have to do after that is put all the other ingredients in. And there are not very many. Basically, there's some sugars, some almond flour, or ground almonds if you don't have almond flour. All right. Baking powder, a little bit of salt, and of course, don't forget that puree that you worked on. Throw that in there too. And guess what? That's all you do is mix it up. All right. And you will end up with a batter. It's a batter you can pour. Now, the one thing you have to have that I think you probably could make it in other things, but the thing I made it in, which made it really super easy to make, is an 11 and a half inch ceramic baking dish. Right. And it looks like a fluted dish. Fluted dish, right. So it looks kind of like a quiche dish. Pour it in there, even it out, throw it inside of your preheated oven.

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375 degrees.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Alright. And let it cook.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

And 45 minutes later?

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Now you'll think, oh my goodness, it'll never, it's not coming up. It's not, don't worry about it. It will cook through. It really will. Take it out. Test it. Alright. It'll say done. All right, with the toothpick in it. After you do that, it's home free. Let it cool. Guess what? Your cake is made. However, you come and say, I'm having company. What am I gonna do? This cake looks so plain on top. That's not a problem, is it?

SPEAKER_00 12:11

No.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

What do you have to do, Tom?

SPEAKER_00 12:13

We take a uh patterned doily, paper doily, put it on top, right, and take some powdered sugar, confectionary sugar, and a little sifter and sift it all over the top, and you have a white top, and you lift off the white doily carefully, and you move it away from the thing without messing up your design, and you have a perfectly designed white powdered confectionary sugar top.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Now, the only thing you want to remember is you want to have the non-melting confectionery powder or confectionary sugar. Shopping. Topping. Right. And where can you get it? King Arthur is one. King Arthur, that's where I use it from. King Arthur. And you guess some put that on the side, and you always use that for the things that you want to keep so that it doesn't disappear.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

And we took some mandarin orange pieces.

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Right.

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And set and set them on the top, but it's able to give it a little design. Right. And oranges are inside and are on the top now.

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Right, and a couple of little uh elements right in the center. And guess what?

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It tastes great when it especially when it's warm.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Warm cake was wonderful. Just wonderful. If you can't guess it, this was a recipe I was very enthusiastic about. It was James Speard's recipe. I have to say that. But it was glorious, heartthrob when it was finished because it was so good.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

And um you can add a little whipped cream when you're gonna serve it.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

If you want to.

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If you want to, and it tastes great coming out of the fridge the next day.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

It did. When we had a piece left, we could take it out. And you also could freeze it if you wanted to.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Right. And we gave it to some of our neighbor friends, and they loved it too.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

I know. They couldn't believe that. Number one, it's gluten-free. Number two, that it didn't have any big fat element like margarine, lard, oils, nothing. All right, it had two beautiful oranges though. So if you see naval oranges, do get two of them and bring them home because they're gonna be saving grace in your house.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

It tasted great.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

It was wonderful. Well, anyway, you helped test taste that one, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Yes, I did. The flavor is intense, but not bitter at all. Great with a little whipped cream.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Right. And you would expect it to be bitter because you were putting in all that orange skin, but guess what? It's not at all. Well, next up is James Speard cheese bread. Moist, cheesy, with a beautiful crust. Okay. We used a mix of parmesan and sharp cheddar when we made it. It makes two lovely loaves, they're fantastic for sandwiches, or just toasted with butter. Now, if you know anything about James Speard, you know one of his specialties is bread.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

How about this?

SPEAKER_01 15:28

All right, and yes, his bread is delicious. Great sandwiches.

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Tech Tam has a pro tip from the kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

It freezes well sliced, and the mixer method Gloria developed makes it much easier to make.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

That's right, because he didn't have the exact things he would do at the old style, but I love using my mixer. Okay. Well, then we have another intriguing dish here, which I couldn't help myself with because I had to do some modification here. He makes a wonderful tomato sauce with great, great ingredients. However, I said it's been so hot that I thought something cold would be nice, like a cold tomato sauce. And I thought, mmm, what could I do? So I what I did is take all his ingredients and made them into a summer tomato sauce. And it's so easy because you're using nothing but fresh tomatoes when you do that. It is a simple, simple thing. You boil those tomatoes, the skin will come off of them, and you cut the tomatoes up, put them in a bowl, and you will have them mush them up a little bit and put them in the refrigerator, and your sauce is gonna be made.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Isn't a technical term blanching your tomatoes?

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah, I know, but I am making it much easier for everybody. I'm making it extremely easy for the cook to understand what you have to do because it is so easy. I mean, can you make anything in 15 minutes?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Oh, yes, and we made pasta, chickpea pasta with it.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Right, right. The chickpea pasta was wonderful. And what you do, of course, you want to have a little bit uh something on the pasta, so you actually put make some butter with some oil, with some garlic, you know, melt that a little bit, mix that with your pasta.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

After it's ready in about 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Right, and of course, we're going to put in fresh basil with the tomatoes after we have them on the actual right, and the dish delicious is ready.

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It tastes like a summer in a bowl.

unknown 17:58

It does.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Tomatoes on top, tasty tomatoes on top, and fresh chickpea pasta on the bottom. Absolutely. And the chickpea pasta doesn't get uh it doesn't have that uh soft taste texture, it has a firm meldente texture when you boil it.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

No, it doesn't. I mean, it and it didn't fall apart.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

I was really surprised.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

And if you hold it over the next day, it heats wonderfully in the microwave.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Oh, I know. Okay, and you know what? It's ready in 15 minutes. I mean, you can't beat that. Right. Or it's summer in a bowl, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

I loved how light it is. The contrast between the cold sauce and a hot pasta is a chef's kiss.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yes, that means I got a kiss when I made that pasta. Ooh, I did, I did. Well, anyway, we also made his playful onion rings, which is James Fear's style. They're little tea sandwiches with thin onion slices, mayo, and rolled and chopped parsley. They look really elegant, very simple to make, and what I will tell you about those is that you have to love raw onions to love this appetizer.

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And if you want a little softer onion, you just pick up a vendalia, which is a little milder taste.

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Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

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And you slice them thin.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

They would have to be very, very thin. But there is not very much other flavor other than the mayonnaise with it.

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Mayo and onion.

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And onion.

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And a little bit of bread.

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And bread. And uh what we used rolls when we made ours.

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We use King Hawaiian slider rolls.

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I like that. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

They worked really fine. We used a cutter and cut cut slice the top and bottom off. Use a biscuit cutter to get uniform rounds, and they all were perfect so everyone looked the same.

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So, and and they stayed. I put them in the refrigerator, and they stayed for a long time.

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And you could eat them right out of the refrigerator.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

And you liked them.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

I liked them. Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Onions were not my favorite, so.

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And don't forget that old-fashioned tea cakes from my dear friend Prudence Hilburn.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Oh, yes.

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Those soft cake-like cookies that taste like big vanilla wafers. We topped them with some cemented cinnamon sugar, and they have a sweet connection to James Beard.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Yes, they do. That's because James Beard really loved those cookies. Prudence Hilburn was working in the kitchen.

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At Peter Cumbs Cooking School.

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Mm-hmm. And he was there in the kitchen with them.

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As a teacher.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Right. And she was there with them. And she would bring those all away from Alabama. And he would just be thrilled with these tea cakes. Those Alabama tea cakes. And you know, he just loved those. And so every time I see a tea cake, I really think of that story. I mean, it's really nice. Well, anyway, we we have really had a sweet connection with Beard, haven't we? Yes, we have.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Some simple Southern favors to show how timeless good cooking is baking. So what's the big takeaway for our listeners, Gloria?

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Well, though we loved honoring James Spirit at Charlie Trotter's restaurant with amazing culinary talents, all right, we also enjoyed very much doing it right there in our own kitchen. I'm sure from listening to us you could tell that. With all of the fresh ingredients. And that's what I loved the most. They were simple ingredients, things I had right on hand, and super easy to make. Alright? It was a little creativity with kind of a lot of love going into these. So whether you're recreating a beat masterpiece of baking simple biscuits, food connects us to history, to each other, and to the joys of a nourishing body, mind, and spirit.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Well said. We'll drop all the pictures, some recipes, and more on the blog. Try one this week and we'll tell you how tell us how it turns out.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Well, thank you for joining us today. If this episode inspired you, please share it with a friend and leave us a message. We just love hearing from you.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Until next time, keep cooking with your heart.

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And from our table to yours, and remember, always put a little good taste in your life.