Category: People

The Maine Sunday Telegram has published an extended interview with their restaurant critic, Andrew Ross.

Q: Can you truly tell if a restaurant is any good based on just one meal?
A: Oh, absolutely. First of all, I’m not only eating one dish. I’m eating a bare minimum of four dishes. It’s usually more like six or seven dishes. At the same time, I really think I should be going to places more than once if I can. If the budget allowed for it, I’d love to do that. That expands the range of experiences you have. The cruelest irony of this job is that when I have a terrible meal at a restaurant, I have to go back just to confirm it was as bad as I thought it was. But if I have a fantastic meal, I don’t get to go back to confirm that it was as great as I thought it was.

Today’s Press Herald includes an article on the newly released book Northern Hospitality by Hunt and Alpine/Little Giant owners Andrew and Briana Volk.

It’s a cookbook and cocktail guide that blends Maine life with Scandinavian sensibilities, and honors and updates the traditions of both. It will entice you to find comfort in a bowl of salmon chowder, or courage in an Old Fashioned sipped by a crackling fire. (The Volks met and fell in love over a few rounds of Old Fashioneds.) And you’ll wish for a dusting of that children’s book magic that allows ordinary humans to step right into the cozy, stylish photos – in this case, photos by Peter Frank Edwards, who also photographed celebrated Charleston chef (Husk) Sean Brock’s “Heritage” cookbook.

The Press Herald checked in with several current and former servers about the job-related stress dreams their job triggers.

Yes, talk to most any server, and they will tell you that their nights are punctuated by stress dreams filled with the weirdest details from their most recent shift. We asked servers at local restaurants, from a tiny bistro to a tourist favorite that seats hundreds, to reveal the job-related dreams that come to them after they’ve spent a long day running from table to table. Even people who no longer work as servers still have the dreams years later. We’ve gathered anxiety dreams from eight of them here.

Cherry Bombe has published a Q&A with Parlor Ice Cream founder Jacqueline Dole.

Any industry mentor or person who inspires you?
Jeni Britton Bauer. At Cherry Bombe’s Jubilee in 2014, she said four words that I reflect on almost every day: “I just did it.” Life is too short to continuously ask permission from others—it’s up to you to learn what you need to do and how you need to make it happen. No one will do the work for you, so it’s up to you to learn how to overcome all the obstacles that a path to your passion will hold. Everything from day-to-day to damage control, Jeni handles with grace and gusto.

Claire Z. Cramer passed away unexpectedly earlier this month.

Claire was well known in the restaurant industry for the years she served (2001 – 2004) as the restaurant critic for the Maine Sunday Telegram, and, more recently, for her work over the last several years while she’s been an editor at Portland Magazine writing numerous articles about the Portland food scene.

Her loss will be deeply heartfelt by her many friends.

Congratulations to chef Matt Ginn from Evo on becoming a Food Network Chopped Champion in the episode that aired last night.

Sunday’s Boston Globe Travel section included an article on the developments taking place along Forest Ave and in Woodfords Corner and the impact Woodford F&B had on accelerating the process.

“Having a spot this great for residents to spend time together changed everything,” says Andrew Zarro, who moved to the neighborhood three years ago from Boston. “It was a huge leap for Fayth and Birch, but what they did with that place was a tipping point.” In fact, seeing their success convinced Zarro to open Little Woodfords, the postage stamp-sized coffee shop, with his partner, T.J. Zarro. There, on the same block as the old clock tower, they dole out espressos and breakfast all day, and peddle one-of-a-kind local wares like hand-thrown ceramics.

Today’s Press Herald includes an article about local food writer and stylist Vanessa Seder and her new book Secret Sauces.

“When you’re getting hired as a stylist, there’s so much money and pressure involved,” she said. “You have to understand how everything works. You have to understand who’s on the set, why they’re there, what your role is, how to do take after take if needed. And there’s all different types of food styling – there’s styling for video, commercial styling, editorial, cookbooks, magazines, packaging. It’s all different, and you have to understand that before you get into it. And you have to know what tools are good.”

Food & Wine has come out with their 2018 Best New Chef list. There aren’t any chefs in Maine on the list this year, but the July issue does include a list of all 323 chefs that have been recognized in the last two decades. Four are located in Maine today:

• 2004 – Rob Evans, Duckfat and former chef/owner of Hugo’s
• 2007 – Steve Corry, Five Fifty-Five
• 2011 – Bowman Brown, Elda in Biddeford and former co-chef/owner of Forage in Salt Lake City
• 2014 – Cara Stadler, Tao Yuan, Bao Bao and Lio