Category: People

Interview with Small Axe

| Posted in People, Under Construction

Eater Maine has published an interview with Bill Leavy and Karl Deuben. They spoke about Small Axe’s food truck and the plans they have to launch a brick and mortar restaurant.

You’ve talked about plans to open a brick and mortar establishment. How is that progressing?
BL: We’ve been getting a lot of interest from folks who would like to help us out. We’re always looking for properties. We haven’t found one yet, but we will. It’s an ongoing search.

KD: We’re looking to create a neighborhood feel in a restaurant. We’re looking in the Deering area, in town as well. But we want it to be a neighborhood spot with a nice bar and have it be focused on comfort, food served in a comfortable environment.

Boston Globe: Maine Pie Line

| Posted in Profiles, People

The Boston Globe has published a profile of Briana Warner and her Portland bakery the Maine Pie Line.

The Halverson’s Humble, which is a chocolate pie, started with a bet. Thirty-year-old Briana Warner, owner of Maine Pie Line in the East Bayside neighborhood here, had lost a wager to her then-colleague Adam Halverson while the two were serving as diplomats for the US Department of State in Guinea. As retribution, he challenged her to make him a “humble pie.”

Vinland

| Posted in Profiles, People

Today’s Press Herald features an article about the new restaurant Vinland, and chef/owner David Levi’s dedication to local ingredients.

“For me, (this) is not coming from a puritanical mindset,” he said. “To me, it is about creating a beautiful and interesting form within which to work, which happens to also maximize our local support to farmers and fishermen and foragers, to cheese makers and artisans.”

Food Insecurity in Maine

| Posted in People

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a report on food insecurity among Maine’s senior citizens.

Across Maine, there’s an increasing number of people like Jim and Nancy Pike of Alfred, seniors whose declining health and limited finances have put them among the so-called ‘food insecure.’ ‘They are the hidden hungry … and they don’t want anybody to know.’

For more information on hunger and Maine or if you want to make a donation, visit the Good Shepherd Food Bank website.

5-star Easy-Bake Oven Pastry Chefs

| Posted in Wine, People

For today’s edition of the Press Herald, columnist Meredith Goad handed out Easy-Bake Ovens to the pastry chefs at Hugo’s, Five Fifty-Five and Fore Street. Chefs Kim Rodgers, Addie Davis and Brant Dadaleares were challenged to create a great dessert using the purple toy from Hasbro instead of their usual professional grade equipment.

“That’s perfect for custard,” Dadaleares said. So the chef made six custards, topped them with some turbinado sugar and torched them. (It took 15 to 20 minutes for each custard to bake.) He chose the three best, and layered them with vanilla rice pudding, caramelized Rice Krispies, candied pecans, port-poached pears and cherries. He topped his Easy-Bake napoleon with sweetened whipped cream.

Dadaleares also made a persimmon pudding with the oven. It worked, he said, “but I liked the flavor combinations of this (the napoleon) a little bit more.”

Today’s Food & Wine section also includes a column by local wine expert Joe Appel on Champagne and sparkling wine.

If you want to drink a truly expressive nonvintage Champagne, one to make your eyes widen and your heart race, you need to work for it. And it will cost you (though not much more than generic big-house Champagne will). Some of the best available in Maine are Gimmonet, Egly-Ouriet, Aubry, Beaudoin, Vilmart & Cie, and Maillart.

Fly Points & Maine Shrimp

| Posted in People, Fisheries

MPBN has aired an interview with Eric Horne and Valy Steverlynk about their Flying Points oyster farm in Freeport.

Eric Horne and his wife, Valy Steverlynk (above), fire up their skiff and motor down the Royal River away from the Yarmouth marina and out into Casco Bay. It’s a cold December morning and theirs is the only boat on the water.

They’re on their way to check an oyster bed they’ve been leasing for more than 10 years. After a bone-chilling five-minute trip, they arrive at the site, where they hope to collect about 500 oysters.

Working Waterfront has published a report that explores the possible causes of the collapse of the Maine shrimp fishery.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission did not close this fishery simply because the population was low, but more because we don’t seem to have enough baby shrimp to build a future upon. It was determined by managers that to give this stock the best chance for recovery we needed to leave all the shrimp now in the water in the hope that they spawn and produce abundant offspring.

Richard Foss, 96

| Posted in People

Richard Foss passed away earlier this month at the age of 96. Foss worked for 63 years at Schlotterbeck & Foss, a Portland specialty foods company founded by his grandfather Charles Foss and Augustus Schlotterbeck in 1866.

Mr. Foss joined the family business in 1940 after graduating from Harvard University. He started in sales and worked his way up the ranks to become president of the company.

The company was co-founded by his grandfather Charles S. Foss in 1866 as a prescription apothecary shop. It later evolved into patented medicines and flavoring extracts, which Foss sold to dairy farmers to make ice cream. Over time, S&F developed specialty food items, such as sauces, marinades, salad dressings, and ice cream syrups and toppings.

Best and Worst Tips of 2013

| Posted in People, General News

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd share her Best and Worst Tips of 2013 in today’s paper,

4) I was delighted when a customer left me a $25 Visa gift card. I was not so delighted when I tried checking out at CVS with fun stuff I didn’t need, and was told the card had a zero balance on it. The line was long and I was embarrassed, so I paid cash.

Also in today’s Sun is an article about Steve & Renee’s Diner.

 

Wine Request List for 2014 & MOFGA Field Guide Poetry

| Posted in Wine, People

libby_bookThe Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about a book of poetry by Russell Libby the deceased former director of MOFGA entitled What You Should Know: A Field Guide to Three Sisters Farm,

The poems are about the future of Libby’s land at Three Sisters Farm in Mount Vernon, and the role his family will play in taking care of that land. The underlying theme is mortality. The last in the collection, “Things You Should Know,” begins with the lines: “If I could, I would walk with you long enough that you, too, might find your way about without a map or guide, but I am certain it will take a while to share what I have learned these past three decades, and the time to start is now.”

and columnist Joe Appel shares a wish list for changes he’d like to see in wine consumers, servers and producers,

Drinkers, Again
Hold feet to fire. You ask your grocer where the broccoli came from; you ask your clothier the age of the Bangladeshi child who knit your socks. Wine is a consumable, and ought to be held to the same standards we apply to other aspects of our lives.

Art of Food at Spread

| Posted in People

The Forecaster has a report on Jung Hur, an artist and the chef/owner of Spread.

Artists exhibiting in restaurants, cafes and bars are fairly common in Maine, but the Jung Hur show at Spread is an exceptional marriage of fine art and fine dining in a setting that is itself largely created by Jung, including the bar, the pillows and the chandelier.

According to the article, Spread will offer “a four-course prix fixe dinner as the culinary manifestation of “Balance: The Paintings & Cuisine of Jung Hur”” from today through February 2nd.