The Ghost at the bottom of the hill has risen!!!

The Walker's Back In Town Baby!!!!

A lot of people have gotten used to Chef saying that the Walker House will be open "...sometime after Monday..." but if you come see me at the Farmer's Market on Saturday I am going to tell you "...two days before tomorrow..."

We are finally going to open up our historic property on Friday, August 29th and Saturday, August 30th for a sneak preview of what the hell Chef Mike has been boiling up for almost a year now...heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww

(in a cute and wild Tennessee accent...)

This Friday I am going to do a 5 course Prix Fixe Surf and Turf menu

What you see is what you get....

The same thing with Saturday. Saturday we will do a 5 Course Prime Rib dinner...

The Prix Fixe for Friday is going to be:

First

Cheddar and Chipotle Fondue with assorted breads and crackers

Second

Walker House Salad

Locally grown lettuces and produce which includes:

Shooting Star Spring Mix, English Cucumbers, Kalamatta Olives, Sungold Cherry Tomatoes, Parmesan Cheese and housemade Roasted Garlic Croutons

Entree

Parmesan Crusted Orange Roughy with Roasted Red Pepper and Caper Sauce

Steak Medallions with Wild Mushroom Compote

Roasted Garlic and Cheddar Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Assorted Baby Vegetables Sauteed in Garlic Butter

Finish

Cinnamon Apple French Toast with Vanilla Ice Cream and Bourbon-scented Caramel Sauce

Whoooooooooaaaaaaaaaa.....who's coming for supper??????

Love you,

Chef

Raw Food Night at The Old Royal Inn

Sometimes it is just awesome to get blown away by food, not that I am all that hard to impress, but it takes a lot as a Chef to really blow me away…

Thus my experience at the Old Royal Inn in Mineral Point this past Monday.

Usually at the market on Saturday mornings you will find me set up next to Jennifer Bendorf selling delicious Cinnamon Rolls, Pecan Rolls and a variety of filled croissants that are home made by her husband Mark.

Jennifer has been on a raw food diet for quite a few months and we have talked about it before and have tasted some of her "experiments" in the past. Jennifer was telling me about Raw Food Chef Cathy Thomas and the ideas that Jennifer had picked up from Cathy and on Monday Jennifer and Cathy had a Raw Food Night at the Old Royal Inn, and it was excellent; four courses accompanied by an hibiscus-scented beverage. It was pretty impressive.

English Cucumbers filled with a Sun-Fried Tomato Tapenade and topped with a Macadamia nut cheese

Classic Caesar Salad with Organic Romaine, tossed with a creamy Caesar dressing finished with a Pine Nut Parmesan

Garden Pizza with a Sprouted Seed Crust, Seasoned Macadamia Nut Cheese and Finished with Seasonal Vine Ripened Heirloom Tomatoes

Black Forest Cherry Brownie and Vanilla Ice Cream

The menu was entirely raw Vegan and mostly organic…was pretty awesome….

Thanks to Jennifer and Cathy for an inspirational evening....

Chef

http://theoldroyalinn.com

Stump the Chef-Dan and Bonita Schmitz

Will finish this up tonight or tomorrow...just wanted to get some pics up for now....

Recently Chef held a Stump the Chef class for the Schmitz family which was a lot of fun. Dan and Bonita Schmitz bought Chef at the Mineral Point Rescue Squad's Brat Feed and Fundraiser. The premise was that you invite 6 people to your home and they all bring a mystery bag of "stuff", Chef shows up with his tools and a bag of his own, we dump everything out on the table and Chef invents something out of whatever is on the table...The Schmitz's kind of took it to an extreme (which was OK) and we wound up having 19 people, 12 courses of food and a lot of fun!!!

Dalai Lama In Madison

His Holiness, The Dalai Lama

There are not words that can describe my feelings of being in the same room with one that is undoubtedly the greatest man that walks on the face of the earth.

I got a visit from an old friend of mine from Tennessee just passing through to hang out with her CheffyBoy for a couple days and I took her to the public talk that the Dalai Lama gave before attending the weeks worth of teaching that was offered. Tammi Lee had left the day of the first teaching, so she was cruising to Memphis while I was in study with by far the greatest individual that graces this planet.

The week was totally inspirational in a variety of ways, His Holiness and my visit fromTammi Lee being one of the many. While living in Tennessee I had attended Losel Shedrup Ling, a Buddhist temple in Knoxville and members of the temple had attended the teachings as well and that in and of itself was very satisfying.

One day I made arrangements to take them to my little town after the teachings along with a young lady from Ontario and we had a blast. While I was taking them around they were taking pictures of our little excursion with their cell phones and I gave Victoria and Jiang my camera and told them to take as many pics of Mineral Point as they wanted and that I would post them on my Picasa photo album so here are a few of my favorite pics and at the end I will put a link to all of the other pics that I put up on Picasa, there were quite a few really cool pics of Mineral Point taken.

I told you Chef was living in a small town!!!!

The Gang from LSLK hanging out for a pic in the center of High Street

Jiang, Padma, Pergamo and Victoria

Tammi Lee on the Capitol Steps in Madison

Victoria and Jiang in the Garden at Shake Rag

Victoria being cute in the garden at Shake Rag Alley

Flower pic of the Garden at Shake Rag

Another Shake Rag Picture

Dinner at the Old Royal Inn

This pic was really cute...took everyone to Cafe Four for what I consider some of the best Ice Cream and Jiang Ke couldn't make up her mind so she got a tasting of all of the ice cream that the rest of us didn't order...man could that girl EAT!!!

After we had dinner we went galavanting up and down High Street and through town before we went to Cafe Four for dessert.

You can find all of the other photographs that were taken by our little entourage of Mineral Point here.