Cornish Festival and more pics

We were involved in the Cornish Festival this year with me doing Mineral Point's "Taste of Point" which was a tremendous success...

Taste of Point

Tennessee Pulled Pork Sandwiches on House Made Rolls

Miniature Pasties with a Tarragon-Roasted Garlic Crust

British Rollmops-(pickled herring scented cream cheese with roasted garlic wrapped in Phyllo)

Spotted Dick-A traditional Cornish Dessert, served with Madagascar Vanilla Custard

Unfortunately I did not get any pics from me and Joe hanging out in Library Park for the Taste of Point but here are some pics of some of the food that we did for the Festival Weekend plus a couple of our staples off our menu...

The Wild and Wacky World of Chef Mike

Pleasing the World One Palate at a Time...

Come hungry...Leave Happy

Grilling up a Rosti for Our Tenderloin Dish

The Inevitable Pasty with Sweet Thai Chili Sauce

Sauteed Chicken Breast in a White Wine-Lemon and Garlic Sauce with assorted garden vegetables accompanied by Saffron Rice

Pan Fried European Lake Perch with a Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce

Seared Airline Chicken Breast topped with Roasted Red Pepper, Garlic, Artichokes and Kalamatta Olives with Roasted Butternut Squash and Saffron Rice

Crispy Catfish with Caper Remoulade, assorted garden veggies over Pesto Mashed Potatoes

Beef Tenderloin Rosti topped with a Madiera-Wild Mushroom Demi-Glace accompanied by a Roasted Butternut Squash

Chicken Parmesan with Sketti and Marinara

Will have some more pics in the days to come including the second guy to polish off one of Chef's 32 plus ounce Top Sirloins...

Hugz,

The Wild and Wacky World of Me

I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing!!!

My Buddy Geno took it as dare from Chef about eating a 34 oz Top Sirloin

Needless to say...the guy was quite full!!!!

Ha ha

Way to Go Geno....

This is why I love this town.....

Man!!! Do I freaking love this town and my job!!!!

The Beef doesn't get much Fresher

Eat Local Baby!!!!

The Milk Doesn't Get Any Creamier!!!

My Sous Chef's Expression Can't Get Any more Classic....

I love Shopping in Southwestern Wisconsin!!!!

Eat Local!!!!

Eat Local Challenge

This weekend we are joining forces with Local Fare and Rink DaVee from Shooting Star Farms and offering a five course Prix Fixe menu based on Local Foods for the "Eat Local Challenge"

Here is the hype...


The Eat Local Challenge

The Walker House with the support of our local farms (especially Rink, Jenny and Charlie of Shooting Star Farms) will host a special menu from Thursday, September 11th through
Sunday, September 14th to join forces with Local Fare to help promote local farms
and the "Eat Local" philosophy.

The "Eat Local Challenge" is to challenge communities throughout SW Wisconsin to spend 10% of their food budget in purchasing local food and supporting local fare.

Local Fare has joined with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and other organizations to promote awareness of the benefits and delights to be found in consuming local food.

Chef Michael Hayes has created and designed a Prix Fixe Five Course dinner utilizing six local area farms which runs through Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Support your local farms, community and businesses!!!

And the menu is....


First

Smoked Cheddar Fondue with Walker Bread

Hook’s Medium Cheddar
Maple Leaf Smoked Cheddar
Pecatonica Farms Greenbush Italian Sausage
Blue Marble Milk

Second

Chicken Wings

Tossed in a honey-smoked jalapeno butter sauce or
Sweet Honey-Licker Sauce

Chicken Wings-Jordandal Farms
Klein’s Bee Farm Honey

Third

Mesclun Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes

All of our produce used this evening comes
from Shooting Star Farms

Entree

Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Apple Chutney
Pesto Cheddar Potatoes
Roasted Beet and Eggplant Saute
Balsamic Tomatoes

Pecatonica Farms Pork Tenderloin
Shooting Star Farms Basil, Beets, Eggplant and Tomatoes
Hook’s Cheddar
Blue Marble Milk

Finale

Raspberry Sorbet on a bed of Crème Anglais

Bure’s Berry Patch Raspberries

Thanks to the following people responsible for growing and loving the foods that Chef was able to prepare for his friends this weekend…

Cuz their soil ain’t dirt!!!

Rink, Jenny and Charlie of Shooting Star Farms
The Carr Family of Pecatonica Farms
Eric and Carrie Johnson of Jordandal Farms
The Hook Family of Hook’s Cheese
Cathy of Bures Berry Patch
Toad Klein of Klein’s Bee Farm
Blue Marble Dairy Farm
And of course, Our Mother Earth

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.