MEITUS: A smorgasbord of foodie tidbits

By Marty Meitus, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 12, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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With the weeks flying by, it seems as if there's never enough time to talk about some of the food-related events around town.

First up was the Thomas Keller cooking class in sous vide at the new demonstration kitchen at the Denver campus of Johnson & Wales University. The "chef's chef," as he's known, is owner of Per Se in New York and The French Laundry in Napa Valley, as well as Bouchon and several other restaurants.

His upcoming venture, Burgers and Half-Bottles, is attracting a lot of attention. Before the demo, Keller said that the restaurant will be based more on In-N-Out Burger, which does one thing well, than on a "have it your way" spot with myriad choices.

Sous vide is a precise procedure that "adds another component in our arsenal of cooking methods," Keller said. It involves Cryovacking - vacuum-packing food in a plastic bag - and achieving precise temperatures by chilling the food or poaching it in hot water in an immersion heater.

In the hands of a skilled chef, sous vide is a powerful way to maintain consistency and quality, but the food safety concerns of hitting those precise "safe" temperatures means that it will be awhile before it makes inroads into the home kitchen.

Second, I attended the Soup for the Soul benefit last week for Porter Hospice and St. Anthony Hospice. These folks know how to put on a benefit. There were passed appetizers during the silent auction, from places such as Oceanaire Seafood. Then you went to your assigned table, with a mug at your place setting. The restaurant "stations" had paper cups that fit inside the mugs, so you weren't carrying hot soup across the ballroom.

The soups were so varied that you could hit all the stations without duplication. The restaurants also offered interesting bites to go with the soup. Dazzle, for instance, served duck confit on a crostini, while Mel's offered a grilled cheese crostini. Rioja/Bistro Vendome did Shrimp Tarragon Salad in Puffs with their killer Butternut Squash, Ginger & Apple Soup. Elway's Cherry Creek dished up a Beef Green Chile Posole; Luca D'Italia, a Zucchini Zuppa with housemade meatballs; Vesta Dipping Grill/ Steuben's, a Roasted Root Vegetable Bisque.

Most surprising was a warm Roasted Red Beet Soup from Fruition.

There were 16 restaurants in all for the soup course, including Japon (delicious Tofu Miso Soup); Highland's Garden Cafe, P.F. Chang's, Pesce Fresco, Alto, The Palm, Baur's Ristorante, San Lorenzo Ristorante and Arapahoe/Douglas Career and Technical School.

Third, I had dinner at Strings not long ago, driving over in one of those white-knuckle, rush-hour snowstorms to taste the food of new chef Aaron Whitcomb, formerly of Table Six. Once again, I picked the wrong day to start my new, new diet - his new pastas were just delicious.

If you ever want to start good dinner-table chatter, ask your guests what one food they so love that they can't resist it. Even my husband couldn't guess mine: I love good vanilla ice cream.

And last but not least, when Johnny Hsu of the Imperial and the Palace Chinese restaurants blows it out at his annual Chinese New Year party, I'm there to eat amazing food and show off my karaoke talents. Don't we all have that fantasy of bringing the crowd to its feet with our amazing voices? Or at least not having dumplings thrown at us?

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