On Sunday, June 5, from 4-7 pm, three chefs will match sharp knives and quick wits in an exciting culinary showdown to benefit Founders Hall in Ridgefield, CT. Chefs Beck Bolender (One Twenty One, North Salem), Frank Bonnaudet (Sucré Salé, Ridgefield), and Jehan S.de Noüe (formerly Chez Noüe, Ridgefield, now JSN Catering and Albano Appliance, Pound Ridge) will open a basket of surprise ingredients in front of an audience of over 200 and, in just 60 short minutes, compete to create the winning entrée.
A panel of food experts, including John Barricelli of SoNo Baking Company, master chef Ron DeSantis, director of culinary excellence at Yale University, and Brendan Walsh, dean of culinary arts at the Culinary Institute of America, will judge the chefs on their creativity, craftsmanship and culinary results. Amy Kundrat, executive editor of the award-winning regional food blog CTbites will once again referee this showdown.
“A lot of love in that food,” I texted to Stephanie, my CTbites partner and frequent dining companion, within an hour of our departure from the new Mecha Noodle Bar in South Norwalk during one of their training nights.
“That’s the deal. He’s a special guy. It all means something to him. It’s not just the cooking. It’s nostalgia. Family. Friends. Community,” she texted back within moments.
Following that repartee, I realized whatever I wrote about our first impression of the new Mecha would pale in comparison to that observation. Love and community is the essence of what Mecha’s food is all about, and Chef Tony Pham along with partner Richard Reyes (Mézon), is at its Asian comfort food core.
Chefs Bernard Bouissou (Bernard’s), Silvia Bianco (formerly of Biscotti) and Prasad Chirnomula ( Thali)
Battle of the Chefs returns to Founders Hall on Sunday, May 17 from 4 to 7 p.m. and CTbites has a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky reader. The culinary showdown event will feature Chefs Silvia Bianco, formerly of Biscotti, Bernard Bouissou of Bernard’s, and Prasad Chirnomula of Thali, with emcees and hosts Amy Kundrat and Stephanie Webster (yours truly).
We are GIVING AWAY 2 seats to the May 17 Battle Of The Chefs event (a $200 value). We will randomly select 1 lucky winner with a pair of tickets. To enter for a chance to win, please post a comment on this story (you must include your email and name when commenting) telling us what you think the secret ingredient should be. [All comments will be considered made before the end of the day, May 1. Winner announced on May 4].
Chefs Bernard Bouissou (Bernard’s), Silvia Bianco (formerly of Biscotti) and Prasad Chirnomula ( Thali)
Battle of the Chefs returns to Founders Hall on Sunday, May 17, 4 – 7pm. In a culinary showdown similar to Top Chef and Chopped, three chefs will compete for the benefit of Founders Hall. Chefs Silvia Bianco, formerly of Biscotti, Bernard Bouissou of Bernard’s, and Prasad Chirnomula of Thali will compete to create an entree from a basket of surprise ingredients in front of a live audience. A panel of judges, including food critic and writer Jane Stern and wine/cheese connoisseur and business owner Monica Brown of No. 109 Cheese and Wine, will judge the chefs on their creativity, craftsmanship and culinary results. Hosts Amy Kundrat and Stephanie Webster (yours truly) of CTbites, will emcee.
Labor Day marks the unofficial end to that glorious season we know as summer. Days filled with warm weather, early happy hours, and treks to the beach are hereby numbered. Thankfully, several new restaurants have opened in Fairfield County and beyond this summer, giving us more than a few things to look forward to as we ease into the seriousness of the back-to-school season.
Here are a few new restaurants that opened this summer we think are worth checking out.
CTbites was invited for an exclusive first look inside Chef Bill Taibe’s new restaurant, Kawa Ni, in Westport’s Bridge Square this week. Kawa Ni means “on the river,” an apt name for a restaurant in Saugatuck whose cuisine and service will take its cues from the informal Izakaya joints found in the Japanese cities of Kyoto and Osaka.
Is it an american restaurant with japanese aspirations? Or is it a japanese restaurant with american inspirations? Both, says Taibe, who distills his love of post war japanese culture and a farm house style approach to japanese food within the walls of the intimate Kawa Ni.
Equal parts food and drink, with a capital F-U-N atmosphere, the 40-seat Izakaya-inspired restaurant will get the party started by the end of the month.
Barcelona in Fairfield has welcomed new executive chef Ian Kokkeler, with previous chef Helton DaSilva relocating south to man the restaurant groups second busiest restaurant in Atlanta.
Kokkeler hails from Austin, where he spent the last several years as executive chef as some of that city’s most well known restaurants includingUchi, Congress and the W Hotel in Austin He spent 7 years at Uchi, a Japanese restaurant, where plating and precision called upon his talents as an artist.
"I am artistic, and here at Barcelona we are rustic. I hope to blend these two with my plating style. As an artist, I like to paint and sculpt, and that translates well to cooking," said Kokkeler during our visit to Barcelona during his first full week on the job.
If you thought arepa's were our of your reach in your own kitchen, think again. This week we are bringing you a recipe from one of the our reader favorite spots—Valencia Luncheria in Norwalk, featured in Fairfield County Chef's Table—featuring one of their most popular dishes, the Carlo Arepa.
In our second week featuring recipes from Fairfield County Chef's Table, we looked no further than Ridgefield to feature 109 Cheese & Wine's excellent grilled cheese sandwich with wild mushrooms. In addition to trying your hand at the recipe below, the shop also makes made-to-order grilled cheese sandwiches in their shop. 109 Cheese & Wine will be hosting a free event with Bernard's Restaurant and Southwest Café at 11 am on May 31 in their upstairs classroom, complete with food from all three restaurants, bubbly and beverages, as well as copies of Fairfield County Chef's Table. Stop by for a snack, and have the chefs and author sign your book!
109 Cheese & Wine 109 Danbury Road, Ridgefield, CT 06877 | (203) 438-5757 | 109cheeseandwine.com Owners: Monica and Todd Brown
After several years of immersing ourselves in the Fairfield County dining scene as partners and editors of CTbites, we had the opportunity to trade pixels for print. We are very excited to announce the launch of our book, Fairfield County Chef's Table, featuring over 50 restaurants and recipes, now available at your local book store and online.
The book, published by Globe Pequot Press, was written by Amy Kundrat (yours truly), the executive editor and partner at CTbites. The photography is by none other than CTbites founder and editor in chief Stephanie Webster. It is the culmination of the many years we have been writing about and photographing the Connecticut food scene. This two year project was a blast to work on, and we only wish we could have included 50 more of our favorite restaurants. For more information, please visit our website.
A special thank you to all the chefs, restaurant owners, farmers, friends, CTbites contributors, and CTbites readers who shared their time, expertise, and support. We hope you enjoy the book, experiment with the recipes from some of our favorite restaurants, and share it with your friends and family!
After months of planning and a sleight of hand two week renovation, Match restaurant in South Norwalk is poised to reopen this week with a blow-out opening cocktail party celebrating the new Match on Thursday, March 20 at 5 pm. Beginning Thursday at 7:30 pm, reservations will be accepted for dinner with business as usual for SoNo’s beloved restaurant.
Match opened up its still very dusty doors to CTbites over the weekend before the reopening, giving us a behind the scenes look at what to expect from the new Match, from its décor (purple!), new brand (relaxed and modern), to its new menu (more is more) and glimpses of a handful of reimagined and darn good looking dishes.
A steady fixture in the Fairfield County dining scene with chef/owner Matt Storch at the helm for the past fourteen years, Match has built a loyal following and a menu of popular dishes along the way. In fact, when Match first announced it would close temporarily for renovations, many people reacted with equal parts fear and excitement, worried they would lose their beloved dishes such as Carpetbaggers and Wasabi Tuna (or was that just us?), but also looking forward to the restaurant’s facelift.
NyHaven, a one-time pop-up new Nordic dinner in New Haven on March 3, blew away a couple dozen diners lucky enough to purchase seats to the 15-course dining experience showcasing some of the most daring and inventive food in Connecticut. Conceived by Chef Simon Marcell Davidsen with fellow Community Table chef Tommy Juliano, they teamed up with John Ginnetti of 116 Crown, who not only generously offered the kitchen and dining space for NyHaven, but also paired each snack and course with an appropriate "cocktail."
An indelible evening marked by a provocative menu, curious cocktails, and a house filled with appreciate gourmands, we attempted to capture the meal in not just words, but an interview with Chef Simon Marcel Davidsen, photos of each course, and 116 Crown's video of the NyHaven experience:
Everyone has their favorites, and Espresso NEAT is definitely one of our favorite coffee places here at CTbites. Now with two locations (Darien, and a small shop in Greenwich), their devotion to the craft of caffeine delivery is bar none.
In addition to fueling their customers, they are also offering a series of educational classes for the month of May.
The abundance of ramps across Connecticut menus this past week not only signals spring, but also the imminent seasonal collaborations between local farms and the chefs who love them. For Connecticut's farm-loving dining scene, this can only mean one thing—farm dinners are just around the corner.
Why do we at CTbites look forward to these farm dinners so much? It allows us to celebrate and support both the chef as well as the farmer while appreciating the bounty of the Connecticut landscape that we call home (many, but not all of these dinners are fundraisers). With the promise of a new destination and communal seating, diners can enjoy the company of like-minded food lovers. And of course there is the simple and pleasurable act of dining en plein air with grass beneath your feet.
As it is still early in the season, this list of a dozen or so events is in formation, so if you'd like to recommend a dinner or an event we may have missed, please include it in the comments and we will update our list. Whether you look forward to farm dinners as much as we do, or have yet to embrace this seasonal ritual, we encourage you to give one or many a try this year!
The upscale, inspired Mexican street food and vibrant bar scene that Bodega has ushered in to Fairfield, has migrated south, opening in Darien this past weekend. The trio behind the original Bodega—Michael Young, Luis Chavez and Mario Fontana—have continued to perfect a brash menu that embraces the Americas, skewing from South America to North, and settling centrally on Mexico. In a markedly larger setting, the new Darien outpost has successfully duplicated much of the same menu, from antojitos to mezcal, with a few noteworthy additions. Bodega will be officially open starting Monday, November 12 at 5 pm for dinner, and will be open 6 nights a week Monday through Saturday, and open for lunch and brunch beginning January 6, seven days a week.
The Chelsea, located in the heart of Fairfield on Unquowa Place, will open in a just under a month in mid-July. The new 80 seat restaurant includes 12 outdoor seats, a lively bar, a global gastropub menu and a hefty dose of whimsy. The trio responsible for creating what will likely be Fairfield County’s newest hot spot are: Scott Beck, co-owner of Match and The Loft in South Norwalk, and Tavern in Monroe; Matt Storch, Chef and co-owner of Match in South Norwalk; and Kevin McHugh, Co-Owner of Grey Goose in Southport and Spotted Horse in Wes
Friends and family were treated to a sneak preview of The Whelk, Bill Taibe's latest venture in Westport on Wednesday evening. Steeped in the sea with unmistakable flashes of leFarm's seasonal luxury, The Whelk is poised to establish Saugatuck as the culinary center of Westport, and perhaps Fairfield County.
What kitchen gadget or appliance, cookbook, hard-to-find food or spirit are you coveting this holiday season? We put this question to bloggers, writers, chefs and foodies hoping to get some inspiration to tackle our holiday shopping list in the hopes of finding that perfect present for the food-obsessed person in your life.
What's at the top of your holiday wish list to give or receive?
Gift: An Illustrated Guide to Cocktails by Orr Sthuhl and Elizabeth Graber
"In our home, Dale DeGroff is the final word on cocktails. The Essential Cocktail is our bible, but if you're looking for a bit of whimsy with your drink, Orr Sthuhl and Elizabeth Graber's self-published book pairs charming illustrations and back-story (full of intrigue) with each recipe."
Gift: A yearly subscription to Fine Cooking's website. Giving the cook access to the magazine's vast collection of recipes. Gift for a vegetarian: We always turn to Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. This is a go to cookbook with great tips for all things vegetable.
We have been very lucky to work with a talented young writer and food blogger Antonella Pagani this summer as our first CTbites intern. She has been working hard helping us create our soon-to-be-launched CTbites directory, covering food news and covering her hometown of New Canaan, CT where she lives with her family, when she is not attending school in Florida.
As summer winds down and she is about to take off and head back to Florida, we thought it would be a great time to share what makes this gelato-scooping, squid-ink-croquette eating, Batali-loving food writer tick.
On Sunday, June 5, from 4-7 pm, three chefs will match sharp knives and quick wits in an exciting culinary showdown to benefit Founders Hall in Ridgefield, CT. Chefs Beck Bolender (One Twenty One, North Salem), Frank Bonnaudet (Sucré Salé, Ridgefield), and Jehan S.de Noüe (formerly Chez Noüe, Ridgefield, now JSN Catering and Albano Appliance, Pound Ridge) will open a basket of surprise ingredients in front of an audience of over 200 and, in just 60 short minutes, compete to create the winning entrée.
