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Stage #2, Part One: Slinging it Local with Little Rock Urban Farming and Southern Gourmasian

July 12, 2013 by arfoodie

Chefs are a funny lot.

They’re often known for being fussy, ill-tempered or demanding. I’ve been around more than a handful, and even the more even-tempered ones often get a little hairy when it’s time to cook.

And then there’s Justin Patterson of Southern Gourmasian.

Menu from the Little Rock Urban Farming event featuring Southern Gourmasian.

Menu from the Little Rock Urban Farming event featuring Southern Gourmasian.

Working in an unusual setup inside Little Rock Urban Farming’s garage-barn-event room Saturday night, Justin was as calm and cool as a cucumber fresh out of the abundant adjoining gardens.

“You could finish these [ceviche cups],” he asked/directed me. “Each one just needs a couple pieces of pickled watermelon, and then a green onion.”

Task requests toward his own staff were similar. I noted his repeated use of phrases like “you could” or “would you mind.”

The event, a fundraiser for Little Rock Urban Farming’s new non-profit venture, the Southern Center for Agroecology, was equally laid-back, with visitors in t-shirts, suits and sundresses touring the unassuming Hillcrest digs. Our cooking space intertwined with the guests’ buffet of buttermilk fried okra, steamed mussels and fresh, ripe sliced tomatoes, picked just feet away. Open doors allowed a slight breeze with hints of basil from the rows just outside.

Potato frico with beet and carrot slaw

Potato frico with beet and carrot slaw

Also on the menu was a crispy cheese-and-potato pancake of sorts (a frico, I learned), which Justin had me assemble. I should note that all the hard parts — the lengthy prep of peeling and grating potatoes and slicing beets and carrots, just to start — had already been done. I got the heady honor of putting it all together and serving it to guests, who often wandered a little too close as I flipped them on the cooktop.

The frico dish featured garlic montasio by local cheesemaker Kent Walker, as well as a gorgeous slaw of candy cane beets and carrots grown right there at Little Rock Urban Farming. It was just one of several simple yet brilliantly devised dishes celebrating the local harvest.

And that was just the idea, according to LRUF founder Chris Hiryak, waxing poetic before the event began. “One of the most beautiful things you can do with locally grown produce is put it in the hands of a chef who really transforms it,” he said.

It helps when the chef is a calm, creative genius. More on that and his excellent staff next time.

Filed Under: Events, Foodie News, Stage_Project Tagged With: Chris Hiryak, Justin Patterson, Little Rock Urban Farming, Southern Gourmasian, Stage

Stage #1: KJ’s Caribe Restaurant + Cantina, Part Two

July 18, 2012 by arfoodie

Click here for Part 1

It didn’t take long for things to get a little out of control.

Due to additional traffic brought in by the Fleur Delicious event in Eureka Springs that weekend, the ticket printer in Caribe’s kitchen was screeching a little more often than usual, even for a Friday night.

KJ told me later that night about her cozy 50-seat dining area she now uses, just a small part of the multi-room building.

“When I first moved here from downtown, we had the whole thing open, and we fed several hundred a night,” she said. “It was just too much. I went a little crazy. It was still just little old me and one salad guy in the back. We managed, but it was just too much.”

She later trimmed service down to the main dining room, and she ended up making more money due to reduced overhead.

Tonight, she had extra help (me), but I wasn’t really much help without knowing the menu. We never really had gotten around to that.

KJ shows me how to do the sauce for the fajitas.

During slight lulls, KJ showed me how to start fajitas and a salmon dish on the grill and finish them on the stove, with her special combinations of Caribbean-inspired sauces. Small pans lined up with coconut milk, veggie stock (with pineapple juice), rum and other goodies.

“I’m a real believer in the two-phase cooking process,” she said, moving the beef or chicken from the grill to the waiting pan, and later to a plate of salad, rice and beans.

Ohmygosh, the beans… we’ll get back to those.

The real crazy came around 7 p.m. A waitress went home sick. Tickets were slightly piled up. A few folks in the dining room were getting testy.

Dying to help out, I inched into the line a few times, but KJ was in the zone. She politely/tersely told me that I’d have to wait, it was easier right now for her to just get.it.done.

Meanwhile, Chris, the front of house manager, is slightly freaking out. I offered to help in the front, and he and KJ thought that was a dandy idea.

Chris had me help bus tables, check on folks’ water, deliver plates from the kitchen and such. I wasn’t anyone’s waitress, officially. But, of course, you step into the dining room and you’re fair game.

“Could you tell me about the heat level on these salsas (from the platter)?” I was asked more than once. I politely responded that I was just helping for the night and wasn’t familiar, but I would send someone (Chris) over right away. (Yes, I did.)

I fetched requested sides, refilled water, sliced limes, even served a margarita or two. But my favorite part is talking to people, when appropriate, a remainder from my PR days. I actually really enjoyed it.

Back in the kitchen, things eventually slowed enough where I could get involved again. Rice, beans, kids’ tacos. More fajitas, enchiladas, ring the pickup bell, go, go, go. Running. Out. Of. Stuff.

Around 9 p.m., KJ shut down the kitchen. No more dinner tonight, folks. She had to get ready for the event she had agreed to, which was to start at 9:30. She collapsed for a moment in the corner, doing a combination of stretch, faint, yoga, something.

A whole new crowd loomed, many of whom will be fed for free. I had to wonder if she was still feeling all the “community” jazz she mentioned earlier.

One more installment, plus an “inspired by” recipe, coming soon!  

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Filed Under: Destinations, Events, Foodie News, Stage_Project

Stage #1: KJ’s Caribe Restaurant + Cantina, Part One

July 16, 2012 by arfoodie

It was 4:55 p.m., five minutes before I was supposed to start my first stage, or mini culinary internship. I sat in my car in the parking lot of the wildly colorful building, having a mild panic attack.

I was at Caribe Restaurant + Cantina in Eureka Springs, or just Caribe, as the locals call it. It’s Fleur Delicious Weekend, the city’s annual celebration of food and fun with a French twist. And Caribe’s owner, KJ, was as laid back (and pleasantly wound up) as all get out, I could already tell from our email and Facebook conversations. So what was the problem, already? Just.go.in.and.COOK.

You see, ever since that terrible, awful, amazing class in culinary school called Food Production IV, where we did restaurant service every week, I’ve had this same paralyzing fear: What if I don’t really know how to cook? What if I’ve just skidded by so far, and they’re gonna find me out? I’ll have to go back into PR. And that’s not happening.

Anyway, I finally mustered the courage to step into the building, and I asked the server for KJ. She’s in the kitchen. Of course.

KJ Zumwalt is a fireball, if you haven’t heard. But if you’re from Eureka, you’ve heard. She’s a presence, one that I picked up on right away. She’s here to work like all heck putting out the restaurant’s stunningly beautiful Caribbean-style fare, strutting her stuff while she does it, and having a good time doing it.

No time for a lot of pleasantries, or even to show me how to do the dish she’d pre-assigned me, a lovely crab cake number. Orders had already started rolling in, and they were just about out of their famous guacamole.

“KEEGAN!” she hollered, with a mix of urgency and family sweetness. Keegan was the adorable sous chef/salad guy, the only other soul in the kitchen besides KJ when interlopers like me aren’t around. “Keegan! I need that guacamole like yesterday, baby.”

I stood awkwardly while Keegan slung salads and salsa platters from previous tickets. He managed to get out a bowl of ingredients to be prepped for the guac, and KJ had an idea.

“Hey, Christie’s got knife skills. Put her on it.”

So here I am, about 90 seconds in the door, and I’m making one of their most famous dishes. No pressure. Lemme just put up my hair and wash my hands right quick.

Despite my earlier doubts, I did remember how to use a knife and dispatch a couple dozen avocados, several onions, a handful of serrano peppers, lime juice and some other stuff. (Hey, I’m not giving you the recipe!) She told me what seasonings to work in. Done. Plated. And it was beautiful.

KJ started to show me a few of the entrees she was preparing, telling me stories about herself and the restaurant as she went. Another of her famous starters, the salsa platter, came from a rather unusual muse — Oysters Rockefeller plates.

A few years back, KJ and her partner, Panama-born Clary Perez, ran the restaurant in downtown Eureka, an entirely different experience (and real estate price point) than her current digs further down Highway 62. When they first started renting the rather expensive downtown space, the previous tenant’s dishes were part of the deal. The heavy, white dishes were shaped for holding Oysters Rockefeller. Six oysters, to be exact.

Guess how many salsas went into their salsa platter? Yup. With a dollop of sour cream in the middle and a basket of freshly-made corn chips and spicy wheat crisps.

Clary later passed away, and KJ moved from front-of-the-house operations to the kitchen, turning out all the dishes the community had grown to love. (Read Kat Robinson’s touching story about this part of KJ’s journey over at Tie Dye Travels. I didn’t know she had written this when I first connected with KJ for a stage; it was a great introduction to the restaurant and its history.)

KJ’s passion for her community continues to draw her in and hold her up, as evidenced by the very night I was there to cook with her. She had agreed to offer specials as part of Fleur Delicious, then host a large gathering that evening after normal service hours for a music event. This included feeding a good number of those involved in the project for free.

“We do a lot of charity events and dinners. You have to support your people, the community,” she said. “I’m totally into that. I’m not just doing this for the money.”

To be continued…

Filed Under: Destinations, Events, Reviews, Stage_Project Tagged With: Caribe, Caribe Restaurant and Cantina, Eureka Springs, Fleur Delicious Weekend, Kelli J Zumwalt, KJ Zumwalt

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