Arkansas

Arkansas Hospitality Conference a Food Lover’s Dream (PHOTOS)

September 15, 2016 by arfoodie

The Culinary Classic featured dishes with an “outer space” theme, including this lentil, scallop and polenta dish that was served to guests in tiny spheres.

This week, the Arkansas Hospitality Association held its annual Showcase & Convention event, which is a highlight of the year for many involved in all aspects of the hospitality industry.

But even for those outside of the industry, two events shine as a food lover’s dream: the Culinary Classic and the Iron Chef Arkansas competition.

The Culinary Classic, which was held Tuesday evening, is a ticketed event for public sampling. But before guests arrive, participating chefs send dishes anonymously to a panel of judges, who choose the best in appetizers, soups and salads, entrees, and desserts. This year’s winners are listed below. (Read a preview with more details about the Culinary Classic here, and see photos below.)

The next two days, the trade show floor buzzed with vendors of all kinds, but the foodies knew to head to the back of the room for the Iron Chef Arkansas stage. This live competition, much like the popular show Chopped, gives chefs a mystery ingredients basket in each round that must be used in the dishes. The chefs had 40 minutes per heat to create two plates—one for the judges, and another for winners of a silent auction held at the Culinary Classic. (Read more about Iron Chef Arkansas and the winner here on our sister site, arfoodjobs.com.)

Over four heats on Wednesday and two semi-final heats on Thursday, the original panel of eight Arkansas chefs boiled down to the last two: Casey Copeland of SO Restaurant in Little Rock and Justus Moll of River Grille Steakhouse in Bentonville. Moll took the win with his final dish.

Culinary Classic Winners:

Appetizer

1st – Adam Hanry of Camp Mitchell
2nd – Bonner Cameron of Bistro Catering and Gourmet Take-Away
3rd – Casey Copeland of SO Restaurant

Soup and Salad

1st – Javier Salcedo of Riverfront Steakhouse
2nd – Kamiya Merrick of At the Corner
3rd – Josh Marling of Southland Park Gaming & Racing

Entree

1st – Paul Frintrup of Country Club of Little Rock
2nd – Brandon Douglas of Green Leaf Grill
3rd – Pratik Mungre of Capital Hotel

Dessert

1st – Adam Hanry of Camp Mitchell
2nd – Paul Frintrup of Country Club of Little Rock
3rd – Jan Lewandowski of Pulaski Technical College

Best of Beef Award: Bonner Cameron of Bistro Catering and Gourmet Take-Away

Hiland Dairy Award: Paul Frintrup of Country Club of Little Rock

People’s Choice Award: Mario Torres of Marriott Little Rock

CULINARY CLASSIC PHOTOS

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IRON CHEF PHOTOS

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2016 ProStart Arkansas Competition

March 10, 2016 by arfoodie

Every year, Arkansas’ top culinary and hospitality management high school students come to Pulaski Tech to demonstrate their talents. The winning teams (one in culinary and one in hospitality management) get to attend the national ProStart competition to represent the state.

Today the culinary portion of the competition is taking place at Pulaski Tech’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute.

Want to follow the action? Or do you just like food photos?

We’re taking this over to our sister site at arfoodjobs.com since it pertains to the professional side of culinary arts. Check it out!

Announcing ARFoodJobs.com!

April 1, 2014 by arfoodie

Free job listings for employers throughout April with code APRILFOOLFREE. No joke!

It’s not a joke…I finally did it. Today marks the official launch of my new food job site, ARFoodJobs.com. And this month, employers can use it for free.

Since entering the culinary world as a student in 2009, I noticed there was no reliable system for filling our state’s food-related positions. Job openings were filled by word of mouth (which isn’t always a bad thing, but with limited reach), newspaper listings, Craigslist (gah) and a flurry of emails between those in the industry. Then, some jobs out there required vetting and/or health checks, similar to those given by Health Street, so the chances of getting a job were even slimmer if you weren’t competent. And being accepted for a culinary job or career especially could be so difficult.

And then, around 2012 or so, our food world smooth blew up, especially in Little Rock. New restaurants, improved concepts and inspired chefs popped up everywhere. (A recent visitor who works in the industry marveled to me at our density and variety of dining.) By 2014, Little Rock was named one of five “Secret Foodie Cities” by Forbes Travel Guide.

So, who’s gonna work at all these places? And how will the busy owners, managers and chefs make connections to the best workers?

Today I offer a solution: ARFoodJobs.com.

It’s more than a job board…I like to say we’re matchmakers for Arkansas’ growing culinary and hospitality industry and the state’s most qualified job candidates in these areas.

Our matchmaking is made possible through strategic affiliate partnerships with Pulaski Technical College – Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute and the Arkansas Hospitality Association. With their help, we are gathering the resumes of the state’s best food job candidates, from students to seasoned (ha) veterans, and helping them connect with employers. Some people need a little nudge first to a resume writing service to help them out, but after that, it tends to be plain sailing.

May I ask for your help in getting us started? It’s a big week. Help a sistah out.

1. Employers: Register as an employer on the site (click “register” and follow prompts). If you have a job opening right now, you can start at the “Post a Job” menu button and it will register you automatically in the process. Use coupon code APRILFOOLFREE to get free job listings all month in April.

2. Job Seekers: Select “Post a Resume” under “Find a Job” on the site and you’ll be registered as a job seeker in the process. Then fill in our resume form as well as attach your Word or PDF formatted resume which you can create with software as sodapdf online. Please do both, as the form is searchable by employers, and they also like one to print out. If you’d rather be stealthy about your job search, you can just click “Register” and sign up as a candidate.

3. Everyone Else: If you’re not in the industry or not currently looking, please share this site with others. The more jobs and resumes we have listed, the better it will work for everyone.

Thank you in advance for your support. It means so much. What a great food culture we have right here in Arkansas!

Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry Wrap-Up (Photos)

May 6, 2013 by arfoodie

Beautiful setup by Gina Knuppenburg and Amanda Potter Cole, and many other workers. I can’t thank you enough.

I’m still exhausted, two days later.

But it was totally worth it.

The Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry, our third annual, was a huge success! I’ll report a total at the end of the week, but I do know that we have reached our goal of $2,000 this year, DOUBLING what we had made in each of our first two years doing the sale here in Arkansas. So exciting!

Many thanks to the bloggers who wrote, baked and donated, as well as the professional bakers who sent their wares and a handful of non-blogger good souls who just sent things because they cared. And a special thanks to the awesome folks who decorated and handled the crowds on Saturday at the sale itself!

Meanwhile, my competitive spirit is still fired up. I’m not sure what all the sales across the country have made, but I know we’re in the top tier. Duncan Hines is donating an extra $10,000 on behalf of the bake sale with the biggest total… It could be Arkansas!

So, if you didn’t get to participate, I encourage you to donate funds directly here. Funds donated at this link will be credited to our Arkansas bake sale. (The totals are wonky because most of it is in cash from the sale, locked away in a safe at my house until Friday.)

Oh, and one more thing: Those of us on the Twitters wondered why we didn’t see the national buzz very well. Turns out all the sales didn’t use the assigned #FBBakeSale hashtag (tsk tsk), but did their own. Check out #SDFBBakeSale, #CFLFBBakeSale, #SFBakeSale and #NYCBakeSale for what other folks did across the country.

THANK YOU, thank you, thank you! That’s from the bottom of my heart, and from all the kids and families who will benefit from your hard work. Thank you.

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Daybreak Chocolate Cake for Food Blogger Bake Sale

May 1, 2013 by arfoodie

Eggless Chocolate Cake I made on Daybreak. Or maybe a gluten-free version I made the night before. Not telling.

Eggless Chocolate Cake I made on Daybreak. Or maybe one I made the night before. Not telling.

I’ll be on Daybreak (KATV Ch. 7 in Little Rock) tomorrow morning talking about the Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale. So exciting! (EDIT: It was great! Here’s the link to the segment.)

If, by chance, it’s that appearance that brought you here, then I guess I didn’t burn the place down or splatter chocolate all over the hosts. And maybe you’d like the recipe for that eggless chocolate cake from the Cooking Matters workbook. If so, please find it below, with the directions re-written a bit for my own blog voice purposes.

This Saturday is the Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., to be held at 7th and Main in North Little Rock, alongside the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market. Every dime you spend will go to the No Kid Hungry campaign of Share Our Strength, which funds a bunch of really awesome, effective programs to fight childhood hunger. One of those programs is Cooking Matters, of which I am a chef instructor. (There’s also a nutritionist at each class, and we tag-team hunger into the corner, yo.)

Bloggers all over the country are participating in the Food Blogger Bake Sale on the same day! This is kind of exciting because of the whole synergy thing, but also because we’re a bit competitive. In the two years we’ve already done this sale in Arkansas, we’ve beat several larger markets. Not that it matters. But it does. You know what I mean.

If you want to learn more about No Kid Hungry programs in Arkansas, check out the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, which administers all NKH programs in our state. If you’d like to host a Cooking Matters six-week course, or even find one near you to attend, they’ll be able to help. Same with their breakfast, after school and summer feeding programs.

So come see us! Buy lots of goodies, and let us keep the change. It all goes to help fight childhood hunger.

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Chocolate Cake (From Cooking Matters workbook)
Serves 16, 1 2-inch square piece per serving
Prep time: 15 minutes • Cook time: 30-40 minutes

1 1/2 c. AP flour
3/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c. canola oil
1 T. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. cold water
Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Use a whisk to break up the sugar and blend thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, mix the applesauce, oil, vinegar, vanilla and water. (I used an ice cube in my tepid tap water to chill it a bit; just make sure it’s exactly a cup after the ice melts or you take it out.)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined, and do not overmix. Don’t freak out if the batter seems thin.

Bake in the middle of your oven until the center is firm and a toothpick comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes.

If you like, garnish with powdered sugar, vanilla yogurt and/or fresh fruit.

NOTE: This recipe is useful for vegans, those watching cholesterol, or if you just simply ran out of eggs and want some cake. The oil is also reduced and replaced with the applesauce. Many of our WWII-era family members may have made something similar when eggs and oil were rationed. The vinegar acts as a catalyst for volume, making up for the lost protein of the egg.

Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale 2013

March 25, 2013 by arfoodie

UPDATE: Check here for a list of donated goodies and participating bloggers and professionals!

It’s time again! Bloggers across the U.S. are gearing up for this year’s Food Blogger Bake Sale, which will be held on Saturday, May 4. This annual event raises money for the No Kid Hungry program of Share Our Strength, an organization near and dear to my heart that fights childhood hunger in a bunch of cool ways. Again, our Arkansas event will be held at 7th and Main in North Little Rock, adjacent to the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

One of the ways No Kid Hungry fights hunger is through the Cooking Matters classes that I currently have the privilege to teach. Grants pay for books, the food and equipment we use, etc. And guess where that grant money comes from? Fundraisers like this one. And I can tell you, just from this one program, it changes lives. (For the record, I am not paid from any of these funds for teaching the classes.)

This year, we’ve officially partnered up with Arkansas Women Bloggers and the Arkansas Food Blogger Network. Keep an eye on these two sites in coming weeks; we’re working on some pre-sale auctions and contests to raise the bar even higher. Overall, we’re looking to raise at least $2,000 this year, doubling what we raised last year.

We need help in three ways, so let me know what you can do:

1. Write about the sale. Bloggers, media, community newsletters, office emails. Get the word out! I can email you the “official flack” in the form of a news advisory, and later on, a full release as more donors are identified.

2. Bake something for the sale. Email me and let me know you’d like to participate, and I’ll send you the details. Basically, we’re looking for three dozen of something, which is negotiable. Clear packaging. Cute tags if you’re willing/able. We will price on site, so just list what it is, your name and your URL/business.

3. Buy stuff at the sale, or donate cash. Get thee to the event on May 4 and buy lots of stuff! But if you can’t make it, or can’t eat treats, or whatever, you can donate money directly here. Soon you can buy a “virtual cupcake” to post on your blog or Facebook.

I hope you’ll hear more about No Kid Hungry and the Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale from many of my blogger friends in the coming weeks.

Valentine’s Gifts for Foodies — Body by Felicia Body Butter

February 6, 2013 by arfoodie

Body Butter overhead.jpg_srz_235_260_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz

Body by Felicia’s Body Butter is made with refined shea butter and aloe vera. Image from bodybyfelicia.com.

Christmas, 2012.

The bottom had fallen out of the great snow-bucket in the sky, and my hands were showing the full effects. The inside of the house was bone-dry, especially during those couple of days when the only heat came from our roaring wood fireplace. Mix that with back-and-forth into the wet, freezing outdoors, and my hands let blood more than a few times.

By complete chance (or fortune), a high school friend, Felicia Hughes, had recently started a new business, Body by Felicia. She mixes everything by hand, right here in central Arkansas. I purchased a couple large jars of her Sweet Heat (vanilla) Body Butter for Christmas gifts, not exactly sure who was getting them.

Turns out, I kept one for myself. No more cracking.

Since the holidays, I’ve discovered that Felicia’s Body Butter is a great salve for all the handwashing that goes along with frequent cooking. Of course, I cook a lot at home, and now that I teach professionally, my hands are really getting the full wringer. A daily dose of Body Butter keeps them in check.

My mom got the other jar. All the rest of the family, while visiting us for a fish fry cookpalooza at New Years, got into my jar and want some for themselves.

Felicia, get to mixing some more, girl.

Body Butter is now available in Sweet Heat (spicy vanilla), Pomberry (pomegranate), Honey Kissed (honey and almond) and Butter (unscented). Online ordering is now available for $20 for an 8 oz. jar. plus shipping, or pick some up at SNS Celebrity Styles, 7521 Colonel Glenn. Buy some for your foodie sweetheart (the plain Butter is man-friendly), and trust me, go ahead and get some for yourself, too.

Valentine’s Gifts for Foodies — Gift Baskets at Argenta Market

February 3, 2013 by arfoodie

Sample gift basket of genuine Arkansas-made foods from Argenta Market.

The hubs and I have always had different business ideas floating around in our heads. Around 15 years ago, one that made it as far as “manilla folder of ideas” status was Arkansas-product gift baskets. There were others in town, but none we felt were truly all-Arkansas.

Alas, our basket business never really got started. But Argenta Market in North Little Rock, already known for all things local, started doing this very thing for the 2012 holidays, and they’re doing it right. They’d make a super-awesome gift for your Valentine.

I attended a recent blogger event at Argenta Market at which these baskets were announced, which are available in $50 and $100 combinations. (Disclaimer: Attendees received a basket for their attendance, but no promise of a positive review was given.)

The contents of my $50 basket have proven delicious, and each item (and more) is available individually if you wish to put together an Arkansas foodie gift for your lovey. These can include:

Honey from K-Bee Honey in Sherwood. It’s our favorite; we buy it by the quart! Baskets include a standard-size honey bear. I’ve been to their hives, and they’re legit!
Robbi’s Salsa. Light, smooth (restaurant style), simple, delicious. No crazy ingredients, just fresh veggies in the right proportions.
Flours and mixes from War Eagle Mill in Northeast Arkansas. Fresh, locally-ground.
Mixes by The Resident Chef. We sampled a few at the open house, and this anti-mix foodie has been converted. No nasty preservatives.
Soaps by Southern Girl Soapery. Fellow blogger Stephanie Hamling makes these beauties, and they are truly works of art. My “Hey, Joe” bar uses locally-roasted coffee that scrubs away cooking smells such as garlic.
Strawberry-Jalapeño Jelly by Stutzman’s Pantry. You’ve probably had pepper jelly before, but this tangy, unusual combination shows some ingenuity on the part of this local family. My family really enjoyed this on New Year’s Day over cream cheese.
Snack sticks from Ratchford Farms. Cleaner, leaner and much more tasty than the classic Slim Jims they resemble. These local meat producers offer elk, buffalo, venison, beef and wild boar products.

Over the next few days, I’ll have some suggestions for fantastic foodie valentines you can procure from local businesses. Show some love to your local small businesses and to your honey at the same time! Or have a look into other gift basket companies, you can find more information on the many varieties in the descriptions and the reviews.

Pulaski Tech’s New Culinary Facility to Feature Community School, Hospitality Training

September 14, 2012 by arfoodie

Upstairs looking down and across the atrium area in the new Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Center at Pulaski Technical College.

I blogged through two and a half years of Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School, and if you followed along, I hope you enjoyed it even half as much as I did. Thanks to an incredible faculty and staff making the most of non-optimal facilities, my education there was an incredibly rewarding experience.

If, by chance, this humble blog encouraged you to attend the school, I must admit being more than a little jealous. Those starting now will at least graduate from an incredible new Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Center, for which I recently got to see some detailed plans by Taggart Architects. Hospitality is a great industry to work in, service with a smile always goes a long way, and service can be improved if the business is managed correctly using essential software. Hotel management for instance, can be improved using hotel rate management, and this will ensure that the hotel runs smoothly, efficiently, and with care.

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