Award Season… Southern Style
Chef Vishwesh Bhatt gives collard greens an unexpected spin with peaches and Andouille sausage. Photo courtesy of SNACKBAR.
While we’re on the subject of award season, I received an exciting email the other day from a friend who is the (lucky) wife of James Beard Award winning chef, John Currence. John is a fabulously inventive chef and restauranteur who helms the City Grocery Restaurant Group in Oxford, Mississippi. The good news? Vishwesh Bhatt, chef at CGRG’s excellent french bistro-meets Northern Mississippi cafe, SNACKBAR, has been nominated Best New Chef by Food & Wine magazine!
The editors of Food & Wine have bestowed this award annually since 1988 and this year, they’ve partnered with CNN’s Eatocracy.com to give the dining public a voice in a new category — The People’s Best New Chef 2011. Editors have pre-selected more than 100 top new chefs in ten designated regions. Vishwesh has been nominated as Best New Chef in the Gulf Coast region and now it’s up to the voting public to make their choice. The winner of The People’s Best New Chef 2011 will be profiled in the July 2011 issue of Food & Wine. Make your voice heard at the Eatocracy site. Here’s why Chef Vishwesh gets my vote… and hopefully yours too!
I had the pleasure of talking to the chef on Monday as he was about to begin his day. Humble and affable, this is a man after my own heart. Originally from Ahnedabad, a large city in India, Vishwesh is animated and mesmerizing when he talks about food, family and his early influences. He has great memories of growing up in a large family and got his start in the kitchen at an early age. When he and the rest of the children inevitably got underfoot, his mom and his aunts put them to work. Traditional food of the region was typical fare but, because his dad’s work, he was exposed to and learned to eat and appreciate not only the Gujarati food of his region but also Kashmiri, Bengali, Punjabi and more.
Vishwesh expanded his world view in 1992 when he and his family moved to Oxford, Mississippi. There he learned that many of the spices used in Southern cooking were the same as those he was used to, they were just used in different ways. He also learned, as many of us do, that college food is awful (and expensive). Not one to settle for endless nights of boxed mac ‘n cheese and Ramen noodles in a bag, he did something about it. He and his roommates DIY’d ritual dinners, jazzing up those Ramen noodles and whatever else struck their fancy. The dinners quickly grew to 30 people and became one giant cooking challenge. Vishwesh’s fate was sealed! (And here I thought serving tuna sandwiches cut into wedges at my college parties was pushing the envelope!)
Vishwesh went on to graduate from Johnson and Wales in North Miami, but not before he spent a year in Strasbourg, France where he was exposed to a new food culture and learned how to appreciate food and enjoy each ingredient in a new way. What I love most about Vishwesh’s approach is he respects food — its roots, history and traditions — yet he’s not afraid to to mix it up, think out of the box (of mac ‘n cheese) and put a creative spin on his international influences. It’s evident in SNACKBAR’s menu. On any given night, you can find delicious dishes you might expect from a southern establishment like Steak Frite, Rainbow Trout with Pecan Brown Butter and Roasted Quail but he takes it to the next level, serving the quail with BBB (Big Bad Breakfast) Red Eye Gravy and adding to the menu Kashmiri Lamb, Aromatic Steamed Salmon w/ star anise, lime zest and coriander and a drool inducing Pork Pate Bahn-Mi (a wonderful Vietnamese sandwich served on the best French bread ever)!
Unlike my Nana, Vishwesh writes down his recipes and is happy to share. He graciously forwarded the below recipe for Collards Garni, a popular Snackbar side dish, and has adapted it for the home cook. I wasn’t too familiar with collard greens until half my family relocated to Raleigh, NC and it is, by all indications, the state vegetable. They bring it in to farmer’s markets by the truck-full over the holidays. My attempt at the traditional version was pretty tasty but the SNACKBAR version is just too interesting to resist with Andouille sausage and peaches!
With all the attention the chef is getting these days, I have no doubt you’ll be hearing a lot more from Vishwesh and SNACKBAR but he’s not afraid to share the spotlight and give thanks to his mentors. He credits John for his tutelage and giving him his big break with the City Grocery Restaurant Group and he gives a big shout out to Chef Floyd Cardoz of the recently closed and sadly missed Tabla in NYC for his take on grilled okra with Garam Masala (see below). So, if that’s not reason enough vote for Vishwesh Bhatt in Food & Wine’s The People’s Best New Chef 2011 Category: Gulf Coast, just make the Collards Garni and you’ll be convinced. From Word of Mouth… Good luck Vishwesh and thanks for sharing!!
Collards Garni
Chef Vishwesh Bhatt, SNACKBAR, Oxford, MS
Serves 6 - 9 as a side dish
Ingredients
4 bunches collard greens washed and chopped (the greens will shrink while cooking)
1 onions sliced root to tip
1 T garlic puree
1 cups cooked bacon chopped
1 cups andouille diced
3 cups sliced peaches
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1 t red pepper flakes
1 t brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
Prepare
Saute onions and garlic in butter until very soft
Add bacon and andouille and mix well
Add the peaches and cook until they start to sweat
Stir in the greens and cook until they are wilted
Stir in the stock, vinegar, sugar and pepper and cook until the peaches are soft and the collards are done. Season lightly with salt.
Traditional southern fare, grilled okra is also a popular Indian dish grilled over coals. Chef Vishwesh Bhatt of Snackbar in Oxford, MI adapted a garam masala spiced version from Chef Floyd Cardoz of the recently closed Tabla.
Recipe: Grilled Okra
Chef Vishwesh Bhatt, SNACKBAR, Oxford, MS
Yield 4 servings
Ingredients
1 pound medium sized okra cleaned
1 tablespoon garam masala (see recipe below)
Zest and juice of 2 limes
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
½ cup chopped cilantro
1 lime cut in to 8 wedges
Prepare
Toss the Okra and all other ingredients except cilantro and lime wedges in a bowl and let marinate for 2 hours
Light a charcoal grill or preheat the gas grill.*
Grill the okra until slightly charred and just soft
Serve with lime wedges and chopped cilantro for garnish
*The okra can also be quickly sauteed in a skillet or grill pan.
Recipe: Vishwesh’s Garam Masala*
4 Tablespoons Coriander seeds
2 Tablespoons Cumin seeds
1 tablespoon Black Pepper Corns
1 Stick Cinnamon
3 Pods green Cardamon
3 whole cloves
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Toast all the spices until very fragrant. Cool and grind in a spice grinder.
* Try this spice in an olive-oil poached fish preparation like salmon or the shrimp I prepared for the April 9, 2010 post.
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