2012 Mardi Gras Menu

A Note from Chef Kelly English:

“We thought a lot about what to offer for dinner on mardi gras, and we decided to serve what people actually eat today in new orleans on our vieux carre (french quarter) menu . You won’t find anything blackened (locals don’t eat blackened food, to be completely honest it is nothing more than tourist food). You won’t find any seafood unless it has some other protein with it (locals are about to eat seafood until easter, it is the last thing they want). There is nothing pretentious or expensive about the food of mardi gras. The day is about one big pot of andouille gumbo or red beans that you share with anyone who passes by. It is about splitting an oyster poboy with a friend. It is about walking way too far down st. charles and eating popeye’s chicken and biscuits. It is about eating that last king cake of the season and hoping you get the baby so you can buy the first one next year.

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!”

—————

vieux carre 2012

to begin:

lafayette duck and andouille gumbo

roasted boudin with dijon and cane syrup

to continue:

fried chicken thigh with my grandpa’s red beans and a biscuit

cochon de lait “hot ham and cheese” poboy with fried pickles

to finish:

warm apple fritters with vanilla iced cream

thirty dollars

Chef Kelly English & Jeff Frisby Co-Chair 2012 Dining Out For Life

Mark your calendars now for the Dining Out for Life event on April 26, 2012!

Chef Kelly English & Restaurant Manager Jeff Frisby will co-chair the 4th Annual Dining Out For Life event on April 26, 2012 and will commit 50% of the restaurant’s proceeds from the evening to Friends For Life.

We encourage all of you to frequent a participating Dining Out For Life restaurant on April 26 and show your support for this worthy cause! Click here to view participating restaurants.

We hope you will make a difference by dining out, but if you are unable to join us, please consider making a donation here.

About Friends for Life: The goal of Friends For Life is to be the provider of hope, help and healing for Mid-Southerners affected by HIV/AIDS until ultimately HIV/AIDS is cured and we can proudly cease to exist.

For 27 years, Friends For Life has been enriching the lives of the men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS through a compassionate and holistic approach to the management of the disease.

The mission of Friends For Life Corporation is to help persons affected by HIV/AIDS live well. Our comprehensive, client-centered approach includes education, housing, food, transportation and healthy life skills training. We strive to enlighten the Mid-South community in a manner that heightens awareness, facilitates acceptance and promotes prevention.

Le Creuset “5 Ingredient Challenge” with Kelly English / Restaurant Iris

Cochon555, Le Creuset and Kelly English of Restaurant Iris presented a five ingredient dish at the COCHON 555 Memphis 2012 event. Guests had the chance to challenge their culinary IQ, the correct answers were rewarded with a cookware from Le Creuset, the official cookware of the 2012 US Tour. The recipe is included in this short 30-second video. The goal is to inspire at home cooks to use the cookware to prepare simple meals from great chefs. Five ingredients, place in a pot and heat. Heritage cooking made simple.

Click here to learn the five secret ingredients in the Le Creuset “5 Ingredient Challenge” with Kelly English / Restaurant Iris

Chef Kelly English and Le Bonheur Club to host Le Bon Appetit this June

JUNE 30, 2012 at The Columns at One Commerce Square

This extraordinary celebration of food and wine will be the most prestigious gourmet benefit in Memphis! On June 30, 2012, patrons will gather at the historic Columns at One Commerce Square to sample the finest delicacies prepared by 20 participating chefs; 10 national chefs will work collaboratively with 10 Memphis chefs to create a one-of-a kind dish for event attendees. In addition, extraordinary wines have been selected to compliment each chef team’s dish.

Guests will also have an opportunity to bid on fantastic one-of-a-kind items, many provided by the chefs themselves, in the silent auction and enjoy freshly rolled cigars in the Cigar Garden as well as a bourbon tasting held in The Columns’ stately Vault. Entertainment will be provided by one of the region’s finest vocalists and nationally renowned artist Susan Marshall.

LeBonAppetit, presented by Le Bonheur Club, is a charity event benefiting Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, the regions only comprehensive pediatric medical facility. Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital treats more than 130,000 children annually and is ranked as one of the nation’s “Best Children’s Hospital” by U.S. News & World Report. Your support will enable us to complete our $1 million dollar commitment to the Le Bonheur Child Life Endowment, a clinical program that is vitally important to reducing the trauma for children and families coping with the stress of a hospital stay.

We expect a sellout for this event, so get your tickets now. For ticket information, visit the Le Bon Appetit website.

Melissa Peterson explains the importance of farm-fresh eggs in today’s Commercial appeal

Click here to read the original article.

Eating Local, Eating Green: Pay a little extra for farm-fresh eggs

By Melissa Petersen

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

In the world of cooking, eggs are a big deal. In my world, without eggs, I might starve.

I generally stick to five or six “go-to” recipes, not including baking. But culinary tradition holds that the folds in a chef’s toque represent the number of ways the wearer can successfully cook eggs — up to 101 pleats.

Escoffier’s “Le Guide Culinaire” boasts 202 egg recipes and another 78-plus for omelets. I can’t begin to count the salads, sauces, custards and hors d’oeuvres that depend on eggs for success.

A little powerhouse of protein, chicken eggs are the norm here, though you can occasionally find local duck, goose or quail eggs. With the popularity of backyard chickens, procuring local eggs could be even easier than finding local vegetables.

Available year-round at farmers markets, at groceries and from your foodie neighbors, truly farm-fresh eggs don’t taste anything like the commercially produced equivalent. An egg from a chicken that has been allowed to roam — eating bugs, grass, vegetables and grains — is just going to have more flavor than an egg from a chicken crammed into a cage and fed a sack of “feed.”

Don’t take my word for it. Spring for the $4-a-dozen eggs at the farmers market, and taste them side by side with the $3-a-dozen kind from a grocery. Cook them up side by side. Be gentle with the heat. Taste. Be truthful. You can taste the difference, can’t you?

Is it worth it to pay a little more for an egg that tastes better…… Click here to finish this article.