Thursday, April 30, 2009
Events / Foods The Return of Iron Fork: First Fiddleheads, Now What?
Posted by Carrington Fox on Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 6:50 AM
It's been about a year since Deb Paquette took home the gold for her inventive use of fiddlehead ferns at the Scene's inaugural Iron Fork culinary competition. At that event, many of the 1,200 guests got their first glimpse of the intriguing green shoots, which recall the flavor of asparagus and are slightly toxic.
Kudos to the Whole Foods team for picking such an au courant ingredient. According to this this Wall Street Journal magazine piece, fiddleheads are all the rage now in Montreal, where foraged or "found" foods are the height of culinary chic.
At the second annual Iron Fork on May 6, Whole Foods and Delvin Farms will conspire to pick the secret ingredient that chefs Jason Love, Bart Pickens, Guerry McComas, Jeremy Barlow and Tandy Wilson will have to prepare for the judges. Who knows what that edible variable will be, but for an idea of how various foods could play to the chefs' strengths, check out this week's dining column.
Comments (6)
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If it weren't another green, I'd suggest the fiddlehead fern's distant cousin from Little Italy, broccoli rabe. (Yes, I know ferns and broccoli are as directly related as Paris, France and Paris, Tennessee, but rabe is what the ferns' flavor reminded me of most, although they're more nutty than bitter.)
I want bacon.
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How about choosing something that fits with the current economic climate?
Bologna.
I know this topic is more than a week old...however after reading this blog about fiddle heads, I suddenly felt very old. And, I just had to comment.
Early in my professional career, I was chef of a hip little restaurant in an artsy town an hour north of NYC.In the early part of spring, our restaurant would get fiddle head ferns from sources in Maine along with our lobster shipments. Fiddle heads were sold in crates and bundles near the docks, and were oh so inexpensive. In certain parts of the eastern north, you can expect fiddle heads to be in abundance in the spring time. They're sold in local grocery stores and markets as well. Ramps too. Another present day culinary darling which is really very common to some. Especially those who live or are from large italian communities, like the kind you find weaved all throughout NY, NJ etc. To hear fiddle heads spoken of as "all the rage" or au courant" certainly proves the saying to be true "everything in art fashion and food is cyclical" . And what goes around, comes around again.
Guess it's time to retire.
