My digestive system is still recovering from Saturday night's gustatory orgy, otherwise known as
Savor Nashville. The event featured five James Beard award-winning chefs working in tandem with five local chefs to present — you guessed it! — five courses. The visiting celebrity chefs included Robert Del Grande of Houston's
RDG + Bar Annie, Larry Forgione of
An American Place(St. Louis, Las Vegas), Bob Kinkead of Washington, D.C.'s
Kinkead's, Lydia Shire of
Scampo(Boston) and
Blue Sky(York Beach, Maine), and Norman Van Aken of
Norman'sin Orlando, Fla. The local chefs were
Tayst's Jeremy Barlow,
Watermark's Matt Bolus, the
downtown Hilton's Matt Simonds,
Sunset Grill's Brian Uhl and
Capitol Grille's Megan Williams.
All in all, the event was quite enjoyable, in no small part due to the fine performance by the star of the evening: the food. I attempted to document the evening with iPhone photos taken in less than ideal lighting (by an even lesser than ideal photographer).
The first course, presented by Shire and Simonds, featured lobster popovers, a demitasse of chilled minted English pea, and hot pork belly bap. In a nod to Tennessee, Shire threw a little Jack Daniel's into the popover sauce (if my challenged memory serves me correctly). The popover was terrific, and the pork belly was superb, with a crispy layer of skin giving way to tender layers of pork and fat. The belly was served on a Chinese bun with a little hoison sauce.
