Critic-Turned-Cook Gives Top Marks To Fall Quarter Fare
Since September, I've been prepping in Darlene's cozy kitchen at the University of Washington, playing a minor role in getting meals out for the 70 perpetually hungry guys at Alpha Sigma Phi.
Matt Hansen serving pot roast with au gratin potatoes. [Photograph: Leslie Kelly]
Finals are over. Fall quarter's finished. And frat house cook Darlene Barnes has earned straight A's for her from-scratch fare made with sustainable, mostly organic ingredients.
Each week, Darlene posts menus on her blog and on the fridge in the dining hall. I don't think she repeated a dinner the entire quarter. The Alpha Sigs experienced a season of first tastes. Grits, collards, braised Lacinato kale, beautiful oven-braised short ribs, brie baked in puff pastry and cheese-stuffed figs were just a few of the incredible dishes introduced in the dining hall.
While the feedback was mostly positive, the few who had beefs were vocal about it. One kid wanted the return of frozen, processed chicken cordon bleu—basically something like a tarted-up version of a Chicken McNugget. Instead, Darlene made Tyler Florence's Chicken Cordon Bleu (the secret's in buttering the panko breadcrumbs) and that flipping bird got rave reviews. It was just one of a long lineup of A+ meals.
Here's a list of what I thought were the best dishes from fall quarter, all of them worthy of being served at upscale venues anywhere:
- Syrah-braised leg of lamb
- Chicken biryani with housemade harissa paste
- Cajun pork with cheese grits and collard greens
- Dungeness crab dip
- Pho with all the fixings
- Pot roast with potatoes au gratin
- Moose Sloppy Joes
- Peanut butter cookies with bacon bits
- Pesto-encrusted wild salmon
- Chicken Cordon Bleu
- Muffulettas with housemade olive salad
- Cream of tomato soup with tasso
- Jambalaya with Gulf shrimp
- Bourbon-marinated pork loin and sweet potatoes
- Bacon-wrapped green beans
See what I mean? Doesn't this luscious lineup just blow up the whole stereotyped image of what you'd expect to be served at a frat house? But what do I know—I turned in my critic's credentials long ago.
Let's hear it from the brothers of Alpha Sigma Phi about some of their favorite meals:
About the author: Former Seattle Post-Intelligencer restaurant critic Leslie Kelly has been working in professional kitchens since the newspaper folded in March and chronicling her culinary journey from pen to pan for Serious Eats. She also blogs at LeslieKellyWhiningandDining.blogspot.com and recently launched a story-telling project for Northstar Winery following one wine from the vine to the table.
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2 Comments:
not your archetypal frat boys.
Kid's are lucky to have such a great chef. Frat's at my school don't have a chef at all, and I really doubt our cafeteria can compare.
Rodzilla at 12:01AM on 12/18/09
Not for me. Most of the frats at my school either had a chef or had cooking duties done by the members themselves. Either way, they generally turned out decent fare. (I've eaten at many of them since I had friends in a lot of different frats. And in fact have helped one of my friends cook on a decently regular basis.)
So it's not such a new revelation to me but still interesting to read.
wunami at 7:28PM on 12/18/09