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New Columns appear each Tuesday. 28FEB06 Doral Chenoweth writes about the business of restaurants and the food industry in the Columbus, Ohio, Metro area. Reader comments are welcome by telephone. 614-538-1822. Email the Grump: thegrumpygourmet@wowway.com Send food stuff here: iPLATE@grumpygourmetusa.com Send weird stuff here: alferd_e_packer@wowway.com E-mail messages must include name and telephone for a reply. |
 Whole Foods cooking team member, Dana Miller. |
28FEB06 Ah, The Things One Learns At Gourmet Galaxy Café Demos The 50th Dispatch Home & Garden Show opened Saturday and runs through next Sunday. Kellie Uhrig, boss lady of the Galaxy Food Show at the Ohio State Fairgrounds, said this year's affair drew a record number of exhibitors - 400-plus. As for numbers relating to paid attendance opening day, she merely smiled and said "great." She gave partial credit to the 40-plus degrees reached Saturday afternoon. One side note, children age 12 and under are admitted free. • On any given day, Whole Foods, the city's newest gourmet food show under one 70,000-square-foot roof, makes and sells 39 different sausages. Whole Foods cooking team member, Dana Miller, used one of the 39 - chicken sausage - in her demo of a surf and turf pasta. Taste testers made inquiries as to whether the sausage had a hint of saffron as seasoning. Answer: A small mystery. The sausage had been made the day prior. Answer forthcoming later. • Chefs are getting younger. Last evening, some 34 pounds of New Zealand lamb had been slow cooked on a griddle after marinating overnight. Homdi Soliman, actually owner of Panel Town but an accomplished epicurean when it comes to Middle Eastern foods, worked far ahead of his show time. Marinating is not a fast food technique. Because of show time time constraints, Soliman had to do his griddle action ahead of time. His sous chef was his son, Attia, all of 6 years old. Properly so, Attia Soliman was in correct chef attire. They served more than 100 lamb sandwiches. Make that served in pita pockets. • Some Galaxy foods must be prepped ahead of show times. When Dispatch Food Editor Robin Davis
• There's no such thing as instant chili. The grand finale cooking show for the Gourmet Galaxy Café is coming Sunday with the world's champ chili master. Attorney Randal Robinson won the International Chili Society title in 1991 - and promptly retired. Stepped aside. The H&G Show lured him back. His recipe for Road Meat Chili is in the cookbook…free to H&G Show attendees. To avoid the instant label - something like add water and stir - Robinson will cook his pot on Saturday at Raven Hill Kitchens. Advisory: This is professional chili - no kidney beans or other foreign matter. |
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Closed, Abruptly, Another Damon's Damon's, a long termer at 2227 Stringtown Rd., Grove City, closed Sunday. It is the last of the chain owned by Vince Simonetti. He plans to auction the restaurant equipment and eventually the property. Auction dates have not been set. |
 Spain's owner Jorge Michalowski demonstrating his Churrascaria roaster. |
Churrascaria (choo-rah-scah-REE-ah) Is Here… The ultimate when it comes to AYCE (all you can eat) destinations: Spain, one of the city's finest formal dining spots, has churrascaria on the evening menu Friday and Saturday evenings. Churrascaria, popular throughout Brazil, is the skewering of meats presented tableside for patrons to point and have plated. Spain's owner Jorge Michalowski ordered the stacked skewers and encasement from Brazil. In Brazil the preferred fuel for skewer cooking is charcoal or appropriate hard woods. In Columbus, the city codes have yet to catch up. So, Spain has to use natural gas. However, the multiplicy of meats and juices more than make up for lack of wood smoke. The meats at any given time: Pork sausage, roasted pork loin, chicken (breasts and boneless legs), lamb, NY strip and top sirloin. Here's the way it works: Your server arrives tableside toting a lengthy skewer loaded with all six meats. The patron points to any one or all, a slice of all or one. The appeal - keep pointing until you've had a sufficiency. Where: Spain, 888 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., served 5 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; Tab $21.95; reservations 614-840-9100. www.spain-dining.com by Doral Chenoweth 614-538-1822 |
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