The word ¨heirloom¨ is defined as a valued possession that has been passed down through the generations. Heirloom also applies to the seeds of cultivated crop varieties saved by farmers which have been cherished over many generations. With implications of preserving family traditions, food and agricultural traditions, I can´t imagine a more appropriate word for the title of our company.  This past week I was reminded once again of the importance of family heirlooms, particularly those pertaining to food.  The women in the Button-Liddell-Makemson families are famous for their love of cooking (well for the moment merely famous amongst our close family and friends).  Putting delicious food on the table for the entire family to enjoy has always been of utmost importance.  The most important aspect of a family gathering, or family vacation, is the food that is going to be prepared and who´s going to prepare it.  Although, I, Katie, was never able to meet my great grandmother, Florence Makemson, affectionately known as ¨Tillie,¨ I know her cooking through her much loved recipes. 

When Mateu Cassanas, pastry chef at El Bulli, asked me if I had a barbecue sauce recipe that I could prepare for their research on the many different styles of barbecue sauce, I immediately thought of all of the family vacations at Litchfield Beach in South Carolina, cooking barbecue ribs with great grandma´s recipe. I called my mother that very night to email me the recipe so I could go into work early the next day.  Anticipating the lack of horseradish, required in the recipe, I got up extra early and searched 3 different grocery stores before finding some.  I was NOT willing to leave the horseradish out.  With horseradish, measuring cups and teaspoons (totally foreign and confusing tools to the Europeans) in tow.  I carefully measured every ingredient then weighed them on a scale to convert the to grams.  I tasted the sauce 20 times adjusting the amount of black pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, and salt.  Then I cautiously presented my great grandmother´s barbecue sauce to the top chefs at El Bulli.  They loved it!!  I only wish my great grandmother were alive to know that her famous barbecue recipe, her own creation,  made it into the archives of the number one restaurant in the world.  I´m excited to see what El Bulli will do with it!

So for all of you to enjoy, here is the original recipe, in her own handwriting, for Barbecued Spareribs from Tillie´s Kitchen.

This week Liz attended the 4th Annual Starchefs International Chefs Congress in New York City.   This conference is a chance for industry professionals to participate in demonstrations and workshops by internationally renowned chefs, pastry chefs, sommeliers, and mixologists.  Liz was able to attend demonstrations by Jose Andres, Paco Torreblanca, Juan Mari Arzak, Nils Noren and Dave Arnold, among many others.

One of the most interesting workshops was Sean Brock´s workshop entitled ¨Bringing Back American Heirloom Ingredients¨.  Sean Brock is the chef of McCrady´s Restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina.  He is a chef who, like Heirloom Hospitality Group, is extremely concerned with the direction of commercial agriculture in the United States and in an effort to combat that, has a farm on Wadmalaw Island where the cooks can daily gather produce for the restaurant.  It just doesn´t get any fresher or more local than that!  His workshop was about the preservation of native seedlings an example being some pre civil war red corn that he is growing on his farm.  It is amazing that he is contributing so much time and effort to growing these types of plants before it is too late and they are lost forever.  We are all really looking forward to visiting McCrady´s, seeing the farm, and learning about how he is making a dream restaurant work.

The workshop by Albert Trummer the owner of Apotheke in New York City also gave a fascinating presentation about cocktails entitled ¨Advanced Infusions and the Bar Apothecary¨.  He and his fellow ¨lab technicians¨ are creating some of the most fascinating, cutting edge, well balanced cocktails.  If you are passing through New York City, we highly recommend visiting Apotheke for a truly memorable experience.

Jose Andres flew out to Los Angeles after the Star Chefs Congress to spend some time at the Bazaar and meet with Felix.  Saam, The Chef´s Tasting Room, is finally coming into its own and Felix was extremely happy to report that their numbers have been consistently high over the last couple of weeks.

Katie is still busy busy busy working at El Bulli.  Last week she tested out a technique she learned while staging at Jean Georges in New York City to see if Ferran Adria might be interested in testing out a modified version of it.  The technique involves inflating an agar based gel with a nitrous oxide ISI siphon and then further expanding the gel with the help of the cryovac machine.  When it sets, it has a really interesting texture, resembling a cake full of air pockets but with the smoothness of a firm gel.

All in all, times are busy for Heirloom Hospitality Group.  We´ll keep you posted as everything continues to evolve!

Heirloom Hospitality Group is buzzing over the excitement of the past couple of weeks.  First of all, Ted has arrived early from Qatar to help Liz look for a location for the restaurant in Asheville.  He is an integral part of our team and we are all excited to have him back in the United States so that we can get this project moving ahead as quickly as possible! 

Other exciting news, Katie and Felix got engaged this past weekend!  Felix visited Katie in Spain for two weeks and popped the question.  Of course, she said yes!  He proposed with an amazingly detailed enormous ring made of candy for his pastry chef.  It was a perfect moment, very real and full of the love they have for eachother.  The Escriba pastry company is the company that makes the Candy Glam Rings.  It is a gemstone too precious to eat.

Apart from her excitment over the engagement, Katie is extremely excited with all that she is learning at El Bulli.  After only two months, she is now able to temper chocolate on a marble tabletop with the best of them.  She is a master at finessing a deep amber out of a dry caramel in order to make any number of delicious toffees.  And amongst other things, she is perfecting the technique of spherifications, ultra light sponge cakes made with an ISI siphon and a microwave, and chocolate air (the most magical manipulation of chocolate made possible thanks to the use of a cryovac machine).  She is also really enjoying the creativity meetings and discussing dish ideas and flavor combinations with the other chefs.  Last week she recommended the combination of corn with bourbon and guess what´s on the menu this week…a corn leaf made by freeze drying corn, grinding it up with hard caramel, sifting the powder into a mold, baking it, reheating it under a heat lamp and pressing it in between two molds with the imprint of a leaf, it is then sprinkled with a little salt and served tableside with two drops of whiskey on each leaf, hmmm whiskey and corn, sounds really familiar (too bad Katie can´t take credit for the technique as well)!  This week the task is to come up with flavor combinations to go with horchata, a traditional spanish drink made with the juice of tiger nuts or chufas.  Any ideas?

There are lots of exciting times to come for Heirloom Hospitality Group, January in Asheville with all of us finally together and then a possible late spring wedding in Spain?

Liz has been checking out the local purveyors at the various farmers markets in Asheville and the selection and quality of the products is amazing! She regularly shops at the North Asheville Tailgate Farmers Market, held every Saturday, 8am to noon, at UNC Asheville.  An important aspect of menu preparation for the restaurant will include researching all of the local farms and the selection of produce they offer in the various seasons.  I can´t think of anything more satisfying than creating a dish that enhances and highlights the natural flavors of  freshly picked produce of the season.   

Felix is busy making changes for The Tasting Room at the Bazaar by Jose Andres.  There is talk about hiring a maitre d´ and sommelier specifically for The Tasting Room.  With the arrival of Ruben Garcia, the creative chef for Jose Andres´ company ThinkFoodGroup, they are also making quite a few menu changes.  The new dishes will include: white asparagus with yogurt and black olives presented in a can in the traditional spanish style, baby beets with citrus, pistachio and sherry dressing, dragon fruit with lime air and chile piquin, seared figs with jamon iberico and pedro ximenez reduction, and a dish called ¨corn on the cob¨ with baby corn, corn nuts, and popcorn shoots.  Sounds delicious!

Katie spent the weekend exploring Barcelona and it´s culinary offerings.  After reading a review in the New York Times about a restaurant/delicatessen, Can Ravell, she decided, it would definitely be worth a look.  The restaurant is hidden back away from the tourist attractions on a nondescript street.  You would definitely need to know what you were looking for; it is not the place you stumble into.  Once you enter the deli, you have  to cross the room, go through the back door into the kitchen, then walk up two flights of stairs on a tiny spiral staircase with enough room for only one person at a time (a hazard for the servers since this is their only access to the kitchen), until you reach a floor with 2 small rooms and one large room full of communal tables.  The tapas tasting menu is the only way to go – 18 wonderful traditional tapas dishes for 30€ a person.  Examples of some of the dishes include: lentils tossed in a tangy vinaigrette topped with thinly shaved foie gras, cockles from Rias Gallegas, ensaladilla russa with prawns (a traditional spanish dish similar to potato salad typically with olives, red pepper, and hard boiled egg), housemade sausages with ratatouille, and baby squid in its ink.  The one dish that really stood out from the rest was a simple salad of tomatoes, onion, and canned tuna belly, topped with olive oil and salt.  And even though it was clearly the simplest dish on the menu, each product was impeccable.  The tomatoes were perfectly ripe, the onion had just enough bite to it, and I don´t think I have ever tasted tuna like this that comes from a can!

As we continue to explore new foods, and the endless ideas for our restaurant, the most difficult task will be narrowing our choices for a menu. But we’re all enjoying eating our way through fabulous food in the name of research!

Farm:  Last week Liz attended Veggie U´s Food and Wine Celebration at Chefs Garden in Ohio.  Chefs Garden is Farmer Jones´amazing farm that uses traditional sustainable methods of agriculture in order to avoid using insecticides and harmful chemicals to control weeds.  They produce an amazing assortment of herbs, microgreens, lettuces, vegetables, and edible flowers – all of the highest quality.  The Veggie U Food and Wine Celebration is an annual benefit with food, wine, cooking demos, and auctions all honoring the practices of farms like Chefs Garden.  At the event, Liz was able to meet and swap ideas with many chefs, food writers, restaurateurs, and others interested in supporting Veggie U and sustainable agriculture.  We know that you don´t have to go to Ohio to support such a wonderful cause, and our mission is to create a restaurant and company that promote healthy living through sustainable practices in Asheville.  

Beauty at Chefs Garden

Table: For the first time, Katie ate fideau, a classic Spanish dish made in the style of paella but cooked with short thin noodles instead of rice.  Having been invited to celebrate the birthday of Kiko Meana (Felix´s brother), she offered to arrive early to help set up for the party with the ulterior motive of being able to jot down notes on how to make fideau.  First you mash up 1 head of garlic for every kilo of pasta, then you saute the raw pasta in a paella pan with the garlic and oil infused with shrimp essence until the noodles crisp up and start to brown.  Then you add homemade fish stock to cook the noodles and finally when everything is near completion, you throw in the seafood of your choice. Serve it with bread and alioli (garlic and extra virgen olive oil mixed until the consistency of mayonnaise) and enjoy!  The secret is in the homemade shrimp infused olive oil and fish stock….mmmmm.  It is the perfect party dish, prepared outdoors for family and friends served with cold beers and white wine, the Spanish version of a barbecue.  I wonder if it is possible to purchase a paella pan in the United States…or maybe I just need to buy a bigger suitcase.

The table: friends, family, great food, great wine....a universal tradition

Fideau and the master fideau chef

Liz just got back from the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans, where she witnessed the amazing ingenuity of many award winning mixologists, chefs, and bartenders.  Cocktails are making a resurgence in popularity with the use of new techniques and flavor combinations moving from the kitchen to behind the bar.  We are all really excited to start experimenting with all of these new ideas to come up with some unique, flavorful, fun cocktails made especially for the Asheville community.  There is so much to look forward to!

Speaking of new ideas, Katie has been ravenously absorbing all of the creative energy pouring out of the El Bulli pastry kitchen and turning that energy into dessert ideas of her own.  One sleepless night she came up with idea of a beautiful dessert inspired by the image of a bell jar terrarium.  The flavor profiles are bright, floral, nutty, slightly herbaceous, with a hint of tart goat cheese.  One original dessert idea down…many, many, many to come.  

Felix has been busy making contacts in Los Angeles.  Last week he met  Raul Martin of Embutidos y Jamones Fermín and Fermín USA, the company who recently introduced the famous Iberico ham to the United States.  Iberico ham is an amazing tradition in Spain and Felix and Katie are very much looking forward to learning more about the raising of these famous pigs and the ritual that goes into slicing the prized jamón on a visit to the Fermin farm in Salamanca, Spain in January.  Having the fruity, buttery, nutty, complex flavors of Iberico ham available in Asheville….a possibility that we are definitely going to look into!

At the Bazaar slicing up Iberico ham : (left to right) Lucas Paya (Beverage Director), Michael Turner (Sous Chef), and Felix Meana (Service Director)

Our story begins with all of us dispersed in our own projects, each contributing our parts to the restaurant.  Liz made the big move from New York City to Asheville, NC on June 1 – a necessary step to begin the hunt for a precise location for the restaurant. Katie arrived in Roses, Spain to begin her pastry internship at the #1 restaurant in the world, El Bulli.  Felix is working steadily in Los Angeles, CA as the service director at The Bazaar By Jose Andres and as the manager of Saam, the small tasting menu only section of the restaurant.  Ted Button, husband to Liz and father to Katie, is in Doha, Qatar on his own project starting up the private plane sector of Qatar Airlines.  The goal is to all meet up in the same place in time to get the restaurant up on its feet and running in the next year and a half.

Welcome to our blog!  We hope you enjoy the snap shots of our experience developing a family run restaurant in Asheville, NC.  Please check out the about page to hear our story.