Meadowood's 12 Days: Joshua McFadden
The Restaurant at Meadowood’s annual 12 Days of Christmas guest chef series is underway. Here at Inside Scoop, we’re reviving our own tradition of tracking each night through the chefs’ words and their food — with a little help from Bonjwing Lee, a.k.a. the Ulterior Epicure, who is responsible for the gorgeous photos above.
You can check out past years here: 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010.
Joshua McFadden is one of the chefs that represents the new wave of exciting cooking happening up in Portland these days. His two restaurants, Ava Gene’s and Roman Candle Baking Co. have garnered both local and national attention; Bon Appetit named Ava Gene’s the country’s #5 top new restaurant of 2013.
McFadden’s resume lists plenty of New York heavyweights — Momofuku, Blue Hill, Lupa, and Franny’s, where he was chef de cuisine — but his most influential experience might have been the two years he spent running Four Season Farm in coastal Maine.
For the Meadowood dinner on Friday, McFadden and his crew actually drove down from Portland for the affair. In fact, they even stopped to harvest a bunch of citrus on the way down.
“I have a point of reference and then when I’m in the reference point, things start to change,” says McFadden of his approach to cooking and improvisation. “I love that movement, and that excitement extends to the guests.”
Day Six of the
Twelve Days of Christmas
December 12, 2014
citrus avocado celtuce herbs
katz new xvoo
ava gene’s
pumpkin brown butter
currants pecans
ava gene’s
grilled gem lettuces bagna cauda cellar vegetables
the restaurant
mezzi rigatoni lamb ragu greens grove 45 new xvoo
ava gene’s
chicken ravioli rye cabbage
the restaurant
cote de boeuf amish butter matsutake a la grecque potatoes
pesto of garden trimmings
ava gene’s
the restaurant
sweet potato pavlova
walnut cookie
panna cotta pine cone syrup
cannoli
the restaurant
ava gene’s
***
Kongsgaard Albariño 2013
Kongsgaard Chardonny 2011
Kongsgaard “The Judge” Chardonnay 2010
Kongsgaard Syrah 2007
Kongsgaard Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Previously:
· Day One: Matthew Orlando, Amass (Copenhagen)
· Day Two: Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli of Frankies Spuntino (Brooklyn)
· Day Three: Kobe Desramaults, In De Wulf (Dranouter)
· Day Four: Alexandre Gauthier, La Grenouillère (La Madelaine sous Montreuil)
· Day Five: Blaine Wetzel, The Willows Inn (Lummi Island)