Park City Restaurant Association

New Haven Register
Stephen Fries

My discovery of Savor the Summit, Park City’s celebration of food and music, began while visiting my family in Florida, where a similar event modeled after Park City’s took place.

After a phone call to the event organizer in Park City, I attended the event, which is sponsored by Park City’s Restaurant Association and Jazz Foundation. The itinerary included participation in Savor the Summit’s Grande Table, interviews with many chefs and restaurateurs, a visit with the events director of the Sundance Film Festival, a visit with the caterer at the Olympic Ski Park, and a morning of horseback riding which allowed me to see spectacular scenery from a mountaintop.

Picture this: More than 1,000 guests dining on historic Main Street, literally on the street, seated at an endless table. Guests chose from 20 participating restaurants to enjoy this experience. Prices ranged from $30-$150, depending on the restaurant chosen. Seven jazz bands performed.

My host was 350 Main Brasserie, www.350main.com, where Chef Michael Le Clerc and General Manager Jeff Ward created a five-course dinner with wine pairings. The menu included:

1st course: Organic Lobster-Potato Chowder with Roasted Corn and Parmesan Croutons
2nd course: Seared Wild Alaskan Salmon with Leek Confit and Red Wine Butter and Pickled Shallots
3rd course: Double-Cut Idaho Lamb Chops With Mushroom-Caramelized Onion Jus, Cheesy Grits and Zucchini Saute
Dessert: Honey Baked Apple with Vanilla Ice Cream, Black Pepper, Caramel and Assorted Cookies.

Chef Le Clerc, a Waterbury native, has sautéed his way through some of the finest restaurants in the world. His most notable work was in the kitchen of Jamin, Joel Robuchon?s Michelin three-star restaurant in Paris. He has been featured in Bon Appetit, Food Arts, Town & Country and Rachel Ray. The 20-year chef would like to share a recipe from this menu with you and his friends and family in Connecticut:

ORGANIC LOBSTER-POTATO CHOWDER

- 2 pound organic butter
- 1 organic red bell pepper, diced
- 1 organic carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 organic yellow onion, peeled and diced
- 2 pounds organic potatoes, peeled and diced and soaked in coldwater
- 1 quart organic lobster stock
- 1 quart organic half-and-half
- 1 cup organic corn kernels, roasted
- ½ pound lobster meat, rough chopped; do not chop too fine
- ½ pound organic cornstarch
-  ¼ pound organic Parmesan
- Parmesan croutons, optional

In at least a 1 ¼ gallon heavy duty, thick-bottomed pot, melt butter and sweat peppers, carrots and onions for 10 minutes on medium-high. Add potatoes, stock and half-and-half; simmer for 1 ½  hours. Add roasted corn.

Puree about half of the soup to give it some body. Return pureed soup to the main batch, re-simmer and add lobster meat.

Mix cornstarch with 1 cup water. Pour a steady stream of about half of the cornstarch slurry directly into simmering soup.

Let it come back to a simmer and check consistency; if too thin, add a little cornstarch. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with Parmesan croutons, and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Serves 8.

My itinerary included lunch at the Deer Valley Resort where I traveled on a ski-lift to have lunch. Nothing compares to dining after a scenic trip up a mountain.

Julie Wilson, the food and beverage director, ordered a tasting lunch that included the Park City signature cocktail. Bonnie Ulmer, a bartender at the Deer Valley Resort, concocted this winner of the fourth annual Cocktail Contest and which is served at many area restaurants. To see winning recipes and photos from prior years, go to www.stephenfries.com.

A visit from Letty Halloran Flatt, executive pastry chef at the Deer Valley Resort, was an added treat. Being an avid cookbook collector, I was delighted to meet Letty and receive a copy of her cookbook, “Chocolate Snowball,” which offers 125 of the resort’s tried-and-true recipes for breakfast treats, bread, cookies and ice creams as well as pies and tarts, elegant cakes and one-of-a-kind desserts a mouthwatering blend of Letty’s years of experience and her penchant for fresh, natural flavors.

CHOCOLATE SNOWBALL CAKE

- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped in ½ -inch pieces
- 1 cup strong coffee
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ pound unsalted butter, softened
- 6 eggs, beaten lightly

Frosting

- 1.5 cups heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 15-20 fresh edible flowers for garnish

Put chocolate in a saucepan. Pour the coffee over, which will melt some of the chocolate. Place over medium heat; add sugar and stir with a wire whisk to dissolve the sugar and any unmelted chocolate. Add butter gradually, a dollop at a time, whisking until the butter is incorporated before adding the next dollop. This should take about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Slowly whisk beaten eggs into the chocolate mixture. Pour through a strainer into the foil-lined bowl. Discard any firm bits of egg that remain in the strainer. Bake 50-55 minutes, until the batter rises and a cracked top crust forms. The mixture will still jiggle, like molded gelatin. Resist the urge to bake it a little more; the butter and chocolate set up when chilled.

Let the cake cool. Fold overlapping foil over the top and refrigerate at least 8 hours, keeping the cake in the bowl. It will keep for up to a week if refrigerated and well wrapped in plastic wrap. (It is best to store the cake in the bowl, but once it is cold, you can invert the dome onto a cardboard circle- but do not remove the foil wrapper. Wrap the foil-enclosed dome in plastic wrap.) The cake can also be frozen for up to a month; thaw in refrigerator before frosting.

To frost and serve, remove plastic wrap from the bowl. (If you have taken the cake out of the bowl for storage, invert it back in the bowl.) Pull the overlapping foil away from the cake. The cake will have fallen in the center; to make the top (or what will be the bottom of the cake) flat and even, press the raised outer edges down, or trim the extra with a knife. Place a flat serving plate or cardboard circle over the bowl and invert. Gently remove the foil.

Whip cream with the sugar and vanilla until the cream comes to soft peaks that hold their shape. Put the cream into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe stars, covering the dome completely. If you wish, decorate with edible flowers or chocolate shavings or crystallized flowers. Makes 1 cake.

My journey also included a visit with Carin De Milo, manager of festival events for the Sundance Institute, and she asked me to assist her in bringing a visiting chef from Connecticut to the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Stay tuned.

For more recipes from my Park City dining experiences including, Wahso, Wasatch Brewery, Shabu and Done To Your Taste caterers at the Olympic Ski Park, go to www.stephenfries.com. Here you will find highlights and a photo diary of the trip as well. I hope this column has piqued your interest in visiting Park City, Utah. By the way, Savor the Summit, Park City’s Wine & Jazz Festival is scheduled for the third weekend in June of 2010.

Contact Stephen Fries, professor and coordinator of the Hospitality Management Programs at Gateway Community College, at gw-stephen.fries@gwcc.commnet.edu or Dept. FC, Gateway Community College, 60 Sargent Drive, New Haven 06511. Include your full name, address and phone number. Due to volume, I might not be able to publish every request. For more, go to www.stephenfries.com.