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Menu for the Sept. 29 Jim Burke/Chip Roman collabo dinner
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Menu for the Sept. 29 Jim Burke/Chip Roman collabo dinner
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| Brahs: Roman (left) and Burke |
hiramasa, local cherry belle radish, yuzu kosho & cilantro
pocono mountain trout smoked ‘a la minute’ horseradish & shaved haricot vert
veal sweetbreads, macintosh apple, bucks county black trumpets & bermuda onions
venusÂ’s jewelcase with hand rolled garganelli, local lima beans & bottarga di muggine
elysian fields lamb neck, white polenta, 63 degree egg
a study of local apples
Jim Burke 1, Rascal -2367246
Rascal, you have been owned.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by kristina burke, kristina burke. kristina burke said: Menu for the Sept. 29 Jim Burke/Chip Roman collabo dinner http://bit.ly/aGlRsh [...]
Atta-boy, Jim!
Tell it, Jim!
The fish the we will be using for this special dinner are rainbow trout that are raised in crystal clear streams in the Pocono mountains (http://www.samuelsandsonseafood.com/search.asp?search=pocano+rainbow+trout&submit=Go+Fish!). Nowhere on our menu does it claim that these are wild trout, this would be a lie. We spend significant time, energy, and money sourcing the very best ingredients available to us and we don't expect that everybody with internet access and alot of time on their hands understand the effort that's involved. We, as a restaurant, are more interested in where our food comes from and how it is raised than you could possibly imagine. We work directly with several local farmers to buy directly, at a considerably higher cost, what others would thoughtlessly purchase from who knows where. We are dedicated to these farmers as they are to us, and it has become much more than a business transaction: we are supporting their livelihood, and they are providing our dining public with wonderfully flavored, exquisitely fresh, hand harvested food. Do you think that a family farm can subsist by selling at a couple of farmers markets? It is the restaurants that are devoted to buying from them that enable them to continue doing the amazing work that they do. Now that we see that your comment makes no sense, I would challenge you to find anything on our menu that is inaccurately labeled, or inaccurately described at the table by our staff. I find it amazing that anyone with a computer is suddenly an expert on what I have committed the last 20 years of my life to doing. If you are so bold as to tell me how to do my job, then come out from behind your username and let us all know who you are, what you do, and why we should believe anything that you have to say; put yourself out there for once in your life as we in the restaurant business do every day.
Nice response Jim. I think you summed up the feelings of many chefs committed to providing their guests with the best ingredients sourced locally and in a sustainable manner. If more people were concerned about where the food they consume actually comes from we would all eat better and the local economy would flourish. Good luck with your dinner, the menu looks awesome.
Appreciate the response, Jim, but I think just the first sentence would have been adequate...
Restaurants are notorious for inncorrectly identifying fish. "Pocono mountain trout"? what is that? There is no such variety of fish. Brook trout are native to the region but are unable to survive in most PA streams nowadays. The majority of trout in the Poconos are: 1) stocked and 2) not native to the region. Is this day and age when people are increasingly interested in what they are eating and where/how it was raised etc...I find it amazing how often restaurants inaccurately describe the species of fish they are serving.
Owned, certainly not. Although it may have appeared to be so, I was in no way attempting to defame Mr. Burke, the quality of his food at James, or the efforts taken to use high quality and thoughtfully produced ingredients. If it was perceived that that was my goal, it certainly was not. I've eaten at James several times and always enjoyed my visits there. I'd be happy to stop by the restaurant and talk about this topic in greater detail in person. As an angler, and someone who has actually caught thousands of trout in the poconos (and all over the country), I take species identification seriously - and not just trout. I felt as if calling what is essentially a farm-raised rainbow trout a "pocono mountain trout" to be misleading in my opinion. I do understand menus must take some literary license in order to make the food sound exciting. But, I have seen many improperly labeled fish on many restuarant menus, and when I've asked questions, I have many times gotten uninformed responses. Farm-raised fish from the poconos would frankly be much safer than fish from the wild because many of those mountain streams have explicit fish consumption advisories due to the impact of coal mining (and now natural gas drilling)on water quality. I appreciate Mr. Burke's response.
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