Jentri Colello
Tory Miller and DJ FRP and the Tropical Riddims Sound System
If Chef Week can be imagined as a series of collaborative pop-ups, then it only makes sense that its culminating event brings all or nearly all of its participants together in a massive pop-up-style fest under the roof of one of the Madison Area Chef’s Network (MACN) member restaurants. Last year, the final event of the week was an homage to the potluck, held at Sardine. This year, dubbed “Sunday Funday,” the event was an ode to global street food, held at the adjoining restaurants Graze and L’Etoile.
“We grew [from] last year’s events,” says MACN member Jonny Hunter of Forequarter. “We dialed in on the type of events we wanted to offer, and created a more manageable schedule.” That went a long way toward creating strong attendance across the board, says Hunter.
At Sunday Funday, both rooms were packed, as last year, but it was easier to locate the food stalls than it was at Sardine.
Jentri Colello
The Graze side, with beers from One Barrel Brewing on tap, had four food stops but more seating/standing spaces. The bulk of the food was being served on the L’Etoile side, with the rear special event space and the front windows full with the creations of 16 chefs. Though many were busy prepping food themselves, Hunter says people were “running food over to me” and he was also trying to send samples of his food out to other chefs.
The street food theme resulted in many hand-held formats, variations on tacos and mini-pita sandwiches.
Dan Fox of Heritage Tavern scored with a chive pancake filled with a relatively mild grilled Thai sausage and a slaw of green mango, pickled papaya and jalapeño topped with candied peanuts. This was perhaps the most inventive of the bunch, and the short wait (the labor-intensive chive pancakes were poured and griddled on site) was definitely worth it.
Jentri Colello
Another great variation on the traditional taco was Gil Altschul’s grilled pineapple version with lardo and pasilla chilies. The tiny masa tortillas, which Altschul (of Grampa’s Pizzeria) said he found at Mercado Marimar on South Park Street, were fresh and flavorful, and the grilled fruit was a great reminder — at a meat-heavy event — that meat doesn’t have to be the star but can be even more effective as the accent in a dish.
Jonny Hunter’s papadum with chicken curry and yogurt sauce was an interesting take on a sub-continental taco. It featured a thick, almost samosa-like papadum molded in a small hard-shell taco shape. The play of the crispy, crunchy shell against the creamy yogurt sauce was as essential as the slightly sweet curry.
Jentri Colello
On the pita side, Jason Kierce of Adamah Neighborhood Table won the day with his sabich pita, a familiar Israeli sandwich stuffed with a mix of fried eggplant and hard-boiled egg, jazzed with plenty of spicing from hot schug sauce and amba, a blend of sour and spicy flavors. Another plus: The sabich pita’s on the regular Adamah menu, so even if you missed the event, you don’t have to miss this amazing sandwich. Adamah, Madison’s only kosher restaurant, found inside the campus Hillel on Langdon Street, may be off most diners’ radar, but it shouldn’t be.
Jentri Colello
More Middle Eastern spices came from Abigail Zielke of Mezze. Braised lamb in a pita sounds straightforward, but the baharat spicing, heavy with allspice and black pepper, was transformative.
It looked unpretentious, but the fig jam, Wisconsin cheddar and red onion pizza (on a foccaccia made from Wisconsin wheat) was a great variation from Derek Lee of Pizza Brutta.
A full-size hot dog from Patrick DePula of Salvatore’s Tomato Pies was a reminder that when it comes to street food, it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel. The Konop’s meat market dog (from Denmark, Wis.) was topped off with a beer cheese sauce made with Hook’s cheddar, and finished with caramelized onions. Perfect to usher in the return of baseball season.
Jentri Colello
Not all dishes were hand-held. On the use-a-fork side, standouts were a basket of low country spare ribs, Carolina “mustard”-style pork shoulder barbecue and apple coleslaw from Matt Moyer of the Great Dane; and a Cuban chicken with black beans and rice dish from Phillip Hurley of Sardine.
An outstanding dish that might have won “Most in danger of being overlooked” was a Vietnamese favorite from Matt Schiebele of Harvest. Schiebele used broken rice (again sourced from a market on South Park Street) and locally raised Berkshire pork to elevate his Comtam Suon Nuong, a simple preparation with a lemongrass and fishsauce-finished relish that allowed the flavor of the pork to show through.
Jentri Colello
Schiebele’s inspiration, from a stay in Vietnam in 2013, was heartfelt, delicious and made use of local ingredients — part of what Chef Week is all about. To that end, Sunday Funday was in part a benefit for the Community Action Coalition’s Madison Farmers’ Market “double dollars” program, which funds a $25 match, per market day, when a customer uses his or her SNAP benefits at participating area farmers’ markets.
Hunter is grateful that Sunday Funday enabled MACN to shed more light on the double dollars program as well as donate proceeds to it. “We so rarely get to directly affect people’s lives so much. It’s a program that can really make people’s lives better.”
