Q&A: Chef Josh Moore of Volare
Josh Moore grows his own—produce, that is, on a 10-acre farm near Taylorsville. When the fruits and vegetables are ripe, they end up plated at Volare, where Moore is executive chef and partner.
Outside the garden, he pursues an eclectic batch of activities, from power lifting to creating sugar art. These days he’s also renovating his 110-year-old farmhouse. The kitchen was the first room done. “I put in a commercial Vulcan six-burner, double oven range with a two-foot griddle-broiler combo,” he says, smiling. “It’s beautiful.”
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Q&A: Troy Schuster of 211 Clover Lane
Trying to get a table at 211 Clover Lane without a reservation on a weekend will send you seeking sustenance elsewhere. Their regular customers might not know the chefs’ names, but make no mistake, they know the food he prepares is some of the best in town.
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Food & Dining magazine wins multiple photography awards for 2012 work.
A series of images published in Food & Dining last year collected top honors last month in the 39th annual Louie Awards, an event produced by the American Advertising Federation’s Louisville Chapter.
The photos were shot by our longtime chief photographer, Dan Dry. In his day job, he is senior vice president/chief visual officer at Power Creative, a top local advertising and graphics design firm. In his other identity as one of the country’s best photographers, he has won over 400 awards, including a Pulitzer and National Press Photographer of the Year.
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Q&A: Chef John Plymale of Porcini
Chef John Plymale has been with Porcini since before its 1992 opening. Twenty-plus years later, the restaurant seems like an extension of the chef himself.
A thoughtful and affable guy, Plymale sat down for a conversation before the ritual of a nightly staff meal, which he cited as one factor in the staff’s dedication and longevity. “We can take fifteen minutes out of our crazy day,” Plymale says, “and sit down together and eat and talk and have that bond.”
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Q&A: Chef Matt Weber of Uptown Cafe
Matt Weber will be the first to tell you he’s not part of Louisville’s chef fraternity.
But he is part of a restaurant family of sorts, working since he was 18 in Nancy Shepherd’s Uptown Café and its upscale sibling, the now closed Café Metro. At the Uptown, he was an assistant pastry chef and prep cook, mentored by chefs Eric Sinnott, Dave Barnes and John Edgerton. Executive chef at Uptown Café since 1992, Weber has worked closely with kitchen partner and sous chef Laurie Banta for the past decade. A self-professed laid-back guy, he sat down to talk with F&D one Monday morning in November.
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From Good to Great — Anchorage Cafe spreads its creative wings
Something from here, and a bit from there, falls nicely into place at the Anchorage Café — an upscale (or is it traditional?) coffee shop in the heart of “downtown” Anchorage.
A creation of Bruce Lake and his wife Courtney, the Anchorage Café began two Derbies ago as an espresso bar with a little lunchtime fare — and some darned good coffee. The coffee’s still terrific, but the café soon added breakfast, and now light dinners are served out on the terrace under the stars.
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John Varanese’s Big Night in the Big Apple at the Beard House
A lot is made of a chef’s journey to cook at the James Beard House in Manhattan — and for good reason.
It’s the showplace for America’s culinary talent. But any visitor to the kitchen of this iconic American dining spot knows it’s a tough place to cook. Read in our fall issue about Louisville chef John Varanese’s big night at the Beard House to see how tough it is. To read the full story, click here and scroll to page 20.
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Guaca Mole “en Fuego”
For those of you who chose French over Spanish in high school,
The translated title of this terrific story is Guaca Mole on Fire. (So there you have it … all the Spanish we know in one sentence. Class dismissed.)
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365 Days of Chocolate
The little girl who learned to cook in her grandmother’s New Mexican kitchen has grown up to bring a sophisticated option to the candy connoisseurs of Louisville Metro.
A few years ago, 29 year-old Erika Chavez-Graziano was working on her economics degree in Binghamton, New York and making truffles for “friends, family, pot lucks . . .” When she moved to Louisville for the sake of a relationship, she thought she might be able to earn a living making truffles. Soon after, she opened Cellar Door Chocolates.
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