SPICE Pop Up Restaurant: “A Night at Baker & Wife”
November 30, 2015 – Chef Louis Robinson, chef/owner of SPICE, hosted a beautiful pop up dinner at Baker & Wife in Sarasota, FL. His menu was designed to introduce exotic ingredients and inspire a new and exciting dining experience for his guests. Some of these ingredients were black garlic, finger limes, Scottish langoustine, feijoa, huckleberries, gooseberries, wild mushrooms, venison cheeks, and foraged greens for garnishing. Below, Chef Robinson reflects on his menu choices and overall impression of his dinner.
As told by Chef Louis Robinson
I wanted to do something different and believe it or not, this was the first time I had worked with many of these ingredients. It’s very exciting to work with such unique products. I specifically searched for things I hadn’t worked with and things many people probably hadn’t tried before. When people come to a pop up restaurant, I believe they should experience something different, new and interesting.
A lot of inspiration for my menus come from the ingredients themselves. When I get a product in front of me…seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting makes it hard not to be inspired. I enjoy mixing the new ingredients in with Latin and Caribbean flavors I often work with, so dried chilies, citrus and spices often make it onto the plate. For this dinner, my goal was to garnish every dish with wild herbs, greens, and flowers I picked myself. I came pretty close to accomplishing that, with dessert being the only plate that didn’t used my own foraged finds. I will say though, it’s not that easy! Depending on the season, you might have to do some serious searching to find the things you are looking for. Being here in Florida, you could run into quite a few mosquitoes. But as a chef, the extra effort is worth if it means I’ll find something interesting for my guests to experience. I went foraging with a local farmer who was familiar with the area and who knew which wild plants were edible and safe to use on a plate.
It’s hard to say which dish was my favorite of the night, but I really enjoyed my main course: sous vide venison cheeks, purple potatoes, brick oven chestnuts, ancho chile venison jus, and concord grape vinegar steeped huckleberries. This dish gave us the biggest challenge…trying to figure out the best way to cook the cheeks, getting them tender with good texture and flavor. We actually changed up the dish a couple times on the fly. Even though it can be nerve racking, it’s really exciting to see a dish building and progressing right on the line. I was really happy with it. This type of experimentation is exactly the kind of thing I want to happen at my pop ups. Let the ingredients speak to the chef on how they best work together for the final dish.
I’m excited for the opportunity to host the next SPICE pop up. There’s nothing on the calendar yet but ideally, I’d like to host a dinner every month. Chef Isaac Correa, a chef who has worked many years in Russia, was gracious to open up his beautiful restaurant, Baker & Wife, and there couldn’t have been a better place to hold my event. Because I am young and new at this, I rely on the kindness of chefs like Isaac to help me find locations for my pop ups. It’s refreshing to know there are chefs out there like him who are willing to mentor younger, less experienced chefs. I want to thank Chef Jeff Thonsberry of Beastro Tampa and my culinary team for this successful night and most importantly, my beautiful wife Joan who helps me in so many ways (including playing hostess at my events)!
