Feast Portland, which aims to fill that void, starts Thursday and runs through Sunday with classes, demos and dinners at a smorgasbord of sites from downtown parks to neighborhood restaurants. The festival, founded by local food-scene players Carrie Welch and Mike Thelin, is positioning itself as "the Northwest's flagship culinary event."
Essentially, the city is gearing up to host another Musicfest NW, except instead of guitars and amps, the instruments are pans and fire.
But is Feast worth it?
For food lovers across the country, it is, even with the steep cost of admission ($650 for the all-in pass, $25-$200 for individual events; tickets available at feastportland.com).
Feast Portland
More Feast events are being added (just see Eddie Huang and David Thompson's pop-up dinners, both announced after this story went to press). That's because the festival has drawn a cornucopia of red-hot chefs, the kind of cooks Anthony Bourdain seeks as guides when his "No Reservations" makes stops in the U.S. These aren't glorified television hosts. These are the chefs whose dishes appear in Lucky Peach -- the "quarterly journal of food and writing" from McSweeney's -- or grace the cover of newly hip Bon App?tit magazine, the festival's major sponsor.At Thursday's Sandwich Invitational ($95), the festival's kickoff event, Austin chef Aaron Franklin, who draws around-the-block lines daily at dawn at his Franklin Barbecue, will slap meat between bread alongside local luminaries Tommy Habetz of Bunk Sandwiches, Ken Gordon of Kenny & Zuke's Delicatessen and Rodney Muirhead of Podnah's Pit. In terms of fans turned away each day, Franklin ranks among the most in-demand chefs in America, and next weekend you'll be able to savor his brisket in our own backyard.
In other words, Feast is about the food, but it's also about the people cooking it. On the following pages, meet some of the chefs you'll find cooking around town and learn why they matter.
-- Michael Russell
Thursday, Sept. 20
The Sandwich Invitational, a judged sandwich-making competition (5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Director Park; $95)
Before Texas Monthly put Aaron Franklin on its cover, before Bon App?tit named his restaurant the best barbecue in the country -- heck, probably when Franklin was still wearing short pants -- people have lined up for Franklin Barbecue.
"Every day, I'm like, 'Jeez, I can't believe these people are waiting so long. It's 8:30 in the morning!'" Franklin says. "People just camping out overnight -- that happened at the first day at the new building. We got there and there were 10 people sleeping on the patio."
Though a Portlander might note that nothing in our food scene inspires an overnight bivouac (blame the rain), Franklin says the phenomenon reminds him most of "Portlandia's" brunch episode.
But when Franklin arrives in Portland for Feast's kickoff event, the Sandwich Invitational -- you better believe it -- there will be a line.
Franklin's between-events itinerary includes foraging in the Oregon wilds and, like almost every Feast participant I spoke with, a pilgrimage to the popular Southeast Portland Thai restaurant Pok Pok.
He isn't sure what type of sandwiches he'll make at the invitational -- "we put in a request for three different proteins, so we'll see what we get" -- but he plans to smoke a couple of briskets for Patrick Fleming of Boke Bowl. The details of that event are still being worked out (as are other Feast events not yet officially on the schedule), but if it happens, be prepared for the most in-demand bowl of noodle soup in Northwest history -- and, needless to say, a line.
Also appearing at the Sandwich Invitational: Duff Goldman, Charm City Cakes (Baltimore); Ned and Jodi Elliott, Foreign & Domestic (Austin, Texas); Ethan Stowell, Staple & Fancy (Seattle); and Portlanders Ben Bettinger, Imperial; Adam Berger, 24th & Meatballs; Jason French, Ned Ludd; Jenn Louis, Lincoln; Naomi Pomeroy, Beast; Sarah Schafer, Irving Street Kitchen; and Cheryl Wakerhauser, Pix Patisserie.
Speaker Series (7:30 to 9:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 S.W. Broadway; $25) Mark Bittman is among the most respected voices in food writing, both for his cooking columns in The New York Times and for his recent forays into writing about food policy.
Literary Arts helped bring Bittman to Portland to headline the festival's Speaker Series, which launches Thursday at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Look for Bittman to expand on the ideas in his 2011 book, "Cooking Solves Everything": that the more we cook at home, the more conscious we are about what we eat. For Bittman, any large-scale changes derived from what he loosely calls the "food movement" -- promoting locally grown or more-healthful foods and fighting American obesity -- have to begin in our own kitchens.
"I've written about cooking for more than 30 years, every week, often two or three times a week, hundreds if not thousands of columns," Bittman says. "I still think that all of this stuff, everything that's involved in the food movement, everything that everyone is concerned about, can be improved by people cooking."
Read a full Q&A with Bittman this weekend in our new Sunday A&E section (online Saturday at oregonlive.com/dining).
Other Thursday events
Dinner Series: Paul Kahan, Blackbird (Chicago); Elias Cairo, Olympic Provisions; and Adam Sappington, The Country Cat; at Olympic Provisions, 107 S.E. Washington St.; $170
Friday, Sept. 21
Night Market (6 to 9 p.m. at the Ecotrust building, 721 N.W. Ninth Ave.; sold out, was $125)
Eddie Huang is many things. Blogger. Tweeter. Keen dissector of racial politics. Author of the upcoming "Fresh off the Boat" memoir. Future television host. Bad-boy heir-apparent to Anthony Bourdain. He even has a law degree, something he pursued in what must seem like another life.But first and foremost, he's a chef, best known for the Taiwanese buns at his BaoHaus restaurant in Manhattan (taco-style baos similar to the ones you'll find at Portland hot spots Boke Bowl, Baowry, BaoPDX and more).
Huang will bring his cooking skills and rabble-rousing brand to the festival's Night Market, the Pearl District celebration of Asian flavors curated by Pok Pok chef Andy Ricker. With Huang and other top chefs on board, it's the hottest ticket at Feast (the event sold out three weeks ago).
While he's here, Huang plans to visit Southeast Portland's HA & VL, which he calls "the best Vietnamese (food) in America." (Read our HA & VL review from July)
"Portland getting a food festival is interesting," Huang says. "It's undeniable that Portland has affected food culture in a number of ways. I don?t think Portland drives Brooklyn, but people in certain parts of Brooklyn borrow from Portland."
Also appearing at the Night Market: Anita Lo, Annisa (New York); Paul Qui, Uchiko (Austin); Philip Speer, Uchi (Austin); David Thompson, Nahm (London, Bangkok); and Portlanders Jasper Chen, Sarah Pliner and Kat Whitehead, Aviary; Thomas Boyce, Bluehour; Hank Costello, Andina; Patrick Fleming, Boke Bowl; Scott Dolich, Park Kitchen; Gregory Gourdet, Departure; Scott Ketterman, Crown Paella; Dolan Lane, Clarklewis; Ken and Jennifer Norris, Riffle NW; Nong Poonsukwattana, Nong's Khao Man Gai; Gabe Rosen, Biwa; Kim and Tyler Malek, Salt & Straw; Rob Walls, Double Dragon; and Johanna Ware, Smallwares.
Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting (two days: 2 to 5 p.m. Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Pioneer Courthouse Square; $60 per day/$100 for both) In some ways, Paul Qui has the quintessential modern chef success story.
After working his way up from unpaid worker at Austin's lauded sushi restaurant Uchi to the chef position at sister restaurant Uchiko, Qui launched a fleet of East Side King food trucks, won the 2012 James Beard Best Chef Southwest Award and set about planning three new brick-and-mortar restaurants.
Of course, for people outside Austin, Qui is probably best known as the winner of the most recent season of TV's "Top Chef."
"It's definitely opened a lot of doors for me," Qui says of winning Bravo's popular cooking competition.
Qui says his cooking isn't easy to pin down.
"I have the hardest time trying to define my food," he says. "It's ingredient-focused, and even though I did come from a Japanese restaurant, I enjoy all aspects of food. I never want to pigeonhole myself."
After Friday's Night Market -- watch for Qui's beef tongue hand roll with spicy yuzu kosho sauce -- he is scheduled to do a cooking demo at Pioneer Courthouse Square on Saturday, the second day of the festival's Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting event.
Also appearing at Oregon Bounty: Friday, Chris Cosentino, Incanto (San Francisco), and Amanda Freitag, Food Network/Cooking Channel; Saturday, Naomi Pomeroy, Beast, and April Bloomfield, The Spotted Pig.
Other Friday events
Coffee That Rocks, at the drinks pavilion in Director Park, 10 to 11 a.m.; $45
Oregon Wine Pioneers, at the teachers fountain in Director Park, 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.; $45
The World of Sake, at the teachers fountain in Director Park, 1:45 to 2:45 p.m.; $45
Strange Brew, at the drinks pavilion in Director Park, 3 to 4 p.m.; $45
Chocolate City, USA, at the teachers fountain in Director Park, 4:15 to 5:15 p.m.; $45
Dinner Series: Sunny Jin, Jory; Nancy Silverton and Matt Molina, Mozza (Los Angeles); Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani, Ame (San Francisco); at Jory, 2525 Allison Lane, Newberg, 7 p.m.; $175
Saturday, Sept. 22
Speaker Series (12:30 to 3 p.m., at Gerding Theater, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.; $30)
For Gabrielle Hamilton, chef at New York City's Prune and author of the fantastic memoir "Blood, Bones and Butter," running a restaurant is like telling a story -- the menu should be personal, the space inviting, and each dish should invoke some memory and emotion in both the chef and her diners.In that sense, to Hamilton, Portland looks like a wonderful restaurant lab.
"New York is so deep in rent and real estate, and the blade of the knife is on your neck the whole time, that kind of generous spirit toward exploration has really disappeared," Hamilton says. "Portland still seems to maintain that. You can have a ... salt store that also sells flowers. Or if you want to make your own gin, make your own gin.
"There's this permission to give your ideas flight."
On Thursday, Hamilton is cooking a sold-out dinner with chef John Taboada at his Luce (recently named one of the 10 best new restaurants in America by Bon App?tit). She will also take part in a moderated round table along with other chefs and writers Saturday at Gerding Theater.
Also appearing at Saturday's Speaker Series: Anthony Boutard, Ayers Creek Farm; Sean Brock, Husk (Charleston, S.C.); Deborah Kane, USDA Farm-to-School Grant Program; Francis Lam, Gilt Taste; Adam Rapoport, Bon App?tit; Walter Robb, Whole Foods; Chris Ying, Lucky Peach; and Karen Brooks and Randy Gragg, Portland Monthly.
High Comfort (6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Multnomah Athletic Club, 1849 S.W. Salmon St.; $200)Among all the chefs coming to Portland for Feast, Fergus Henderson might be the most well-known internationally. The chef and owner of London's St. John and St. John Bread & Wine restaurants and author of "The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating," Henderson has an approach to cooking that is like a model for young Portland chefs -- although, unlike Henderson, no Oregon restaurateur has put squirrel meat on the menu.
Henderson will take part in the High Comfort event at the Multnomah Athletic Club, which promises an A-list lineup of chefs cooking "comfort foods pushed out of their comfort zone."
The chef visited the Portland area in 2006 -- not long after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease -- for a cooking event on Mount Hood. He fondly recalls Portland and chefs such as Vitaly Paley of Paley's Place and the newly opened Imperial.
"I've cooked with Paley, a lovely chap," Henderson says. "I'm looking forward to seeing him. We cooked an elk. I was struck by how friendly Portland was."
Paley remembers cooking with Henderson as a one-of-a-kind experience.
"He called me before the event with just snippets of ideas: 'Elk shoulder, let's do it whole,'" Paley recalls. "When he came, I asked him, 'What are we cooking it with?' So he goes in the kitchen and says, 'Well, the elk tramps through the forest through the mushrooms and nips at the field of cabbage ...'" And that's what they ended up serving.
Also appearing at High Comfort: Marco Canora, Hearth Restaurant (New York); Chris Cosentino, Incanto (San Francisco); Brad Farmerie, Public (New York); Amanda Freitag, Food Network/Cooking Channel; Hedy Goldsmith, Michael's Genuine Food & Drink (Miami); Paul Kahan, Blackbird (Chicago); Stephanie Kimmel, March? (Eugene); Seamus Mullen, Tertulia (New York); and Portlanders Philippe Boulot, Multnomah Athletic Club; Elias Cairo, Olympic Provisions; Dustin Clark, Wildwood Restaurant; Greg Denton, Ox; Eric Finley, Chop Butchery; Greg Higgins, Higgins Restaurant; Vitaly Paley, Paley's Place; Adam Sappington, The Country Cat; Lisa Schroeder, Mother's Bistro; David Speer, Ambonnay; and Cathy Whims, Nostrana.
Other Saturday events
Gin and Juice: Celebrating America's Cocktail Culture, at the drinks pavilion in Director Park, 10 to 11 a.m.; $45
Mortar & Pestle: Rustic Sauces by Hand with Nancy Silverton, at the teachers fountain in Director Park, 11:15 to 12:15 p.m.; $45
Wine vs. Beer, at the drinks pavilion in Director Park, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.; $45
Homemade Crackers and Ch?vre, at Le Cordon Bleu, 600 S.W. 10th Ave., 1 to 2:30 p.m.; $65
Fall Feast Baking, Rustic Fruit Desserts with Kim Boyce, at Le Cordon Bleu, 600 S.W. 10th Ave., 1 to 2:30 p.m.; $65
Thai Street Food with Andy Ricker, at the teachers fountain in Director Park, 1:45 to 2:45 p.m.; $45
The Delicious Underground World of Root Vegetables, at Le Cordon Bleu, 600 S.W. 10th Ave., 3 to 4:30 p.m.; $65
Culinary Techniques for the Home Bartender, at Le Cordon Bleu, 600 S.W. 10th Ave., 3 to 4:30 p.m.; $65
Belgium Is a Place in Oregon, at the drinks pavilion in Director Park, 3 to 4:30 p.m.; $45
The Noble Grape: Oregon Chardonnay, at the teachers fountain in Director Park, 4:15 to 5 p.m.; $45
Sunday, Sept. 23
Cielo Salon Brunch Ride: A bike ride and brunch with chefs including Chris Cosentino, starts at 8:30 a.m. at Heart Coffee Roasters, 2211 E. Burnside St.; $125 for ride and brunch, $60 for brunch alone.
Stumptown Brunch, at the Woodsman Tavern, 4537 S.E. Division St., 10 a.m.; $60 (call 971-373-8264 for reservations)
-- Michael Russell????
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/index.ssf/2012/09/setting_the_table_for_feast_po.html
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