The Food Dood Feed is growing!
Plus onion burgers for out-of-town chefs, BBQ oysters and a new Ma Der collab to attend
The Food Dood Feed began 18 months ago from scratch and has grown almost 3,000 strong and now sports a podcast. A podcast called The Food Dood & Friends. With that in mind, it’s time for the Food Dood Feed to add the voices of some of those friends.
This month, Jared Gleaton, food critic and vlogger from Green Country will be published on right here. This will not only enrich the content Oklahoma City readers receive, but expand The Feed’s reach. Jared’s first piece will be a review of Nonesuch, but much of his work will be based in Tulsa. We hope Jared will bring some of his friends from Green Country aboard The Feed.
I’ve also plucked a new young voice straight out of culinary school. Look for chef Benjamin Krodel’s work to begin appearing on The Feed this month. Ben grew up in Norman but recently graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. He’s back in Norman now scooping up internships both in the food-service industry and in his area of interest: food writing. He cooked at Legend’s in Norman and Ludivine before leaving for New York.
Ben’s first piece on The Feed will be an essay about his experiences hunting down pastrami in New York City. It’s a great little slice of The Big Apple that will help introduce you to Ben and inspire a local pastrami hunt.
These are just a couple of the exciting changes coming to The Food Dood Feed as we close in on two years of newsletters. Look for another expansion announcement coming Oct. 1.
ORA crowns champions
A funny thing happened on the way to being the sixth judge for the Market Source Culinary Cookoff at the Oklahoma Restaurant Association’s Trade Show and Expo last week: The big event I had in my calendar for Thursday happened on Wednesday.
Not so funny to some very nice folks. The same folks who were trying feverishly to get in touch with me Wednesday morning afraid something terrible had happened.
Unfortunately, I was recording an interview as the calls came in and my ringer on silent. I didn’t know I’d made the mistake an hour after it was too late. Not to mention I was on my way to another interview, this one with chef Jonathon Stranger for Monday’s newsletter, when I got the message(s).
It was an honest mistake, but letting down folks who have supported me so fervently is utterly mortifying. Sorry to the ORA and the five judges left to sally forth without me.
With that out of the way, I do have results to share:
Patrick Yamaguchi, who cooks for Culprits on behalf of Provision Concepts took home first place. Second went to chef Chris Bullis of the Tulsa Drillers Baseball Club.
Thomas Upshaw of The Joinery won the Cocktail Shakedown, edging Marc Adrian Philippe Estuche of the Holloway Restaurant Group.
Birdie’s Soars
Chef Kevin Lee’s ascent toward culinary stardom checked into the 405 diningscape this weekend. His Birdie’s by chef Kevin Lee sold out two nights of special events on Friday and Saturday, hosting chefs Dale Talde, Nini Nguyen, and Jeff Chanchaleune. Josh Valentine was there both nights offering support.
On Friday night, Chanchaleune of the nationally acclaimed but locally owned Ma Der Lao Kitchen helped his buddy Lee host Nguyen for an evening celebrating southeast Asian flavors. Nguyen, a New Orleans native, was also in town to launch a tour for her new book, Dac Biet.
Lee and Talde, who first burst onto the culinary competition scene on Bravo’s Top Chef, took over on Saturday night with a dinner blending Korean and Filipino flavors. Talde first came to prominence in his hometown of Chicago but currently operates an award-winning restaurant in New York City.
Unfortunately, couldn’t make it to Friday’s event, but Saturday’s is better shown than described:
As good as the food was, which will be reflected in the monthly Top 10 due later this week, the highlight of the evening was bearing witness to Nini’s first fried-onion burger.
Again, I’ll let the pictures tell the story:
Kudos to Tucker’s Onion Burgers for making Nini’s first fried-onion burger as delicious as it was memorable.
Labor Day Reward(s)
What better way to celebrate the fruits of our labor than a dream collaboration? On Monday, Edge Craft Barbecue and Sedalia’s Oyster + Seafood will collaborate on a special first-come, first-served menu from pitmaster Zach Edge and chef Zak Walters.
Edge Craft, 1920 Linwood Ave., will host the event starting at 11 a.m. The show is over when they run out of fresh raw oysters, smoked salmon collars, cold-smoked salmon pastrami, hot-smoked tuna belly, mustard-glazed sable fish, shrimp Andouille, smoked-shrimp wedge salad, and dirty rice. …
Ma Der Lao Kitchen dropped tickets for its next collaborative dinner on Sunday. Find your tickets here for chef Chanchaleune’s dinner with chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco. The dinner is Monday, Sept. 16.