Tag: ies

Posted on by

Foodies Unite!

Recently, the WorcesterFoodies group united with the culinary expertise of Niche Hospitality’s The People’s Kitchen. Owner Michael Covino, Chef Bill Nemeroff, and Wine Director Katie Kelly designed a special 3-course meal and wine pairing for our members and guests to enjoy.

The People’s Kitchen features local, artisan and hand crafted meals created by passionate, food loving professionals so it was a perfect match for our WorcesterFoodies group.

Our evening started with a locally-sourced, roasted root vegetable panzanella of beets, butternut squash and parsnip, drizzled with a maple vinaigrette. The deep, rich flavors of the root vegetables were balanced perfectly with the lightly sweet maple vinaigrette.

The Tahitian Vanilla and Valrhona Cocoa Brined Double Bone Pork Chop

The panzanella got our meal off to a wonderful start and we knew we would be in for something special.

Our palettes were cleansed with an intermezzo of apricot sorbet with fresh tarragon. The apricot sorbet by itself, was outstanding, but the fresh tarragon added a sweet licorice flavor that worked perfectly with the sorbet.

Shortly before our meal was served Chef Bill Nemeroff came out to introduce our main course, a Tahitian Vanilla and Valrhona Cocoa Brined Double Bone Pork Chop, served with Grafton cheddar mashed potato and fresh vegetables. The perfectly cooked pork chop was tender and extremely flavorful but the vanilla and cocoa added such an unusual twist that it really brought this dish to another level. The accompanying potatoes and vegetables were also outstanding.

With our first two courses, the staff at The People’s Kitchen pushed our taste buds to new limits, and they certainly didn’t disappoint with dessert. Chef Nemeroff and his staff prepared an Almond Joy Bread Pudding with Coco Puff Streusel that was unquestionably a fantastic finish to a tremendous meal. Moist and rich, this smoothly textured bread pudding had hints of chocolate and coconut woven into the custard covered bread and was topped with a warm, rich chocolate drizzle.

The People’s Kitchen is certainly one of Worcester’s jewels and if you have not been there, put it on your “short list” of restaurants to visit. Located at One Exchange Place, TPK is a wonderful place to enjoy an outstanding meal with friends and family. But be ready to be challenged, as the menu is diverse and exciting.

Chef Bill Nemeroff explaining his food and wine pairings to the Worcester Foodies group.
Posted on by

Worcester’s Best Chef 2011

Worcester's Best Chef 2011

Worcester's Best Chef 2011Food. Most everyone loves it, not everybody can prepare it well. In Worcester county, those restaurants that both prepare arguably the best dishes and care about promoting the art of food preparation can be found at the annual Worcester’s Best Chef competition.

This year’s competition was held at historic Mechanics Hall to an enthused crowd of both casual and serious foodies. Nearly thirty restaurants claimed their territory over two floors allowing for their chefs to prepare their signature dish to be shared to all in attendance. This year’s event was paced perfectly—especially with an exclusive VIP-hour allowing the personal attention between the chefs and attendees.

Whether supporting your favorite restaurant or looking to see what other restaurants are out there, the event provided the perfect opportunity to sample until you were uncomfortably full. While every restaurant was effective in wooing votes from the attendees, a couple restaurants stood out from their peers: voted by the judges, the Worcester’s Best Chef award was presented to Wilson Wang of BABA Sushi (runners up: Jared Calderone of Feng Asian Bistro & Hibachi and Tim Quinn of Old Sturbridge Village’s Oliver Wight Tavern). The People’s Choice Award was awarded to Mark Hawley of Flying Rhino (runners up: Wilson Wang of BABA Sushi and Brian Treitman of BT’s Smokehouse). The WXLO People’s Choice Winner was Chef Christina Ernst from Via Alto. The winner of the Iron Chef competition—where selected chefs had 20-minutes to prepare a dish with pre-selected secret ingredients—went to Tim Quinn of Old Sturbridge Village’s Oliver Wight Tavern.

WorcesterScene would like to call attention to some restaurants that presented some amazing flavors and perspective. Niche Hospitality’s The People’s Kitchen and Bocado lived up to their reputation of exemplar detail to flavors and presentation. Perfect Game seemingly came out of nowhere with an incredible version of the Slider style burger. Kai Sushi Bar and Grille‘s combination of flavors and textures to their sushi rolls left many coming for seconds and thirds. And EVO wowed everyone with their creative choice of flavors, textures, and overall preparation of their dish.

If you were unable to attend this year’s competition, be certain that next year you plan to be part of the area’s most influential event on food culture.