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Chef’s Best: The Evangelous Experience

Armsby Abbey's Chef Damian Evangelous speaking about his journey as a chef and the menu for the evening's Chef's Best dinner experience. (Photo by Erb Photography)

The allure of the Chef’s Best dinner series is that it gives chefs the opportunity to cook what they want while giving us insight into their process. To date, chefs have interpreted this idea differently.

The reception course at Mass Foodies' Chef's Best: The Evangelous Experience. (Photo by Erb Photography)
The reception course at Mass Foodies’ Chef’s Best: The Evangelous Experience. (Photo by Erb Photography)

Chef Bill Nemeroff talked about a childhood memory of fried chicken. Chef Chris Rovezzi presented fan favorites. Chef Bill Brady ­ let the wine pairings enhance every bite on the plate.

Chef Evangelous preparing the reception course in the kitchen of Armsby Abbey on Main Street in Worcester, MA (Photo by Erb Photography)
Chef Evangelous preparing the reception course in the kitchen of Armsby Abbey on Main Street in Worcester, MA (Photo by Erb Photography)

July’s event featuring Chef Damian Evangelous of Armsby Abbey came at the perfect time. In addition to showcasing local farm-to-table cooking with a Spanish influence, the Evangelous Experience fell a few days after the Boston Globe article claiming we Central Massers finally have a food scene in Worcester.

Armsby Abbey is not only considered one of the best places to grab a beer in the country, they are also celebrating their tenth anniversary next year. Without intending it, Chef Evangelous symbolized an important reminder that not only have we had a show-stopping food scene for longer than a year, our feasts rival the holy mecca of Boston—and maybe even King’s Landing.

This feast was certainly fit for lords and ladies. We arrived to find a reception of ten pre-meal bites. Highlights included the house-made charcuterie, seasonal pickled vegetables, gazpacho, and the Mushrooms en Escabeche with chevre, honey, and thyme.

Course 2: Lubina [Veta la Palma] a la plancha, phytoplankton “risotto”, radishes, herbs, pickled green strawberries at Mass Foodies' Chef's Best: The Evangelous Experience. (Photo by Erb Photography)
Course 2: Lubina [Veta la Palma] a la plancha, phytoplankton “risotto”, radishes, herbs, pickled green strawberries at Mass Foodies’ Chef’s Best: The Evangelous Experience. (Photo by Erb Photography)
Chef Evangelous expressed an affinity for preparing one ingredient many ways in the first course. Raw, charred and pickled tomatoes came out with onions, fennel, sheep cheese, and ajoblanco, a popular Spanish soup. Damian explained that a tomato and onion salad he had in Spain inspired the simple, yet flavorful, concept.

While the color and shock of the second course’s phytoplankton may have stolen the visual show, the perfectly cooked lubina, Spanish for sea bass, could have stood alone. The crispy skin and the light seasoning alongside the phytoplankton risotto made for a hearty dish. Bright green phytoplankton is a micro-organism drifting on the oceans’ currents, and recently it’s becoming a popular spicy new take on spice.

Course 3: Slow cooked lamb neck [Lilac hedge], summer squash and lamb marrow puree, local potatoes, lovage, celery, jus at Mass Foodies' Chef's Best: The Evangelous Experience. (Photo by Erb Photography)
Course 3: Slow cooked lamb neck [Lilac hedge], summer squash and lamb marrow puree, local potatoes, lovage, celery, jus at Mass Foodies’ Chef’s Best: The Evangelous Experience. (Photo by Erb Photography)
The decadent third course of slow-cooked lamb, summer squash and lamb marrow puree, local potatoes, celery, and lovage jus was fit for a coronation.

Chef Evangelous humbly warned us that he is not a pastry chef. However, the fourth course fruit tart filled with Tougas Farm cherries, blueberries, rhubarb, and strawberries topped with a hop and herb ice cream had everyone raving. This was no easy feat considering we lamented how full we were then inhaled our dessert while simultaneously asking if they had any hop and herb ice cream cones to go. The whole wheat crust (made using flour that was ground from grains at The Abbey’s new in-house mill) and natural sweetness of the fruit produced slightly less internal guilt for the indulgence.

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Chicken Wachusett from The Boynton on Highland Street

Chicken Wachusett from The Boynton on Highland Street in Worcester, MA

Chicken Wachusett from The Boynton on Highland Street in Worcester, MAThe Boynton Restaurant is very large, with a lot of tables, making the place a little on the noisy side. The atmosphere is basic American with a lot of exposed brick, a lot of booths and generally comfortable.

Food: (Liked)

We started with an appetizer of the Tuna Sashimi: Cajun Seared Sushi Grade Tuna, thinly sliced and placed over a bed of Asian Coleslaw with Pickled Ginger, Wasabi and Lite Soy Sauce. This was lightly seared, giving it just the thinnest of crusts and was absolutely delicious. This was as good as any sashimi I’ve had anywhere else. It came with a little hot sauce on the plate which was a great counterpoint to the tuna and ginger making an overall wonderful flavor. This was a good size for one, but way too small to share.

For dinner I had the Chicken Wachusett: A trio pan seared Chicken Breast is sautéed with Roasted Peppers, Red Onions, Spinach and Tomatoes in Wachusett Country Ale Pan Gravy then placed over Whipped Mashed Potatoes. This was a very big portion size, more than enough to have leftovers, for a pretty reasonable price making this a very good value. The chicken was tender, juicy and cooked perfectly. The peppers and onions were also cooked perfectly, having just enough texture to add a little light crunch and the gravy was very flavorful but not so strong it overpowered the other flavors. The flavors and textures all played together very nicely making an overall fantastic dish. In my opinion, the weakest part of this dish was the mashed potatoes, they were pretty basic and plain and not very flavorful. Overall this was an excellent dish!

Service: (Liked)

Being in a large party (15 of us) I always expect the service to be a little slower than normal. While that was the case here as well, our server did an excellent job keeping things moving at a reasonable pace while keeping a great friendly attitude.

Overall: (Liked)

As an overall experience, I’d have to say the Boynton was an excellent find. A very varied menu with a ton of options, all good, with good service and at a reasonable cost.