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chefs & restaurants news

Sin Desserts in Providence opens retail store and café

by David Dadekian March 28, 2012

written by David Dadekian

One of the pastry display cases at Sin Desserts new shop

Sin, an award-winning dessert bakery based in Providence, owned and operated by pastry chef Jennifer Luxmoore, has expanded into a storefront café and retail operation on the ground floor of their 200 Allens Avenue location. The shop is now open with a grand opening celebration planned for Saturday, April 14. In addition to cakes, the store sells an assortment of cookies, cupcakes, muffins, scones and what Luxmoore calls “cupcake shots”—mini versions of her cupcakes for 75¢. There is hot coffee and cold-brewed iced coffee for sale as well.

I’ve had the opportunity to sample many of Luxmoore’s desserts at various culinary events and a couple of weddings over the last few years. Her work has often jumped out at me as very flavorful and always a great dessert, while not being overly sweet. This past November I was a judge for the City of Providence‘s 375th birthday cake competition, which Luxmoore won, a decision I was happy to take part in. Her cake was beautiful and was also my favorite bite of the evening (the competitors served the judges cupcake samples of their larger creations to evaluate taste). That cake is on display in the retail space and you can find some photos of it on Facebook.

Sin Desserts menu board

I stopped in to the store on it’s second day of being open. Luxmoore treated me to a Cheddar Bacon Scone and iced coffee while we talked about her opening this new part of her business. “We’d been having a bunch of people stop in over the course of the last year, thinking that we were a traditional bakery,” Luxmoore said. “Since we were only custom order, we didn’t have anything to give them. I hate to send people away without treats! So we started looking for a retail space, but didn’t find the right space. Everything was too big, too small or too expensive. Then late in [2011], I learned that the gallery space next to me was going to be open.”

After a remodel—which included the display cases, coffee preparation stand, a bookshelf of great pastry cookbooks and other reading materials, and seating for sixteen—the store was ready to open. “We’re starting out small—a few items and a few flavors of each item—and we’ll expand as we get busier. We have a great Cheddar and Bacon Scone and Blueberry Muffin, Chocolate Chip Cookies baked fresh every morning, plus a different cookie every week. We started out with our favorite Chipotle Peanut Butter! Plus we have Whoopie Pies, cupcakes and brownies, and of course Coffee and Iced Coffee,” Luxmoore said.

The Sin Desserts shop will be open Monday – Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 200 Allens Avenue in Providence. You can find Sin on Facebook and at eatwicked.com.

Sin Desserts new space

March 28, 2012 0 comment

chefs & restaurants farms

Chef Beau Vestal’s Outstanding in the Field dinner in Portsmouth, RI

by David Dadekian August 26, 2010

written by David Dadekian

heirloom tomatoes "vierge," Narragansett Creamery fresh mozzarella, mixed herbs & flowers, house smoked salt

On Tuesday evening, August 24th, the Outstanding in the Field bus was parked outside a huge barn at Aquidneck Farm in Portsmouth and the invited chef, Executive Chef Beau Vestal of New Rivers in Providence, prepared a multi-course local food dinner right there at the farm. Over 160 people arrived at Aquidneck Farm around 3:00 p.m for a tour of the farm, along with Vestal’s hors d’oeurves course. After the tour the guests were seated inside a barn, because of some pesky late summer downpours, where the Outstanding team had set up their beautiful dining area. Vestal and his team, along with some of the traveling Outstanding staff, set up under some portable canopies outside the barn and the feast commenced.

Outstanding in the Field’s “mission is to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it. . . . Wherever the location, the consistent theme of each dinner is to honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table.” The New Rivers crew couldn’t have done a better job at fulfilling Outstanding’s mission, serving ingredients sourced from right there at Aquidneck Farm to Narragansett Creamery cheeses, local oysters, Portsmouth wines and vegetables from several RI farms. I sampled several items and loved the pork & garlic terrine wrapped in ‘Round the Bend Farm bacon. It was a perfect example of how to take local ingredients and transform them into something delicious. On the other hand, the heirloom tomatoes “vierge,” Narragansett Creamery fresh mozzarella, mixed herbs & flowers, house smoked salt was a textbook case of choosing the right ingredients and not transforming them at all, just knowing what combination would bring out the best of those fresh flavors.

The evening ended with what Outstanding in the Field creator Jim Denevan thought was the biggest ovation a chef and his staff had ever received at an Outstanding dinner. As darkness fell, everything that was brought to the farm was packed up and taken away, and I’m sure on Wednesday morning the cows of Aquidneck Farm never knew there was even a party there the night before. Before the rest of the photos I wanted to paste in an e-mail I received from Vestal when I asked him to send me his staff’s information for this post:

me, Florida raised, exec chef, dummy, handler of lists, pan slinger
elizabeth lamantia, Cleveland girl, grill chef, baker, pasta wrangler, all things cookies, Beau’s life partner
kyle kerstetter, grill chef, beau’s day off fill in, chocolate manipulator, PA expat
doug higley, salads and cold things, baby face, NH native, Kerstetter co-habitor and BFF
nate silver, mercenary cook, moses brown class president of 2006, did senior project with NR, just graduated from vassar, flew in from NYC just to do event, onto chicago to pursue theater, catering, mischief

Vestal also added, “we don’t take ourselves too seriously!! as you can tell!” That may be true, but their food, oh their food, seriously excellent.

from left to right: Nate Silver, Elizabeth LaMantia, Beau Vestal, Kyle Kerstetter and Doug Higley

Aquidneck beef & pepper sausage

husk cherry

grilled Aquidneck & Wolfe's Neck Farm beef

Elizabeth LaMantia and Beau Vestal

prep containers

heirloom tomatoes "vierge," Narragansett Creamery fresh mozzarella, mixed herbs & flowers, house smoked salt

grilled polenta, summer garden ratatouille, provencal aioli

grilled Aquidneck & Wolfe's Neck Farm beef, summer garden ratatouille, provencal aioli

prep containers

Kenyon's cornmeal blueberry cake, sweetened Shy Brothers Farm "Cloumage" cheese

Outstanding in the Field crew

Portions of this story appeared in edited form on GoLocalProv.

August 26, 2010 0 comment

chefs & restaurants farms

Farm Fresh RI Local Food Fest 2010 at Castle Hill Inn and Resort in Newport

by David Dadekian August 5, 2010

written by David Dadekian

Schartner Farms's blueberries and blackberries

The fourth annual Farm Fresh Rhode Island Local Food Fest was held this past Tuesday evening and by all accounts it was a huge success in showcasing the amazing bounty of local food, culinary talent and delicious products that Rhode Island has to offer. Even the weather happily participated and it was a gorgeous night at Castle Hill Inn & Resort in Newport. There were over 20 farms, 10 food producers and 12 chefs offering food and wine under the tent and across the lawn at Castle Hill. Several hundred people attended the event, but because of the layout and aforementioned pleasant weather, the evening never seemed too crowded.

The clear crowd-favorite of the evening was Tallulah on Thames‘s Chef Jake Rojas serving Blackbird Farm Mini Beef Burgers with red wine onion jam, arugula, and Great Hill Blue cheese aioli on brioche. There was a constant long line of people at Tallulah’s table until they ran out of burgers (Rojas told me he prepared about 480 of them). Anyone who knows me knows I’m partial to Blackbird Farm’s beef and Rojas did them and himself proud.

I have to give high praise to Chef Champe Speidel’s Warm Soup of Four Town Farm Sweet Corn. When I walked over to Persimmon’s table I wasn’t enthused to see a warm soup on a 80+ degree day in Newport, but it quickly became my favorite dish. Yes, it was warm, but it was so light, almost airy. When I asked how it was done, Speidel told me to get a Vita-Prep, as if I didn’t covet one already. The wood smoked chanterelle mushrooms and zucchini just added so much flavor without overpowering the corn’s sweetness.

Special mention goes to Blackstone Caterers’ Fried Green Tomato with Braised Pork Rillette. Having learned to eat—and make—fried green tomatoes in the South, I’m always a little leery to see them in RI, but these were delicious. My only wish was that Chef Derek Jolie could have made them to order as I bet crisp, right out of the frying oil, they would have been even better.

Other food highlights for me were Chef Matt Jennings of Farmstead‘s Lamb Sausage with Red Planet Potatoes & Arugula and Chef Derek Wagner of Nick’s on Broadway‘s Bomster Scallops with a Cucumber-Tomato Salad. Dessert was covered by several people, but you had to get in line early for Chef Bruce Tillinghast of New Rivers‘ Blueberry Ice Cream with Barden Family Orchard’s White & Yellow Peaches. Chef Tillinghast hand cranks his ice cream! Unfortunately for me, The Cupcakerie was cleaned out before I had a cupcake, but Chef Jonathan Cambra of Castle Hill Inn & Resort had a “surprise” item of mini blueberry cream pies.

To find out more about Farm Fresh Rhode Island and their mission to grow the local food system please take a look here. Visit your local farmers markets this summer and buy some amazingly fresh and delicious food or, if this heat is too much for you, head to a local restaurant that gets product from Farm Fresh’s Market Mobile and see what the great chefs of RI are doing with it.