Gracie’s Executive Chef Matthew Varga plating rosemary roasted chicken, new crop potatoes, green beans & natural juices

On Wednesday, September 12, the Gracie’s team moved from Providence to Portsmouth for a spectacular evening with the Outstanding in the Field tour. This year’s dinner was held at Aquidneck Farms on what could only be described as a picture-perfect setting with the table for 150 guests extending down to the western bank of the Sakonnet River. Gracie’s Executive Chef Matthew Varga’s menu managed to far surpass the wonders of the location in it’s perfection, and Pastry Chef Melissa Denmark’s fruit tart may have been one of the best desserts I’ve had all year (I was invited to sit for dinner as a guest of Gracie’s).

Farms represented by Varga’s menu included Blackbird Farm, Pat’s Pastured, Matunuck Oysters, Schartner Farms, Saltwater Farms, Aquidneck Farms and Shy Brothers Farm. The menu was paired with Napa Valley wines from Jonathan Edwards Winery, based in North Stonington, Connecticut, and included the debut of Gracie’s two private label wines, one based around Jonathan Edwards Connecticut Cabernet Franc and the other on Connecticut Pinot Gris.

Here are twenty-eight select photos from the evening. You can also view photos from the 2010 and 2011 Outstanding in the Field dinners. For the full set of 181 photos from this year’s event, please see this Eat Drink RI Facebook album.

Chef Matthew Varga with the Outstanding in the Field table overlooking the Sakonnet River

musk melon, Blackbird Farm prosciutto

Matunuck oysters on the half shell, cucumber mignonette

Pt. Judith lobster profiteroles, tarragon aioli, pickled ramps

Chef Matthew Varga

Danielle Lowe and Melissa Denmark preparing salads

Danielle Lowe plating the heirloom tomato, mozzarella cheese, garden flavors & verjus

Peter Kachmarsky and Matthew Varga grilling chicken

Cucumbers and radishes in verjus for the salad course

Matthew Varga plating the salad course

Aquidneck Farms chickens on the grill

The finished heirloom tomato, mozzarella cheese, garden flavors & verjus

The Outstanding in the Field table

The Outstanding in the Field table with guests

Saltwater Farms mussels on the grill

Matthew Varga in a haze of mussel steam

Saltwater Farms mussels, Aquidneck sausage, grilled onions, sweet basil

Plating the rosemary roasted chicken, new crop potatoes, green beans & natural juices

Rosemary roasted chicken, new crop potatoes, green beans & natural juices

Melissa Denmark plating her dessert

Matthew Varga photographing Danielle Lowe plating dessert

Late summer fruit tart, honeyed Cloumage, lavender caramel (to come)

Matthew Varga preparing watermelon

Late summer fruit tart, honeyed Cloumage, lavender caramel

Gracie’s owner Ellen Gracyalny

The Gracie’s and Outstanding in the Field group enjoying the spoils of victory. Thank you to everyone involved in the wonderful evening.

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.