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News Bites: Daniele Wins 2015 Good Food Award, Easy Entertaining Healthy Meal Delivery, Papa Razzi Weekly Specials

by David Dadekian
written by David Dadekian
Daniele Juniper Berry Pinot Noir Salame

Daniele Juniper Berry Pinot Noir Salame

Current news releases—Eat Drink RI is not the source for these items—please follow any links for more information.

Juniper Berry Pinot Noir Salame Wins 2015 National Good Food Award

For the second consecutive year Daniele, Inc. has been recognized as a winner of the prestigious national Good Food Award for its local line of charcuterie made in Rhode Island from locally raised hogs.

Daniele, Inc.’s Juniper Berry and Pinot Noir salame received a first place award in the blind taste test by 225 of the nation’s top chefs and food critics.

Daniele’s local line was developed as part of an initiative that supports local farmers and encourages the emergence of a new comprehensive food culture in Rhode Island and nearby states.

Enrico Porrino, Daniele’s resident Salumiere, developed the recipe after taste-testing several combinations of wines and herbs. “I decided juniper berries and Pinot Noir made the best marriage,” said Porrino. “This Salami embodies classic Italian flavors, reminiscent of cuisine enjoyed in the Italian Alps.”

Enrico, who is a new addition to the Daniele family, is a 3rd generation Salumiere and was partially inspired during his last trip to Italy where he dined deliciously in the village of Courmayeur, at the foot of Mont Blanc.

The result was another award-winning product from the Daniele, made from hogs raised and made in New England. The Good Food Awards recognize American food producers and the farmers who provide the ingredients for pushing their industry towards craftsmanship and sustainability while enhancing the agricultural landscape and building strong communities.
In announcing the winners, the Good Food Awards said those chosen represent some of the country’s best cutting edge culinary talent.

“These awards are a testament of our community’s ability to produce excellence,” said Davide Dukcevich, whose family started Daniele in Rhode Island over 30 years ago. “On behalf of everyone at Daniele, I want to congratulate Enrico Porrino for having won the prestigious Good Food award for best salame. His Juniper Berry and Pinot Noir salame took top honors in a fiercely competitive category. We are all very proud of Enrico.”

Small family farms, including RI’s Timberstone and Blackbird Farm raised high quality hogs for use in the new local line.

Daniele and other food producers in the New England region are continuing to focus on locally grown high quality products. This collaborative effort brings together farms, educational facilities, restaurants, chefs, and food manufactures like Daniele creating economic growth around the agriculture and food sector.

 

Easy Entertaining Healthy Edamame "Fried" Rice

Easy Entertaining Healthy Edamame “Fried” Rice

Easy Entertaining Inc. Offers Healthy Meal Delivery!

Have you started the New Year with a resolution focused on your health and fitness? Easy Entertaining Inc., a homegrown farm-to-fork catering company, has a program that’s perfect to help you achieve your goals.

Fit Feast and it’s sister program Fit Family, are make-ahead meal programs designed to make healthier meals a more convenient choice than they’re known to be. Fit Feasts are pre-portioned, calorie controlled, meals that consist of hormone free proteins, whole grain carbohydrates, and locally sourced and seasonal vegetables. This combination of ingredients brings satisfying and healthy meals to the table to make the challenge of staying on the healthy track much easier. The meals are delivered to clients’ homes weekly and are guaranteed fresh for five days in refrigeration.

Easy Entertaining has had success with this program for more than 5 years now. For under 500 calories per serving, Easy Entertaining’s Fit Feast clients enjoy appetizing and satisfying meals while keeping their healthy habits on track. What’s easier than healthy take-out?

Favorites from past Fit Feast and Fit Family menus have been dishes such as Orange Chicken Stir Fry over barley with Baffoni Farm’s chicken, Vegetable Grilled Pizzas with a light dusting of cheese and a side salad, Whole Grain Butternut Mac ’n Cheese, Naked Angus Burgers with Blackbird Farm’s beef, house ketchup, and homemade pickles, and more. Easy Entertaining’s Fit Feast program takes healthy eating to a new level with meals packed with protein, fiber, whole grains, and vegetables while keeping bold and interesting flavors in mind.

Make Sunday meal preparation a project of the past and sign up with Easy Entertaining for their Fit Feast program. There’s no better time to build new habits than the start of the New Year and this program can make it easier than ever. For full details and the most current Fit Feast and Fit Family menus and pricing visit Easy Entertaining’s website at EasyEntertainingRI.com.

For more information about Fit Feast, Fit Family, and Easy Entertaining Inc. please call Nik Delfino at (401) 437-6090 or e-mail him at [email protected].

 

Enrich the Week with Delicious Experiences at Papa Razzi

New England’s Italian Destination Introduces Specials to Help Live ‘La Dolce Vita’ All Week Long

WHO: Papa Razzi, an Italian eatery offering a sophisticated dining experience focused on fresh ingredients and unparalled service, has created weekly specials worthy of celebration.

WHAT: Papa Razzi invites diners to stray away from weekly routines and experience a slice of Italian life. Combining the best of traditional Italian recipes with fresh, local ingredients, Papa Razzi is the perfect place to enjoy the comforts of home cooking in a relaxed, inviting atmosphere.

Beat the Monday blues with Mangia Mondays – where all entrees are $15.99 all day. Add an appetizer, pizza, or antipasto or salad for only $7.99, and a glass of house red or white wine for only $5.99.

Break bread while embracing a traditional Italian dish with family and friends on Wednesday nights for Spaghetti Notte. Choose from a selection of gourmet appetizers including the Insalata di Papa and Margherita Pizza. For the main course, enjoy house made pasta dishes including the traditional Spaghetti alla Bolognese or Spaghetti alla Polpetta – the Papa Razzi version of spaghetti and meatballs. Allow yourself to relax from your busy week and rejoice amongst a hearty and delicious dinner for all to enjoy for only $19.99. Add in a bottle of house red or white with Spaghetti Notte menu for only $29.99.

The weekend is when the fun really begins! Indulge in classic brunch offerings Saturday and Sunday with Brunch & Bubbly. From Steak & Eggs to Linguini al Fresco con Funhgi, there are flavors to delight any palate. With the purchase of any brunch entrée, the first Bellini or Mimosa is on them.

WHEN: Mangia Mondays
Every Monday

Brunch & Bubbly
Saturdays and Sundays until 3:00PM

Spaghetti Notte
Every Wednesday

WHERE: Papa Razzi Cranston
1 Paparazzi Way
Garden City Center
Cranston, RI 02920
401.942.2900
Mon – Thurs: 11:30AM – 10:00PM
Fri: 11:30AM – 11:00PM

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newswine & drinks

2012 Gift Guides: Wine, Oysters and a Book

by David Dadekian
written by David Dadekian
90+ Cellars Holiday Wine Essentials, photo credit: Michael Diskin

90+ Cellars Holiday Wine Essentials, photo credit: Michael Diskin

It’s that time of year again: gift giving season. Holidays abound, everyone’s going somewhere where they want to bring something. Heck, sometimes when you’re buying things for others you feel like buying something extra for yourself. There wil be a series of posts this week and next based around a number of items that either we were sent as gifts and enjoyed or picked up ourselves and have to tell you about them.

First up, the 90+ Cellars Holiday Wine Essentials. From the New England-based 90+ Cellars comes this curated selection of six wines for celebrating the season from a Prosecco to a Cabernet Sauvignon, wrapped in a convenient festive gift box. I’ve seen 90+ Cellars wines over the past year since they launched, but I’ll be honest, I was a little leery of buying wine, even well-priced wine, where I knew nothing about the wine other than where it came from and the varietal. Here’s how 90+ Cellars describes what they do.

“90+ Cellars is a limited collection of wine sourced from elite vineyards all over the world with a history of producing wines with 90-point ratings, gold medals, and best buy awards. The 90+ Cellars team tastes several wine samples each month, selects the best of the best for the 90+ Cellars label, and offers them at up to 50% less than the original brand’s price so savvy wine consumers can enjoy great wine anytime.”

As I tasted the six wines in the Holiday Wine Essentials box I realized, of course there’s value in finding a producer who’s wine you know and trust, but I have also come to trust certain importers of wine. For instance, I know I enjoy wines produced by Marchesi di Barolo, but at the same time, I’m more willing to blindly try a wine that Frederick Wildman imports. So perhaps I could put that same trust in the wines that 90+ Cellars is curating. 90+ Cellars is maintaining a form of producer individuality in their Lot number labeling. For example, their Lot 66 Riesling which was included in this Holiday Wine Essentials box is a 2011 vintage from Mosel, Germany, while they also sell a Lot 19 Riesling, which is a 2008 vintage from Columbia Valley. So we are getting specific wines, we just don’t know the producer’s names.

The 90+ Cellars Holiday Wine Essentials includes, with my notes in italics:

Lot 50 Prosecco, Veneto, Italy, NV: Possibly the best Prosecco I’ve ever had. Seriously. We opened it on Thanksgiving before dinner and as our guests took tastes the bottle quickly disappeared. Everyone wanted more of Lot 50.

šLot 64 Sauvignon Blanc, Lake County, CA, 2011: The weakest wine in the box, but drinkable. It seemed more like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with a lot of grapefruit up front. But it was a little too sharp and would be overpowering some foods you might have considered to be a good pairing.

Lot 66 Riesling, Mosel, Germany, 2011: This was excellent, very typical of a Riesling from Mosel, off-dry but not overly sweet. I rarely have met a Riesling I didn’t like and this was love.

Lot 68 Pinot Noir, Central Coast, CA, 2010: Also typical of a Central Coast Pinot Noir. It was very juicy, not particularly exciting, but good, and a nice, light red for all kinds of food.

Lot 21 French Fusion Red, Languedoc, France, 2009: Here’s where we saw some depth. This wine shouted Languedoc. It was a bit heavy and needed to open up a bit. This is a good wine for slow drinking over the course of a meal and seeing how it develops. Great spiciness and fruit as it opened.

Lot 72 Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, CA, 2010: This was very enjoyable, and at it’s suggest price point on the 90+ Cellars site, a very good value. An easy drinking Cabernet Sauvignon with lots of cocoa and warm spices. It was very silky and of course went well with a steak.

The Holiday Wine Essentials is available for purchase at these Rhode Island retailers:

  • Madeira Liquors, Providence
  • Nocera’s Liquors, Providence
  • Haxton’s Kent Liquors, Warwick
  • Bobby Gasbarro’s Oaklawn Discount Liquors, Cranston
  • Bristol Wine & Spirits, Bristol

Suggested retail is $60, but you may find it on sale. It’s a great value for some very good wines. Plus, as I’ve found in person and read on Twitter, the whole 90+ Cellars concept is a great conversation starter, and isn’t that a large part of what holiday gatherings is all about?

The "Ditch the Fruitcake and Get 'Shucked'" Holiday Package

The “Ditch the Fruitcake and Get ‘Shucked'” Holiday Package

This next gift I haven’t received, but it was suggested to me and does seem like a perfect item on many levels. One, I love oysters and Island Creek Oysters from Duxbury, Massachusetts are excellent. Two, I’ve been reading Erin Byers Murray’s Shucked and very much enjoy it. Three, my good friend Jacqueline Church created the Oyster Century Club© this year and it’s a phenomenal way to get into eating the delicious bivalve. So I give you:

The “Ditch the Fruitcake and Get Shucked” Holiday Package

From Island Creek Oysters:

Island Creek Oysters has grown into one of the largest and most reputable aquaculture businesses in the US, selling nearly five million oysters a year around the world. Intense care is given to every step of the farming process, from hatchery to harvesting. Because of Island Creek’s commitment to excellence, the National Shellfish Association named Island Creek Oysters the best oyster in America. Today, diners can find Island Creek Oysters on the menu at restaurants across the country including Per Se, The French Laundry, Le Bernardin and even The White House.

Offering all the accouterments for bivalve novices or long-time fans, the “Ditch the Fruitcake and Get Shucked” Holiday Package package is almost too good to give away. For $100 it includes:

  • Erin Byers Murray’s memoir Shucked
  • Three dozen Island Creek Oysters
  • Shucking knife
  • Island Creek Oysters short sleeve t-shirt

Shucked chronicles Erin’s experience when in March of 2009 she decided to ditch her pampered city girl lifestyle and convince the rowdy and mostly male crew at Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Massachusetts, to let her learn the business of oysters for a year. Shucked is a lively narrative of oyster farming from a true farm-to-table perspective. Her book is part love letter, part memoir and part documentary about the world’s most beloved bivalves.

Again, another gift item that seems like a complete steal at that price and another brilliant gift for a holiday gathering because how do you not have a party when a group of people are shucking and slurping oysters?

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chefs & restaurantswine & drinks

The Capital Grille’s The Generous Pour Summer Wine Event

by David Dadekian
written by David Dadekian
The Capital Grille in Providence

The Capital Grille in Providence

One of the better restaurant wine deals that I’ve come across in a while is going on now, through September 4, at The Capital Grille in Providence. The Generous Pour Summer Wine Event lives up to it’s name. For $25, with dinner, diners may have as many of nine specially selected wines as they like. You can try all nine or choose a few favorites for multiple glasses. I was a guest at a preview dinner where I decided on the former, tasting through the complete selection that The Capital Grille’s Master Sommelier George Miliotes has put together for this event.

The nine wines are an eclectic list from well-known names such as Freemark Abbey and Chalk Hill, to wines only available in the U.S. at The Capital Grille like the 2009 Tarima Hill Monastrell. Miliotes’s selections were well-paired with the restaurant’s dishes we ate. The dishes tend toward rich, heavier flavors (think dry-aged beef), even with items like their Cedar Planked Salmon or Lobster Mac ‘N’ Cheese.

The wines are:

As with any food or wine experience, personal preference will vary. I enjoyed the Marquis de la Tour Cremant de Loire Brut as an opening wine, though I could also see it as an end-of-the meal drink with the Strawberries Capital Grille dessert. It’s light with some melon flavor and a lot of crispness. The La Cana Albariño 2010 was a perfect summer white wine and would go very well with a seafood appetizer. The Chateau St. Jean Belle Terre 2008 was a classic California Chardonnay in that it was heavily oaky for my palate and not to my tastes.

Of the reds, the Freemark Abbey Cabernet Bosché 2003 was the standout Cabernet Sauvignon when paired with the Capital Grille’s Bone-In Kona Crusted Dry Aged Sirloin. I enjoyed the Chalk Hill Estate 2006 but it just struck me as too big and tannic right now. The Byron Pinot Noir 2009 was a typical fruity Central Coast Pinot Noir, one I would gladly have again and should work with a variety of dishes, though not the Dry Aged Sirloin. The Tarima Hill Monastrell was delicious, but very young. It held it’s own with the sirloin but I would like to try it after a few years of age or against a lighter beef dish.

For me, the standout red wine was the Conte Brandolini Vistorta Merlot 2006. Harvested from 100-year-old vines in a small vineyard in Northeast Italy (Friuli-Venezia Giulia), this was an elegant wine, beautifully balanced with a little spice. It may have been a touch light for the Dry Aged Sirloin but I’d be more than happy to have it again with steak, or perhaps lamb or duck. The final wine was the RL Buller The Portly Gentleman, an Australian wine made in the style of Port. I enjoyed trying it, but I would advise if you want Port, order Port.

George Miliotes, one of only 173 Master Sommeliers in the world presents his notes on the wine in a video online. “I believe that wine education must be experienced first-hand,” Miliotes said. “That’s why I’m thrilled to be able to provide a fun, wide-ranging wine exploration at The Capital Grille.  We are especially pleased to bring our guests some of the world’s most exclusive wines this summer, for a delightful, educational taste journey.” Miliotes can be found on Twitter at @thewineexpert.

The Generous Pour Summer Wine Event runs through September 4 at all The Capital Grille locations. The Providence location is at 1 Union Station. The restaurant is also hosting a charity event on Friday, August 26 in conjunction with the inaugural Providence Food & Wine Festival (of which Dadekian is an organizer) to benefit Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy. Tickets and more information can be found here.

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wine & drinks

Interview with Winemaker Joseph Carr

by David Dadekian
written by David Dadekian
Joseph Carr

Joseph Carr

Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro is welcoming Joseph Carr, the eponymous owner and winemaker of Joseph Carr Wine, to Foxboro for a reception and four-course dinner showcasing five of Carr’s wines. I had the opportunity to speak with Carr from his winery in Napa about how he got started, his growth as a winemaker and his strong connection to New England.

Eat Drink RI: How did you get interested in wine?

Joseph Carr: I worked my way through college as a wine steward and then I had been a sommelier. I worked for a lot of really nice hotels and restaurants in New York City, upstate New York and eventually Florida. Some where I built wine programs. I had a pretty cool career being that young, in my twenties, and back in the 80’s no one knew what a sommelier was, not like today. I grew up around all these great French wines and drank a lot of French wines when I was young.

EDRI: What brought you to Napa and starting your own winery?

JC: [Eventually] I was running Mildara-Blass [merged company of several Australian wineries, now Treasury Wine Estates, part of Foster’s Group]. We had purchased Beringer and I spent the next year traveling all over the world and watching merger after merger after merger. After a while I thought, this wasn’t really for me. I’m more interested in the wine side, not this acquisition and selling of assets side. I had always had this dream that I could do it myself and I thought Napa Valley would be the best place to do that. I came home one day—I had been to Australia, my dog didn’t recognize me, my wife was a little upset—and I said it was time to make a change. It wasn’t for me. I come from a small town. We are proud of our core values and things that are precious to us and the corporate world is not really one of them.

[While] I was running this really large company Mildara-Blass, I met a lot of great winemakers in California, as well as Australia. Ted Edwards, the winemaker at Freemark Abbey, is a really good friend of mine. We go back a long, long time. So when I started my own company, I went to those people and worked with them. They introduced me to growers. Subsequently, I brought fruit via this networking. I don’t own vineyards, I’m a négociant. I buy grapes from some really great growers.

EDRI: Tell me about your wines.

JC: Once I started my wine company I really did try to model my wines after French wines, despite them being made in California. My Cabernet Sauvignon, what I’m kind of known for, is a really classic Bordeaux style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. I try to make these wines that are Bordeaux in shape and style, which is a little different from some of the other things that are coming out of California stylistically. In the last few years you’ve had these cult, boutique wines coming out that are really super-high and extracted, high in alcohol. Robert Parker probably really likes them a lot. I tend to go to more of a classical, level approach of balance. I try to make wines that have a beginning, a middle and an end, wines that go well with food. I don’t personally think high alcohol wines go well with food. I pick a little earlier and try to balance things out. [In addition to] Cabernet Sauvignon, we make a tiny bit of Merlot and a little bit of Sauvignon Blanc blended with Sémillon. Again [the Sauvignon Blanc is] a more Graves approach, not that grassy, herbaceous, high-octane New Zealand style, which are fine wines.

EDRI: You’re the primary winemaker?

JC: I’m the winemaker. I work with two other winemakers that help me make sure I don’t screw it up. I didn’t go to UC Davis or anything like that, I just learned on the job. The first year I did a pretty good job of wasting a lot of money, but now I think I’ve got it figured out. It’s always a learning experience. I work with some really good people. We produce about 20,000 cases total [of all Carr Wines] each year. We’re pretty small. It sounds like a lot, but in the wine industry it’s pretty tiny.

EDRI: How do you feel about the recent vintages, 2007 getting a lot of big press?

JC: 2007 got all the press. 2008, for me, was a little bit better. From a wine-making perspective, each year I try to get better at it. Despite the vintage of 2007 being hailed, I think over time 2008, for me, will be better. 2009’s are coming out in another 2-3 months, and it was really great. We age our wines like a lot of Bordeaux’s, 13-18 months in oak. No more than that. Anything more than 18-22 months then you’re talking something that will probably be really tannic and is going to need some time to open up and evolve. We’re trying to make wines that are very food friendly and approachable.  We don’t want something that’s so tightly wound that we’d have to wait 7-8 years for it to really come into its own. Our wines aren’t $75-$100 a bottle, and with my lifestyle I don’t know if I’m going to live 10 years so I want to make sure I have it!

EDRI: How do you feel about those price points? I find no correlation between quality and price in wine.

JC: If you get to know the producer and trust the producer, that’s where you can find values. I think that’s kind of where we’ve reached. We do really well in the northeast in a lot of restaurants. These beverage managers, these sommeliers, they drink our wines, they taste them, they look at the price value and go, hey, wait a minute, this is a really good deal. [Joseph Carr] are not big, commercially made wines, these have boutique attributes to them without a boutique price. I think if you can get a reputation for that, call it “luxury-value,” that’s what we’re trying to achieve.

The dinner we’re doing at Tastings is a great example of that. The restaurant has looked at our wines pretty closely and they think it works in their program, and they’ll make a nice event. [Tastings is serving the Joseph Carr Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Joseph Carr Chardonnay Reserve 2008, Joseph Carr Pinot Noir Central Coast 2008, Joseph Carr Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 and Joseph Carr Merlot 2008.]

EDRI: How often do you get to this area?

JC: I’m from New England originally. I was born in Vermont and grew up in upstate New York. We keep a home on Cape Cod so I’m involved in a lot of local things. [Joseph Carr Wines] have a pretty good following in Boston and New England. I always do the Newport Wine & Food Festival. [Newport’s a] great town. Johnson & Wales is a great culinary school. We [my wife and I] love Rhode Island, Providence and Newport. Last summer we drove up to Federal Hill and bought a live chicken!

With the live chicken comment our conversation turned to how great the Rhode Island food scene is. Carr said he plans on being at the Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival again this fall and perhaps have a wine dinner at Newport restaurant Tallulah on Thames, as they offer his wines. The dinner at Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro (menu available to view here), scheduled for Thursday, March 31, is currently sold out. There is a waiting list in case of are any cancellations.

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