Chef Andy Husbands, appearing at The Sun WineFest, January 25-27, 2013
The Sun WineFest ’13 is this weekend and as always it attracts some of the best names in the food, wine and spirits world to the Mohegan Sun Resort in southeastern Connecticut. One of those food personalities is Andy Husbands, the chef/owner of Tremont 647 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Readers of this site may recognize Husbands name as he is the co-author of one of our favorite cookbooks of 2012, Wicked Good Barbecue. Husbands talked to us about his book—there’s a follow-up, Wicked Good Burgers, coming out on April 1—his plans at The Sun WineFest and why he loves this wine and food event so much.
eat drink RI: Before we get into The Sun WineFest, congratulations on Wicked Good Barbecue. When I got it I thought, “oh, another barbecue book,” but this book is really great.
Andy Husbands: That’s kind of the response we’ve been getting. It’s not your average barbecue book. We definitely went for it. A lot of barbecue books have good quality, but a lot of them are “make barbecue easy” books. What we were trying to do was teach you how to make it right—high quality.
edRI: How did you involved in The Sun WineFest?
AH: I’ve been doing it for four years now. They approached me to do this event. We mostly stay in the local area, but The Sun WineFest is such a high caliber event, I couldn’t say no. It’s so well laid out. I’ve had an opportunity to talk to a lot of the guests and everyone’s just enjoying it. It’s a fun, relaxed environment packed with really good food and really good wine. Any chance I get to be involved with something like that, I’m in.
edRI: What are you participating in this year?
AH: This year I’m doing two nights. Friday night [at the Bourbon Tasting presented by Beam Inc.] I’m going to be serving a recipe out of Wicked Good Barbecue called Duck Duck Smoke. It’s incredible. You use a whole duck. You use the skin as a cracklin, you confit the legs, it’s an unbelievable sandwich. It’s my buddy Chris Hart’s recipe and I love it so much I’m making that. Saturday night [at the Celebrity Chef Dine Around] we’re doing good old barbecue, again from Wicked Good Barbecue. We’re doing our brisket and our ribs with some cornbread and cole slaw.
edRI: You must really enjoy The Sun WineFest since this is your fourth year.
AH: What’s really great about these events, as a chef, we’re friends, all the chefs in Boston, we’re all friendly but we don’t see each other a lot, we’re working a lot. With this event, even though we’re working while we’re there. We’re there for 2-3 days, so there’s the chance to go have lunch or have dinner together, have late night drinks. From a chef’s standpoint it’s just fantastic. The other thing I like about The Sun Winefest, for me, because I like to change it up, every year I do something different.
edRI: Closing thoughts about the event?
AH: I know some events are sold out and the rest are selling quickly so if you’re interested, definitely buy your tickets soon. This is one of my favorite events of the year.
Wicked Good Burgers by Andy Husbands, Chris Hart and Andrea Pyenson
The Sun WineFest ’13 runs Friday, January 25 through Sunday, January 27 at Mohegan Sun. Check the site for more information including schedule of events, guest chefs and exhibitors. Andy Husbands next book, Wicked Good Burgers, is being released on April 1 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Wicked Good Barbecue is available now.
