Teaching Chefs
April and May are key months for education – cooking education. Three local chefs will devote their Saturdays to helping you cook better. The classes will cover small plates, appetizers for entertaining, cooking fish and other topics. The teaching “faculty” is a trio of hotel executive chefs – Mark Weber (The Pfister Hotel), Robert Ash (Intercontinental Milwaukee Hotel) and Brian Frakes (Hilton Milwaukee City Center). The classes are two-hour demos held at Mason Street Grill (425 E. Mason St.). Seating is at the restaurant’s kitchen counter, which affords a nice view of stoves, the prepping area, etc. In the first class (April 4th), Ash will prepare a spring menu including olive-oil poached fish, braised rabbit and soft-centered chocolate cake. In his April 25th class, Frakes will do “Green-Collar Gastropub Grub” – pub fare meets sustainable agriculture. On May 16th, Weber is making fish and seafood – steamed mussels with herbs, grilled salmon with orange glaze, herb-crusted sea bass, and seared scallops with creamy polenta. All of the classes are 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., and each one is capped off at 20 participants. So you’ll want to reserve soon: 414-298-3131. $25 per person, or $40 for a couple.
Merenda Magic
In one evening, you can eat like a culinary jetsetter. At a place I’ve mentioned before – La Merenda in Walker’s Point (125 E. National Ave., 414-389-0125). Co-owner Peter Sandroni has given me the head’s up on some menu changes. Taking a little break are the squash ravioli, roasted beet salad, steak frites and calabacitas (a Mexican vegetable dish). Joining the small-plate menu, as of this week, are spinach, speck (a smoked ham from Northern Italy) and ricotta ravioli in marjoram cream sauce; seafood risotto; Hong Kong beef; porcini-rubbed rib eye with rosemary mashed potatoes (the meat coming from a Wisconsin grass-fed cooperative); and Tel Aviv salad – watercress, mint, avocado and citrus fruit.
A Mad, Mad World
“March Madness” is, as I have to remind myself every year, aptly named. I’m particularly attuned to it this year, as Milwaukee Magazine’s neighbor is Fanatics Sports Central (185 N. Jefferson St.). (If you haven’t heard of it, Fanatics is paradise for sports junkies.) I’m reminded of the madness right now, because, you see, the bar is not only a neighbor. We share a wall – a wall just inches from my desk. It’s no overstatement to say that every few seconds, I brace for the sound of pandemonium. (These are the same sounds I often hear on the East Side of Milwaukee late at night.) I suspect more drinking goes on at Fanatics than eating, but if you’re planning to spend an entire day in there, you might be wondering, “What the heck do they serve there?” Pretty much what you’d expect – Buffalo wings, chicken tenders, nachos, quesadillas, burgers, sandwiches. Doesn’t that just whet your appetite?
Bottle on Board
Have you often longed to bring your own wine to a restaurant? I bet you have. For one night, you can do exactly that at Bacchus (925 E. Wells St.). Bring in your own bottle and you won’t be charged a corking fee. The date: April 19th, 5-8 p.m. Yes, I think you should make a reservation: 414-765-1166.
Can’t get enough dining? I chat about restaurants every week with Jane Matenaer and Kidd O’Shea on “The Mix.” Listen at 6:10 a.m. – a new time! – on Friday, March 20th. That’s 99.1 WMYX-FM.
