Indiana chefs take over New York City
Where do the best chefs in America dream of cooking? The James Beard House in New York City.
Every important chef in the United States has cooked in this culinary shrine where infamous foodie James Beard lived. Beard was the original television celebrity chef and a cookbook writer who defined America’s diverse regional cuisines, proving the United States is more than meat, mashed potatoes and hot dogs.
On Aug. 6, five Central Indiana chefs and one bartender join the ranks of those invited to prepare a Beard House dinner. For Indianapolis, the event is further proof that the city has a bona fide food scene far broader than tenderloin sandwiches. For tickets to the dinner, arranged by the local supper club, Chefs NIght Off Indy, call (212) 627-2308 or visit jamesbeard.org/events.
JONATHAN BROOKS
Chef Jonathan Brooks glides respectfully against the grain. Homespun meals inspire unconventional breakfast and brunch at the Milktooth restaurant he runs with his wife, Ashley. Brooks’ menus are defining new Indianapolis cuisine while evoking childhood comfort-food memories. Hence the restaurant’s name. Milktooth, born from an old auto garage, garnered more than 1,000 social media followers months before opening in fall 2014, positioning Brooks to try anything on his now national fan base. Just after Milktooth opened, Zagat recognized it as a reason why the spot’s Fletcher Place community is among America’s 10 hot food neighborhoods.
This year, Food & Wine magazine named Brooks one of America’s best new chefs. With strong regard for local ingredients, food culture and classic technique, Brooks applies a thoughtful edge. Muntanyola cheese, green grapes, tatsoi and local smoked ham crown little cornmeal Dutch pancakes. Soft scrambled eggs cushion Burgundy truffles and Osetra caviar alongside pork rinds instead of bacon.
Growing up in Indianapolis, Brooks landed his first dishwashing job at age 14. In the two years before opening Milktooth, he was chef de cuisine at the city’s highly regarded Recess, known for its creative seasonal menus. In a throwback, short-order-style kitchen, behind spinning stools at a counter, Brooks and the Milktooth team work in full view. “We call ourselves a fine diner,” Brooks said. “We're not pretentious, but we're not just bacon and eggs.”
Brooks’ Beard House dinner dish: Ras el hanout Viking lamb tenderloin with stewed eggplant and dates, lamb fat brioche and a pickled lamb’s tongue and bean salad.
Milktooth: 534 Virginia Ave., (317) 986-5131, milktoothindy.com.
PETER SCHMUTTE
Among his Indianapolis peers, Peter Schmutte is often called “probably the best chef in the city.” Professional cooks usually bestow such praise on savory chefs; Schmutte crafts desserts at Downtown Indy’s modern American restaurant Cerulean at The Alexander Hotel. The Indiana native and Chicago French Pastry School graduate turns local, seasonal ingredients, even craft beer and tomme cheese, into still-life artworks gravitating between realism and geometric abstraction.
“No ingredient is off-limits,” Schmutte has said, but classics regularly inspire his offerings. The Chocolate Mousse Box unites sudachi curd, red wine caramel and bergamot sorbet. Chestnut cream, tonka bean ice cream and pear accompany brown butter whole-wheat cake. Each Schmutte dessert is a surprising balance of texture and flavor.
He has clocked time at Chicago’s Tru and NoMI. Schmutte traveled with Wolfgang Puck and nationally hailed pastry chef Sherry Yard for events and staff training. When Puck installed a restaurant at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, he chose Schmutte as his pastry chef.
Schmutte’s Beard House dinner dish: Smoked cornmeal sablé with peppercorn-poached cherries, buttermilk namelaka, toasted sassafras ice cream and New Day Craft Washington’s Folly Mead caramels.
Cerulean: 339 S. Delaware St., (317) 870-1320, ceruleanrestaurant.com.
CHRIS ELEY
On the list of America's best food artisans, Indianapolis' Smoking Goose charcuterie company founder Chris Eley ranks in the Top 20. That’s according to Food & Wine magazine. The 2014 accolade was not Eley's first. Smoking Goose, launched in 2011, and Goose the Market specialty food shop, opened in 2006, won Eley previous nods from the magazine and Bon Appetit. The Indianapolis Star in 2012 named Eley one of the city’s top 10 entrepreneurs to watch. This year, Eley took a Good Food Award for his South Cider Salame containing Indiana persimmons. The Indianapolis native uses traditional methods to cure meat from healthy animals raised by Midwest farmers.
Before mastering charcuterie, Eley cooked at award-winning Chicago restaurants. Windy City top chefs Rick Tramanto and Gale Gand tapped Eley to help open restaurants and create menus. Eley also trained and worked in Rhode Island, Thailand and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He returned to Indianapolis to be part of the city’s burgeoning food scene. “It’s a huge honor for me to be included in a group like this,” Eley said, explaining that he’s the only chef going to the Beard dinner who doesn’t own a restaurant.
Eley’s Beard House dinner dish: Goose galantine with salted goose egg, crabapple aspic, mulberries, pistachios and bitter greens
Goose the Market: 2503 N. Delaware St., (317) 924-4944, goosethemarket.com.
Smoking Goose: 407 Dorman St., (317) 638-6328, smokinggoose.com.
AARON BUTTS
When Aaron Butts started cooking in high school, he advanced so quickly on the job that he bypassed culinary school. Butts did internships at world-famous restaurants Fat Duck, El Bulli and Charlie Trotter’s. He became a certified sommelier. In 2000, the Leo, Ind., native was named sous chef at Joseph Decuis, a AAA four-star, Roanoke, Ind., restaurant and farm supplying its own produce and free-range Wagyu cattle, Mangalitsa pigs as well as goats, sheep, turkeys and chickens. Butts worked his way up to executive chef. In 2011, he earned a James Beard award semifinalist spot in the Best Chef-Great Lakes category.
At Joseph Decuis, Butts helps decide what to grow and lends a hand at harvest time. Regional American and world flavors inspire his clear-cut dishes that might range from the fun and casual “Taters Gonna Tate Burger” with Wagyu beef, mustard potato salad, shaved onion, arugula, cheddar, a farm egg, shoestring fries and sriracha ketchup, all on a brioche bun, to a refined presentation of seared foie gras atop asparagus, morels, fava beans and pickled ramps. He is active behind the bar, too, crafting bitters, shrubs and infusions.
This is not Butts’ first trip to the James Beard House. For a 2010 James Beard House dinner, Butts crowed a kimchi pancake with pork belly and spicy slaw, all drizzled with miso caramel. This second visit to Beard House excites Butts as much as the first. “It’s the ultimate stage for culinary arts. It’s just the pinnacle of cooking for us to get invited to go there. And then cooking with friends of mine is even better. All these guys are awesome.”
Butts’ Beard House dinner dish: Wagyu strip loin with charred corn–summer squash hash, speck, pickled ramps, eggplant confit and imperial stout bordelaise.
Joseph Decuis: 191 N. Main St., Roanoke; (260) 672-1715, josephdecuis.com.
DAVID TALLENT
David Tallent opened Restaurant Tallent in Bloomington, Ind., with two goals: Help local farmers and serve a distinctive Indiana cuisine. Eleven years later, Tallent’s combination of Midwest ingredients and old-school culinary methods have created a particular Indiana cuisine that has earned Tallent eight James Beard semifinalist nods for Best Chef-Great Lakes. He also co-founded Slow Food Bloomington.
A Tallent meal might include foie gras poutine with house-made ricotta and venison pot roast gravy or bacon-wrapped rabbit and dumplings. Tallent menus change often. “I feel like I've always been trying to do something old but still staying relevant. … I try to stay grounded in that (classical) technique, but I still have to pay attention to what's going on, what's modern.”
Tallent worked in local kitchens while he attended Indiana University. He left college in 2000 to study at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. While at the CIA, Tallent worked with chefs Jason Hicks at the French Brasserie Le Goulue on Madison Avenue in New York City and Benjamin Mauk at Cripple Creek in Rhinebeck, N.Y. After culinary school, Tallent moved to Atlanta, where he served as sous chef under Joe Ahn at Soho in Vinings. Despite his experience and accolades, Tallent remains humble. “I just try and show up and do my best every day.”
Tallent’s Beard House dinner dish: Smoked Indiana pork brisket with fermented sweet corn–tomato salad and hot water cornbread.
Restaurant Tallent: 208 N. Walnut St., Bloomington; (812) 330-9801, restauranttallent.com.
JOSHUA GONZALES
Wearing a black ball cap printed with the words “VODKA SODA” in bold white type, Joshua Gonzales looks more like the guy who restocks the ice bin rather than an owner of Fountain Square’s Thunderbird restaurant and lounge. The New Mexico native is one of Indianapolis’ best bartenders, but he prefers the title “barback,” even lists it on his business cards.
Gonzales’ skills contradict his modesty. In 2014, he was among 15 finalists in the Diageo Reserve World Class, considered the planet’s most prestigious bartender competition. Not bad for a self-taught barman who first slung drinks at Olive Garden. From there, Gonzales went to art school and then college to study political science. He donned a suit and tie as a political campaign worker and as the communications guy promoting health and wellness under former Ind. Gov. Mitch Daniels. Gonzales left politics in 2010, spent some time checking out the Chicago bar scene and landed on the initial crew at Downtown Indy’s Libertine Liquor Bar, which Esquire magazine in 2013 named one of America’s best bars.
Gonzales strives to help diners understand how to pair cocktails with food, an expertise he’ll demonstrate for each of the James Beard dinner’s five courses. Gonzales doesn’t get flashy with cocktails. Simple daiquiris — no whipped cream, no umbrellas — are his favorite drinks to mix. “We can make great drinks that are three ingredients,” he said. What does Gonzales drink on his night off? He laughs before answering. “It’s probably going to be a Miller Lite and a shot of Wild Turkey 101.”
A Gonzales pairing for Beard House dinner: Crucifixion Cruise with Mezcal Vago Elote, Campari and Cocchi Americano Rosa aperitif wine, paired with smoked Indiana pork brisket with fermented sweet corn–tomato salad and hot water cornbread.
Thunderbird: 1127 Shelby St., (317) 974-9580, thunderbirdindy.com.
Call Liz Biro at (317) 444-6264. Follow her on Twitter @lizbiro, Instagram @lizbirodish, Facebook and Pinterest.