Culinary
Lex Nelson
For a couple that worked at a skin care company, buying a chocolate shop may have looked like a big leap from the outside. But when Jason and Trish Stack purchased Boise’s The Chocolat Bar from founders Chris Preston and Kristi Echols-Preston in August of 2018, it was a remarkably smooth career transition.
Read more “Something Sweet”
Culinary
Lex Nelson
Jasson Parra, co-owner of the downtown Boise sandwich shop Lemon Tree Co., credits his restaurant’s success in large part to Boise’s burgeoning population of vegetarians and vegans, who flock there for plant-based entrees and sides.
Read more “Be My Veggie Valentine”
Culinary
Lex Nelson
The fine dining restaurant State & Lemp has been a center point of Idaho’s culinary scene since it first opened its doors in the fall of 2013, and by the time then-Executive Chef Kris Komori raked in his third James Beard nomination for Best Chef: Northwest in early 2018, all eyes were on its tiny corner dining room.
Read more “A Tale of Two Restaurants”
Culinary
Lex Nelson
David Knickrehm, chairman of the board of Idaho Chefs de Cuisine, sees one big problem threatening Boise’s restaurant industry: alack of talented cooks. He lays the blame partly on the graves of the Treasure Valley’s two defunct culinary programs—one attached to Boise State University and another to College of Western Idaho—and partly on a new cultural mindset.
Read more “Cooking Up Talent”
Culinary
Lex Nelson
In the vast space behind the neat, old-world pastry and bread, shop at Gaston’s Bakery lies a mad scientist’s laboratory of baking. Staff dart back and forth, some twisting bits of dough into breadsticks, others carefully rolling croissants, stacking boxes of packaged pastries or leavering baguettes into towering stone deck ovens. But despite the hustle and bustle, it’s the machine sitting quietly in a corner that’s perhaps the most exciting thing in the bakery: a cherry-red electric mill, which Gaston’s owner, French baker Mathieu Choux, started using just two months ago to make his own flour from Idaho wheat.
Culinary
Culinary Collective Network has partnered with My Family Tradition (MFT), Boise’s premier sauce and rub company, to present a specialized line of jarred items under the label Late Harvest, premium farm products. Get yours at the MFT booth at the Capital City Public Market and select local retailers.
Beverages
Lex Nelson
From a bird’s eye view, there’s a good chance southern Idaho’s Sunnyslope Wine Trail looks more like a miles-long buffet table than the proverbial patchwork quilt. That’s because for robins and starlings, ripe wine grapes make the perfect snack, particularly during harvest season—a problem vintners like Greg Koenig of Koenig Vineyards have spent increasing amounts of time and money battling.
Culinary
Bake time – 20 minutes
Prep time – 2.5 hours
Serves 24
Read more “Recipe: Caramel Apple Cranberry Bread Pudding Muffins”
Beer
Lex Nelson
Trends, like 15th-century explorers, often hop the Atlantic from Europe to America—but sometimes the channel flows the other way. Garden City-based brewing company Barbarian Brewing proved that point in late September, when co-owners Bre Hovley and James Long traveled to London to teach the staff at Hop Stuff Brewery about what’s already a booming trend in American suds: sour beer.
Culinary
Lex Nelson
It’s no secret that the local food movement has been gaining ground rapidly in recent years. According to the Farmers Market Coalition, the number of farmer’s markets registered with the United States Department of Agriculture has more than quadrupled since 1994, and in 2017, Business Insider offered up an article expounding on why investors should keep a keen eye on the rising demand for local food, citing a Packaged Facts study showing the local food industry jumped from $5 billion to $12 billion between 2008 and 2014, and is predicted to hit $20 billion next year. Read more “Learn About Local”