West Virginia Cooks’ Group Heritage Dinner draws target to substantial-high quality, domestically sourced food | WV News
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WV Information) — For practically 100 persons, Sunday night furnished a novel party created to showcase regionally sourced food prepared in higher-quality fashion.
The West Virginia Cooks’ Group Heritage Meal took spot at Jackson Sq., featuring foods prepared by cooks Anne Hart, Marion Ohlinger of Hill and Hollow of Morgantown, Matt Welsch of Vagabound restaurant in Wheeling and Michael Brown of Hart Kitchen area Eatery of Clarksburg. Also in attendance serving food were two culinary arts instructors from Pierpont Community & Technical College and just one of their culinary students.
West Virginia Cooks is a team of chefs from throughout the condition who want to educate as quite a few persons as achievable about the vitality and excellent of locally grown make and domestically sourced meat and fowl.
The hope was not just to teach diners as it was time for the cooks to demonstrate their pleasure in heritage recipes and foodstuff that support the community meals scene. A solitary extensive row of tables, referred to as a neighborhood desk, was established up in the Jackson Sq. pavilion on Traders Alley.
Chef Welsch is the founder of the West Virginia Cooks group.
“It’s significant time that West Virginia acquired its reasonable share of interest in conversations about the growing food items field in the United States,” he stated.
“When you analyze the record of foodstuff in Appalachia, it mirrors the story of Appalachia alone. It is rugged foodstuff designed by rugged persons harvested from a rugged landscape. Due to the fact we are landlocked by the mountains, our culinary tradition is just one that is tied to what the land would create and the match it would aid.”
Anne Hart of Hart Kitchen Eatery partnered with quite a few chefs to host an celebration that highlights community farmers and cooks in an effort and hard work to guidance regional communities and guarantee sustainability for compact businesses concerned in the sector.
“It all started out with WV Cooks firm, which set all of this alongside one another with us. We want to highlight community producers and growers and assist them as effectively. Our next function we will do cooking demos for persons as very well. We choose them by means of the procedure of how to put together, cook and serve a food,” Hart explained.
Marion Ohlinger is the proprietor of Hill and Hollow, which is a totally free-assortment kitchen in Morgantown.
“We have been an Appalachian cafe for the earlier 15 years, and it is form of gorgeous the number of men and women from right here who really do not seriously know our food stuff historical past just before the 1950s,” Ohlinger reported.
He needs to help reintroduce people to their culinary roots and know that they can support area producers.
“The essential plan is to maintain our bucks right here in West Virginia. Give them to your community farmer, your nearby brewery, your community cafe and cook for yourself,” Ohlinger explained, stressing to do it “for your regional scene, mainly because we need every other.”
Pierpont Neighborhood & Complex College or university experienced a few volunteers on hand — cooks Natalie Feltz and Allison McCue, together with culinary arts student Tabitha Poling-Loureiro. Poling-Loureiro is commencing this slide at Pierpont and is psyched about starting off her academic pursuit.
Chef Feltz was thrilled to be a aspect of the local community dinner and to operate with a not long ago retired peer from Pierpont who was on hand to fill in on desired jobs at the occasion.
“Chef Anne asked us to arrive out for this fantastic party, and Chef McCue and I claimed we can make this do the job,” she reported with a giggle.
“I’m seeking forward to mingling with persons and acting like it is semi-normal moments and we can be together and not be afraid as well a great deal of COVID,” Feltz said.
Pierpont Culinary Arts geared up two dishes. The initially was an appetizer named Grain Salad that provided barley, parmesan cous-cous and tri-shade quinoa with lemon white balsamic vinaigrette sourced from Sue Brumage in Fairmont. The next was a dessert of lavender panna cotta with combined berry mousse that was sourced from Richardson Farms, also in Fairmont.
Sarah Ziegler and Eric Ziegler had been on hand for the meal. Sarah is from Clarksburg while her husband is from upstate New York. They met at West Virginia Wesleyan, fell in appreciate, acquired married, and now are raising their small children in Clarksburg.
“We heard there was likely to be very good foods, and we want to aid the local community,” Eric Ziegler said.
“We need to have this variety of function in city and assistance it because a lot of occasions you only listen to about the negative matters taking place. It is definitely awesome to have a positive occasion and it will convey some tradition, and fun to our room,” Sarah Ziegler stated.