The Tilth Blog

Chef Maria Hines was nominated for a prestigious James Beard Award for best chef of the Northwest. We congratulate her! She will head to New York for the awards ceremony in June. Wish her luck!

More info: jamesbeard.org.

How did Maria Hines get started in the restaurant business? What does she think about a culinary degree versus an apprenticeship? Why did she insist on being a certified organic restaurant?

Tune in to this 30-minute podcast interview with Maria to find out.

I’ve posted a separate link to my nutrition page that you can read when you have a little time. I’ve been studying my own eating habits to prepare for a rock climbing trip to Thailand in February. It’s amazing how little I knew about nutrition — and I’m a chef who went to culinary school. I hope you get a kick out of it.

We have introduced several new dishes on our weekend brunch menu. The first is a play on biscuits and gravy: We add house-smoked chicken to a bechamel sauce to create the gravy. We add good chunks of cheddar to the biscuits and to top it all off, we add fried eggs. Next, is a house-made flatbread that’s topped with tapenade, spicy sausage, parmesan and fried eggs. Finally, we’ve added a wild mushroom and cheddar omelet. Come visit us soon!

Brunch

Soup of the Moment   6

Cherry-Almond Scone + Citrus Curd    6

Baby Red Butter Head Lettuce
blood orange, blue cheese, hazelnut 6

Local Variety Fruit Bowl    6

House Made Granola + Yogurt + Fruit   7

Creamy Steel Cut Oatmeal
milk, golden raisin   7

Grand Marnier French Toast
essential egg bread, apple compote 12

2 Eggs any style + Roasted Yukon Potatoes
toast, bacon or sausage   9

Truffled Scrambled Eggs
chive, spinach, potato  12

Wild Mushroom & Cheddar Omelet
arugula, roasted yukons    12

Smoked Pulled Chicken + Cheddar Biscuits
washington chicken, fried eggs, gravy  15

Croque Monsieur
ham and gruyere sandwich, béchamel, baby lettuces  14
with fried egg   15

Breakfast Flat Bread
spicy sausage, tapenade, parmesan, fried eggs    14

Mini Duck Burgers
fingerling chips, house made ketchup, hot mustard 18

Sides: French Toast   6  /  Bacon or Sausage   3  / Roasted Yukons   4

Steel Cut Oatmeal   3   /  Plain Low Fat Yogurt  3  /  Biscuit + Gravy  6

Caffe Vita Coffee and Espresso / Remedy Tea Selection
Heirloom Tomato Bloody Mary 7/ Mimosa 7/ Champagne Cocktail 7
FRV 100 de Jean-Paul Brun Sparkling Beaujolais 8

You may have seen the piece in the Seattle Times this week that shared hot spots for hot chocolate. I’d like to add to that list. Our January menu features a hot chocolate made with Theo chocolate from the Ivory Coast and served with housemade marshmallows. For an extra kick, you can order it with Woodford Reserve bourbon. Those who know me know that I’m a huge bourbon fan. I like how the smoky, caramel notes in the bourbon complement the chocolate. The acidity in the bourbon also balances the richness of the chocolate. It’s a winning combination in my book!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and a great 2007.

We’re looking forward to 2008 here at Tilth. A couple of fun new things we have going on is the homage to local producer dinners every Monday night. We feature a different local producer each week for this 4-course dinner for $45. You can have us pair wines with each course for you for $20. This is a fun night for us in the kitchen because we are cooking things that are not on the regular menu that we serve Tuesday through Saturday. We’re able to get our hands on products that may only have a limited supply, which works well for a menu crafted for one evening.

Adam Chumas, our dining room manager, has started making bitters in house and distilled ice blocks that are chizzled to order for cocktails. We also just released a batch of dapple dandy plum brandy (yes, that’s actually the variety of plum). The plums are from Tiny’s Organics. I have a hot chocolate on the January dessert menu that is made with Theo’s Ivory Coast chocolate, Fresh Breeze milk (from Linden, WA), and cardamom, served with homemade vanilla-scented marshmallows. You have the option of drinking this incredible hot chocolate with Woodford Reserve bourbon (which I highly recommend).

Those of you who are watching calories and hope to get more exercise in 2008 can keep your eyes peeled for a nutrition page on the blog that I’ll be posting sometime in the near future. I have recently been training for a climbing trip and put myself on a nutrition and exercise plan to help out with climbing performance, reduce injury potential, and feel strong and healthy overall. In my calorie, protein, carb and fat counting, it has become apparent that eating organically may be healthy in a lot of ways, but it is still quite easy to still eat an imbalanced diet! Stay tuned….

I wish everyone a happy and peaceful 2008!

Cheers,

Maria

We are debuting the Monday night “Homage to Local Producers” dinners on Nov. 19. We’re excited to offer dishes that aren’t normally available. We hope you will join us on Nov. 19 and subsequent Mondays for these special menus. The featured farm this week is Oxbow, which is located near the Snoqualmie River. This imbues the soil with glacial till from the Cascades, which results in robustly flavored produce.

HOMAGE TO LOCAL PRODUCERS
featuring Oxbow Farm in Carnation, WA
November 19, 2007

Porcini Mushroom Flan
arugula, parmesan, truffle

Acorn Squash Soup
thyme, maple, marshmallow

Grass-fed Beef Cheeks
spaetzle, collards, romanesco

Persimmon Streusel
mascarpone ice cream

$45 per person
$20 wine pairings

Chef de Cuisine/Dana Tough          Chef-owner/Maria Hines

We can never say enough about our farmers and producers, so we’ve decided to dedicate Monday nights, starting Nov. 19, to celebrating the people who bring us their amazing foods. That means we will be open seven nights. Here are the particulars:

“Homage to Local Organic Producers”
$45 for 4-course set menu, plus $20 for wine pairings.
Each menu will feature dishes that aren’t available regularly. We will highlight specific items in the entrees.

We’re excited for the opportunity to mix it up a bit and challenge ourselves to create new menus each week. We hope you will support our new endeavor.

OK, I know you all probably thought I wasn’t listening to you about the sometimes deafening noise level that happens in the dining room. But, believe me, I was. Being a new restaurant that’s not bank-rolled sometimes means it takes a while to get stuff done. And little by little, I promise I will! In the middle of October, we’ll have lovely fabric sound-absorbing panels installed on the ceiling. They will be the same buttery yellow of the interior walls, so they should blend. Now, when you gaze into the eyes of your dining companion, you’ll be able to hear him or her, too. I hope this will make your dining experience with us here at Tilth more pleasant and relaxing.
Cheers,
Maria

Jason was trying to create a strawberry sidecar, but it didn’t work out. He decided to change course and he will now offer a classic strawberry dacquiri. We’re going to order several flats of Billy Allstot’s  strawberries to puree and freeze for the dacquiris.