The Park City Restaurant Association and Park City Chamber Bureau provided the media with a look and taste of what diners can expect at the Platform kitchen by the James Beard Foundation.
The James Beard Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports and celebrates worldwide culinary talent.
From Sept. 26 to Sept. 29, Park City’s top chefs and award-winning distillers will be in the spotlight serving two dinners, one lunch, one brunch and a cocktail party over the four days at the foundation’s newest enterprise, Platform.
Platform is a new state-of-the-art kitchen and educational space offering culinary arts programing and events.
One of those who will be preparing dinner is Matthew Harris, executive chef and co-owner of Tupelo, famous for its buttermilk biscuits.
He’ll be serving the biscuits in New York, something he learned to make from his mother.
“You know, everybody's like, ‘those are the best biscuits in the world.’ I'm like, ‘I can't really take credit for them but thank you very much,'" Harris said.
Harris said he learned how to cook from watching his mother.
"She was always in the kitchen, and I would just kind of gravitate with her, and just kind of picked up a lot of the old southern techniques,” he added.
After the executive chef of Courchevel Bistro, Clement Gelas, went to culinary and hotel management school, he landed in Park City 20 years ago for skiing and the outdoor life. He’ll be preparing lunch featuring a very French menu.
“The first night, ‘The Showcase of Park City,’ we're going to do a bouillabaisse, you know, French dish with mussel and crawfish, locally sourced trout. What we are also doing with the same trout, we curate with some Alpine Distilling gin, a little smoke, and do like a cured trout tartare. And then we do a nice chicken consommé, bring back the same trout, and crab pudding, which is my favorite dessert. So, lots of good things,” Gelas said.
Award winning distiller, and owner of Alpine Distilling, Sara Sergent will be providing cocktails for several of the meals, including brunch.
While champagne is traditionally served at brunch, Sergent says she has something much more creative in mind.
“We've got an espresso old fashioned that we'll be doing to kind of light things up,” Sergent said. “We'll be pairing our preserved liquor with bubbles, because it's quite delightful like that. And then we have, obviously, our Aquavit presentation."
"It’s a lot of fun. Brunches are not just for bubbles alone,” she added.
Co-owner and executive chef of the Riverhorse on Main Street, Seth Adams, will prepare the opening dinner and High West Distillery executive chef Michael Showers will host a festive evening of sipping from the distillery’s renowned portfolio and offer samples of his western mountain fare for the cocktail party. He’ll be joined by award-winning cocktail national finalist and High West’s beer manager Holly Booth.
The executive chef and director of food and beverage for Stein Eriksen Lodge, Zane Holmquist, will be serving up his famous Sunday Brunch. It’s an extravagant spread of breakfast favorites, made-to-order stations and a variety of home-made salads and desserts.
Some of the restaurants will feature the fare that they’re preparing for Platform at home.
Both Riverhorse and Tupelo will be offering some of their Platform menu items this month and High West plans to feature some of its menu selections later this winter.
All of the events featuring the Park City troupe are open to the public.
