Chef in the House: John Sarich

01-Mar-2006

A Friday or two ago R and I attended another Chef in the House event hosted by David LeClaire who owns Wine Events and Promotions. You may remember we went to one of these events last summer when my friend, Chef Big John was cooking. That was a packed house while this event was a much smaller, more intimate gathering.

The chef for the evening was John Sarich, who has been the culinary director at Ste. Michelle winery for many years. John has a TV show, has produced several cookbooks, was the original chef and owner of Adriatica and is very well known around the country, in fact this last weekend he was one of the featured chefs at the South Beach Food and Wine Festival. I’ve taken classes from him at the winery and was really looking forward to this small class format at David’s house.

The theme for the night was mushrooms but, as John explained, this is a bit too early in the year for our local wild mushrooms – spring and fall are our peak periods. Still he did a wonderful job with an assortment of cultured mushrooms that he’d brought. We had mushrooms featured in pasta, salad, in a side dish with asparagus, and on crostini. It was a night full of earthy, herby, savory goodness.

The other part of these events is the wine which, being at David’s, is never lacking. He generally has several bottles available and it’s up to each person to sip their way through those that seem most interesting. At different points throughout the evening either David or the chef will give some direction on what wines might be best suited to which courses but it’s totally up to you to choose what appeals to you.

This particular night there was a really great group of people and many of us stayed long past the "closing hour" talking and sampling just one or two more wines while David cleaned up the kitchen. Now that is my type of night!