By time dinner begins at 6pm on any given night, the kitchen has already been busy at work for hours beforehand preparing for service. Last Friday, for example, the tenderloin has been portioned, lobsters prepared, the bread rolled and oysters shucked for the 80 guests that will be joining us for dinner at The Fearrington House. At 6pm, there is a sense of both anticipation and calm amongst the 10 cooks and chefs as they ponder over the thought of what the next few hours will have in store for them.

The first guests arrive and bite sized gougeres are sent to them as they muse over the menu and make their choices of what to eat. The waiter takes their order and relays it to the kitchen. “Order in!” bellows Chef Bedford to grab the attention of his team, “One tuna, one goats cheese. Second course; one sausage, one scallop and for entrée one sea bass and one beef cooked medium.” The cooks reply “Yes chef,” like a chorus in acknowledgement of the order and start preparing the food.

By 8pm the kitchen is heating up as the orders come flying in. Chef Bedford orchestrates his team of soldiers as they go in to battle to execute each dish with precision. “More herbs on this tuna, wipe the finger print off that bowl, more seasoning in the grits. Come on!! We need service in pastry, these soufflés need to go, I need a server to take these appetizers and someone to take these entrees to table thirty. Let’s go!!” These are just some of the choice words that are used to uphold the standards expected in his kitchen. 

By 10pm nearly all the entrees have been sent and the cooks start cleaning down the kitchen. Over 80 guests have enjoyed their meals and the kitchen has had a smooth service with just a few minor glitches on the way. The ovens are scrubbed clean, tables washed and floors mopped. The whirring noise of the extraction fans are all that can be heard as the kitchen comes to a close. Soon its lights out and another day will begin in just a few hours time when the next chef arrives at 5am to prepare for sixty hungry breakfast inn guests…

This past weekend Fearrington hosted designer Chip Calloway and writer/historian Mac Griswold for a special tour of Camden Park and dinner at Fearrington House Restaurant.  Chip designed Camden Park in the mid-1990s, so it was a treat for us to hear about his design inspiration and plant selections as we walked through this quiet 17 acre oasis next to the Village Center.

Fifteen years ago, immediately after my mother’s death, my father asked Chip to create a park in her memory.  Chip and my mother shared a passion for gardening and were good friends, so Chip well knew the plants and designs she loved. The result: a restful, elegant space consisting of open space, groupings of specimen trees and shrubs, and two large ponds and a connecting stream, all bisected by graceful, curving walking paths.

On the tour, Mac pointed out one of the great qualities of Chip’s design is how it – like Olmstead’s designs such as Central Park – leads one through a series of dramatic views such as open vistas, enclosed areas, and then, surprisingly, long dramatic views.

Mac has several wonderful garden books to her credit, including Washington’s Gardens at Mount Vernon, and has written for House & Garden, Garden Design and Vanity Fair.  While here, she was a guest lecturer at UNC, visited the incomparable J.C. Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh and inspected the nurseries at Niche Gardens, Camellia Forest and Plant Delights (and transported a few carefully wrapped 1 gallon discoveries on the plane back to New York!).  It was a busy but fun and rewarding weekend for all.

Navy is everywhere this season and it has never looked newer.   We’re not talking just any navy-think nautical, with a few squirts of black.  In fact, this season’s navy looks fabulous teamed with black. We have assembled an interesting array of navy  accessories  at Dovecote  to instantly update your closet – from practical totes to fun scarves to exotic skin clutches (you should see what this accent does for a little black dress!) a punch of blue is all you need to set sail in style this season!   

Daneen

This dessert has a little history behind it. The idea came from drinking copious amounts of Arnold Palmer (made of half unsweetened iced tea and half lemonade) on the golf course in blistering hot weather. 

Refreshing on the golf course, I figured it has to work at the end of a meal. It was also a dessert that I did for my “interview” dinner so needless to say it was my first dish on the menu.

So second go round we thought that a little “English” would give it a twist.  The base is a lemon posset that is the English element; it relies on the acid setting the cream. It is topped with an Earl Grey jelly and sorbet and finished with a lavender foam. For all you anti lavender people, you will be converted; trust me, I was! It is accompanied with shortbread and white chocolate Chantilly - it is really cool how all the flavors work together. I don’t like the glass that it is in now but will be working on that - I can live with it as I see a lot of them glide past me straight into the dining room.

It was New Years Eve around 6:15pm. I was walking back through the kitchen after spending a few minutes in my office gathering thoughts and changing into new armor to face the night ahead wondering if the guests are first going to like the menu and second if we have the right formula and balance to execute the night successfully. About 700 plates were about to leave the kitchen so as you can imagine quite a bit of pressure.  So everyone was focused, stations set, energy high – the kitchen was locked and loaded and the first ticket of the night hits the pass.

The General Manager, Theresa, checks on us to make sure we are ready and takes a look at some of the new dishes for that night. If we are not firing on all cylinders it will be her in the line of fire of unhappy guests.  Theresa proposes a New Years resolution to me; she said “I want you to write a kitchen blog.” My initial thought was, you are out of your mind – like I have time to write a blog. I immediately turn to my right and my two sous chefs look away with a smirk on their faces. I said, “don’t know why to two are laughing – if I am getting dragged into this, you pair are too.”

The night was going well; we found our groove so I posed the question to them: “ok hypothetically if we have to write a blog, we better get used to the idea because who am I kidding with the current social media situation, it’s getting out of control. What are we going to put in this blog of ours?” Ideas thrown on the table included: upcoming seasons and the ingredients and recipes to go along with them, ideas and experiments – the ones that work and the ones that don’t  - which leads to something good most of the time, highs and lows of the kitchen, funny stories and we have a fresh batch of interns on the way so there is the added humor value because what chef says, goes!

Working through the holiday period is always stressful for people in the hospitality industry, as restaurants are packed and people are in great spirits. Everyone tells me not to worry; once the holidays are over you will be able to have some time off, but actually no. I have to plan for our busy months, rewriting menus, working out the kinks from the previous year, all while trying to elevate standards.  And now I have to add the kitchen blog on my list of things to do.  The ball is rolling I can’t stop it!