“The end of April already!”

Famous last words, “It’s the end of April already?”
Well yes, it is. February and March have come and gone. Oh, how the time flies when you are having fun! The spring menu has gone over very well with regulars and newcomers alike. I try to get out into the dining room the nights I am working, to chat with all of you. About the food, the wine, the next “Queens of the Stone Age” album, just about whatever, but mostly the food. I’ve been hearing great things about the walleye, the pork and the ribeye. I mean how can you go wrong with a 24 oz “bone-in” piece of meat, am I right!? But the sauce for the pork has to be my favorite. Demi-glace, rum, brown sugar, pineapple and kiwi. Every time I plate that dish the aroma from the sauce puts me into a ravenous trance that only the finest seared local pork will remedy. It’s so good. The oyster fettuccine looks like a work of art, and tastes even better. It’s all really, really good. You need to get out here and try some of it. Heck, try it all, I dare you!
I have to say Spring came on pretty fast, almost too fast. That coming from a snowboard junkie. I guess I’ll have to find solace off the hill and out of the kitchen on the Triumph. Bummer. I’m actually really excited for it to start being nice enough to cook outside. I just roasted two whole rather large suckling pigs on my father’s ingeniously self-manufactured spit roaster. It’s really a thing of beauty. My brother calls it his, but Dad made it abundantly clear who it’s soul owner is. Sorry, Duane! Anyways, the pigs turned out amazing, much to the joy of the Winona Community Foundation Dinner last Friday night. I can’t wait to roast some more pigs on that thing in the following spring and summer. I’ll let you all know when that goes down.

I have to run, meetings, cooking tonight, prepping for tomorrow. Ah, the life of a busy Chef! Got to love it!

Talk to you all soon, KEEP IT LOCAL!

Chef Douglas