kitchen in the market

Jenny Breen is a Minnesota "good food" legend. She's a caterer, chef, Bush fellow, student in public health and nutrition, teacher, visionary, wife, and mom. She's very good at being all of these things, and chances are excellent that she knows more about good, local, healthy food than you do.

Author Wendell BerrySpring, glorious spring! As our farmers’ markets start to ramp up for the season, our Simple, Good, and Tasty book club pick reminds us to stay in tuned with the who, what, where, and how of our food.  Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food, by Wendell Berry, is a collection of essays about farms, farming, and eating throughout our modern history with food.

It's book club time again! Tonight we're gathering to discuss My Life in France at Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op’s Selby location from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. and near Harmony Co-op in Bemidji from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. 

"We're not an incubator," Kitchen in the Market co-owner (and frequent SGT contributor) Tracy Morgan insists, "we're not here to help new chefs run their business or to tell them how to do it." The 14 chefs who currently share space at Kitchen in the Market -- there's still room for more -- include caterers, bakers, artisans, and even a mobile food truck owner, most of whom have experience cooking professionally and running their own businesses. Although having a proven, stable business isn't a requirement, the one-year lease that Kitchen in the Market (located in the Midtown Global Market) has its tenants sign separates the pros from the hobbyists.

What would you do to really make a difference? Would you give up most seemingly “normal” trappings of modern city life to create the ultimate experiment?

February’s Simple, Good, and Tasty Book Club pick focuses on author Colin Beavan and the year he spent trying to do as little damage to the environment as possible. Beavan eventually spun that year into a book (and accompanying film) entitled No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process.

New year, good intentions, resolutions. So, how are YOU doing?

Nearly a month into 2011, I’m thinking a bit about the intentions I had way back at the start of the new year (experiment with more vegan recipes, eat more veggies in general, and understand more about the food system and related politics), and checking in with myself on how things are going. One of the best things about working with food on a daily basis is that I don’t have to make an excuse to set aside time for these things. With little effort, I can get right to the core of the subject.

Our first book club first pick of 2011, Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat, tells the stories of women working towards eating and farming sustainably. Author Temra Costa writes about the relationships, nurturing, and inventiveness that women bring into the “delicious revolution” that is happening in our food world. Join us on January 27 at Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op from 7:00 - 9:00 pm or in Bemidji (near Harmony Co-op) from 5:30 - 7:30 pm to dig into these stories.

Want a foolproof recipe for a fantastic evening of food and fun?

Take a dozen eager food lovers, marinate with some glasses of wine or bottles of local brew, and toss with a delicious array of local artisan cheese. Then, guide them around an international market full of exciting ingredients to draw out their creativity, cover with crisp white aprons, and set them in a professional kitchen to boil, bake, sauté and otherwise cook up a complete dinner. Serve with a generous helping of instant camaraderie.

Tapping Your Inner Iron Chef

"There aren't very many good frozen potstickers," Rashmi Bhattachan tells me. I don't disagree. But when I bite into one of her new beef momos, filled with Thousand Hills Cattle Company ground beef, I don't care about potstickers. I just want more of Rashmi's delicious, warm pockets of Nepalese goodness. These tasty momos, seasoned with traditional Himalayan spices (cumin, coriander, garlic, and ginger) and served with a tomato based chutney, disappear quickly in my belly. I think I've eaten four of them before I stop to take a sip of my mango lassi.

When I ask Molly Herrmann of Tastebud Catering (aka Tastebud Tart) how she wants to be known, she doesn't miss a beat. "I'm the gal who throws a great party," she says, and I believe her. 

Maybe it's because Molly has a warm smile, a great sense of humor, and a friendly way about her. Or maybe it's because each time I see Molly she feeds me delicious things - like the time I was working nearby and she let me taste her heavenly combination of goat milk ice cream and cookies with smoked salt, or the time she introduced me to a family recipe for cheese spread on fresh bread. Whatever the reason, whenever I meet with Molly, I feel nourished.