sarahmcsimmons.com

It’s been a little over a year that I decided to change careers completely. I left a three year old retail consulting practice that was just starting to take off to cook full time. Some days I wonder what the hell I was thinking. But most days I still have to pinch myself when I think about what has happened over 378 days.

I served my dishes to Eric Ripert, Daniel Boulud, April Bloomfield, Anita Lo, and more at the Michelin Restaurant Guide NYC Release party. I shot videos for Daily Candy and with the crew at Food 52. I was on the TODAY Show, as well as local NY news programs, and filmed a pilot for a TV show. I wrote articles for Bon Appetit and Glamour and had articles written about me. And I started a catering business taking on jobs serving 250 conference-goers and four-course dinners for some of the world’s most prominent brands.

All of that is super cool and exciting. But I have to be honest, I’m most excited about the next 378 days. My team and I are still developing TV programming and I’m still catering, but I’ve also decided to expand my supper club as a first step towards something HUGE.

Once I can talk about Project HUGE, I’ll share the details.  In the meantime, I’m taking City Grit out of my home and into larger venues in NYC, as well as hitting the road to host dinners in other cities. And my dear friend, Michael Galpert is joining me. Me is now a WE!

Next week, we’re hosting our first series of dinners in NYC. I’ve been working with my good friend, Jeremy Kittredge – known as the King of Breakfast, and we’ve got a fantastic menu planned for Breakfast for Dinner on Wednesday, April 6th.

Here’s a glimpse of our last Breakfast for Dinner dishes.

The new menu we’re working on puts this menu to shame! Grab tickets while you can as it is close to selling out!

We’re also hosting two weekend dinners on Friday & Saturday nights. These dinners which we’re calling “Parlez Vous Francais, Y’all!” will feature an eight-course tasting menu of classic French dishes with a Southern twist. I’ve been working on this menu for weeks and can’t wait to serve it. I’ll be sharing sneak peaks of the dishes in progress throughout the next week or so.

So for the next two weeks, I’m going to be heads down working on this. But hopefully, I’ll have some time to post a recipe or two.

…including my waistline. After weekends in Miami and Charleston for food festivals, it was my recent trip to Austin for SXSW that put me over the edge. Since I’m no longer in tech, I’d not planned to head down this year. But when invited to host a BBQ Sauce Cook-off with some of the who’s who in tech at a pool party sponsored by Conduit and Eater, I jumped at the opportunity to join my friends for a few days at the nerd prom. Check out my (very few) pics and this video recap of the party…

As for a recap of what I ate, it’s embarrassing. All I did for three days was eat, drink, and sleep. I didn’t make it to the convention center, I didn’t make it to the Foursquare foursquare court, but I did make it to La Condesa, my favorite restaurant in Austin, twice.

The first time I was with some friends, including Robert Sietsema (Restaurant Critic for the Village Voice), so we ordered a bunch of items to share. Robert covered some of the dishes in his Best Things List from the trip which includes the Royal Trumpet Mushroom Tacos. They were so delicious, I ordered them at dinner the next night. My all-time favorite dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding with Butter Popcorn Ice Cream, was no longer on the menu (sniffle, sniffle). But Laura Sawicki, the pastry chef, is SO AWESOME that she made a batch for me (well minus the ice cream) while before I left town. I picked it up before late Tuesday night and carried it on the plane home to NYC. I ate the serving you see here with a scoop of Jimmy Fallon’s new Ben & Jerry’s flavor (It has potato chips in it!). Sooo delicious. I wrapped the remaining cakes up tightly and froze them. I’ll bust them out during an emergency craving or when I figure out how to make butter popcorn ice cream.

I dined at Bess Bistro, Sandra Bullock’s restaurant. It was fine – I felt like the dishes could have been better composed, but I was with some old colleagues so the company would have overshadowed the food anyway. I also ate my weight in meatballs at Mulberry, a newish spot featuring a seasonal menu of small plates, and enjoyed many bowls of queso and tamales at Polvo’s – another one of my favorite spots. Meals at La Condesa aside, my favorite culinary experience of the trip was a trip to Chick-fil-A to try their new Banana Pudding Milkshake. There I am, taking my first sip. After which I boldly stated, “looks like vomit, tastes like Jesus!”

Had I known I was going to be this close to Big Boi at the Foursquare concert, I’d have picked a shake up for him. I bet he’d feel the same way!

and it leads to Fat Wednesday.

Still stuffed from my weekend in Charleston, I continued the food fest Monday night with a six course Mardi Gras dinner at Locanda Verde. I had no business eating such a decadent meal, but I couldn’t pass up an evening of dishes from Locanda’s Andrew Carmeliini & Karen DeMasco and L2O’s Laurent Gras.

It was a good call. Though, two days later, I still feel like a fat cow…with good reason.

The meal kicked off with the tiniest little Shrimp Po’ boys with Red Remoulade, followed by giant bowls of Louisiana Crawfish and Oysters Rockefeller. I must say I’ve been a little over oysters (*gasp*) but these little guys were just the thing I needed to get back on the bandwagon. I’ve been dreaming of them since.

Next up was a Coonass Seafood Gumbo with Popcorn Rice. It’s just plain fun to say the word Coonass and with a little spice, a little funk and a lot of seafood, this dish truly tasted like New Orleans.

After bringing out warm biscuits covered in honey, platters of Blackened Char with a fruity mango slaw were placed in front of us. At this point I felt like I was approaching my wall – and we still had two more courses to go. Though the dish had great flavor, I had to save room for…

…the Pecan Duck with Dirty Rice. I love dirty rice, a love that started early with my first taste of the dish at Bojangles – a southern fast food joint specializing in Cajun food. Rich and creamy with little nuggets of chicken livers, this dirty rice was light years better than the rice I remember from my childhood and may have been my favorite dish of the evening.

The meal began to wind down with DeMasco’s Beignets. Served with lemon curd, chocolate mousse, and a burnt caramel sauce that I wanted to pour straight into my mouth, these perfectly fried little pillows of dough put me close to the edge.

The bowls of Pistachio & Rum Vanilla ice cream, which was honestly the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted, did the job of pushing me over. I ate at least three servings – straight out of the communal serving bowl with the communal serving spoon, the last scoop topped with the remaining burnt caramel sauce.

I found a new limit. Now I need to find myself a Weight Watchers meeting!

Last weekend some friends and I headed to Charleston for the Charleston Wine & Food Festival. After a fun, but exhausting trip to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival the previous weekend, this little southern get away was just the trip I needed to relax and get re-energized.

While the Grand Tasting and After Dark events of the festival were very well-done and enjoyable, the best times of the weekend were sharing some of my all time favorite spots, discovering new favorite spots, and enjoying a relaxing Sunday full of fresh caught seafood with some of my favorite friends.

Old Time Favorites

Seafood Over Grits from Magnolia

After 15 years, the Seafood Over Grits at Magnolia’s is still on my top five favorite dishes list. It’s right up there with the Octupus at Le Bernardin and the Melon Salad at Blue Hill at Stone Barns – all perfect dishes.

Cypress is an old favorite, but this trip was the first time I’d tasted Craig Deihl’s House cured Lamb Bacon. It’s hands down one of the best morsels of charcuterie I’ve put in my mouth. Rumor has it he offers an Artisanal Meat Share. If you live in the Charleston area, I’d get in on that.

BBQ Shrimp and Grits from 82 Queen

The She Crab Soup at 82 Queen is definitely the best she crab soup ever ladled into in a bowl. But their Barbeque Shrimp and Grits will blow your mind with an explosion of sweet, smokey, tangy, and salty among both creaminess of the grits and the crunch of the bacon.

Okra and Shrimp Beignets at Hominy Grill

I hate to leave Charleston without a stop at Hominy Grill. Luckily, our flight was delayed yesterday leaving some extra time for a quick lunch before we came home. Though Robert Stehling’s shrimp & grits is a fan favorite, I must say that my favorite snack of the many we ordered was the okra and shrimp beignets. They’re outstanding. As was the pimento cheese platter with pickled okra, country ham, and pickled eggs. And being with Elissa as she tried both boiled peanuts and sweet tea for the first time was an event in itself.

New Favorites

Pimento Cheese & Housemade Sausage from Jim 'N Nicks

A trip to the South isn’t complete without pimento cheese. And I made sure the trip was more than complete by eating pimento cheese every day I was in town. As I mentioned before, the pimento cheese at Hominy Grill was tasty, but the pimento cheese from Jim ‘N Nicks is amazing – especially when topped with a slice of their house smoked sausage and some jalepeno slices.

My only regret is that I didn’t have a chance to enjoy a meal by Mike Lata, 2009 winner of the James Beard Best Chef Southeast Award. Though I was able to enjoy many a cocktail at Lata’s restaurant, Fig, at the unofficial festival after party on Saturday night. The bourbon and champagne were flowing. A trip through the kitchen into the back-yard put me in front of a gigantic roasted pig and in the ompany of Matt and Ted Lee, some of my favorite Charleston chefs, a number of familiar faces from NYC, and Carla Hall, who is just as awesome in person as she is on Top Chef.

FRIED. CHICKEN. SKINS. from Husk

Saturday’s fun turned into Sunday’s hangover – a plight that was easily cured by my first trip to Husk. Three words – Fried. Chicken. Skins. Oh my lord, they’re good – especially when dipped into the accompanying bowl of hot sauce and honey. The spicy Bloody Mary served with a pickled dill pickle and a slice of shaved country ham helped as well. As did the bowl of Black Pepper Biscuits with Sausage Gravy and a steaming serving of the best butter grits I’ve ever tasted.

Husk has been called the most important restaurant in southern cooking. Now I know why. I blown away by Sean Brock’s food, but I was most excited about what he’s doing for southern cuisine, ingredients, and dishes. Everything that’s used in the kitchen is a product of the south – even the salt and the olive oil – taking the term local to a new level.

Later on Sunday afternoon I bumped into him at a party, telling him I appreciated all he’s doing for southern food. His response, “Well, I appreciate all that southern food has done for me.”

Favorite way to spend a Sunday

Low Country Boil courtesy of the lovely Soa Davies and Jeremie Kittridge

After leaving Husk we wandered over to a dinner social hosted by my friends Angie, Soa and Jeremie. They’d rented an old Charleston house on Broad St and invited in town chefs, out of town chefs, local foodies and writers, and our motley crew from NYC for a lazy after noon involving two porches, a dozen rocking chairs, mint juleps, and a table piled high with the goods from a low country boil.

It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

The South Beach Wine & Food Festival could not have come at a better time. Exhausted from the past few months and what seems like an endless bought of freezing cold in NY, I have never been so excited for a weekend away – especially a weekend that involved friends, sun, food, and lots of wine.

The days were a good balance of business meetings and pool time lounging; the nights were filled with parties, festival events, and more parties. As I slowly recover from the weekend, I wish that there were more pictures to remind me of all of the fun we had. But it’s hard to take pictures when you’re constantly managing a plate in one hand and a drink in the other. So we’re just going to have to settle for a top five list of favorites from the weekend.

Sadly in it’s last year at the festival, Bubble Q perfectly combines barbeque and champagne, two of my favorite food groups, not often served together. It’s a match made in South Beach. And an event I will miss next year!

Jonathan Waxman, Rick Bayless, and Michael Symon served the best bites (according to me), but to be fair, I didn’t have a chance to make it through the second half of the venue. As you can see from the crowd, it was a packed house. So instead of fighting the crowd for more snacks, I stuck close to the champagne bar!

Let them Eat Cake. Let them throw a party on the top of a parking garage. Let them hang from the rafters. Let men carve giant blocks of ice into sculptures with chain saws. That’s how Lee Schrager celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the SOBE WFF. It was amazing.

The who’s who of the food world gathered together to celebrate the occasion. Rubbing elbows with celebrity chefs is always fun – well, until Wylie Dufresne asks for a restraining order. I kid…I hope.

As if the cake and dancers and liberally flowing champagne wasn’t enough, they passed out Shake Shack burgers at the end of the night. This means I started and ended my day eating Shake Shack. (Full disclosure: I’d had the Shark Attack Concrete that morning for breakfast.)

photo by Tracy A. Block (@TRAYdaDIVA)

The Best Thing I Ever Ate at the Beach was one of the most fun events of the weekend. I wasn’t blown away by the food AND I was starving, but I kept running into familiar faces from NYC which always makes me feel like I’m filming something on location. (Remember when Saved by the Bell would go to Hawaii?)

Because a selection of chefs and food personalities were offering their picks for, well, the best thing they’ve ever eaten at the beach, I was expecting to leave fat and happy. But there was one shining star. Daniel Boulud and Hedy Goldsmith’s selections of Croque Monsieurs were not only the best bites there, but the Croque Italienne – a little brioche square with cheese and truffles, stuffed with a soft boiled quail egg – was hands down one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my life.

The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas After Party by Bullfrog and Baum was my favorite party of the weekend. After leaving the Best Thing I Ever Ate still wanting to eat, I couldn’t have been in a more perfect place. After stepping of the elevator onto the roof of the Geary building, I was handed a cocktail and offered a piece of Blue Ribbon fried chicken. Six steps later, I stumbled upon the raw bar where I found myself parked for half of the night. The music, crowd, and vibe at this party was even better than the food.

Those red drinks (Beets & Tequila) were soooo tasty!

After the party is the after party: As if seven hours of food and partying wasn’t enough, every night there’s always an “after party, after party” to continue the fun until the very wee hours of the morning. The guest list is scaled down –allowing chefs, talent, and food execs to relax and cut loose and making entry into this party the hottest ticket in town. Most people wanted in to hang with the chefs. I was just happy to hang out near the bar with close access to the beet cocktails. They were the best drinks I’ve sipped in months.

Oh, and if you’re ever throwing an after-party, after-party – do not forget to put the gals from the Food Network/Cooking Channel on your guest list. They make the party. Don’t believe me? Just ask Bobby Flay how much fun he had getting down in their conga line.

Thanks to KitchenAid, Cooking Channel, Bullfrog & Baum, and my awesome friends Jessica, Lock, Lindsey, John, and Kristin for making this great weekend possible!  Thanks to Kate Krader who always seems like my biggest cheerleader, Anne Burrell for stories that will continue making me laugh out loud, and Aarti Sequeira and Brendan McNamara for being two of the most down to earth and awesome people I’ve ever met! And I can’t forgot to thank Lee Schrager and Devin Padgett for all of their ridiculously hard work that goes into pulling the whole thing off.