Posts by Candace Nelson
Thyme well spent: Wheeling restaurant preps seasonal fall menu
What you see is a crisp, white menu embossed with the restaurant’s logo and dozens of dishes listing mouth-watering combinations of ingredients. What you don’t see is the chef’s countless hours of careful curation, meticulous editing of elements and the hundreds of recipes weeded out along the way to get to that point. For the…
Read MoreHart of the Kitchen: Clarksburg Chef Crosses Road with New Restaurant
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? At Hart Kitchen in Clarksburg, it’s the “Deviled Eggs of the Moment” first as an appetizer and then the “Oven Roasted Half Chicken with pan sauce, herbs, roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes” second as an entree. The deviled eggs, which are hard-boiled eggs that often have the…
Read MoreThis Chef is on the Money
Inside a vault, you might find bundles of cash, valuable heirloom jewelry or important legal documents. In Summersville, West Virginia, one particular bank vault contains fries and mussels in a garlic and white wine broth and a bone-in pork chop brined in cider and served with risotto, roasted Brussels sprouts and a smoked apple and…
Read MoreBon App-alachia: French Food and Wine Find Home in WV
White linens drape the tables, and champagne-filled flutes line the bar. Soft classical music plays in the background. The featured menu item of the day is escargot – cocoa and chamomile cure, plum compote, chamomile sauternes jelly and toasted brioche. But this isn’t Paris. Or Marseille. Or Nice. It is The French Goat in Lewisburg,…
Read MoreChristmas Cookies & Pizza: Stepping Stones for One Successful Morgantown Chef
“Some say, I got into cooking before I have any memory of it,” said Nate Meadows, executive chef at Bourbon Prime & Morgantown Event Center in Morgantown. “There is a particular photo of me standing on a stool in my Mother’s kitchen helping her make Christmas cookies. I couldn’t have even been 3 years old,…
Read MoreHot Tamale: Chef Brings Authentic Flavors to the Mountains
Authentic tamales in the capital city of West Virginia might seem like a far-off dream for many, but Amanda Ivy has brought them to reality. Some tamale variations Ivy has offered include: Salvadoran chicken; chicken mole; green chile pork; pork chile verde; ham, greens and black-eyed pea cornmeal; chorizo pastor; traditional pork tinga; chorizo chile;…
Read MoreMorgantown Chef Makes High-End Flavors Available to Everyone
What do you get when you cross a classic New England-style lobster roll with a West Virginia-style hot dog? A lobster dog. Handcrafted by Chef Chris McDonald at Von Blaze, the lobster dog is made with fresh lobster and shrimp sausage, napa cabbage slaw, brown butter mayo, and fingerling potato chips on a toasted New…
Read MoreDon’t Call It a Comeback: WV Chef Nourishes Community with Homemade Food
Italian food plays a large role in West Virginia’s culinary makeup – with red sauce, meatballs and pasta making frequent appearances on menus across the state. But, Chef Tim Urbanic takes those flavors to a different level. Urbanic, who operates Bop & Nana’s Bakery and Catering with wife Melody, is known for embracing his Italian-Appalachian…
Read MoreWanderlust Chef Returns to Roots in Appalachia
vag·a·bond /ˈvaɡəˌbänd/ noun a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job. For Matt Welsch, the word “vagabond” helps define his wandering spirit. When he began traveling the country via motorcycle, eating his way through cities and documenting his experiences, he dubbed himself “The Vagabond Chef.” And while Welsch has since…
Read MoreSpill the Tea: Appalachian Tea Is One of West Virginia’s Only Tea Rooms
When you think of a tea room, you might think of well-to-do women in pearls and large floppy hats sipping from antique china. But, there is much more to them than that. Tea rooms became popular in the 1900s when middle class women opened up a room in their home or garden for patrons to…
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