Page 12 - Leisure Living Spring 2016

Chef Jamie Simpson
Continued from page 11
addition to the Charleston Grill, those chefs were using its produce, too!
Chef’s Garden owner/farmer, Lee Jones offers a treasure chest of over 600 varieties of veg- etables grown specifically for chefs worldwide. A conference was offered, Jamie came to absorb all the information he could, and ended up staying a couple of months. Eventually, he was offered a job and the rest is history. “I fell in love with this magical place. We’re doing things that we once imagined,” Chef Jamie emphasizes.
Two and a half years later, Jamie oversees all Culinary Vegetable Institute projects. Jamie says, “We are always planting new (vegetables) for research and revisiting old ways of preservation.”
Special cooking classes and dining events are offered monthly. A recent showcase dinner highlighted the versatility of potatoes, artfully prepared and sculpted in deliciously, unique ways. Courses included loaded baked potato popcorn, aligot potato fondue, aerated vichys- soise with shallots and caviar, potato wrapped sturgeon and baked potato ice cream.
Chef Jamie views everyday as one of exploration, viewing sustainability as a way of life. Recently, he added 25 chickens, roaming free range with six horses and five pigs to provide food for the kitchen. Sixteen bee hives are now on the farm to help with blossom pollination, creating honey for his cooking and for selling. The hives produce 600 pounds of honey per year. Exhibiting his new passion, Jamie says, “There’s nothing better than cutting off a slice of honeycomb and tasting its true and honest flavor.”
All photos by -
Michelle Demuth-Bibb, The Chef ’s Garden
Garden Salad With Cucumber,
Celery and Cider Vinegar Granita
For the Cucumber, Celery and Cider Vinegar Granita
This is a no scrape necessary granita if you have a food processor with a grating attach- ment. If not, simply scrape it with a fork after freezing to create a very light, fluffy, savory gar- den granita. Set it and forget it. Come back to it when you’re ready to use it. A versatile addition to salads or even raw oysters.
Yield: approx 1 qt of Perfect Granita
8 oz English hothouse cucumbers, washed (approximately half cucumber)
5 oz Celery stalks, washed (approximately 1 1/2 stalks)
1/2 c filtered water
4 T Apple cider vinegar 2 T Honey
1/2 tsp Salt
Add all ingredients into your blender and puree on high until smooth (approx 25 seconds). Pour contents into a pyrex baking dish and cover. Freeze the dish until the juice is solid ice. If you have a food processor with a grating attachment, we like to pre-freeze the parts for the machine and grind the blocks of ice with the grating disk. If not, fork it! Gently scrape the granita evenly with a fork back and forth until you have a con- sistent, fluffy ice.
Save the other half of the cucumber for the salad. Slice the cucumber. Slice a few radishes, perhaps pickle some onions. Add to greens. Serve with Granita as the vinaigrette for a beautiful walk through the garden and finish with olive oil and coarse sea salt.
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12 |LeisureLiving Spring 2016
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