Meadowood's 12 Days of Christmas, Day Seven: Matthew Accarrino, SPQR
The Restaurant at Meadowood’s annual 12 Days of Christmas guest chef series is well underway. Here at Inside Scoop, we’re reviving our own tradition of individually tracking each night’s charity dinner — and the exploration of cuisine from the chefs from around the world, through their words and their food. You can check out past years here: 2012, 2011 and 2010. And catch up on this year’s prior dinners here.
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If you’ve ever peeked into SPQR during a weekday, when the restaurant is closed, you might see Matthew Accarrino and his crew extend out from their tiny kitchen confines into the dining room area to work on new culinary projects like drying persimmons and playing with new dishes.
So when Accarrino cooked dinner at the Restaurant at Meadowood on Saturday — the seventh night of the 12 Days of Christmas — he obviously got a chance to spread his wings a bit, given the Restaurant’s expansive kitchen and fine staff. And since the normal SPQR a la carte menu may have over 30 dishes, a tasting menu format also allows for some new opportunities.
“We’re a terribly focused bunch,” Accarrino says of his crew. “The ability to quiet the noise and have one menu [at Meadowood] makes a much more focused menu. It allows you to add in more steps … It allows us to embellish what we do. I’m not changing who I am, but it allows me to show a different side of who I am.”
So, for the Meadowood dinner, that mindset translated into dishes like a curry carrot sformato, or rubbing a scarlett runner bean miso onto abalone cooked in their own shells. He started growing those beans when Christopher Kostow called him about the dinner six months ago.
“There are a lot of sensibilities that Chris and I share in terms of work and product,” says Accarrino.
“All the dinners that I do with other chefs, there’s never a time I don’t get something out of it. That’s one of things I love the most. That collaboration is so fruitful.”
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Day Seven of the Twelve Days of Christmas
December 14, 2013
Horseradish bavarese seeds and grains roasted sunchoke salmon roe
Matthew Accarrino
Curry carrot sformato, carrot top “frittele,” coal roasted abalone, urchin, lime
Matthew Accarrino
Cod octopus sugo, potato, chicories
The Restaurant
Chestnut and veal lasagna, fontina, white truffle, mushroom, dried herbs
Matthew Accarrino
Polenta stuffed “faraona,” red things, black garlic, mulling spices
Matthew Accarrino
Caponata rubbed and smoked wild boar, pumpkin seed risotto
The Restaurant
Citrus, campari, basil
The Restaurant
Tira…mi…su
Matthew Accarrino
Nocino chocolate
The Restaurant
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Tuck Beckstoffer Wines
Semper
“Le Conquette” Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 2011
Semper
“Ulises” Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 2010
Semper
“Ellenbach Cineyard” Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2007
Mockingbird
“Green” Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2007
Mockingbird
“Red” Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2007
Previously
· Day One: Andy Ricker, Pok Pok (Portland)
· Day Two: Rodolfo Guzman, Boragó (Santiago)
· Day Three: Carlo Mirarchi, Roberta’s (Brooklyn)
· Day Four: Tim Cushman, O Ya (Boston)
· Day Five: Ashley Christensen, Poole’s (Raleigh)
· Day Six: David Chang, Momofuku (New York)