The Making of a Foodie

New Winery Terra Vox opens in Kansas City

On Valentine’s Day, twelve couples made their way 20 minutes northwest of downtown Kansas City, through the romantic rolling hills and fertile soil of the Missouri River Valley to the brand-new tasting room and production facility for Terra Vox, a new Missouri winery from Vox Vineyards.

The invitation came from winemaker Jerry Eisterhold, who sold tickets to a special wine-and-cheese tasting event that served as the official christening for the wines of Terra Vox, which means “Voice of the Land” in Latin.

It also served as a bit of a focus group for Eisterhold, one that allowed 24 people the opportunity to sample his wines, made from the more than 40 different American Heritage Grapes varietals that Eisterhold is currently growing.

“Our winemaking consultant from University of California, Davis, Clark Smith, said we had more grapes in the ground than Gallo,” Eisterhold told his guests with a chuckle. His plan over time is to thin the vines down to the dozen or so that thrive in his soil and produce the best wines for Terra Vox.

Eisterhold’s decision to grow American Heritage varietals was inspired by Thomas Volney Munson, the viticulturist credited with saving Europe’s traditional grape varieties from the late-1800s Phylloxera epidemic by grafting European varietals onto Missouri root stock, which was immune to the pest. 

The way Eisterhold sees it, Munson’s work is the philosophical foundation of Vox Vineyards. All the middle-American grapes that Munson discovered in Missouri are the same ones that Eisterhold is growing to make Terra Vox wines.

Although his new tasting room has bottles for sampling and purchase, Eisterhold admits his wines are still a work in progress. He knows he is just at the beginning of his journey.

“At Vox Vineyards, we are just embarking on our journey to discover the individual characteristics of our unusual American Heritage Grapes,” he says. “With each harvest, we learn new information about grape-growing and winemaking.” 

Also at the tasting was Sarah Hoffmann, owner/cheesemaker for Green Dirt Farm, who greeted guests warmly. Hoffmann had paired her sheep’s milk cheeses with the ten wines on offer so that one red and one white wine was offered with each of the five cheese courses.

It was during the tasting of Eisterhold’s favorite white wine, Hidalgo, and his peppery 2012 Norton, a red, that guests got a glimpse of where Eisterhold is in his wine-making journey. He admitted to the group of family and friends, “I left the Norton on the vines longer than anyone who makes a living at this would have.”

He is honest about the undertaking’s current limitations. He writes on his website, “This is more a missionary effort than a commercial one – we do not have a tasting room ‘staff’ per se, but would be happy to show you around and give you a taste, scheduled in between winery and grape growing work.”

The Terra Vox tasting room at Vox Vineyard is open by appointment only. To visit the vineyard, call (816) 425-3219 or email [email protected]. Tours will be offered to groups of 4-10 on the weekends, and are $10 per person, which includes a small tasting of three Vox wines.

They are also hosting two chef dinners out at their new tasting room in April. One is April 4th with Chef Ted Habiger from Room 39, and April 11th with Chef Michael Foust, The Farmhouse. Tickets can be purchased for these dinners through Brown Paper Tickets. 

Terra Vox Tasting Room at Vox Vineyards 19310 NW Farley Hampton Road, Suite #3, Kansas City, Missouri. http://www.voxvineyards.com

 

YUM, a Boutique Bakery, opens on West 39th Street

Pastry Chef An Beard Zebley has always had a fascination with the idealized version of the picture-perfect 1950s housewife, baking the day away in her state-of-the-art pink or turquoise kitchen.

Now she has opened a new bakery/showroom, YUM, a Boutique Bakery, that combines those two interest, offering treats just like Grandma used to make even as it sells the appliances she’d have used to make them.

Zebley, a 2008 graduate of the pastry and culinary program at  Johnson County Community College, realized her passion for mid-century kitchen kitsch when she began collecting appliances, plateware and utensils from the ‘50s and ‘60s and selling them under the name Magpie at Le Fou Flea, an antique mall in the West Bottoms.

When the owner of Le Fou Flea expressed interest in having coffee and pastries in the shop, Zebley offered to make cookies, cupcakes and candies. That was the beginning of Zebley’s second booth, and YUM, a Boutique Bakery was born.

Over the last year, Zebley has developed quite a following for her baked goods at Le Fou Flea. She’d begun catering for birthday parties, baby showers and holiday gatherings to make ends meet.

Then the owner of Metuka Pastra House, whose 39^th Street kitchen Zebley had been using, approached her, saying she was thinking about retiring. She asked if Zebley would purchase the bakery.

Zebley saw the possibilities immediately.

“I knew I could make it into a space that could continue to serve as my commissary kitchen for Le Fou Flea, and as a stand-alone bakery servicing the people who lived in the area,” she says.

With sparkling chandeliers above, and a new coat of paint in a retro turquoise that makes the sheer pink curtains pop like cotton candy, you can see Zebley’s 1950’s fantasy kitchen coming to life even as she continues to work on the space, preparing for opening day.

“I plan to display my antique kitchen artifacts from Magpie in the bakery, and I will be selling them along with my pastries,” Zebley says.

YUM should be a good fit for its strip of 39^th Street. Just up the street are Retro Vixen and Rock Candy, clothing stores that specialize in new and vintage women’s clothes and accessories. In the opposite direction is Donna’s Dress Shop, a beloved local women’s boutique that also sells new and vintage clothing and accessories.  

The bakery will sell pastries and sweets using real butter, quality ingredients and seasonal flavors that will change each week. Coconut macarons are Zebley’s signature item – she makes traditional, strawberry and German chocolate – but she’ll also have fruit-filled hand pies, caramel-filled brownies, cakes, fruit tarts and cookies.

Zebley says, “I’ll have a lot more room to experiment with more types of pastries and flavors now that I have this kitchen all to myself.”

YUM will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 8am – 3pm with extended hours on Saturday.

YUM, a Boutique Bakery, 1614 W 39th Street, Kansas City, Missouri. www.yumkansascity.com

 

 

 

The corporate café is private, but Chef Kyle Williams’ food is top-notch

Talk to Kansas City native Kyle Williams for only a few minutes, and you’ll immediately pick up what he’s putting down. With the heart of a chef, the focus of a personal trainer and the mind of a nutritionist, his positive outlook on life and food will have you ready to climb a mountain. After that, committing to healthy eating seems like a snap.

For more than a year now, Williams has been working as the executive chef for Good Food Good Futures, which runs the corporate dining room for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Williams was brought in to re-work the existing corporate kitchen from a place where processed, pre-cooked frozen food was the norm into a kitchen where healthy food is prepared fresh daily using local ingredients. It has been a big challenge for Williams, but one for which he was trained and ready.

After graduating from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island with a degree in culinary nutrition, Williams worked for some of New York City’s top chefs: Todd English, David Burke, Daniel Boulud.

Those heady experiences made coming home to Kansas City a little bittersweet for Williams, who admits he is “beyond driven.”

His story is a familiar one. In New York City, the money was good, but the hours were crazy and the cost of living all too high. After his wife Hannah gave birth to their second child, the couple knew it was time to make their way home.

“For my wife and I, it is family first,” says Williams. “That made our decision to come home a very easy one.”

Last fall, Williams returned to New York to compete on the Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay.” Two chefs cooking with a secret ingredient are pitted against each other, and then a panel of celebrity chefs decide which one advances to compete against Bobby Flay. Williams lost his competition to Chef Jeremiah Bullfrog, but he still brought back his dish – secret ingredient: ricotta -- to make for Blue Cross and Blue Shield employees as a café special.

To Williams, being on TV was just another way to show BCBS employees that a real chef is in their corporate kitchen. Yes, it’s closed to the public, but the food being served could still go head-to-head with top “real” restaurant

Today the cafe at Blue Cross and Blue Shield runs much differently than before Williams’ arrival. Employees must now come downstairs to the kitchen and order their food directly from Williams and his team, instead of at kiosks on each floor. RIGHT?

“I want them to know that there is a chef in their kitchen cooking for them, and I am here to answer any questions about what is in each dish,” say Williams. “If they have a request, the answer is always ‘yes.’ If we can we will, because that is the core of what hospitality is all about.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield has between 600 to 800 employees in its downtown Kansas City office across the street from Union Station. The company has committed to helping employees make better food choices, by subsidizing 75 percent of the food cost for menu items designated as healthy. Typically, these are dishes that are under 550 calories, made with whole grains, lean meats and healthy starches like lentils and quinoa or brown rice. That means employees pay less for the healthier items on the menu, with most healthy entrees several dollars cheaper than those that do not meet the criteria.

Bucking current trends, menus are not designed for, say, those practicing the paleo diet or the Atkins. Says Williams, “We don’t offer specific meals to cater to specialty diets in the dining room. We just want to teach people to eat real food that powers their brain and their body to get them through their day without crashing at their desk after lunch, or craving a candy bar in the afternoon to get that boost of energy. Eating the right food at lunch can eliminate that 3pm crash.”

He adds, “There is some really terrible tasting healthy food out there, so my goal is to find a way to make healthy food, taste good, so my customers will want to order it in my dining room, and will enjoy the health and monetary benefits of doing so,” he says.

There have been some hits and misses on the menu, but Williams looks at them as mere bumps in the road to better eating. Not everything can be a hit.

“I cannot get them to embrace the texture and taste of buckwheat gluten-free pancakes for breakfast,” he says. “They just want those processed flour, light-colored, fluffy pancakes that they grew up eating. And who wouldn’t want those pancakes? They are delicious, but that is what I am up against.”

His South American take on steak and potatoes encountered no such problems.

“I use a grass-fed sirloin steak and make a delicious chimichurri from garlic, fresh herbs, chili peppers and EVOO and use it as a sauce to go on top of the steak, which I serve with oven-roasted rosemary potatoes, and the crowd goes wild,” Williams says, laughing.

It is not one of the subsidized healthy items, but he still keeps the calorie count in check through portion control.

“We have to offer a selection of healthy and not-so-healthy dishes or people will get bored,” says Williams. “But my goal is to make even the dishes that are not subsidized taste better by using local ingredients and by making everything we offer from scratch. Portion sizes are also key. That is another sneaky tool I use.”

“Just like chefs that own their own restaurants, I consider the employees at Blue Cross and Blue Shield my customers, but I do differ from restaurant chefs in that they get to deliver their food vision to the customer on their terms,” says Williams. “I look at it this way, this is the employees’ café, and I treat it as such. I want them to tell me what they want, and then it is my job is to figure out the healthiest way to give that to them.”

For all his passion for the job, Williams may return to a commercial kitchen sooner than not. He hopes to open his own restaurant in Kansas City in a few years.

“I want to contribute to the incredible food scene that Kansas City already has,” he says. “I am looking forward to having my own restaurant to support and be a part of our food community.”

 

Messenger Coffee Co. and Ibis Bakery to Partner on Café in the Crossroads

Two young Kansas City businesses, Messenger Coffee Co. and Ibis Bakery, plan to open in a new café in a shared space in the Crossroads district by year’s end.

Although the partners have not yet decided what to call the new venture, Ibis Bakery owner Chris Matsch says that Messenger Coffee Co. will take the second floor for roasting green coffee beans, while its coffee shop and café will operate with Ibis Bakery on the first floor.

“Just imagine how good it is going to smell in our new space,” Matsch said with a laugh.

The two companies began with one thing in common: a burning belief that they could make an excellent product simply by sourcing high-quality ingredients and doing the work themselves.

Another thing they have in common? Matt Matsch, who helped run the Black Dog Coffeehouse in Lenexa after his mother, Carole Matsch, purchased it in May 2013.

At the time, Matt’s brother Chris, a bread baker, had just returned from California with plans to open his own bakery. Thick slabs of homemade toast slathered with locally sourced almond butter and jelly have become a must-serve item in cafes in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Chris Matsch wanted to do the same at Black Dog Coffeehouse. So they opened Ibis Bakery next to the coffee shop, and delicious designer toast and a grab-and-go bread baking business was born.

The coffee side took a little more work to come together.

Black Dog bought and sold coffee from Benetti’s Coffee Experience in Raytown. That’s how the Matsch brothers were introduced to Nick Robertson, Benetti’s Quality Control and Bean Buyer. Robertson purchased the wholesale business from Benetti’s. Then, with Bennetti’s coffee roaster, Kiersten Perry and Matt Matsch, he formed a new entity: Messenger Coffee Co.

With shared entrepreneurial goals, and financing from their family, Messenger Coffee Co. and Ibis Bakery began discussing the ways they could grow their separate businesses together. The result was the purchase of a historic red brick building on the corner of 1624 Grand Boulevard in the Crossroads of Kansas City.

“It is our goal by the end of 2015 to have the doors open to our new café,” says Chris Matsch.

Both companies are thrilled by the possibilities. “We will be milling our own flour for our bread when we open our new space,” says Chris Matsch, “which I am very excited about, as we do not have the space or equipment to do that today.”

Although Ibis Bakery’s decadent toasts with locally sourced butters, honeys and jams are a big hit at Black Dog Coffeehouse and the farmers’ markets at Bad Seed, Brookside and Downtown Overland Park, Matsch is looking forward to offering more savory selections at the new Crossroads café.

Open-face tartines will feature a variety of locally sourced, seasonal toppings. They’ll also be able to laminate dough, leading to flaky crusts for croissants and other pastries. Matsch says, “Those are some of the things we have not been able to do before, but we will now, with our new space.”   

The Matsch family has big plans as it continues to grow its coffee empire in Kansas City. In addition to its financial stakes in Black Dog Coffeehouse, Messenger Coffee Co. and Ibis Bakery, as of late last year the family also purchased a controlling interest in the four local Filling Station coffee shops through its Messenger Coffee Co. partnership, creating a perfect pipeline for good coffee and great pastries in Kansas City.

 

CanIHaveABite Offers Real Food and Real Options with Grab-and-Go Meals

Watching Kathy Hale move around her Can I Have a Bite retail storefront and commercial kitchen, you might think she was performing on stage. With the grace of the dancer she used to be, she twirls around to grab a spoon for the soup, and then easily bends over to check the sweet potatoes roasting in the oven.

Hale named her 8-month-old grab-and-go clean-eating spot in the Waldo neighborhood after something her daughter Casey used to say. Casey would follow her around the kitchen, repeating the words like a mantra, running them together: canihaveabite? So that's exactly how Hale spells it.

Finding the store is a bit tricky. It’s located in a strip center between 75^th and 85^th Street, and you’ll need to maneuver yourself off Wornall and into a parking spot. Once you're there, though, you can’t miss the eye-popping lime green trim and orange lettering on her front window. It is as bright and colorful as Hale herself.

Even though she's changed careers several times, Hale’s first love has always been clean eating, which to her means healthy, organic food. She first started cooking to feed her three kids on a single mother’s income. She became a vegetarian not by choice, but necessity: vegetables and beans were much cheaper than meat.

“I knew I had to keep my kids interested in eating vegetables, and I didn’t want them to miss the meat, so I started reading cookbooks like 'The Vegetarian Epicure,' by Anna Thomas, which had wonderful recipes for all kinds of vegetables, and that is really how I learned to cook,” she says.

As a dancer, Hale was into health and fitness, which is how cookbooks like “Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit,” by famed 1970s nutritionist Adelle Davis, first came into her world.

Always ahead of the curve, Hale owned the Daily Bread, a vegetarian restaurant in 1991 in Kansas City. It jumped around to several different locations, and eventually closed in 1996.

But it was her most recent career as a Pilates instructor that brought Hale back into the world of food. Wanting to up their fitness level, she offered to cook for her Pilates clients the type of food that she was eating at home.

“I initially thought if they could just taste some of my dishes, it would inspire them to start buying organic and cooking at home,” says Hale.

“I did such a good job that my clients started sharing my meals with their friends, and that’s when they told me they just wanted me to just start cooking for them,” says Hale. “I became their fitness instructor and personal chef, all rolled into one.”

Walk into Can I Have a Bite and you'll be greeted by Hale, who is happy to walk you through the ever-changing, but always organic, dishes that she has ready-made for customers to take home and enjoy.

On the white board that serves as her menu, you may notice she has marked what items are vegan, vegetarian, paleo and real. What is real food? Simply, dishes with no dietary restrictions, made with organic and sustainable ingredients. This is how Hale says she likes to eat at home.

The menu then breaks down into about nine entrées, each $7.99, and four soups ($4.99 - $15.99). Both options are frozen and can go straight from freezer to oven or stovetop with no thaw time. Hale also offers four salads ($6.99) and four sides ($5.99), both refrigerated and ready to eat.

Looking at her menu, Hale starts mentioning her greatest hits.

“Chicken Enchiladas (real), Veggie Mac n’ Cheese (vegan) and Caribbean Chicken and Vegetables (Paleo) are the most popular entrees,” says Hale. 

Soups like Ginger Carrot (vegan) and Lemon Lentil (vegan) sound delicious and filling, and Hale says she simply cannot keep her Thai Slaw Salad (Paleo) in stock. No matter how much she makes, it always sells out.

Her side items right now are various types of vegan hummus. Photos of her Kale Walnut Hummus went viral the second she posted them to her social media channels.

“I love using kale, not because it is trendy, but because it really holds up in salads and gives great color to my sides,” says Hale.

Hale has been collaborating with many coffee shops in the area, but she is very excited to currently be working with Gathering Grounds Coffeehouse on 10^th Street in downtown KC, where she plans to start selling her Paleo and Vegan Lunch Pails. Each pail will come with one entrée and two sides, for $11.99 and $9.99.

“It is a way to get my good clean food into the hands of the downtown lunch crowd,” says Hale.

CanIHaveABite food can be ordered online from her website and picked up at her store. Hale also recommends just stopping by her store if you have any questions or special dietary needs. She knows her food and what goes in it, and would love to answer any questions you may have.

“I want people to eat,” says Hale, smiling, “and to stop counting calories, and start eating real food.”

Canihaveabite 8011 B Wornall, Kansas City, Missouri. 816.304.0057, www.canihaveabiteinc.com.