Dining Wright

Along with some of Chicago's top chefs,
Jim Boardman has been selected to cater
Dining at Frank Lloyd Wright homes
for the Preservation Trust benefit

glore house Boardman is a veteran caterer of Wright dinners, but he’s psyched about his first in a Usonian house because of the 1950s less-is-more aesthetic. “I’m basing my menu on that era,” he says, “but adding contemporary American twists.” Passed hors d’oeuvres are mascarpone macaroni and cheese drizzled with truffle oil in a Parmesan cup, free-range curried chicken salad in cream puffs, and mini pot pies made with root vegetables from the Green City Market. Deviled eggs—quail eggs—show up in the composed salad, while Peer Smoke House bacon, from a Chicago smoke house dating to the 1800s, wraps the organic blue potatoes with braised beef short ribs. Boardman’s earthy Wright-inspired presentations range from Capriole Old Kentucky Tomme fondue in a bamboo cup on a quarry tile with walnut-raisin toast points and apple to Wisconsin Rushing Waters brook trout encased in cedar veneer tied with copper wire and served on a wooden plank. His dessert showcases two Chicago companies: warm Blommer’s bitter chocolate-pecan cookies and Black Dog rhubarb gelato topped with rhubarb compote and candied nasturtiums. Aubergine and copper linens continue the color scheme; period place settings include bowl-shaped Champagne glasses and hammer-handled silverware. “I get a kick out of doing this,” Boardman says, “the homes transport me to another time, and I don’t get to cook that much anymore.

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Vegetarian Mini Pot Pies

Ingredients (Makes 24)
¼ lb butter
2 oz flour
8 oz diced Vidalia onion (or red onion)
6 oz pealed diced carrot
6 oz pealed diced parsnip
6 oz pealed diced celery root
6 oz thawed frozen peas
1 T fresh minced thyme
2 T minced garlic
1 t salt
1 t black pepper
1 ¾ c chicken broth
2/3 c crème friache
1 egg whipped
2-12 section mini muffin pan
2 sheets puff pastry (17.3 oz package) thawed

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In large sauce pan, add 1⁄4 lb butter and 8 oz diced onion. Sautee on medium heat 8 minutes. Add 1 T fresh thyme, 2 T minced garlic. Sautee 2 minutes. Add 6 oz diced carrots, 6 oz diced parsnip, 6 oz diced celery root and 6 oz peas. Sautee 2 minutes. Add 2 oz four. Sautee 5 minutes. Add 1 3⁄4 c chicken broth. Simmer for 10 minutes. Then add 2/3 c crème fraiche, 1 t salt, 1 t pepper. Put to side.

Unfold puff pastry. Cut pastry into 24 pieces, 4x6. Line mini muffin pan. Press out dough with thumbs to come over the edge. Fill with 2 T pot pie mixture.

Take other sheet of puff pastry and cut in circles the diameter of your mini muffin pan inserts. Top each muffin insert with circle puff pastry when all muffin tins are filled.
Brush with whipped egg, lightly. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes prior to serving.