 Welcome to Portland Media Center member highlights. I'm Leslie McVane and I'm here at the University of Southern Maine With Dale Robin Goodman. How are you? Hi Leslie? It's so good to have you back this year. Welcome. Well here We are at Mardi Gras again. Fat Tuesday, and I'm getting fat. I mean the food is terrific Yeah, the 23rd annual so every yeah, isn't that something and so every year, you know the Chefs locally create something fabulous. Look at my empty plate everyone I have been you have you been trying different sides? I tried a beignet. Yeah, so this is not a fundraise This is an event put on every year by WMPG and I'm the development director there So as you can see hundreds of people come it's really been Become a real classic thing to do in midwinter Greater Portland and southern Maine everybody's here to taste great food and just fellowship and and the people come Streaming in the door. I was lucky to get in here early, you know yesterday My phone was ringing off the hook. Oh, tell me about the Cajun cooking challenge so so we have eight restaurants here today and Everybody who's going around the room has a ballot and they vote and then later on a team of students and Volunteers will count the ballots and the winner gets a beautiful trophy from WMPG Display in their restaurant. Who knows who'll win this year. It's a fun event It's just it's about community just like WMPG and just like Portland Media Center. Well, let's take a look around Okay All right, so here I am with you're not Uncle Billy Well, I Live vicariously in Uncle Billy's persona, okay? I tell the same old hackney jokes that he used to tell but he did pass away in 2002 But but you this is your business Uncle Billy's barbecue. Yeah, and you're in Portland We are soon to open on 166 Cumberland Avenue So here you are giving up on this taste of what's to come at your show place when it opens Yes, and tell me what you're serving. Well, we're gonna do the classic barbecue that we that we started doing in Maine first Before anybody did a live-fire cookery But I'm gonna throw a few things in I want some more seafood some little Nick clams pork belly and the deep-fried pork chops and Vegetarian stuff and you name it the collie greens. Tell me what you're serving today. Alright, so we concocted our jalapeno cheese bread I made 10 lobes of those big guys and then red beans and rice at my granddaughter Lydia Loranda's serving and Doing a great job. That's got everything but the kitchen sink in it But it's a real Paul Prudhomme type deal. Is it very spicy? Not terribly, but it's got a lot of flavor And the love of cooking all night. Well, thank you I know you're really busy and I appreciate this and good luck in the challenge here So now I'm with David Eisenstadt who is the Izzy. Hi Izzy. Hi. Oh, yeah, everybody knows your cheesecakes So tell me what you've got here today. You've got like three different kinds. Well today. Yeah, we've got some eggnog Got some classic plain. We've got some pumpkin And then later on we've got some marble and some chocolate. Yeah. Well, you're prepared to go the distance, aren't you? That's right. So do you do this every year? Yes, we've been doing this for quite a yeah, we try to do this every year So is cheesecake big at Mardi Gras? Yeah, people go crazy for it. Yeah, have you ever been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans? No, I really would love to go Yeah, it would be fun, wouldn't it? Oh, yeah, so how do you do usually? Oh, we go through hundreds of Samples. Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine because everyone loves your cheesecake. Yeah, so you've done this how many years? About 20, I think. Oh my goodness, and they've been doing it for 23. So you thought you might be one of the older older guard. I think so All right, now I'm with Ben Slattery from Whole Foods. Hi, Ben. Hi there So now you're in the meat department at Whole Foods, and this is not your first time doing this No, it's our third time being here actually and I hear that it was such a hit the first time you You just keep trying to come up with something more fascinating every year Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I mean it was a challenge Something we're really excited to do. It's nice to get out of the meat department sometimes You know get out here and connect with our customers in a different way. It gives you a chance to be creative as well Absolutely, that's something I really relish. I think people in food services have to be somewhat creative Or they wouldn't go into that line of work. Exactly. I mean it is sort of an art form You know, I mean the creative process is a lot like you know, like any any art And it's fun to see it come to fruition and people enjoying it. That's the main thing You know, that's what that's really why we're here, you know, so tell me what you have here Well, we have a Cajun red pepper stew We're topping that with some smoked andouille sausage that we make in the meat department And on top of that is some pickled celery with a little holy trinity cream right on top there Sounds good. I think it turned out pretty good From looking at the responses after people take a bite. I think it is good. It was a little bit of a risk I didn't try it until this morning. So you're a brave man, right? I didn't try everything all put together But you know, I was I was sampling along the way and it it turned out pretty nice Well, good luck to you. I'll get out of your way because you're busy. I am. Yeah, there's a lot of hungry people here. Bye Ben. Thanks a lot Anna, I'm with Anna from Abilene now and Abilene is a restaurant here in Portland in Portland Yeah, we're right at Woodford Corner at 539 doing Avenue right across from Big Sky Bakery That's the happening place out there. It's the happening spot right now. Yeah, definitely. We come in the go-to place So tell me about Abilene and why you decided to participate in this Mardi Gras event Well, my partner and I moved up here from New Orleans actually when we opened Abilene and So what we do there is Just a scratch made menu. We have a very small menu of just what we do best and We do dinner three nights a week and brunch three days a week. Oh, that sounds lovely Yeah, so with a real feel of New Orleans or Every once in a while every once in a while. There's a splash, but it as in New Orleans cooking There's a huge mix of all of our different influences So you definitely see a little bit of New Orleans in there. New Orleans is like a melting pot It is a melting pot. Yeah, and as our menu is. So you chose to do beignets today We did so tell me about why you made that decision and a little bit about your beignets Well We did cafe cafe au lait and beignets, which is a classic combination and it's I guess we chose to do it just to do something different I Pride myself on making an amazing gumbo and an amazing red beans. I was a chef in the French Quarter for some time You know what you're doing. I like to think I know what I'm doing, but There's some amazing food here and just figured we'd do something a little bit different a little bit lighter And it's you know, it's it's one of the things what people come to New Orleans that they're Line up for the vignette line up for the vignette. It's quite literally a quick question What brought you and your spicy feel of New Orleans to me? our family my partner and I decided to come up here to raise a family it was It New Orleans is so dear to my heart and will always be a little piece of home to me But when it was time for us to start thinking about the future We wanted to be here amongst the food scene and the ingredients and just the Local food flair. We are we are the biggest food city in the country very much is Well, we we will benefit from your choice to move here. Yes. Thank you Started this whole thing with one of your beneath be nice. Oh good. Good. Thank you and good luck. Thank you. Have a great day We have an amazing espresso and brown sugar glazed pork beignet With an outstanding maple bourbon sauce, but yet the most important information who brought it to you today That was wonderful Olivia So how many years have you been here for the for the Mardi Gras? Goodness gracious. I've been doing this for five years I was with the other company and came over to Sodexo and started with this one. All right So Sodexo was the big winner last year. We were a lot to live up to We've got it and plenty more of it. Well, what was your winner last year? Oh, Sir, what was our winner last year? Oh, it was the gumbo bites that we did. Oh, yes, the gumbo But I remember though. So what did you come up with this recipe? It was not mine It was Matthew Sanderson who's my executive chef who works right out of the kitchen here at you Really? And how long did take him to come up with this a couple of weeks? Yeah, so I is this something that you can find if you go to New Orleans or I think so Yeah, yeah, but he's put his own twist on his own twist on everything. Yeah with the maple bourbon sauce Perfect twist. Oh my gosh, and it I don't see anyone turning it turning it down Oh, no, they're coming from the other end of the building. They hear me all the way over there Well, good luck with this and it looks absolutely delicious All right. Well now I'm with Corey Reese from Lennies in Westbrook. Hi. How are you? I'm fine Corey. So We know Bill Umbel He's a friend of ours and you said he sent you here and said give them the best New Orleans Cajun you can do and what did you do? So I made a chicken and andouille sausage bread pudding So I take up I took almost gumbo and turned it into a bread pudding. I had some I've got a compass I thought it was absolutely wonderful Is it on the regular menu? It is not on the regular menu, but by the way, I know why everybody's liking it so much I might have to put it on there. I'm gonna send a fan left. Yeah So what did what you just? Came up with this. I just came up with it. Yeah. I have you been to New Orleans I've never been I would love to go but I have never been you need to go and take that with you All right, introduce it. It's fabulous get it on some of their menus down there Now is this the first time Lennies has participated? It is actually we've only been open on Saturday It would be open for two years So last year we were still kind of just working our way through getting there, you know But now I think we'll be here every year. I think you should bring this every year. I will I will I'm requesting Thank you. Yes. Thank you All right, so Bayside American Cafe How many years have you been here at the Mardi Gras competition here? Personally, this is my second year And I I made an a2fay that took me about three and a half days Maybe four days last year And it was so much fun and I just absolutely loved it. So I couldn't resist coming this year again So tell us what you made today. We've got a chicken pecante, which is a vinegar based soup So it's very tart. It's almost like a savory and sour soup some red beans and pulled chicken And then we have chili chocolate corn cakes. So it's our version of cornbread So we made cornbread into a pancake and then there's a chili chocolate swirl in the middle They look beautiful and I want I don't want to take you away from flipping them. Do you have any sort of connection to the Creole Cajun kind of world Yeah, personally no aside from just the love of cooking that style of food I love spice and heat I love three-dimensional flavors so that you get a little bit of spice at the beginning And then it comes back and you can feel it on the back of your tongue for a while And it just gets better and better layers of flavor that can happen with the creole style So now do you serve this at the restaurant? We do serve these corn cakes Well, I'm gonna let you continue with this. All right. Hopefully people will come by and eat up It's and good luck. We're stoked to be here. Thank you so much. Thank you So Jake, hi, you're with po-po-po boy and pickles. Yes, I am. Yeah, and I I like your t-shirt And I'm gonna turn around so everyone can see the back In napkins we trust I like that So tell me how many years has po-po boy and pickles been coming to this event coming to this This is my second year coming, but I think we've been here, uh, four or five years I think you've done very well. In fact, it looks like you've done very well You're ready to pack up and go home. Yeah, it's a little early, but there are a lot of people So what are you serving today? Red beans and rice. Is that one of your standard go-to recipes? It's uh, yeah, it's a pretty much a pillar for our menu Very hearty choice and I'm like some of the restaurants here today This is what you deal with the Cajun Creole food. Yes. Yep every single day. Yeah, I mean everything is all the time Yep, exactly. So to to be part of this is not unusual Nope, sort of just another event, you know Out here trying to get people some good food and you're you've been around for a long time and do you know Why the restaurant decided to open in portland? It's it's different in portland. Um, well, I think we opened in 2009 but um I don't know Cajun food is awesome. And it's yeah What doesn't necessarily need to stay down in the south bring out up State traditional up here, too I know my son-in-law is from the New Orleans baton rouge area And he wants to try poboy and pickles when he comes out Oh, I would definitely recommend it to sort of see how we do compared to uh, how it's done down there Yeah, and I'll I'll warn you soup. Yeah, yeah Prep definitely. Yeah, of course. Bye. Bye