Tastemakers: Main Dish Kitchen - St. Julian B Brandy

Dec. 14, 2005

Main Dish Kitchen Cherry Pine Nut Pork
So why is Chef Pete Webster smiling? As corporate chef for Main Dish Kitchen (based in Holland, Mich.) he is the recipe master for the hottest new concept in family dining. Main Dish Kitchen (look for a feature next week by Mary Bevans Gillett) recently opened a franchise in Traverse City at the Cherryland Center on Garfield Road. The concept allows the consumer to prepare meals at Main Dish without the worry of shopping or making a mess in the kitchen.
There are several entrée options and a session lasts two hours in which 12 nutritious meals (enough to feed a family of four) are prepared. Menus change each month. So if you have a lot of entertaining to do this holiday season and not enough time to prepare meals give Main Dish a shot. In two hours you can get an elegant Christmas dinner and a New Year’s Eve dinner prepared plus 10 other meals to enjoy when needed.
Try the Cherry Pine Nut Pork for your holiday meal this year. The pork loin is enhanced with Michigan cherries and subtle sweet nutty flavors add to the elegance of this entrée. Pair this with a bottle of Shady Lane Cellars 2004 Pinot Noir. For New Year’s Eve serve Rosemary’s Ribs, these slow-cooked ribs slide off the bone and the rosemary BBQ sauce pairs perfectly with L. Mawby’s sparkling Red. To learn more about Main Dish
visit their website www.maindishkitchen.com or catch Mary’s article in next week’s Express.


St. Julian B Brandy
St. Julian (located in Paw Paw, near Kalamazoo) is Michigan’s oldest winery. Founded in 1921 by Italian immigrant Mariano Meconi, St. Julian was originally located in Windsor (America was experimenting with Prohibition in those days) and was known as Border City Wine Cellars. After Prohibition was repealed Meconi moved the winery in 1934 to Detroit and then to Paw Paw in 1936 to be closer to the Lake Michigan shoreline. He renamed the winery the Italian Wine Company. World War II brought anti-fascist sentiment, resulting in Meconi changing the name for a final time in 1941 to St. Julian (the patron saint of his hometown of Faleria, Italy).
Today the winery is owned and operated by Meconi’s grandson David Braganini, who has continued the pioneering traditions of his family. As Michigan’s largest winery (120,000 cases annually, nearly three times as much as the state’s second largest winery) St. Julian’s bread and butter wine is Blue Heron (nearing 40,000 cases sold in 2005), a semi-sweet white in a blue bottle with a screw cap (another Michigan first).
Braganini, along with his Executive Vice President of Operations Chas Catherman (St. Julian’s winemaker from 1974 to 2000) also have an appreciation for brandy. So in the mid-’90s the two began experimenting and
B (Braganini) & C (Catherman) Brandy was born. Distilled from Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Vidal Blanc grapes
B & C Brandy is 80 proof and aged six years. The result is one
of the smoothest and easiest sipping brandies on the market. The aroma is full of vanilla and butterscotch with hints of chocolate and black licorice woven in. Flavors and aromas will intensify with further aging in the bottle and for the maximum sipping enjoyment serve “on the rocks” or “neat” in a brandy snifter.
Try a Bragatini: pour 2 oz B Brandy and 1 oz Kettle One Vodka over crushed ice and wave the Dry Vermouth bottle over it, then shake and strain into a martini glass, garnish with a lemon, or a Cathemopolitan, same recipe as above plus a couple ounces of cranberry juice. Anyway you pour it B Brandy is a winner. Learn
more or purchase online at www.stjulian.com or visit your favorite purveyor of spirits. -- Rick Coates