What’s Happening at Chef’s Market

With July winding down, we’re getting ready to roll into August, but not before we finish off the month with a few more fabulous weddings! We’ll also be choosing another salad winner and serving up a fantastic feast at the restaurant this weekend. Get all of the details below!

Thursday, July 28th: We’re catering a plated dinner at Ocean Way Studios tonight and working with Destination Nashville to pull it all off. We’ve got a seriously delicious menu, including Pear & Pomegranate Salad, Bronzed Filet Mignon and Orange & Mango Panna Cotta…YUM!

Friday, July 29th: We’ll be announcing our newest Summer Salad Contest Winner and trust us it’s going to be sooo good! We don’t want to give away the winner’s name and recipe just yet, but follow us on Facebook and you’ll get all the inside info tomorrow!

Friday/Saturday July 29th/30th: Chef Kathy’s back from her vacation and she’s cooking up a Caribbean themed weekend menu for our customers…you can expect to see her famous black bean encrusted Sea Bass among other tasty entrées!

Saturday, July 30th: We have three weddings this weekend, including one at the Parthenon…such a unique, beautiful and distinctly Nashville wedding venue!

If you’re around this weekend be  sure to come by Chef’s Market for lunch, dinner or coffee & dessert. We’d love to see you!

Genna

Chef’s Market’s Staff’s Summer Food Favorites!

One of our favorite things about summertime is the amount of fresh from the garden fruits and veggies that are readily available. We love the warm, rich comfort foods of fall and winter but during the hot summer months, there’s nothing like ripe tomatoes and juicy watermelon to cool you off! So with this in mind, we asked the Chef’s Market Staff to share their favorite seasonal summer foods with our blog readers…here’s what they said!

Patty (Accountant/Office Manager): Lemon Icebox Pie

Courtney (Corporate Sales): Grilled Veggies, especially eggplant, and crisp, sweet watermelon

Jim (Owner): Macerated Peaches

photo via examiner.com

Amanda (Sous Chef): Fried Green Tomatoes

Debbie (Office Administration): Macaroni Tuna Salad served with Classic Potato Chips.

Cheryl (Owner): Vanilla Ice Cream topped with fresh sliced strawberries or peaches

And my personal favorite??? It’s a tie between Bruschetta and homemade Tomatillo Salsa. What’s your favorite summer food?!

Genna

Summer Salad Contest Winner #1 – Sicilian Pesto Bowtie Pasta Salad

Chef Kathy chose our first winner for our Summer Salad Contest last week and she picked the perfect recipe to kick off our competition! Suha Dabit submitted a Sicilian Pesto Bowtie Pasta that is absolutely fantastic! Read on for the recipe and a little inside info from Suha.

Here’s why Suha loves this salad in her own words:

I am overall a good cook (I think) but I get a lot of compliments about my baking skills & my salad skills.

I like to say that I created this salad about nine years ago along with my best friend Elli when we were bored, hungry and didn’t have any idea what we were going to eat. We pretty much just threw everything in the salad that her dad’s (who is a chef) kitchen had to offer.

We were so surprised it was eatable and so was her dad – he loved the salad and only suggested changing a couple of ingredients…ever since then, I make it whenever we are grilling out or are going to a get together and it’s always the talk of the party.

I moved from Germany to the states seven years ago and I guess what I love most about this salad, besides that it’s super delicious, is that it reminds me of my dear friend Elli and the great time I had with her the day we made the salad. I hope u enjoy it as much as I do!

Sicilian Pesto Bowtie Pasta

1 1/3 cup mini pasta farfalle

1 cup fresh mozzarella (the fresh small mozzarella balls work great)

1 cup cherry tomatoes

3/4 bag of arugula or baby spinach

3/4 cup Prosciutto

Dressing 

3/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tsp green pesto

4 tsp of balsamic vinegar

1 tsp of yellow mustard

1 tsp of honey

2 small pieces crushed garlic

Salt & pepper to taste

Decorate with fresh Parmesan  and 2/3 cup lightly roasted pine nuts

Serve with garlic bread

 A HUGE thanks to Suha for the delicious recipe, we’ve definitely been enjoying the salad at Chef’s Market! Remember, our salad contest is running through the end of summer so be sure to submit a recipe!

Genna

What’s Happening at Chef’s Market

It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the middle of July already and while the back to school coupons and advertising will be underway soon enough, we’re still enjoying the sunshine and sweet treats that summertime offers! Read on for a complete rundown of what we’re up to this summer and what we’ll be serving at Chef’s this weekend!

Grace Oromonde Weddings recently featured a fabulous Nashville wedding on their website that we provided the dessert bar for! Check out all the beautiful details right here!

Pretty summer inspired centerpiece from one of our past events!

Friday/Saturday July 15 &16th - This weekend we’ll be traveling south of the border so expect flavorful and delicious entrees! We’ll be serving Flank steak Adobo with a New Mexico BBQ sauce, Huachinango con salsa de mango (Red Snapper with mango couli, topped with a charred tropical fruit salsa), Grilled shrimp Papitas with a sweet summer corn and tomato relish,  Herb Crusted Prime Rib and Black Bean Soup…yum!

Friday, July 15th – We’ll be announcing the first winner of our ongoing summer salad contest! We’ll be rotating customer inspired salads throughout the rest of summer so be sure to send in your recipe! Winning customers will receive 2 dinner passes to Chef’s and will have their salad featured in our restaurant. For more info on the contest and how to enter click here.

Saturday/Sunday, July 16th & 17th – We’re looking forward to several weddings this weekend, can’t wait to see it all come together, look for recaps in the coming weeks!

How’s your summer been going?

Genna

Ingredients For a Sweet Southern Summer

It’s the perfect time to get a little creative with all those sweet drinks we sip on during the long hot months between June and September and with so many fresh ingredients available right now it’s easy to take traditional tea or lemonade and make it even tastier!

Cute beverage table we created for Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton's engagement party in June 2010

At Chef’s Market we’re constantly infusing lemonade, tea and ice water with different flavors for beverage stations at weddings and events and with the temperatures climbing this week we thought it would be a great day to fill you in on what we do and how you can make our refreshing drinks at home!

Lavender/Lemon Water: This super refreshing spin on ice water is perfect for hot summer days and beyond easy to make! Simply prepare a pouch for the lavender and lemon using a square of cheese cloth tied with a string and steep in water for 1 hour. Next, pour the flavored water over ice and serve. Garnish with lemon wheels and lavender.

Our famous Tango Mint Fruit Tea

Rosemary Peach Tea & Basil Mango Lemonade: Much like the flavored water, infusing tea and lemonade with flavor is all about steeping the herbs in the same water/sugar mixture that will be used to create the rest of the beverage.  After steeping for 1 hour continue to prepare tea/lemonade as you normally would.

Tango Mint Fruit Tea: This is by far our most popular drink at Chef’s Market. Both restaurant customers and our catering clients love it…I’m actually drinking a glass as I write this! The secret recipe was given to Jim by a close friend who had gotten it from his aunt,  Joann Tomlin, who owned ‘The Tea Room’ in Nashville for many years and also ran the tea room at Cheekwood. We feel so honored to carry on her recipe at Chef’s!

We love serving our homemade beverages in large apothecary jars like these. They make for a great beverage display and you can easily create cute ribbon signage to tie around each jar! Whether you infuse your drinks with fresh herbs or fruit be sure to also use them as a garnish for the finishing touch!

Have you ever tried doing this at home or are you planning on putting together a cute beverage table at your wedding reception? Let us know!

Genna

Summer Entertaining with Talk of the Town & Madison Creek Farms – Part Two

Yesterday we started off the recap of our Talk of the Town segment with plenty of pretty flowers and food shots…today you get to see the complete package!! We had so much fun putting this all together, a big thanks to Kathy Best of Front Porch Farms for loaning us her seriously gorgeous vintage plates and if you’re loving the Chiavari Bar Stools and summery golden chair ties be sure to contact Liberty Party Rental, they’re seriously awesome to work with!

Beautiful vintage plates from Kathy Best at Front Porch Farms!

Our ‘Beets & Greens’ salad featured during the segment

A great shot of the entire setup

Filming the segment at Madison Creek Farms

Have a happy Thursday and be sure to call or email us if you have any upcoming catering needs!

Ph (615) 851-2433

Email: catering@chefsmarket.com

Genna

*All photos taken by Mary Hagy*

Summer Entertaining with Talk of the Town & Madison Creek Farms – Part One

Last month we had the opportunity to create an outdoor summer tablescape for Talk of the Town and of course given the fact that we were teaming up with Madison Creek Farms we knew it was going to be gorgeous! The farm’s natural beauty had us immediately imagining a ‘dinner in the fields’ idea. Something, rustic,  chic, vintage and a little whimsical. We wanted to create the kind of setting that calls for lengthy dinners, good company and great food. Today we’re giving you a look at the food and flowers while tomorrow is all about the finished product and vintage touches, so be sure to stay tuned!

A sweet welcome sign from Peggy!

We created a family style dinner service with fresh salads and entrées that would be perfect for an outdoor dinner, like our Berry Berry Salad and roasted Pork Loin pictured above.

Beautiful farm flowers were a perfect touch to the look of the tablescape. A HUGE thanks to Peggy for creating all of the flower arrangements!

Check back tomorrow for part two on our set up at Madison Creek Farms along with a behind the scenes look at filming for Talk of the Town!

Genna

 *All photos taken by Mary Hagy*

Chef’s Market’s Customer Inspired Summer Salad Contest

There’s always that one recipe that makes it really feel like summer, maybe it’s a family favorite, a signature salad you’ve perfected over the years or one that’s just plain delicious…whatever that salad is for you we want to know!

It’s no secret that we love fresh salads at Chef’s Market and this summer we’re going on a quest to discover some new original recipes that we hope will turn into old favorites in no time! There’s just one catch…we need your help!! Interested?! Get all the details below!

We’re looking for customers to submit their favorite summer salad recipes to us via email for a chance to win two dinner passes to Chef’s Market and have their salad featured in our restaurant! Chef Kathy will choose the winning recipes and over the next two months we’ll rotate new customer inspired salads throughout our menu!

So, if you’ve got a summer salad recipe that you think will be a big hit at Chef’s email it to me at genna@chefsmarket.com. Include your name, contact information, recipe and a little inside info on why you love  the recipe you’re submitting to us. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Genna