Food-o-File
On select Saturday nights for the past 16 months, an adventurous group of Austin diners has gathered in a chef's test kitchen to taste a cookbook in progress.
By Virginia B. Wood, Fri., Aug. 3, 2001
Appetizer Atlas Completed
On select Saturday nights for the past 16 months, an adventurous group of Austin diners has gathered in a chef's test kitchen to taste from a cookbook in progress. While membership in the Appetizer Atlas Dinner Club may have changed somewhat from week to week, the format has pretty much stayed the same. Guests would arrive at the home of chef/author Art Meyer carrying coolers packed with their libations of choice around 6pm on Saturday evening, and Meyer and his co-author, former chef and frequent Chronicle Cuisines contributor Mick Vann, would prepare and serve appetizer recipes from their forthcoming cookbook. The Appetizer Atlas: A World of Small Bites will be published by John Wiley & Sons for their professional chef series in the fall of 2002. In order to finance the research and recipe testing on their first collaboration, the intrepid authors came up with the idea of the dinner club. Guests would come to Meyer's home on Saturday nights, pay $50 to cover ingredient costs, and be served at least six appetizers from a different culinary region of the world every week. The trek began with Mexican botanas 16 months ago and culminated with appetizers from around the United States last Saturday night. It was my first time to attend, but the other 12 were regulars, mostly old friends of Mick's and Art's plus a couple who've become new friends through the dinners. Because the U.S. has so many diverse culinary regions, Saturday's menu consisted of 16 appetizers, plus dessert. They were served two to a course, requiring both patience and discipline on the part of the recipe testers. It wouldn't do to graze on the spicy Southwestern Chile con Queso or the creamy Smoked Bluefish Dip from Florida that were set out on the buffet when we arrived or ask for second servings of the tasty Chicken & Sausage File Gumbo or the Smoked Trout, New Potatoes, and Leeks on Arugula in the tangy champagne vinaigrette, no matter how delicious they were. By the time the third set of plates arrived, laden with buttery Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes and Apple Potato Pancakes with Nova Scotia Lox and crème fraîche, we had settled into serious testing mode. We zipped through the buffalo wings (the original recipe from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY) and the Midwestern Runzas, little beef-and-cheese turnovers. We made short work of Maple Glazed Baby Back Riblets with a side of Scallion and Cheese Spoon Bread, the Southern cornmeal soufflé. We were beginning to slow down as slices of New Orleans muffaletta pizzas paired with grilled grape leaves stuffed with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes arrived, from where else but California. There was a fair amount of stretching and walking around the room before we could move on to Pork Sopapillas in pools of New Mexico red chile sauce and crisp beer-battered catfish nuggets with a tangy Tartar sauce for dipping. Though they were every bit as inviting as the first courses, serious effort was required to address the final plates filled with Louisiana crawfish pie and the Montana specialty, venison meatballs in a sauce of spiced wild gooseberries. And though in our hearts we were still willing, we could only nibble at the Potato Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches, a delicacy we'd have gladly devoured on any other occasion. We said our goodbyes and acknowledged it had been a splendid feast, one we're not likely to ever forget. The authors have turned in their completed manuscript to the publisher and will be working with a photographer in the coming weeks to get color food shots for the cookbook. Look for The Appetizer Atlas: A World of Small Bites to be in bookstores in the fall of 2002.
