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Being from Birmingham, Alabama, my soul felt at home at the most recent Etowah Collective Dinner, where the theme was “Southern artifacts” with a twist. 

Etowah, led by Bar Limina’s Josh Conley, held its 14th chef-driven dinner Saturday, May 16, at Ugly Art Co. The dinners, started by Conley and local chef Cole Jeanes, are held quarterly and staged in special locations, such as an artist’s studio on South Main Street or The Ravine on Madison Avenue. 

The overall idea of the series was to bring chefs from all over the country to Memphis. But it was Jeanes, the owner of Kinfolk and co-owner of Hard Times Deli, who was the chef for the first Etowah dinner in 2022 as well as the most recent one. 

This time around, Jeanes was joined by “friends” such as Hard Times co-owner Harrison Downing and Kai Molica, who works at Chez Philippe. They made five courses of Southern classics using Japanese cooking methods and occasional French influences. 

All of the courses were paired with a wine chosen by Charlie Purpera from Rootstock Wine Merchants.

The first course was a biscuit and gravy, a breakfast classic in the South. Biscuits are also a Jeanes’ specialty and a Kinfolk staple.

The dinner’s biscuit was doused in pink peppercorn gravy. Inside the light, airy biscuit was spicy deer sausage, mirin (a Japanese cooking wine), Piave DOP Vecchio Riserva (an aged Italian cheese) and roasted strawberry jam. The biscuit was topped with both balsamic powder and bay powder. 

The jam was a nice, sweet surprise, and the other fancy ingredients paired together nicely, especially with the nuttiness of the cheese. I could have eaten about three more biscuits. 

Cole Jeanes served kabayaki-style catfish on tarragon butter grits for Etowah Collective Dinner. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian)

The next course was fish and grits. The fish was catfish, another nostalgic choice. 

I have actually been craving catfish, which I usually love fried and doused in lemon juice. But for this catfish, Jeanes used a Japanese cooking style called kabayaki, which produces a smoky, barbecue flavor, using wildflower honey and barrel-aged shoyu soy sauce. 

The barbecue taste was unexpected, but I didn’t mind it one bit, especially over the oh-so-yummy tarragon butter grits. 

The fish and grits were doused in green tomato consommé and pepper vinegar, which I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. I almost licked my plate, which, granted, I almost did for every course.

But not the next one, because it was a bit spicy for me. 

Jeanes made a duck popper, which was a twist on the jalapeno popper. He stuffed a poblano pepper with duck sausage, covered it with velouté, one of the French mother sauces, and set it on a duck sauce base, all topped with a slice of country ham.

For the Etowah Collective Dinner, Cole Jeanes prepared braised beef between two slices of bread. (Courtesy Mary Gunning)

My favorite savory course of the night was “Mom’s Roast.”

Jeanes’ take on pot roast, which was a weekly dish on both his and my childhood menus, was spectacular. The braised beef, from Como, Mississippi’s Home Place Pastures, was soft and tender, sandwiched with a mushroom-gravy croquette, a tart plum tonkatsu and Kewpie Comeback sauce between two slices of light and airy white bread. 

But it was the dessert that I am still dreaming about. 

For dessert for the Etowah Collective Dinner, Cole Jeanes made madeleines with cornbread sat atop buttermilk, honeysuckle-whipped cream. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian)

Two madeleines made with cornbread and sweet-tea-soaked dates and topped with a toffee-and-bourbon sauce, sat atop buttermilk, honeysuckle-whipped cream. 

So good. I’ll definitely be keeping the next one, with Chaz Lindsay, the owner of Pulito Osteria in Jackson, Mississippi, on my calendar.

This week in food news

The remade No Comment now has a half-wall separating the bar and tables from the banquette seating. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian)

Gracie Driver headed over to Wild Beet Salad Co. in Midtown for a less-than-$15 “Steakhouse” salad, which comes with tender black pepper steak, crisp romaine, tomatoes, fried onions and blue cheese — though she subbed the blue cheese for goat cheese and added avocado. 

No Comment is in the middle of changing from a wine bar to a restaurant. I spoke with co-owner Paul Gilliam, Chef Mustafa Shirazee and sommelier Walker Loggins about the changes. Those include a new menu, which will be part Indian-Italian and part seasonal and will launch in early June. The interior changes, which take it from ’80s mall to sultry ’80s, are almost complete.

Local chefs and restaurateurs Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman will officially open their newest restaurant, Josephine Estelle, in early June. The Italian-American restaurant, which is their first new restaurant in six years, is located inside The Standard Germantown.

Co-owner Michael Hudman sets a table at Josephine Estelle. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

I also spoke to the founder of Dr. Bean’s Coffee & Tea, who is actually a doctor with the last name Bean. Dr. Albert Bean told me how he came to lead a double life as an emergency room physician and the owner of a small-batch specialty coffee roaster and cafe.

And I wrote about The Melting Pot returning to Memphis after 12 years away in my Food Files column. Also in that same column, Zio Matto Gelato is opening a space in Nashville and The Lobbyist’s patio has reopened.

Jennifer Chandler shared the recipe for award-winning ribs by Heath Riles, whose team won the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest back-to-back. You don’t want to miss this recipe, which could lead to pats on the back at your next barbecue. 

The former Tsunami building in Cooper-Young is for sale. Andy Ashby spoke to chef and owner Ben Smith, who opened Tsunami in 1998 and bought the building from his former landlord a decade ago. He closed the restaurant in February. 

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