foodwineclick

If you have a short attention span and just want the take away, here it is: Mark your calendar for 2013, the last weekend in August before Labor Day with “Hold for Madden’s Food & Wine Event”.  My wife, Julie, and I attended the 2012 event last weekend, and we had a great time.  Maybe we’ll see you there next year!

Madden’s Resort is on Gull Lake in Brainerd, Minnesota about 150 miles north of Minneapolis / St. Paul.  Madden’s is a classic Minnesota resort with several golf courses, Gull Lake, and a host of activities.  The food and wine event is an annual weekend where Madden’s chefs pull out all the stops, as well as guest chefs from a number of Twin Cities restaurants.  Several (non-Minnesota) wineries and Minnesota wine distributors collaborate to host dinners, wine tastings, and a variety of special food and/or wine related activities.

This was our first year to attend the event, but many people we spoke with have been coming up for it for several years.  A wine tasting friend of ours, Michelle, had told us of the event this spring.  She spoke highly of the weekend, so we decided to give it a try.

The event opens with a beach cookout on Friday night.  Saturday during the day there are a variety of seminars, followed by the signature food & wine chef’s dinner.  The final event is a nice brunch on Sunday with some special dishes courtesy of the chefs.

Note: click on a photo below to see the full size slide show.

Madden’s Resort: a Minnesota Classic

A perfect afternoon for the opening cookout – lakeside

I had to try at least a few bites of everything!

A beautiful sunset to complete the beachside dinner

Tea 101 Seminar with the Tea Source crew

Sugar sculpture in process. Amy and her assistant, Pat, created amazing things with their sugar molds and blowtorch.

Detail from the finished sugar centerpiece

Brian McElrath and his assistant chocolate maker Pete gave us an appreciation of what it takes to make fine chocolates.

So that’s how they fill just the outside of the molds!

Benefits of attending the B.T. McElrath chocolate seminar! TeaSource tea flavored ganache inside the buddha, gorgonzola flavored filling inside the ones with a walnut piece, caramel filling. There were more, but some of mine didn’t make it to the box.

Our first flight of wines and oysters. The surprise was that there was another flight on the back of the card. Wow!

Local Murphy-Goode reps and a virtual Joe Ready, Jr.

A nice lineup of Murphy-Goode wines. My favorite was the “All in Claret”.

Signature event: the Saturday evening wine dinner. Surprisingly, there was never any waiting for either food or wine.

The chef’s clearly had a friendly competition in progress

The Pazzaluna veal was my favorite dish of the evening. The chef recommended the Sauvignon Blanc as the best match. To my surprise, he was right; it was delightful!

The pork tenderloin with a sweet glaze and wild rice was another wine pairing surprise. The Moscato was perfect, better than the red alternative I tried.

Chef Rayan is from Jamaica and his dish was the most unique of the evening

Rayan’s chicken foot soup and beet drink. Despite the initial surprise, it was delicious.

Sunday brunch was a continuation of the friendly competition between chefs. This is Amy DeSantos’ bread pudding, with fresh fruit on the side.

The St. Paul Grill gave a whole new meaning to huevos rancheros. This was incredible!

Besides all the food & wine acitivities, golf was included. We played on Friday and Sunday. Julie played in the chef’s scramble 9 holes on Saturday morning.

Don’t forget the classic pleasures of summer at the lake in Minnesota!

Seminars:

• Tea 101 – Bill Waddington, owner of Tea Source
• Dessert and Sugar Sculpture – Amy DeSantos, Madden’s pastry chef
• Chocolate! – Brian McElrath of B.T. McElrath chocolates
• Oyster shucking and wine pairing – Jake Uttich from Oceannaire and Joe Toohey from St. Michelle Wine Estates
• Wine Tasting with Murphy-Goode winery representatives

The chef’s for the event included:

• Madden’s – Bob Schuld, Matias Latorre, Amy DeSanto, Mike Scofield, Rayan Reid
• St. Paul Grill – Lance Kappas
• Oceannaire – Jake Uttich
• Tria – Brian Bossert
• Enjoy! – Robert Hodges
• RJ’s – Ken Minder
• Pazzaluna – Seth Teiken & George Snyder

My final impressions: Madden’s did a wonderful job setting up and managing the event.  The event is well attended, but not so large that you would feel lost.  The seminars offered plenty of opportunity to interact with the leaders.  The food events themselves were very well done; I never waited in line beyond one or two people ahead of me.  Quality was uniformly high.  They never ran out of anything, and everyone was very pleasant and professional.   Well done!