Another Day in Paradise - Chef John's news from the edge!

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. We are finally experiencing some real weather with the promise of some snow later today. However it has been a very dry winter so far.

Here are a few photos of this week’s special menu that I have been running in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

The Killer Vegetable Plate, with the Romesco cauliflower from McClendon’s looks really nice. There is a photo of the Wild platter, the Sturgeon with Moro Blood oranges and the Lobster Raviolis with Maine Lobster meat and organic asparagus. Click here for full version of our special menus.

I will be publishing the Easter and Mothers Day menus towards the end of this month. These special days will be upon us soon.  

On the 28^th and 29^th of this month I will be at the Shamrock food show in Phoenix to see what they have been able to do with “local food”. They are making an attempt to source more produce in state. This is a good move for all of us. Especially the farmers. For years most of our produce here has been coming from out of state, lots of it from Mexico. Those of us that are Slow Food members have been trying to encourage this kind of buying for years. Well, that’s why it’s called “Slow Food”.

Just another day in paradise, news from the edge!

~  Chef John

I had a really nice visit to the Farmers Market in Phoenix this week. Picked up some delicious produce. Salad greens, Tuscan kale, arugula, edible calendula flowers,   Cheddar cauliflower, purple cauliflower as well as the unique Romanesco variety. Meyer lemons, Moro blood oranges, cosmic carrots and lots more. Fresh basil, tarragon, mint and sage.

Great to see Bob, Sean and Kate McClendon. Kate took some photos of the three of us. It was also nice to see some of our loyal customers at the market. We hope to see you in Winslow soon.

All of this will be on the Valentines Week Menus.  Angels on horseback at the oysters wrapped in jalapeno bacon and served over arugula. Columbia River smoked salmon served with the asparagus that has been grilled, tossed in Meyer lemon vinaigrette that is served over the smoked salmon.

A lovely salad made with fresh Moro Blood Orange vinaigrette with beets, pomegranate seeds and petals from the calendulas.

We have the Fresh Columbia River White Sturgeon served over a slaw of fennel, carrot, Asian pear, snow peas and mild Japanese turnips tossed in a light broth of carrot juice and blood oranges.

I have a new Lamb dish that includes the roast leg seasoned with fresh mint and garlic, a grilled green chile lamb sausage all served with a sauté of brown tepary beans with winter squash, beets, Watermelon radish and baby green beans tossed in a lamb broth with mint and garlic.

The asparagus is served with Main Lobster Raviolis. Tarragon scented Lobster sauce.

Lots of chocolate dessert to finish off the meal.

This menu will run through next Thursday so if you miss Valentine’s Day you can still enjoy some of the special dishes.

The hotel is now adding the outside staircase for the east wing. This will allow for the completion of the last 4 rooms. Looks like we will have all of this ready by spring.

We are still awaiting our winter snow and rain, it was the Hopi Bean Dance today so that may trigger the weather gods to send us the moisture we need not only to help get the bean plants off to a good start but also our own gardens.

Till next time, stay off the edge and enjoy your days in paradise!

~ Chef John

No i am not in school! Working on learning how to blog and set up my social media information.

Stay in touch, lots of news, tips, photos and more on the way soon.I will keep you posted on my trip to McClendons this week.

Chef John

The Turquoise Room's entry into the the world of social Network has begun! Many thanks to those of you that have already visited the site. Please be patient with me over the weeks ahead as i will work on Facebook & Twitter posts into my life routine. I do not have a personal Facebook's nor Twitter's account so all of this is very new to me.

As many of you know the staffing has always been a challenged for us.One piece of good news is that the General Manager position has been taken. We are still in need of an assistant manager and a Chef DE Cuisine.

Well Valentines Day is just around the corner. We will be offering the same special specials along with the regular menu from Friday the 10th through the 16th. Many of our local guests work on the railroad so they cannot all be home on the 14th. This gives everyone an equal opportunity to celebrate this special day.