Featured
Woodford Salad — The Winter Edition
It’s sunshine on the plate, full of bright flavor!
Wallace Station Then and Now
Chris and Ouita Michel opened Wallace Station on Old Frankfort Pike in the summer of 2003. Referred to on maps as US Hwy. 1681 and by oldtimers as Shady Lane, Old Frankfort Pike is a national scenic byway. It’s a beautiful drive any time of the year but especially in the spring and summer as ancient trees embrace in the center of the roadway to cast a canopy of shade.
Salad for Ouita
Pamela Sexton wrote a poem called “Salad for Ouita.” It’s an ode to salads, a lyrical recipe. Chef Ouita built a salad with her mother’s poem as a guide and the contents of Holly Hill’s refrigerator as an inspiration. Where will Pam’s poem take you; what will go in your salad bowl?
Living Our Salad Days
Maggie Dungan grows fresh produce on her Salad Days Farm in rural Woodford County. We cherish her green lettuces in the dark days of winter and celebrate living our salad days all year round.
Penny’s Pumpkin Seed Vinaigrette
One of Chef Ouita’s family salad traditions included her mom’s pumpkin seed vinaigrette. Pam, or Penny as was her childhood nickname, made it every week and kept a small jar of it in the fridge. Enjoy Ouita’s secret tribute to her mom on any lettuce or cabbage salad, or as a dip with crudite!
The Incomparable Agnes
Chef Agnes Teresa Marrero Rosa infuses the warmth and spirit of her native Puerto Rico into everything Smithtown Seafood serves. Chef Agnes melds Puerto Rico’s sensuous tropical flavors with Kentucky Proud ingredients. “Every week, I try to put that on the menu in my specials. That’s my inspiration. My cuisine and the Caribbean and all that. I grab it with all my heart.”
Foraging Fools
Forager Storey Slone explores a local wildlife area with us, looking for edible wild plants and fungi. Along the way, she shows us that collecting and preparing wild-harvested products is a labor of love. A connection to the natural world and a reminder to be thankful for those things that are often invisible and yet bountiful in our daily lives.
Earth Apples and Shrooms
The beauty of this dish is that you can make it with whatever is fresh and in season locally; this is what we recently found at the Lexington Farmers Market. Measure with your heart and based on your audience. Cooking for yourself? Maybe two potatoes, a handful of mushrooms and a fried local egg on top for a great meal. Cooking for a group? Go for a couple pounds of potatoes, more mushrooms and serve it as a side!
Treasure Hunt
Ray Papka has been foraging since he was a kid on a paper route in Thermopolis, Wyoming. But instead of food, he searches for discarded objects, found around us everyday, that contain inherent beauty or the promise of an idea. Then he turns those objects into vividly imagined and intricately composed pieces of art.
Dreaming Up a Restaurant
Chef Ouita Michel dreamed of a restaurant. Inspired by culinary icons like Julia Child and Madeleine Kamman, and the intersection of Old World traditions and Southern cuisine, she aimed to open a slow and one-of-a-kind place in a world of fast and casual eating. A restaurant that would celebrate history, agriculture, family, poetry and art and be an expression of Kentucky.
Lisa’s Étouffée
Former Holly Hill Inn sous chef Lisa Laufer loved New Orleans. Countless cooks in our kitchen learned techniques and dishes at her side but when it came to writing down actual recipes, she liked to keep some things to herself. That’s why we say our recipe for Étouffée was inspired by Lisa. Because we’re pretty sure we’ll never be able to duplicate the secret ingredient she added to every dish ~ her own ineffable touch.
Homecoming
Wendell Berry said “it all turns on affection.” For people, creatures, place and planet. Learn how The Berry Center and Our Home Place Meat bring to life this timeless advice from Kentucky’s leading philosopher, poet, and protector of our land.
The Art of the Menu
Writing a menu is an art form; take a peek behind the curtain at the creative process used by our renowned culinary team
Peyton Had a Little Lamb
Fruits and vegetables usually get all the local love but lots of Kentucky farmers raise livestock, too. Meet Peyton Zinner, one of Kentucky’s future farmers, and her lambs.
A Digest of Love
Love should sustain us all year ‘round. So we’ve compiled an arsenal of Cupid-worthy ammo to arm you in your own efforts at kitchen romance.
Buttermilk Chess Pie
The Imbolc festival (aka St. Brigid's Day celebration) was a significant agricultural event for Gaelic cultures. Marking the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox, it features milk and butter, along with lemon and eggs which signify the sun. And we bring them all together in our delicious Buttermilk Chess Pie!
Building Bridges and Bridging Divides
A trip to the Julietta Market turned into an expedition of discovery which led to new friendships and an artful apprecaition of the many ways in which we connect with one another.
Bundle of Joy
A quick and refreshing zero proof cocktail named after a rock climbing route in the Red River Gorge that Sean is looking forward to climbing! We highly recommend buying fresh citrus fruits and juicing them yourself. The rind and pith excrete oils and elevate the drink even more!
Room at the Table
Our new Afghan neighbors share their riches with us ~ stories of food and celebration and the sacred gift of hospitality. Because as they told us, “guests are friends of God.”
Qabuli Pulao
Qabuli Pulao is not a dish to be rushed. It’s not a difficult dish to make but multiple bowls and pots and pans will be used! It’s best made on a snowy weekend afternoon while sipping a leisurely cup of tea. Even better, play a little game of Barfi on a friend and have them make it for you!