The Nantucket Wine Festival is certainly about wine, but it is equally about the foods that pair with wine. Pi Pizza was there, with their organic dishes. Luminaries such as Todd English and Ian Just prepared dishes right before the eyes of eager visitors.

Pi Pizza

One of our favorite treats at each year's Nantucket Wine Festival is the delicious creations of Pi Pizza. We aren't alone - you can tell where the Pi Pizza oven is located by the lines that form there.

Run by Evan Marley, Pi Pizza is about natural and fresh ingredients. While other pizza places use meat filled with nitrates, Evan avoids MSG, Nitrates, and other impurities. Even his wheat is organically grown. The cheeses are organic as well, from Vermont.

The taste is the ultimate way to judge, and indeed, the flavors in Pi Pizza shine through with delicious splendor!

Ian Just - Les Zygomates

Ian Just is the chef at a famous wine restaurant in Boston, Les Zygomates.

He told us how the last time he was at the Nantucket Wine Festival, he'd seen cute bunnies hopping around. This gave him an idea - to make Rabbit with Gewurztraminer. He explained that "Rabbit is extremely lean - you have to add a little fat for flavor".

He took the loin and legs, butterflying the meat so it lay open in two halves. Then he cliced up red and yellow peppers, fennel and onions to stuff in its center. He folded the halves together again, wrapping bacon around the edge.

As he prepared the pan, he explained, "You want smoke from your oil - that means it's hot". As he dropped the bacon-wrapped rabbit into the pan, he added, "If it doesn't sing, it's not searing." This then went into a 450F oven, and was delicious!

We in fact made this dish with chicken a few nights later, and it was delicious!

Todd English - Olives

Todd English was one of the luminaries that we explicitly wanted to see - we made sure to get down into the cooking stage area ahead of time for this demonstration. Unfortunately, the Viking stovetop was smoking at cooking time! Todd joked "too bad I'm not Japanese - we could do sashimi," as helpers scurried to try to set up alternate cooking for him.

He was planning a polenta party - "All you got was a fork and a glass". Polenta is a grain mush, sort of like farina or cream of wheat. The polenta would be spread down the top of a table (in this case on top of parchment paper) and then seafood and sauce would be laid down on top of it.

Todd gave us a background on his history. He grew up during the "cuisine" of the 70s - which was often just pop-tarts and TV dinners. When he tried to go to high school cooking class, he was the only male there. The first class was how to bake a cake - and the teacher pulled out a Duncan Hines cake mix. He quit the class and went out to work for restaurants to learn as he went.

He was thrilled to discover the Culinary Institute of America, where he really learned how to cook. He worked under a French Chef who "taught pretty much through intimidation - he would scream and yell at you until you were mush". He loved it, though - "French cooking is the ballet of dance".

With new gas ranges set up for his cooking, he launched into his seafood topping. Todd pulled out a massive monk fish, with sharp jaws. He explained that a fresh fish shouldn't smell "fishy". He explained that sauteeing means literally "to jump in the pan" - the pan should be so hot that food jumps when put into it.

Todd explained that in Italy, polenta is poor man's food - cornmeal and water. His uncle laughed to see that half of Todd's upscale Boston menu had these dishes on it.

Soon Todd was spreading out the food on the parchment, explaining "cooking is really about buildling layers and flavors". Even when it looked delicious, he wasn't satisfied. "I'm a chef, I can't leave well enough alone - I have to make things fancier," he said as he poured saffron cream on top of the polenta.

The audience enthusiastically appreciated this touch, and we heartily dug in once the dish was prepared!

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