Chefs’ Showca se
The Historic Fort Harrison
By Margaret Word Burnside and Aaron R. Fodiman
Photography by Noraa
The pork entrée was prepared three ways by Chef Barry Reid of the Historic Fort Harrison
and was served with curry celery root and fennel honey salad.
172 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | JULY/AUGUST 2017
CUAISRITNE
This fifth annual Chefs’ Showcase
dinner featured six courses
paired with four wines and two
cocktails that were selected by
the Historic Fort Harrison’s sommelier
Luca Biancolini. Proceeds from the sale
of dinner tickets were donated by the
Historic Fort Harrison to the Clearwater
Community Volunteers and the Children’s
Home Network of Tampa, previously
known as the Children’s Home, which
has worked for 125 years to improve
the lives of children in the Tampa Bay
area. The dinner was held in the Crystal
Ballroom on the 10th floor of the vintage
hotel featuring tables decorated with
bouquets of peonies, roses and twinkling
lights. The Amuse Bouche of this fairy talethemed
benefit was prepared by Barry
Reid, the Fort Harrison’s chef, to reflect
the legend of why the fish sole has its
mouth on the side. This smoked herring
with whisky caviar dish was paired with
a La Fee Verte (The Green Fairy) cocktail
with an absinthe base.
and braised pork cheek with pickled apple
and fennel honey salad. The Prisoner 2014
wine from Napa that was served with
this dish was smooth and luscious to the
mouth and blended well with the various
flavors of the pork.
Dessert was created by Chefs Bill
Brown and Tim Brown of William Dean
Chocolates. The complex platters featured
an “Enchanted Apple” that was made
of mousse, panna cotta “stones,” fruit
gnocchi, sherbet and a chocolate “branch.”
It was paired with a Brachetto d’Acqui
DOCG, Denominazione di Origine Controllata
e Garantita, the highest classification for
Italian wines. The meal ended with a Sleep
Cycle Cocktail created by Luca Biancolini
to complement the cheese plate designed
by Chef Richard Bottini of the Children’s
Home Network. The plate included Leyden
cheese, honeyed walnuts, roasted turnips
and dried fruit gastrique.
We are looking forward to returning
to the Fort Harrison for 2018’s Chefs’
Showcase. 9
This warmed up the guests up for
an appetizer from Chef Jason Lutzk of
Café Ponte, who prepared sashimi tuna
with mustard pearls, Scotch bonnet aioli,
pineapple basil and emerald oil that was
well-suited for the accompanying Chandon
Rose’s sparkling wine.
The salad, created by Chef Sean Ragan
of the Wyndham Grand Resort, was a
combination of baby beets and Cypress
Grove Purple Haze Goat Cheese with
lemon tarragon vinaigrette. It was
accentuated by a glass of 2015 Conundrum
with a hint of blackberry liqueur that was
added to it to further enhance the flavors
of the other ingredients in the dish.
Chef Kevin Meier of the Fort Harrison
used the opera The Magic Flute to inspire
him for the Intermezzo, which was a
champagne flute with a raspberry, covered
with lemon champagne sorbet and topped
with cotton candy.
The entrée chosen by Chef Barry Reid
was an homage to the Three Little Pigs with
a sous vide pork chop, smoked pork belly