RJ Cooper

So our new bar menu at Vidalia:

southern fried

rabbit “wings”

celery, blue cheese, frank’s red hot sauce 5.50

ceci peas

flash fried, african curry, cured olives 4.50

chicken livers

black pepper gravy, brioche 4.00

soft clams

field basil aioli, meyer lemon, garlic 6.50

potted and soused

pickled gulf shrimp

chilies, garlic, lemon rind 5.50

foie gras parfait

bourbon gelée, onion marmalade 8.50

olive oil poached tuna

roasted garlic paste, tomato jam 6.75

chicken leg rillette

mulberry mustard 5.50

county store

vidalia onion burger

bacon, smoked gouda, tomato, onions 14.50

picnic fried chicken legs

rj’s mother’s potato salad 12.00

Vidalia’s blt

fried duck egg, zippy mayonnaise 10.50

butcher’s board

house made cured meats, pates, terrines 17.50

pork shop

heritage pork rinds

lime-chili powder, smoked salt 4.00

pig tail croquette

strawberry-rhubarb mostarda, purslane 5.50

braised shoulder taco

cilantro, cabbage, guacamole 5.25

pig out flat bread

cured meats, vidalia onions, garlic 12.50

The burger is avalible at the bar for dinner only and in the dining room during lunch.

I change the bar menu today. The menu is on my face bool Vidalia restaurant. Its awesome!!!

Is the burger available both at lunch and dinner? Only at the bar?

Thank you for the kind words about the burger.

A little story about how the Vidalia burger came about:

I growing up in suburban Detroit, grew up eating sliders. Greene's hamburgers have been in business for 65 years on the corner of 10 mile and Orchard Lake road in Farmington, my grandmother has been living 3 blocks away from the joint (yeah joint old school white panels dive). I cannot see her until I have at least 3 burgers before venturing to here house. There blend is fine chuck and sirloin 3 oz patties on a grill next to julienne onions the flip the burger and but the right on top of the onions to infuse the onions right into the paddy.

I have a couple regulars that had bet me that I couldn't elevate these burgers to fit Vidalia. Well we use 45 day dried chuck and sirloin same grind and took the Vidalias and put them through out the bun and crisp them on top. House made catchup using toigo tomatoes. It has been a fun process that we cannot change because its damn good. If I ate 3 burgers a week I would be bigger then I am now!!!!!

Have fun this summer and great food.

So, Vidalia is going into the techie part of life. Ed has set up a Facebook page (dont know how this works yet) and I have started a Twitter (Tweeter whatever) thing which I dont know how it really works.

And this just in we are going to extend restaurant week until labor day weekend. Yes 13 solid days of restaurant week!!!!!!!!!!

I recieved this from a great farmer in Virginia. We need to help and act quickly:

I am sending this to you because there is a threat to Chapel Hill Farm, all small farmers and you as a consumer. You have a dog in this fight. So, you might want to Google HR 2749 and see what's up. In the unlikely event you want to read the bill itself, click this site:

www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-2749

Unfortunately, the agribusiness lobby has been busy again in conjunction with the FDA. There is a bill in congress designated HR 2749 which gives the FDA extraordinary powers and makes little distinction between small farmers, who present little danger to the food supply, and large agribusiness combines, which present great danger to the food supply.

You can click on the following three websites to get a flavor of the problem:

http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-4546-0-13-13--.html

http://www.ftcldf.org/docs/hr2749_talkingpoints.html

http://www.healthfreedom.net/

After all these years I'd expect people around here to follow Michael's orders a bit better. Lunch today at the bar there were just two random Dr.com'ers, enjoying what should be the worst kept secret in the city.

I started with a cold cucumber soup with nori, salmon tartar and a roe of some sort. This bowl rivaled any you will find at Palena or Corduroy. Next came the Vidalia crab cake with sweet corn-tasso maque choux, spring onions, crab roe butter. Dessert was one of the best creme brulees I have had in a long, long time with sorbet and peach. I usually avoid creme brulee because it can be a heavy dessert but this was light and delicious. All this in less than an hour for less than $20.

Like many today I am struggling to find a balance between living within a shrinking budget and fufilling my need for food that restores my hope in the world. Lunch today did just that.

Thank you for the kind words. Even with economy we still try and source the best products to produce for our guests. Its good to know that the team is doing well while im on vacation. The cucumber soup is an off shoot of a salad my mother made growing up. vidalias cucumbers sugar salt a champagne vinegar let stand 3 hours and puree with buttermilk and sheeps yogurt. Love it, the roe is smoked steelhead, the crackers are a squid ink melba.

For this part of the summer we wanted to reintroduce some classic desserts, again with the economy people are looking for familiar foods, the brulee is one that we worked hard on for a sautern dinner for hearts delight and kept because Sara and I liked to eat it and the flavors, the lilly pilly sorbet is so refreshing and counter balances the richness of the brulee.

Thanks again for supporting us and local restaurants, that what real sustainability means!!!!!

Excellent tip, danke.

In other Vidalia news: City Paper Sugar Toad Story

Perhaps I can ask for it anyway and stage a comeback.

Wow thanks for the thread, didnt know he would write that so quickly. Sugar Toads should arrive again tomorrow. Simply done with lemon basil aioli, battered in belgin beer!!!!!!!!!

Have a great Father's Day weekend.

p.s. ziebold has them as well!!! (from us to him with love)

Well, that's the thing. I don't actually have a budget. I am trying to gather some competitive quotes to see what is out there since I don't know what's reasonable. I will do something and gladly pay for it once I figure out what is "in the ballpark" - if you have thoughts on the matter, I would love to hear them.

Scott call me at Vidalia I have options for you!!!!!!!!!!

Go Wings!!!

Help - I need a BBQ caterer for a birthday party at a residence in Montgomery County in three weeks. Looking for either BBQ, Lamb Roast, Pig Roast or Luau style caterer to feed about 50 people at a laid-back, casual affair. Any help/advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Oh Scott why not call Vidalia and have Jeff and I cater the event?

we know pig!!!!!!!!!

Your people did a great job. Mike did his usual great job with the wines and selected the food for us...some great seafood you have there. Larry was on top of everything and got everything to us with totally perfect timing. Hope your dinner went as well as ours...The oysters and clams were excellent. The octopus with the wagyu pepperoni was just amazing.

Ty we have a great team of professional cooks and servers that whent they are on their game I wouldn't trade them for any others.

The pepperoni is one of those great ideas that actually worked extremely well. Happy belated birthday and again we are bith aging well like burgundy

We've been going to Vidalia more and more lately, mainly because of their fantastic lunch deal ($19.90 for a three course tasting) and think its turning out some of the best food in the city right now. Saturday night was a slightly more expensive outing as 8 of us tried the tasting menu but boy oh boy was it worth it. Service was impeccable and Chef RJ tolerated some food allergies with grace and humor. We had some interesting wines including a first for us: a wine (syrah I think) from Brazil.

Anyway the food was dynamite. Highlights for me were the wild garlic soup with morels and foie gras, the shrimp and grits (as good as ever) and one of the best desserts I have had in months. Of course, true to form I can't remember exactly what it was but it involved frozen chocolate mouse topped with a piece of lightly toasted marshmallow. I'm not doing it justice but for chocolate lovers and sweet tooths in general its a must and I hope they put it on the regular dessert menu as I think it was a special.

frozen marble mousse

graham cracker-chocolate crunch, marshmallow, root beer essence

Its fantastic that everyone on board has this passion of defence about Inox. However for the restaurant to grow the community needs to support it. They cook and serve for the daily guests not for one food writer.

Would you please ask RJ where he got the Fava's?

Right now favas are not local. We are buying them from the Santa Monica Market. Thank goodness we are 3 hours a head so i can get sleep instead of purchasing at the early hours of the morning. They are extremely tender and flavorful. Spring is supposed to be HERE and its cold again.

I would like to thank a vary special cook, chef and friend that has been extremely close to me over the last four and a half years. Harper McClure.

He came to me on a cold November morning asking for a job in dress slacks and black leather shoes. I gave him an apron, said lets go and from that moment we have been together.

He has grown from a good cook to a great chef, husband and friend over the years. His departure this Saturday to a great restaurant in Atlanta ends an era for me. He is the last cook, chef that helped me win the Beard award and he one day will walk across that stage.

Good luck my friend and Bacchanalia has gained a fantastic addition

Why we do what we do for kids!!!!!!! Thank you all for the support you gave and give in the future.

’s easy to join the fight to end childhood hunger

To the Editors:

The other night I woke up with a thought that is gut wrenching to any father, but particularly to a chef — the fear of how I would cope if I were unable to feed my two young, growing girls, Ava and Bridgette.

Perhaps my involvement in Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation as this year’s chef chair has really impacted me. Or perhaps the devastating reality of job loss and stock market decline has seeped into my REM cycle. But that dream forced me to examine what we as a society are doing for our most vulnerable members: America’s hungry children.

My fellow culinary peers and I are fortunate enough to know the value of a meal and the comfort of having food close at hand. Yet, the devastating fact is one out of every six children does not even have the basics. How can we sit idly by and watch?

It’s an odd paradox to handle, prepare and muse over food day in and day out, knowing the reality of many families’ refrigerators: that they are empty. Isn’t it our responsibility to ensure food fulfills its primary purpose of sustenance?

Food insecurity — uncertainty about when the next meal will come — is a growing plague among more and more families. And our youngest members of society often suffer the most. Children who live without the reassurance of knowing when or if they will be eating dinner endure far more than hunger pains when they go to bed at night.

A 2008 report from James Weill, president of the Food Research & Action Center, states that the long-lasting effects of hunger are staggering. According to Weill, “as just one example, among children under age three, according to one study, those who are food insecure are 90 percent more likely to be in poor health and 30 percent more likely to require hospitalization.” Children without food also suffer psychologically, revealing higher levels of aggression and anxiety as well as an increased need for mental health services. Food-deprived children also have more trouble concentrating in class, are often late or miss school, and tend to score lower on tests.

In order to do my part in combating this epidemic, I have continued to support Taste of the Nation events all across the country. However, this year’s event needs our community’s support more than ever. In spite of President Obama’s recent stimulus package, our nation continues to endure deepening economic challenges — the most dire being that far too many American children are still going hungry. While this annual event remains a celebration of the District’s premier culinary professionals, as more than 40 of the top restaurants gather for a night of fine dining, thousands of area families are relying on the success of this year’s event to feed their children.

Currently, 32,000 D.C. households are unable to guarantee that food will be put on the table each day. Amid these grim economic times, the numbers steadily rise. Thus our efforts toward ending childhood hunger are crucial. While the event’s ticket price of $85 may seem like a steep number to swallow, attendees will be comforted knowing that their ticket buys a family of four a week’s supply of several nutritious meals per day, of which they may otherwise not have had access.

As always, 100 percent of ticket sale proceeds will go toward ending childhood hunger. The event’s local beneficiaries that provide nutritious food for those in need are the Capital Area Food Bank, D.C. Hunger Solutions and Mary’s Center.

As many of us are scrimping and saving, I encourage those unable to attend this year’s event to still donate to Share Our Strength’s cause.

I have had the privilege to make my living feeding others. But for 12.4 million American children, the source of their next meal is a near constant worry. We need to calm those children’s fears.

Please join me in making the elimination of childhood hunger a priority.

RJ COOPER III

Okay Rockheads!!!!!! Taste of the Nation is just a few short days away!!!!!!!!! Yeah Yeah I know solicitation blah blah blah.

But anyway there are some kick 'n' auction items up for grabs this year and tickets are getting limited!!!!!!!

Live Auction items:

1) a kick ass cocktail party for twenty people by my friend Tony Abou-Ganim for modern mixologist and canapes by some dude from vidalia

2) a rockstar bus for the night going to 7 restaurants that are owned by our honorary chefs.........im in and the buss will be filled with booz!!!!!!!!! (sorry don paris is out)

3) a trip to mexico

4) a day drinking wine with Pierre Rovani at ur house with food from some dude

5) A cupcake class with Heather Chittum

I figured this out in my little mind!!!!!!! there are 40 restaurants plus dessert stations booz being mixed by top mixologist and 15 different wines it comes to be 1.25 a course and like .75 cents to drink thats a huge kick ass tasting menu!!!!!

you cant eat cheaper in a night with this much going on!!!!!!

peace!!!!!!!

my psa is over ty

mdt said:

That is an understatement!

I did a braise with mine, but a completely different flavor profile.

Dry rub of S&P, rosemary, sage, and a bit of cinnamon for a couple of days.

Seared then braised (about 3 hours) with spices (same as above) along with apples, onions, garlic, and some Gewurtz. that I had open.

Let is cool in the liquid overnight.

To serve it I sliced it and crisped it in a saute pan and served it on a salad with a poached egg.

leave that cure for a couple weeks it makes awesome jowl bacon

---

Spaghetti all'Amatriciana (DonRocks)

Khoa decided that if he wanted to be yelled at by a psychotic genius chef, he'd just have RJ do it.

To his credit, I think he came to the conclusion that he didn't want to be on a "team" where people routinely back-stab each other and where, to win, he's likely have to become vicious little weasle himself .

(Though, in what I can't help but think might be part of the script, the real assholes usually get elimated before the final two in Hell's Kitchen and "good guys" usually seem to win. Not that the producers would fix the game, or anything).

Yes my star is off but I think that their may be a reality show twist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His departure was open ended. And Waitman I havent yelled at him in days!!!!!!!

PLEASE ALL, WATCH TONIGHT AT 8 PM, KHOA WILL BE STARRING ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK WITH MARCO PIERRE WHITE!!!!!!!

IF I HAD A TV IN THE KITCHEN TONIGHT I WILL WATCH!!!!!!

Goodeats is being typically modest -- this is going to be a FANTASTIC event! If you have gone in the past, you will not want to miss it this year as the event is going to be more intimate and of a higher quality than in years past. The smaller venue means more thought went into getting the very best restaurants, bartenders, products involved. And the cause is more needy now than ever.

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Who Are We?

Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation® is the nation's premier culinary benefit, featuring top chefs and mixologists -- all of whom are coming together to donate their time, talent and passion to end childhood hunger in America.

Taste of the Nation DC Online

2009 Restaurants

1789 Restaurant * Acadiana * Aria Trattoria * Art and Soul * Bebo Trattoria * Artisan Confections * Belga Cafe * Best Buns Bread Company * Bistro Bis * BLT Steak * Bourbon Steak * Brasserie Beck * Cafe Atlantico * The Capital Grill * Carla Hall, Top Chef Finalist for Share Our Strengths Operation Front Line * Carlyle * Central * Charlie Palmer Steak * Co Co. Sala * CommonWealth * Cork * Dino * Enology * Farrah Olivia * Founding Farmers * Georgetown Cupcake * The Gibson * Hanks Oyster Bar * Hook * Indique Heights * Kaz Sushi Bistro * Kinkeads * Lebanese Taverna * Marcels * Mendocino Grille and Wine Bar * Mio * Oceanaire * The Oval Room * OYA * PassionFish * Poste Brasserie * Proof * PS 7s PX * Restaurant 3 * Restaurant Eve * Restaurant Nora * Ronald Reagon Building * The Source * Taberna del Alabardero * Teatro Goldoni * Vermilion * Vidalia * Vinoteca * Veritas * VOLT * Westend Bistro *

Come together for an evening of fine dining and fundraising. Through our community's combined effort, we can raise the critical funds needed to end childhood hunger throughout Washington, DC.

General Admission 7-10pm $85 Buy Now!

VIP Admission + VIP HOUR 6-10pm $150 Buy Now!

What To Look Forward To:

Join us for an evening of fine dining and fundraising with Washington, DC's finest restaurants, wine bars and mixologists, and help raise funds critical to ending childhood hunger in D.C. and across the country! On Monday, March 30th more than 40 of the city's finest restaurants and chefs, including James Beard award winning Chef Chair RJ Cooper, will participate in this gastronomic event, which is being held at the historic Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.

This year's VIP section will launch its first interactive feature, as Chef RJ Cooper and Chef Kaz Okochi lead hands-on demonstrations with VIP guests while top mixologists create innovative cocktails. Guests will also have the opportunity to sample sweet treats throughout the night from D.C.'s finest pastry chefs in the new VIP Dessert Den.

VIP guests will have the rare opportunity to mingle with notable D.C. chefs who will be honored for their long-standing dedication to the local community and Share Our Strength. This year's honorees are: Jeffrey Buben, Roberto Donna, Bob Kinkead, Ris Lacoste, Kaz Okochi, Michel Richard, Jeff Tunks & Robert Wiedmaier.

Complete with fabulous live and silent auctions, and hosts Amanda McClements of Metrocurean and Nycci Nellis of The List Are You On It, this culinary celebration is sure to be a night to remember.

Local Beneficiaries include:

Capital Area Food Bank - DC Hunger Solutions - Mary's Center

For Sponsorship Opportunities and Additional Information,

Contact Vered Uziel vuziel@strength.org.

2009 Taste of the Nation Sponsors

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By the way, does anyone know about a Scott (redhead?) who used to work at Vidalia several years ago? He was our impeccable server on our first and most positively memorable experience at Vidalia.

Please call the restaurant.. Please ask for Mike Nevarez or Myself. We would love to discuss this with you on a forum that would be positive.

Geez, snark much people? Although you may not agree with this poster, he or she has done exactly what we excoriate others for not doing -- giving specifics about what he or she didn't like about specific dishes or other issues, mentioning things that he or she did like about the dishes or other issues, and mentioning that they had notified their server about the problems they were experiencing. Feel free to share your positive experiences about Vidalia -- and I know there have been many! -- but why attack a poster who has done nothing wrong but to share -- apparently without bias -- a bad experience at a restaurant?

This has never come to my attention!!!!!!

Yes Yes our long time events coordinator Khoa and his cousin Denise (relief hostess Vidalia) will be facing off against 7 other teams on NBC to win there own restaurant!!!!!! He has been keeping the secret for months now, we finally can see what unfolds!!!!!!!! I think Marco makes him cry.

REMEMBER ALL THAT MY GREAT EVENTS COORDINATOR KHOA'S DEBUT OF THE CHOPPING BLOCK IS MARCH 11TH

LET THE GAMES UNFOLD!!!!!!!!!!

Yes Yes our long time events coordinator Khoa and his cousin Denise (relief hostess Vidalia) will be facing off against 7 other teams on NBC to win there own restaurant!!!!!! He has been keeping the secret for months now, we finally can see what unfolds!!!!!!!! I think Marco makes him cry.

first impressionsssss.........killer place........emennce talent......lots of wine coolers