Easter Brunch at ROUX
April 7, 2011, 2:49 pm
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North Carolina Local FoodSpring is here and it’s time to get out of your house and into ours. We are making plans and getting organized for our traditional Easter Brunch at Roux. It is an enhanced version of our awesome weekend brunch.
We will offer our full buffet that includes: cooked to order eggs, omelets, waffles, pancakes and french toast, carved slow roasted ham, 3-cheese ravioli with chicken & chevre, roasted potatoes, chilled salads and roasted onion & gorgonzola bisque. The Brunch Buffet is $19.95 and includes non-alcoholic beverages, and is served 11-3.
We will also offer our regular brunch menu to satisfy all you “bennie” lovers.(that’s my weakness, try the Portobello bennie or the seared salmon bennie)
If everybody loves brunch as much as I do – then you should make reservations now at Roux.
Thanksgiving at ROUX
November 4, 2010, 3:04 pm
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North Carolina Local FoodIt probably looks like I took the summer off – but that is far from the truth. Business has been picking up and keeping us all busy at Roux. It’s already Holiday Time and my favorite season for food. People often ask me which is my favorite cuisine – I tell them it’s a season not a cuisine. That season is Fall. Butternut squash, nuts of all kinds, slow roasting or braising meats, hearty comfort foods, soups and stews: food that warms your core and has lots of memories attached.
Like the time my dad taught me how to make biscuits and cornbread. I was into 4-H back then and entered a baking contest and went to the state finals (I placed 3rd). Even though my mother and grandmothers taught me how to cook and gave me a passion for food. I give my dad all the credit for biscuits and doing everything without regret.
Well it’s Turkey Time. This year at Roux we are preparing a Thanksgiving Buffet from 1pm until 7pm – so get those reservations in early. Adults $21.99, Children 12.99 Or – if you want to eat the same Roux quality food at home – preorder one of our Meals To Go. Meal 1 serves 10-12 for $164.00 and Meal 2 serves 4-6 for $87.00
See you soon at Roux.
United Way event, Grit converts, and Roux gets modern coupons
June 28, 2010, 12:13 pm
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places to stay in ashevilleWow what a weekend. We just catered the United Way event at the Hilton for over 250 guests. We featured a North Carolina theme, and used local products. We had Pulled NC Pork with Smoked Gouda Grit Cakes, Fried local Goat Cheese over beet and arugula salad, Sautéed Shrimp and Grits, with garlicky Organic Spinach and Fried Leeks, and for dessert Local Apple and Cinnamon Shortcakes- over fresh biscuits with whipped cream. All food was prepared in the event space and served fresh. Great comments all night, I love it when people enjoy the food I love to make. We even had a few “Grit Converts” people who hated grits before tonight. They just haven’t had them the Roux Way.
On to the roof: The Herb Garden had to be moved. Even though herbs love a hot dry temperate – the roof with was just baking them. They are still on the roof, but we moved them so they could get some shade. We are in a learning curve since this is our first year. I think we will need more pots to supply our needs in the future, and maybe an arbor for a little shade.
This is new. Text Asheville to 26469 to receive a special deal from us! Then come on into Roux show the server or bartender the text to get the deal. The Text is the coupon. Pretty Cool huh.
Roof Top Herb Garden & Going Local
June 3, 2010, 8:37 am
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North Carolina Local FoodSome exciting things are happening at Roux. We have just planted an Herb Garden on our Roof Top. Eight pots containing 10 herbs: Rosemary, Sweet Basil, Thai Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Dill, Sage, Cilantro, Flat Leaf Parsley and Curley Leaf Parsley. If you’re staying at the Hilton you can see the Herb Garden from the hallway leading to your room as well as from many rooms. Just the basics, but there’s nothing like fresh herbs; you can check out our pictures on Facebook (search for RouxAsheville). While you’re there become a fan to receive daily specials, updates and the occasional free dessert offers.
Our Roof Top Herb Garden
We also rolled out some new menus and are starting $5 Dollar Lunches next week. New Menu Items include: Grilled Chicken and Goat Cheese Quesadilla, Crispy Calamari, Pulled Pork Sliders, Tuna Nicoise Salad, and lots of new burgers including an awesome Sesame and Ginger Salmon Burger. The new big hit on the dinner menu is a Pork T-Bone from Cane Creek Valley Farms. It’s served with Pineapple Chow Chow.
This leads us to the exciting news that we are now supporting a local organic farm: Cane Creek Valley Farm. We are buying organic produce and hormone free Beef and Pork. Add them to the list with: Claire’s ABC Preserves, Three Graces Dairy and Sunburst Trout and you can know when you support Roux that you are supporting the local farmers and local economy; something we are very proud of. Look for the green leaf on our menu that denotes these local ingredients.
Hush Puppies and Smoked Trout
May 14, 2010, 7:20 am
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asheville food blogLooks like the spring holiday season got the best of my blogging. Easter and Mothers Day have come and gone and we had some great brunch business at Roux. We tried out a couple of new items on Mother’s Day – both remind me of summer. Hush Puppies and Smoked Trout Dip. They were both a hit and might make it onto the menu.
Hush puppies make me think of setting up fish camp with my grandfather at Center Hill Lake in Tennessee. My dad, mom, brother and I would go for a few days, my grandfather stayed for a week or more. Lunch was usually sandwiches or hotdogs. Dinner was always the fresh catch: usually Crappie, Bream or Bass, and even Turtle. We cooked on open fires and Coleman stoves. We bathed in the lake, and they only intrusion was the occasional passing bass boat. But I couldn’t get enough of the fresh hush puppies fried in an old cast iron skillet; luckily we had them every night at the lake.
Trout, I’ll admit was not on any menu I had growing up. It’s a definite North Carolina staple and very popular in the mountains. Our Smoked Trout Dip at Roux is made with horseradish and cracked black pepper to give it some bite. Here’s the recipe enjoy.
NC Smoked Trout Dip
1.5 lbs of NC Smoked Trout, flaked
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
8 oz sour cream
½ small red onion finely diced
3 T prepared horseradish
juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Cracked Black Pepper to taste
In a food processor blend cream cheese, sour cream, onion, lemon juice and horseradish until smooth. Add trout, salt and pepper and pulse slowly so that you don’t puree the trout. Serve with toast points and crackers.
Who’s Ready For Spring?
Who’s ready for SPRING??
Well it’s been two long months and too many snowstorms to talk about, so let’s talk about Brunch Man! Who doesn’t love brunch? Sleeping in late and starting the day lazy with a good Bloody Mary and a Bennie, or just enjoying a communal meal with friends after church. Well guess what we just rolled out at Roux. That’s right – a weekend brunch, Saturday and Sunday, every weekend. We keep our breakfast buffet (which includes everything anybody could want – including chocolate gravy) open until 1pm and have a new menu to satisfy everyones taste. The Broken Yolk Sandwich is a big hit, but the Steak and eggs is the money. Sorry – this is starting to sound like a commercial, and I’ll leave that to the mad men.
So here’s a teaser, were working on some new desserts at roux, yeah you are right nobody eats desserts anymore- for two reasons, everyone’s watching their health and their wallets. So here is our solution: Dessert Bites, Small portions that will cost around $2.00 each so you can mix and match or just satisfy that sweet tooth
Happy New Year! Well I hope everyone had an incredible holiday season, filled with lots of family and great food. I actually got to go home this year to Tennessee, and spend time with my dad and my Grandmother – of course she had to make extra pumpkin pies for me to take back with me. (They were great – as usual) I also came home with a mason jar of green beans and a freezer bag of creamed corn. Does anybody know of anyone under 50 who still does this? I think its great – a lost art. I know it evolved out of necessity, but what a valuable skill. I guess I was born a few decades too late.
Even before my Christmas trip home I picked up a really good preserving book for the novice called Well-Preserved . It has easy to follow instructions, and good explanations. When thinking about this blog and about my food memories, I recalled a conversation I had with my Mee Mee, She is 80 years young and wanted to know what I wanted of hers when it was time to divvy up her earthly belongings, (I know… a conversation no-one wants to have) and then it hit me what I wanted was her recipes and cookbooks filled with her personal notes – and the experiences I had cooking with her growing up. The things I could never get from another person – our unique experiences. I guess by learning how to preserve I would be preserving the past.
Memories
The most enjoyable part of cooking for me is the different memories it evokes. And in fall I have fond memories of Canning and Preserving. Growing up on a farm we always had a very large garden probably 1.5 to 2 acres. I guess my brother and I were cheap labor. Spring and summer was the hard part, fall was the fun part – still hard work but lots more fun, knowing that all your hard work was about to pay off with family gatherings and dinners, canning parties and even hog-killing (that deserves a discussion of its own) I wish I’d paid more attention back then.
We made jams and jellies, canned tomatoes and corn, beans and pickles. My first food memory is one of standing in a chair next to the stove stirring apple jelly with a wooden spoon while my mom and Mee Mee, (my mom’s mom) melted paraffin wax and sterilized mason jars and started the next batch. It was hot and there was always a fan going nearby. As the jars cooled you could hear them “POP” to seal in your hard work, and it wouldn’t be long for a cold November or December morning that you heard that “POP” again and then tasted it on a fresh hot homemade biscuit.
Sorry I know this has little to do with Roux. But when I got the chance to write Roux’s menu I wanted to keep some of these memories alive. We serve our meatloaf large plate with a red onion Marmalade,(we make here) and I purchase a Jalapeno-Apricot Jam from a lady I met at the Local farmers market, she’s just down the road in Fletcher, NC. Her name is Claire and she runs Claire’s ABC Gourmet Preserves. Every flavor I have tried is great. She works in small batches and when I asked her how big her operation was she replied, “It’s just me”.
Here’s our recipe for “Red Onion Marmalade”, you don’t have to do use a canning process. This is a small batch and will keep for 30 days in the refrigerator. It’s great on Beef and Pork Dishes.
The Team
Today I’d like to introduce my incredible team of culinary enthusiasts. Let me start by saying this perhaps is the best team I have had the fortune to assemble: Sous Chef Joe Koenig, Derek Philips, Fred Baker, Alexis Young, John Frederick, I Wei Luk, Nestor Jimenez, Jose Villataro, Yonder Ruano Ortiz, and Jan Humphries.
In later post I’ll highlight one chef at a time with their bio and favorite recipe.
Welcome
Well I guess this is the kick off of “Mad about Roux” for those outside my world Roux is my new restaurant inside the Asheville Hilton in Biltmore Park. My name is Randy Dunn and I’m the Executive Chef. (man, this feels like a voice over for Fred Savage) for more on my background checkout my bio.
This Blog will be about: what’s happening at Roux, and my passions about food, and running a kitchen. (it’s not at all Hell’s Kitchen, but still a daily soap opera) We will share and experiment with recipes, and talk about the one constant in all our lives –food.
Thanks for your interest, please check back often, and when in Asheville, NC come by and check out Roux.
