Chef Sam Beall | Recommendations - Find. Eat. Drink.
Chef Sam Beall, Blackberry Farm, Walland, TN, Tennessee, California Culinary Academy, The French Laundry, Ritz-Carlton, Cowgirl Creamery, Relais & Chateaux, Where to eat, Where to drink, Where to shop, Madisonville, Farmers Market, Stores, Food Purveyors, Bacon, Maryville, Tennessee, TN, Townsend, Knoxville, Asheville, NC, North Carolina, San Francisco, CA, California, Napa, CA, Wineries, Winery, Wine Producers, New York, NY, Barcelona, Spain, Girona
Off the beaten path cabernet producer that's more European in style. He is a Frenchmen and he makes wines in that character.
BENTON’S SMOKY MOUNTAIN COUNTRY HAMS
Madisonville
Ham / Bacon / Prosciutto
Madisonville, TN
Maryville, TN
Townsend, TN
Knoxville, TN
Asheville, NC
San Francisco, CA
Napa, CA
New York, NY
Barcelona, Spain
Girona, Spain
Find | Food Purveyors - Madisonville, TN
In my opinion, one of the truly iconic artisan culinary figures in this country. Benton's aged country hams are the closest thing I think you would find in this country to classic old world prosciutto. His bacon has an intensity of smoke that you'll find in no other bacon, period. I think that's what defines Benton's bacon for me is the smoke. When I get excited about a product it's probably unique. It's something that truly stands apart from the monotony and the commonality of the rest of the world even in great restaurants.
Recommendations
MARYVILLE FARMERS MARKET
www.maryvillefarmersmarket.org
Saturday Market
Downtown Maryville / Founders' Square
Church Avenue, Maryville, TN 37801
9am - 12pm
Wednesday Market
New Providence Presbyterian Church
703 W Broadway, Maryville, TN 37801
3:30 pm - 6:30 pm
June - end of August
Maryville
Farmers Market
The focus is very specific on great produce and product. The product can only be from the 14 surrounding counties, Not just produce but product too. So whether it be honey or breads or cheeses or jams, it has to be entirely local, in addition to its practices has to be sustainable and there can't be what I call riffraff. There's not trinkets or trash or scraps.
Find | Farmers Markets - Maryville, TN
FULL SERVICE BBQ
Maryville
Barbecue
Eat | Restaurants - Maryville, TN
It's literally a converted gas station. My kids probably pick-up food twice a week from here on their way home from school for a quick dinner after late games.
WILD ROSE MOUNTAIN BAKERY
www.wildmountainrosebakery.com
929 Cavern Road, Townsend TN 37882
T: 865.448.6895
Open Friday and Saturday 4pm - 8pm
Townsend
Bakery / Pizza
Find & Eat | Food Stores & Restaurants - Townsend, TN
They have a wood-burning oven and they bake bread and sell it to some local stores. On the weekend, they use that same bread oven for word-burning pizza and sell almost all exclusively for pick-up and take out.
CRUZE FARM
Knoxville
Dairy Farm
Their buttermilk is made right here in Knoxville, Tennessee and it’s the finest buttermilk you'll ever taste. It is a classic culture of buttermilk that has bits of butter flakes floating around. It's just so good you can drink it. It's got the tanginess that a great buttermilk should have and it's exceptional.
Who
Sam Beall is the proprietor of Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee.
Why
Chef Sam Beall trained at The California Culinary Academy, apprenticed at The French Laundry, and worked at the Ritz-Carlton, Cowgirl Creamery and California wineries, before moving back to Walland to turn Blackberry Farm into a world class Relais & Châteaux resort.
Chef Sam Beall | Recommendations
June 26, 2012
Blackberry Farm - Walland, TN
Photo Credit: Beall + Thomas Photography
Find | Food Purveyors - Knoxville, TN
ROUXBARB
130 South Northshore Drive, Knoxville, TN 37919
T: 865.212.0024
Knoxville / Bearden
Southern
Chef Bruce Bogartz is staying true to his food. It's certainly a showcase of the south, using great southern ingredients and southern mentality behind the food. He does great sweet potato dumplings, kind of a gnocchi, if you will. He does a Smoked-cured Breast of Duck, but it’s just cured like half way. I like his Crispy Chicken Livers that he serves with hot pepper jelly.
Eat | Restaurants - Knoxville, TN
PUBLIC HOUSE
Old City
Bar / American
It’s more or less a bar, but they serve lots of snacks. The owner does a good job and they serve our cheese and some of our salumi there, but I'm not recommending it just because they serve our stuff. They also serve Allan Benton's products.
Drink | Bars - Knoxville, TN
SALSA MEXICAN CARIBBEAN FOOD
Asheville
Mexican / Caribbean / International
I go there and order mindlessly, because it’s just such good, authentic Mexican cuisine. I order way too much when I go there, I get everything. I like the Poppers (stuffed jalapeños) which are made that morning in the kitchen and not some frozen product. They have a great variety of house-made salsas, it’s difficult to pick which one to order. All the smokiness is done there. The Molcajetes, which are hot lava rock bowls, are kind of one pot dishes. They send them out piping hot with pork shoulder Carnitas type.
Eat | Restaurants - Asheville, NC
Laurel Heights
Grocery / Meats
It's a real specialty meat market with just great product meat, fish and even some prepared foods.
Find | Food Purveyors - San Francisco, CA
CAL-MART SUPERMARKET
3585 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
T: 415.751.3516
Laurel Heights
Grocery
MEADOWOOD
St. Helena
Californian
The chef, Christopher Kostow, is really rocking, he’s exceptional. The food is so thematic. He serves the little parts of a rooster, the cockles, the little flabby things, the little red things that hang on top of his head, that you never get to see that in restaurants, very kind of old world, just extraordinary. It’s not that there is a signature course to direct people to, it’s just exceptional and I don’t say the word exceptional lightly.
Eat | Restaurants - Napa, CA
Drink | Wine Producers - California
ALBAN VINEYARDS
Edna Valley
Winery
Absolutely some of the most exciting wines in this country, Rhone Style Wines. He's a pioneer of Rhone varietals such as syrah, Grenache, Viognier, Roussanne, great varietals that too many people aren’t familiar with.
FAVIA
St. Helena
Winery
They’re a small, really still up and coming producer. Superstars, absolutely superstars. Andy Erickson, the husband and owner, happens to be the wine maker of the winery called Screaming Eagle. His incredible wife, Annie Favia, is not only the vineyard manager, but she's a farmer, she manages the vineyards for Screaming Eagle and other greats, whether it be David Abreu or just a host of others.
LAMBORN FAMILY VINEYARDS
1984 Summit Lake Drive, Angwin, CA 94508
T: 925.254.0511
By appointment only
Available at these locations
Napa Valley
Winery
It's a small winery up on Howell Mountain. Great family producer that has stayed true to small production, a certain style and true to a wine maker and not just any wine maker. Yes, they actually have a wine maker versus making it themselves, but Heidi Barrett is considered one of the great wine makers in this country. It's a great visit, a great location in a less assuming area of Napa Valley.
PHILIP TOGNI VINEYARD
Napa Valley
Winery
PRIDE MOUNTAIN VINEYARDS
St. Helena
Winery
A gorgeous location, Spring Mountain. Half of the property falls off into Sonoma and the other half falls off onto Napa. If you get up there early in the morning you're above the cloud lines and it’s majestic.
Eat | Restaurants - New York, NY
Upper West Side
New American
They have a unique collection of some good fino sherries. I think the atmosphere is a good juxtaposition between real fine dining and something a little bit more relaxed.
PRUNE
East Village
American
It’s an authentic kind of New York, a gourmand experience, and an Epicurean treat for lunch or brunch.
Eat | Restaurants - Barcelona, Spain
PASSADIS DEL PEP
El Born
Spanish / Tapas
They start bringing out food. You don’t even order. I had a gorgeous, little three-month lamb shoulder. It was just to perfection. A cat couldn't have scraped any more off than I did. It’s just all great.
Eixample
Spanish / Tapas
It kind of looks touristy, but you go down in this basement and into another world. I don’t speak Spanish and they don’t speak English, but you just point and everything is great.
Find | Stores - Barcelona, Spain
VILA VINITECA
Sant Pere
Wine / Food
It’s a wine shop and there is a food store portion with the most gorgeous selection of Iberico hams. You can just hang out there and have them slice and taste. The cheese is the same and the wine shop is filled with wines that the greatest enthusiasts in the world would drool over. So that’s just a fun experience.
Girona
Modern Spanish
It’s the type of experience that can re-energize, can inspire, can keep us in love with what can be a brutal industry. Everything from A to Z, from the way they extend hospitality, from the touring of the kitchen, the cellar, the owners, to what I love on the plate. The squab course with a game bird reduction that was so thick, it was like chocolate and I never would have thought that it would be balanced and appropriate, but they just took it to a totally different place.
Eat | Restaurants - Girona, Spain
Cookbooks
- The Blackberry Farm Cookbook: Four Seasons of Great Food and the Good Life [Buy It]
Recommended By
- Chef Lachlan Mackinnon Patterson (Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, CO)