Foris is latin for the outdoors, and the Foris winery is situated on a lovely property with vineyards, horses, organic gardens and the beautiful home of Ted and Terry Gerber with it’s 4 story tower where special guests get to stay. The event was a precursor to the Oregon Pinot Camp, and featured food by Kate Dwyer Catering paired with Foris Winery Southern Oregon Wines with assistance from Lisa Teiger and Chef Andrew Alexander-Crossan of CuisinEtc Catering + Special Events NYC .
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| Chef Kate Dwyer amid the garden flora and food at Foris Winery, Southern Oregon |
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| Kate's kids having fun with the garden carrots |
Kate Dwyer Catering specializes in bespoke organic and local menus serving events that range from private home dinners , Oregon winery dinners, to large outdoor Southern Oregon weddings. Kate Dwyer Catering services southern Oregon from Ashland, to Brookings but she is especially well loved in Grants Pass, Medford and the Applegate Valley.
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| picking salad greens a few hours before the dinner ... brings new meaning to the word garden fresh |
Hi, I'm Lisa Teiger, co-founder of caterBuzz, owner of CuisinEtc Catering and Special Events, a boutique NYC catering concern, a food stylist, culinary fashionista and roving caterBuzz catering reporter, coming to you from NYC but always going beyond !!!
We hope that you will consider caterBuzz as your traveling eye for the inquisitive professional catering guys and gals around the globe. Sharing and learning from each others as only like minded professional caterers can do, through pictures, stories, questions and answers, available here on www.caterBuzz.blogspot.com and also on our facebook caterBuzz group page, a private forum for the catering community.
Kate Dwyer, a passionate caterer and baker, and caterbuzz member, is a frequent featured food artist at the Kitchen Company in Grant’s Pass, Oregon, a world class spot for everything kitchen.
The Kitchen Company, a speciality cooking and kitchen accessory store so beautifully appointed that resembles a kitchen museum is remarkably user friendly with knowledgable friendly proprietors and an amazing area of kitchen “toys” and cookbooks for the amateur and the professional alike.
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www.thekitchencompanygp.com
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As chefs and professional caterers, the caterbuzz crew as delighted and astounded to find that level of kitchenware and goods in such a small town, rivaling stores in NYC, San Francisco, London and Paris.
The event featured here is a wine and food pairing involving Foris Estate Wines of Cave Junction, Oregon and Kate Dwyer's bespoke cuisine with menu planning collaboration and execution by Chef Andrew and Culinary Fashionista Lisa Teiger, of CuisinEtc NYC.
The process on the food wine pairings is extensive with multiple tastings to ensure that each wine is highlighted to it’s fullest.
The Foris wines are quite delicious and affordable and paired with the correct flavors allows visitors to truly experience the excellence in viticulture and winemaking that Bryan...under Ted Gerber’s vision brings to the table. Paired with local and sustainable foods it’s a magical match.
For this weekends wine pairing event at Foris Winery, pairing the right food and herbs to match each of Foris’ wines was impeccable. We took what was fresh and seasonal from Kate's garden along with many locally sourced ingredients to create the menu that really complimented each and every wine course.
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| local housemade goats cheese garnished with edible petals from Kate Dwyer's Garden |
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| five spice meatballs kate dwyer @ foris winery |
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| apricot chicken garnished with from the garden calendula petals and oregon apricots @ foris winery |
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| foris winery flowers and hors d'oeuvres station |
The hors d’oeuvres table featured many Asian notes including
Five Spice Meatballs, Artisan breads with the winemaker’s backyard goat’s cheese drizzled with olive oil and garnished with flower petals and herbs from the garden, Apricot and Dijon Chicken in Lotus Cups,
Jewels of Siam – tender local hemp feed filet of beef brushed with Asian bbq glaze and mixed with Kate’s micro basil, micro cilantro and fresh mint – naturally from the garden and served atop hand carved cucumber crowns,
along with skewers of grilled granny smith apple, garden fennel and spiced shrimp.
The hors d’oeuvres paired perfectly with the Foris Reisling – with it’s bright crisp character and spicy notes.
Jewels of Siam – tender local hemp feed filet of beef brushed with Asian bbq glaze and mixed with Kate’s micro basil, micro cilantro and fresh mint – naturally from the garden and served atop hand carved cucumber crowns,
along with skewers of grilled granny smith apple, garden fennel and spiced shrimp.
The hors d’oeuvres paired perfectly with the Foris Reisling – with it’s bright crisp character and spicy notes.
The flora displays that I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of arranging myself were all freshly plucked from Kate’s extensive gardens including special varieties of peonies from Buck Canyon Ranch.
The centerpiece, a loose interpretation of red white and blue celebrating the upcoming birthday of our country and the great American dinner we would be serving that evening.
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| Foris Owner, Terry Gerber's bejeweled canned goodies from the organic gardens at Foris Winery made the table glow and sparkle and complimented the delicious food, beautiful Platters and flower displays perfectly!! |
Milling about talking, sipping wine and eating delicious hand crafted locally produced nibbles of food was the perfect start for the guests of the many delights to come.
On the grill tempting lamb riblets and skewers of meat whet the guest’s appetite for the next course – more smokey grilled lamb would be part of the entrée. The reisling paired impeccabily with the appetizers.
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| the majestic tasting Foris Reisling |
Soon it was time to move inside to the dining room where more great food and wine flowed.
The long dinner tables were set with beautiful hand blown water tumblers
Freshly baked brown sugar rosemary shortbread crostinis with baked winemaker’s local goats cheese garnished the plate along with garden flower petals producing lovely aromas and tastes.
The freshness of the salad with the aromatic dressing brings out the floral notes in the Foris Pinot Gris. |
| edible flowers and herbs from Kate 's Organic Garden |
For the entrée, one of the vineyard’s employees, Stephen, who not only made the goats cheese, also butchered a whole Applegate local baby lamb that was then slathered in homegrown French grey shallot butter with herbs d’province and wine, and grilled,
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| Foris Winemaker, Bryan Wilson massaging homegrown french shallot butter into the local lamb |
served with jus made from the roasted bones of the lamb along with more herbs d’provence and a splash of port, The dual entrée was fresh sturgeon grilled and glazed with healdsburg meyer lemon, sweet butter and local honey with hint of toasted sesame oil.
Chef Andrew Alexander-Crossan and Chef Kate Dwyer
The vegetable medley included fresh leeks, shaved merida overwintered (aka super sweet) carrots and tender slices of snow peas that chef Andrew Alexander-Crossan actually harvested that afternoon and plucked from the garden along with a garnish of grilled Purplette onions hand massaged in artisan olive oil with English thyme by an Englishman.
Talk about farm to table!!
The dinner plate was garnished with flower petals from the gardens, and enjoyed with Pinot Blanc and two types of Pinot Noir – Maple Ranch and Rogue Valley. The pairing of the pinot blanc with the sturgeon and leeks was an impeccable match and brought out the subtle flavors of the Pinot Blanc.
The Pinot Noir and the local lamb with the grilled purple onion supported the gentle oakiness of the wine and Foris’ Pinot Noirs are an excellent reflection on the Ilinois Valleys unique terrior which boasts flinty serpentine soils. The micro climate in the Illinois valley is on par with the best Pinot Noir growing regions of France such as Bordeaux making the Illinois Valley and Foris Pinots the hidden gem of Oregon’s Pinot Noir Appellations.
The Rogue Valley region is often referred to as the Bordeaux belt of Oregon.
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| love the caption on the muscat bottle "rich in sustainable enthusiasm" |
Dessert was inspired by the
mildly sweet Foris
Muscat Frizzante
with apricot notes
and a very floral bouquet.
The dessert pairing, was a blend of local strawberries with apricot preserves anda housemade pound cake laced with cheesecake and fresh marscapone mousse to make individual trifles that were beautifully displayed in vintage glass cups and garnished with fresh strawberry leaves, chamomile flowers, and dragon’s breath lavender petals.
Groans of delight and words of delighted praise for the wine, the food and the hospitality were heard through out the evening from the group of 30 wine stewards, wine shop owners, distributors and restauranteurs who were visiting from as far as NYC’s David Burke Townhouse, Portsmouth New Hampshires Jumping Jay’s Fish Café, The Ritz Carlton in Orlando, Florida, Murphy’s Café in Atlanta, Georgia, Quality Wine and Spirits in Atlanta, Luma in Winter Park, Florida, Lukas Liquor in Kansas City to name a few.
All in all the evening was magically like a scene from a movie with clinking glasses, birds chirping, enticing aromas and satisfied bellies.
Takilma
Winemaker: Bryan Wilson
Winery: Foris Winery
Foris Proprieter: Ted and Terry Gerber, Foris Winery
Blogger + Photographer: Lisa Teiger, Caterbuzz
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| salute !! and be sure to try some Foris Southern Oregon Wines soon!! |
