The Culinary Scene Heats Up Asheville, NC

If you are considering a move to the mountains of Western North Carolina, or if you are lucky enough to already own a North Carolina mountain home, the culinary arena is widely varied. Whether seeking a romantic evening of gourmet proportions, an exotic night on the town, or a down-home cooking experience, Asheville, NC and its surrounding area has something special to offer for everyone.

The Upper Crust

Exquisite cuisine and Victorian elegance can be found inside the 1889 mansion of the Richmond Hill Inn -- an AAA Four Diamond Award for the 14th consecutive year. This Asheville restaurant, Gabrielle’s, presents an extraordinary dining experience inside its historic mansion. The mansion’s original parlor and dining room, with its rich cherry paneling and three-tiered chandelier, has the stately Victorian ambience of the 1890s and is truly a dazzling piece of Asheville North Carolina real estate. The cuisine is equally dazzling.

Gabrielle’s Executive Chef uses only the finest ingredients to create a sumptuous tasting menu. A lighter, ala carte menu is also available. Both menus have spectacular wine pairings available. Some tasting menu items include: Wild Copper River Salmon with pea shoot gnocchi, wild mushrooms and rhubarb confit preserved with Meyer Lemon; Chilled Blue Crab Salad served with roasted baby beets, fennel “pickles,” celery hearts, and a clover honey-beet reduction; and a slow-grilled rack of lamb with herbed spaetzle, baby spring vegetables and house-made fennel pollen yogurt. Dessert tempts with a petite pistachio and chocolate gateau.

The Chef’s Table at Horizons Restaurant located in the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa, is an exemplary parcel of NC mountain real estate. As the resort’s flagship restaurant, Horizons serves a menu of classic cuisine, complemented by a wine list of over 700 entries. Seating options include semi-private tables, a private room or a behind-the-scenes view from the “Chef’s Table” located in the heart of the action — the kitchen.

Experience an Exotic Asheville, NC

In the downtown Asheville area, if you are craving something a little more exotic, Mela Indian Restaurant on Lexington Avenue offers authentic north and south Indian cuisines.

The dining room at Zambra’s is also a favorite and dishes up Spanish and Mediterranean tapas. They use local ingredients whenever possible and the decor is sultry and plush.

Sugo is the place to head to for fine Italian-inspired fare. The chef cures a selection of specialty meats and they prefer to serve fish and meat that is raised and harvested with sustainable and humane methods.

The “Hottie Roll” at Kubo is also a great bet. It’s a sushi roll filled with spicy tuna, crunchy, sliced jalapenos and sriracha sauce. Kubo is a Japanese sushi and hibachi steak house.

Log Cabin Cooking Classes

For those seeking more of a hands-on culinary experience that is synonymous with the mountains of Western North Carolina take a step back in time for a few hours and experience the art of old-time, retro cooking in a 1940s East Asheville log cabin – a classic piece of NC mountain real estate.
Vintage feed-sack aprons are provided to guests as they bake pies, breads, cookies and more using only retro kitchen gadgets, mixers, and bowls. Old 45s and vinyl records are available to play on the 1960s polka-dot, sleepover record player as pot pies bake and green beans simmer.

Guests are invited to fire up the 1928 Home Comfort wood stove and may even be asked to chop some wood, or pick vegetables from the local garden.

“What I really try to emphasize in my classes is a return to a simpler time where families cooked, sat down and ate at the table together,” Barbara Swell said.

Recipes are heirloom, and ingredients are seasonal, local, and organic when possible. All classes are hands-on and include recipes and take-home food. Guests are welcome to bring wine and beer and are encouraged to enjoy the homey and warm atmosphere, sit by the fire, slow down and talk with each other, and imagine they are in a different time and place.


A Taste of Europe in the Mountains of Western North Carolina

After dinner, finish the evening off with some music and a cocktail at Vincenzo’s Ristorante and Bistro – a premier Northern Italian restaurant. They have live music nightly in their bistro. Or, sit outside at Old Europe, a classic-looking European bistro. This is a great spot for people watching while sipping on a chocolate martini or mocha latte.

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Food And Beverage" article category.

People interested in the above article "The Culinary Scene Heats Up Asheville, NC" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

Cooking As A Science

It is not enough that good and proper food material be provided; it must have such preparation as will increase and not diminish its alimentary value. The unwholesomeness of food is quite as often due to bad cookery as to improper selection of material. Proper cookery renders good food material more digestible.

Knowling Importance Of Food Elements

The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live. Various vital processes remove these worn and useless particles; and to keep the body in health, their loss must be made good by constantly renewed supplies of material properly adapted to replenish the worn and impaired tissues.

How To Make Fruit Cocktails

Cocktails made of a combination of fruits are often served as the first course of a meal, usually a luncheon or a dinner, to precede the soup course. In warm weather, they are an excellent substitute for heavy cocktails made of lobster or crab, and they may even be used to replace the soup course. The fruits used for this purpose should be the more acid ones, for the acids and flavors are intended to serve as an appetizer, or the same purpose for which the hot and highly seasoned soups are taken. Fruit cocktails should always be served ice cold.

Many Ways Of Cooking Grains

All grains, with the exception of rice, and the various grain meals, require prolonged cooking with gentle and continuous heat, in order to so disintegrate their tissues and change their starch into dextrine as to render them easy of digestion. Even the so-called "steam-cooked" grains, advertised to be ready for use in five or ten minutes, require a much longer cooking to properly fit them for digestion.

Eating Cereals For Breakfast

Cereal is the name given to those seeds used as food (wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, rice, etc.), which are produced by plants belonging to the vast order known as the grass family. They are used for food both in the unground state and in various forms of mill products.

Eating Barley For Nutrition

Barley is stated by historians to be the oldest of all cultivated grains. It seems to have been the principal bread plant among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. The Jews especially held the grain in high esteem, and sacred history usually uses it interchangeably with wheat, when speaking of the fruits of the Earth.

Fast and Easy Lunches

Let's face it, cooking is not a top priority in the lives of every man, woman, or child on the planet. In fact, far too people have made learning to cook a priority in their lives. This means that we often exist on convenience foods and boxed mixes rather than taking the effort to prepare healthy meals for our families and our own personal enjoyment.