Jane Stern - The Harry Carays Restaurant Cookbook: The Official Home Plate of the Chicago Cubs

THE HARRY CARAYS RESTAURANT COOKBOOK

THE HARRY CARAYS RESTAURANT COOKBOOK

JANE & MICHAEL STERN

RUTLEDGE HILL PRESSTM
Nashville, Tennessee

A DIVISION OF THOMAS NELSON, INC.
www.ThomasNelson.com

Copyright 2003 by Jane & Michael Stern

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Rutledge Hill Press, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee, 37214.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stern, Jane.
The Harry Carays restaurant cookbook/Jane & Michael Stern.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1-4016-0095-6 (hardcover)
1. CookeryIllinoisChicago. 2. Harry Caray (Restaurant) I. Stern, Michael, 1946- II. Title.
TX714.s7727 2003
641.59773'11dc21

2003003843

Printed in the United States of America

03 04 05 06 075 4 3 2 1

Contents

A s the wife of Harry Caray, I have traveled all over the country, have met many wonderful people, and have had countless new and interesting experiences. One of the experiences that has proven most fulfilling for me is my involvement in Harry Carays Restaurant. When the developers first came to Harry with the idea for the restaurant, it never occurred to me that it would come to play such a large role in my life. Since Harrys passing, the torch has been handed to me to represent the restaurant to the public. I was a bit hesitant about taking on the role at first, but Ive become so involved in the restaurant and with the wonderful people who run it, that it is now second nature to talk about all the great things were doing. Ive been on local and national television speaking about events and promotions at the restaurant more times than I can count. One of those times I was at the restaurant at three oclock in the morning, wearing a kimono while watching the historic Cubs home opener in Japan! During the Seventh Inning Stretch, I led a bar full of people in singing Take me out the Ball Game, which was aired live on FOX Sports Channel all throughout the country. Who would have thought?

Many of our customers come to the restaurant for the first time to see what all the excitement is about, but they keep coming back because our food is terrific. The restaurant has become a second home for me, and I eat there at least four times a week with friends and family. I love the food, and I also love the lively, yet comforting, atmosphere that weve created. I am so excited about this cookbook because it gives us a new way to share our great food and interesting stories with even more people. It also finally gives me the chance to make some of my favorite dishes from the restaurant at home.

Jane and Michael Stern have done a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the restaurant as well as the quality of our food in the pages of this cookbook. I urge you to read the many stories and facts that they have sprinkled throughout the book. They provide a great peek into Harrys life and into Chicagothe city he loved so much. Stop by Harrys the next time youre in town. Holy Cow!

Dutchie Caray

W e never met Harry Caray, but we sure got to know him well, thanks to all of those people at the restaurant who so lovingly sustain his character. Beth Goldberg Heller ensured that this project was up and running from the start; she and Grant DePorter made us feel welcome in the dining room and helped us see the big picture; Executive Chef Garrick Dickie gave us an eye-opening view of his magnificent kitchen. We are especially grateful to Dutchie Caray for sharing her memories with us over a never-to-be-forgotten lunch.

Our eating partners at www.roadfood.com accompany us in spirit and in appetite wherever we go. As we ate our way through the menu at this grand Chicago steakhouse, we raised a virtual toast (Bud, of course) to Steve Rushmore Sr., Stephen Rushmore and Kristin Little, Cindy Keuchle, and Marc Bruno. We are grateful for their indomitable companionship in the quest to find and document Americas best food.

Our long-held belief in the glories of American regional cuisine has found such a satisfying expression in this series of books from the nations most beloved restaurants. Larry Stone, Geoff Stone, Bryan Curtis, Roger Waynick, and Mike Alday are steady reminders that the Roadfood cookbooks reflect a part of Americas culture that is well worth celebrating. Their steady stream of good ideas and support has made publishing a pleasure.

As always, we tip our hats in thanks to agent Doe Coover for her tireless work on our behalf, as well as to Jean Wagner, Mary Ann Rudolph, and Ned Schankman for making it possible for us to travel in confidence that alls well at home.

H ARRY CARAYS restaurant offers an opportunity to enjoy fine dining with a great bottle of wine as well as a two-fisted sandwich at the bar in the blare of a ball game. It is a gathering place for influential politicians, sports and movie stars, and leaders of the business world; and its where Joe and Jane Average kick back and relax after work. It is sophisticated, and it is loud and boisterous. Like its namesake, it defies classification. And like Harry, it is pure Chicago.

And the foodah, the food! Here you will ease your knife into the juiciest, most flavorful prime steaks anywhere, steaks that earned Harry Carays the award of Best Steakhouse in the city in a Chicago Tribune dining poll. To be considered the best steakhouse in Chicago is as good as it gets, for this is a city where great steaks are plentiful, and where savvy carnivores do not settle for secondbest. When Executive Chef Garrick Dickie starts talking about beef where to get the best, how to cook and serve ityou realize you are listening to a master. The plates that come from the kitchen at Harry Carays restaurant define steak-house excellence. On the side of steaks you can get an awesome pound-plus baked potato that is long-cooked until its insides are creamy soft (or garlic mashed potatoes or Vesuvio potatoes); and to drink, you can choose a bottle from 150 different wines from a cellar on which Wine Spectator has bestowed its Award of Excellence every year since 1989. Harry Carays Restaurant serves large portions to reflect the larger-than-life personality of its namesake. And this cookbook offers large serving sizes to reflect the restaurant.

Beyond four-star steak and potatoes and a significant wine list, and beyond the elbowbending pleasures of its spectacularly convivial barroom with the sixty-foot, six-inchlong-bar (the distance from the pitchers rubber to home plate), Harry Carays also is an Italian steakhouse. Harry loved Italian food; and his friends remember that it was Italian that he ate nearly every night he went out (and he went out every night!); so he made his restaurant a place to come for linguine carbonara and fettuccine alfredo as good as any beyond the walls of Rome. In addition to its classic Italian meals, the menu boasts such uniquely Italian-American items as toasted ravioli (a salute to the neighborhood Italian cuisine of Harry Carays original hometown, St. Louis) and Chicagos own chicken Vesuvio.