Garrelts Megan - Made in America: A Modern Collection of Classic Recipes

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We dedicate this book to

our family

for the recipes and love
passed down through
generations.

FOREWORD
BY JOHN CURRENCE

Chapter One
DAYBREAK

Chapter two
FROM THE CUPBOARD
AND GARDEN

Chapter Three
CAST IRON
AND DUTCH OVENS

Chapter Four
FROM THE
GRILL

Chapter Five
FROM THE
FRYER

Chapter Six
BAKED
AND SWEET

HOLIDAY AND SPECIAL-EVENT
MENUS

METRIC CONVERSIONS
AND EQUIVALENTS

We would like to thank the many people in our lives who inspire and support us, making it possible to live our dream.

To our children, whom we love to the moon and back: Madilyn and Colin, thank you for your love, excitement, and curiosity.

To our parents, Bob and Kaye Schultz, Kristie Swearngin, and Greg and Linda Garrelts: You have helped us achieve our goals and encouraged us through our journey.

To our grandparents, whom we miss dearly: Thank you for the traditions and recipes passed down.

To our restaurant families at Bluestem and Rye: Thank you for creating amazing meals with us! Thanks to John Brogan, Ryan Williams, Andrew Longres, Kevin Dold, Nate Mouzoukos, Sam Diagle, Kelly Conwell, Jessica Armstrong, Tim Veith, Jeremy Lamb, Eric Willey, Van Zarr, Jeff Cambiano, Jennifer Young, and Susan Kane.

To Jeff and Joy Stehney: Thank you for sharing your love for American cooking with us and for your support and mentorship that has helped us on our journey.

To Bonjwing Lee: Thank you for incredible photographs and countless moments eating, tasting, and dining together.

To Susan Champlin, our writer, who helped us bring this book together: Thank you for your careful editing and attention to detail.

To our editor, Jean Lucas, and her team at Andrews McMeel: Thank you for believing in us.

To Jane Dystel: Thank you for your great spirit and kind words.

To Jamie Estes and Tammie Franck: Thank you for sharing our story.

To Louise Meyers and her incredible shop, Prydes Old Westport: Thank you for all your support through the years and for your incredible kitchen supply collection!

To the farmers and our fellow K.C. craftsmen: Thank you for providing us with amazing ingredients.

To our patrons and guests who celebrate their lives with us around our tables at the restaurants, we are forever grateful.

To our colleagues in Kansas City and beyond who live to cook and cook to live.

Finally, thanks to every mom-and-pop, small, roadside diner, and to little nooks across America that we ate in and traveled through from childhood to presentthose special moments have molded how we eat and what we love about American cooking.

A SHOT TO THE MID SECTION

Megan and Colby Garrelts possess a unique quality, one that is all the more glaring as each day passes. They deeply understand the essence of food and the experience dining should be. And though their food and restaurants are outstanding, it is their ability to see to the core of that food and the greater implications of the dining experience that I fell for. They truly adore what they do and are able to telegraph that message through all facets of the experience at both Bluestem and Rye. Both are places that, in spite of the disparity in their concepts, offer a warmth and welcome that most restaurants never approach.

It was precisely this that drew me to the Garrelts and exactly why I fell so deeply in love with Kansas City the very first time I visited. It is a unique place that a particularly ethnocentric Southerner found appealing: In spite of the fact that he may have felt that the hospitality of the South was entirely unparalleled, this Southerner was massively surprised and pleased to find that it extended north beyond Kentucky and west beyond Louisiana maybe (sorry, Texas, the jurys still out).

When we met, Megan and Colby were struggling with the same thing a number of chefs in our corner of the industry wrestle with. It is an emergence from what I call the creative hibernation that comes at the beginning of our careers. We tend, as ambitious youngsters, to dive into the deep end of the pool, feeling we need to dazzle people with creative presentations, challenge our guests with previously unimagined combinations, and, God forbid, confuse/surprise the same folks with altered molecular structure of our food.

There comes a moment, though, for most chefs, when you realize that while quality, technique, and ambition are important, you never truly excel until you realize that you are cooking for your guestss experience and not for your self-absorbed personal expression. Cooking is about making people happy. It is about transporting them to a place they can escape the days troubles, a place that reminds them of enjoyable times, a place they can celebrate important moments.

The food in these pages is the journey to that understanding. These are recipes that illustrate where the food of the Midwest is in this moment. It draws a picture of a places history, whether by nodding to European immigrants who settled here or giving a big ol bear hug to the cattle industry on which so much prosperity was built.

So, dive in. Taste of mid-America. These guys have provided a roadmap to delightful cooking and satisfying eating. I count the minutes until I can return. In the meantime, I have this book.

For a country thats famous for its amber waves of grain, the landscape of American food is amazingly diverse and colorful, woven with the flavors of every culture that has added to our collective heritage. The Native Americans knew the land bestthey identified every nut, grain, and seed, every berry fruit, freshwater fish, and type of wild game. They hunted and foraged not for culinary achievement but for nourishment and survival. New arrivals from all corners of the world came to America, bringing the languages, cultures, and flavors of their homelands, while discovering a land of plenty around them.