We made it back to Stevens Point last night at around 11. We left Kansas City at about 9 and started towards Minneapolis, where we had dinner reservations at Piccolo. We arrived early, and I had coincidentally seen on Facebook that the chef Piccolo was competing at the Mall of America in the finals of the annual Minnesota Monthly Local Chef Challenge, so we dropped by to check it out. It was super interesting to watch the two chefs compete at a dessert challenge with malted barley syrup, philo dough, dried blueberries, and Thai basil. Chef Flicker from Piccolo won, taking home a giant check (literally) for $10,000, and we headed off to his restaurant for dinner before coming home.
Competing
Dinner at Piccolo was amazing, as usual. Standouts for me were the razor clam chowder, the camembert and apple tortelloni, and the bone marrow rice pudding. Julie’s favorites were the cauliflower terrine and the pork jowls. The desserts, especially the pine needle panna cotta were exceptional as well.
Once dinner was done, we headed straight home and fell into bed.
In my happy place
Razor clam chowder with compressed celery, crispy sweetbreads, and tapioca
Cauliflower terrine with golden raisins, asparagus, and Marcona almonds
Burrata with fresh hearts of palm, lardo, miner's lettuce, and chili oil
Duck gizzard "braunschweiger" with radishes, watercress, and rhubarb
Camembert and apple tortelloni, with rabbit "pancetta", spring onions, and sorrel
Scrambled brown eggs with pickled pig's feet, truffle butter, and Parmigiano
White shrimp with kumquats, baby fennel, wild salad greens, and ginger
Monkfish and crab roulade with poached egg, asparagus, and arugula
Callistor Farms chicken with spring onions, potato, beech mushrooms, buttermilk and chicory (and crispy skin on top)
Veal breast with tarragon, radishes, peas, and bone marrow rice pudding
Lam shoulder with black olives, cardamom bread, chevre oil emulsion and Pedro Ximenez vinegar. (I forgot to take a picture and took a bite first)
Smoked pork jowls with boiled peanuts, ramps, ham and celery root
Pine needle panna cotta with pine nut brittle and mugolio
Marcona almod Rice Krispy bar with sea salt meringue and apple butter
Chocolate pound cake with blood orange, medjool date, and cocoa nibs
