Courtesy PA Dutch
Cherries in Michigan
Local dishes or ingredients can be part of a larger banquet menu.
Michigan is celebrated for cherries; it produces 70 percent to 75 percent of the tart cherries grown in the United States. The state is also known for whitefish.
Chef Andrew Reh at Shanty Creek Resorts in Bellaire, Mich., plays up both ingredients, sometimes at the same time. Consider whitefish purchased from local fisherman, paired with cherry butter; smoked whitefish gratin; greens with blue cheese, candied pecans and dried cherries; pork in a black pepper-cherry sauce; and macadamia-crusted whitefish. For dessert, cherries appear in pies, tarts and bread pudding.
“We incorporate them into any classic you can think of,” Reh said.
The resort, which has 36,000 square feet of renovated meeting space, draws from a regional market, and the local dishes are a hit with groups that visit from Chicago, according to Reh.
And in Georgia, it’s all about peaches. At the Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation, passed hors d’oeuvres might include peach-glazed chicken wings. Dinner brings peach salads, peach ice cream and peach cobbler.
At the Woodstock Inn and Resort, the versatile maple syrup appears in a maple-balsamic vinaigrette and in the barbecue sauce used to flavor pulled pork. There are maple-braised beef ribs and sea scallops slicked with a citrus-maple lacquer. All the dishes are available to groups, said Courtney Lowe, director of sales and marketing at the resort, which can accommodate groups of up to 300 people.
At almost any time during a meeting, from a dinner to a breakout, groups can request a board of Vermont cheeses, a novel alternative to chips, pretzels and cookies.
Agave nectar has become linked to Arizona, and the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess uses it to make distinctive Madeline cookies and salad dressings. Prickly pear juice appears in fresh fruit compotes, iced tea and, for a festive touch, margaritas. Skinned and julienned cactus is used to make fajitas.
A signature food is not always just about products that grow in the area. Sometimes it’s about the people who settled in the community. The Tampa Convention Center is near Ybor City, a neighborhood founded in the 1880s by cigar manufacturers. Workers in the factories often came from Cuba and Spain. Consequently, Tampa dukes it out with Miami for bragging rights to the Cuban sandwich.
At the Tampa Convention Center, Cuban-inspired dishes are part of menu offerings, said Eric Blanc, director of sales. To land the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s 2013 convention, the center’s culinary team came up with beef-centric dishes for tastings. Many sported a Cuban flair with picadillo, a dish with shredded meat, onions, bell peppers, garlic and tomatoes served with rice and beans.
Picadillo serves as the stuffing for many dishes, including stuffed potatoes (papas rellenas). These stuffed spuds are a ball of ground beef, seasoned with onions, bell peppers and Cuban seasoning. The savory orb is coated in mashed potatoes and breadcrumbs. “They vary in size from a baseball to the size of a grapefruit,” Blanc said. Health-conscious people bake them. The purists fry them.
Planners can include Cuban foods as part of a banquet or go all out with a themed evening that includes Cuban foods, cigar rollers and Latin musicians.
