A Night at Heritage Tavern

Monday night Hertiage Tavern was taken over by a rampaging gang of MATC culinary students. Lead by Joe Gaglio the owner of Gotham Bagels and a member of the Culinary faculty at MATC the hostile takeover was part of the Madison Area Chefs Network Week events.

OK so maybe it wasn't all that hostile. Joe brought 12 culinary students into Dan's kitchen to make an absolutely amazing meal. Both chefs talked about collaboration throughout the evening. Overall the dishes were a collaboration between Dan, Joe and the culinary hoard but there were a few tidbits directly from Heritage's menu like these disks of crispy fried headcheese.

They are sitting on a pile of truffled biroldo sausages that were textured like Boudin Blanc but had a delightful spice combination, nutmeg, cloves and maybe a little cinnamon? Either way the spice was light enough to let the pork shine through.

The theme of the evening was a 50's red sauce Italian joint, but with the best local ingredients available.

Check out the red checkered tablecloths and candle holders made out of wicker wine bottles! Can you hear Frank singing in the background?

I heard that people requested meatballs to eat with the Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe. The amazing simplicity of that dish is what makes it so great. The sauce has three ingredients, really good Parmesan cheese, freshly cracked black pepper, and pasta water. This combination somehow makes the most divine sauce which clings to the pasta and becomes so much more then the sum of it's parts. This is a perfect dish, and it doesn't need meatballs. Meatballs would ruin this dish... so no... you can't have any meatballs with your Spaghetti Cacio e pepe.

Overall there were 8 courses which each contained as many as 5 different dishes. A meatball appetizer (Wagyu beef and Mangalista pork of course), 4 Anti-pasti, 2 salads, 2 pastas including Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe, the seminal dish in Italian simplicity. 5 different meats, 2 side vegetables, and 2 desserts. 18 foods!

I would write about it all BUT I ALREADY DID! You'll just have to check out the article in the Isthmus!

Here is a bunch of pictures of food. They had a good photographer there so the pictures on the article should be much better.

Left to right Dan Fox(heritage) Joe Gaglio (gotham bagels, MATC) They are actually texting each other in this picture. #thatsalie

Have you ever wanted to just bury your face in a drawer sized container of calimari, octopus, and shrimp?

Wagyu beef, Mangalista pork, sour tomato sauce to cut through the fat.

MMM Octopi

Roasted peppers with sharp cheese and pine nuts.

Charred Romaine hearts with Anchovy dressing

Baked clams, which somehow has nothing to do with a clam bake...

Gnocchi in Pesto

The meat course part 1, I affectionately call it the mountain of meat.

The best Chicken Parm I've ever had. Bone in Nami moon chicken prepared for 4 days!

This is a plate of rum with a little bit of tiramisu wrapped around it.

-NOM!