December eNews – Charlie’s New American Gift Guide

At all of our restaurants around the country, we're in the midst of the same preparations you are: getting ready to host holiday parties, from special dinners a deux and round table family get-togethers to blow-outs for business friends. We're dusting off our best dishes, making sure the decorations are just right, and laying in some fantastic wines and champagnes, starting what feels like a six week long open house. Stop by and say hello.

Cheers,
Charlie

GIFT CERTIFICATES
Generosity at its best - Our gift certificates let you say where. But your guests get to say when.
Share our award-winning dining experience with family, friends and business associates. Each restaurant location's custom-packaged gift certificates are beautifully presented with our usual care and attention to detail. As Charlie's gift to you, we're offering 10% off our entire CP Store, including gift certificates, books and products. Use code: CPHoliday (expires 12/31/2009).

NEW YEAR'S EVE
Although our style might vary slightly from NYC to OC, we're all in this together. Say hello to 2010 at Charlie Palmer's coast-to-coast New Year's Eve Galas. Explore here for details on joining the festivities nearest you:

HOLIDAY DINING
Make your reservation early for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Click here for special menus and seating availability.

Regional New American Holiday Gift Guide:

There was a time when giving seasonal food gifts meant sending a crate of fruit, frozen steaks, or wait for it—the dreaded fruit cake, as heavy as a door stop. But those days are long gone. All over the United States, food artisans—some new, some multi-generational family businesses—are turning out remarkable products, from micro-roasted coffee and handmade chocolate to savory biscuits and farmstead cheese. Because I am known for my signature Progressive American style of cooking, I like to source out foods that represent different regions of the country. You can order these delectable gifts shipped directly to friends and family, or do what I do: Stock up at home and then either bring an artisan food gift along when visiting friends, or send houseguests off with a small gift bag of the best the country has to offer. Here's my trip around the New American kitchen.

Sweets and baked goods

Ann Arbor, Michigan: Seasonal pies from Zingerman's, one of the most famous food stores in the country.
Cranberry Walnut pie with an all-butter crust
Nutty, sweet, rich and just a little tart, the Mauritian brown sugar custard is mixed toasted walnuts and tawny cranberries

Toasted pecan pie with an all-butter crust
Deeply rich, the caramelly Mauritian brown sugar custard is mixed with loads of pecans that are pre-toasted to bring out even more flavor.

This is a good gift for direct shipping. These folks are mail order experts and your pie will arrive in perfect shape, packed in a re-useable embossed metal pie tin inside a light wooden box.

To purchase: http://www.zingermans.com/  

New Orleans: Signature- flavor artisan chocolates
Long famous for its distinctive dishes—many under the French influence—New Orleans now has its own confection collection. Made by Executive Pastry Chef Tariq Hanna at Sucre, a stylish Magazine Street patisserie, the NOLA Chocolate Box includes evocative local flavors such as the Meuniere, brown butter and white chocolate ganache coated in dark chocolate; and the Magnolia, dark chocolate with pecan ganache, topped with a pecan half.

To Purchase: http://www.shopsucre.com/  

Charleston, South Carolina: Handmade savory biscuits
From a city that is surely the biscuit capital of America, Callie's Biscuits are light and wonderfully tender with a slightly crisp top. Made by a local mom and daughter duo, the biscuits come in several flavors; buttermilk (buttery soft), cheddar and chive (real Wisconsin cheddar) and country ham (with a thin layer of the real-deal Southern specialty). Preservative-free, Callie's Biscuits arrive vacuum-sealed and require nothing more than reheating.

To Purchase: http://www.calliesbiscuits.com/  


Charcuterie and Cheese

As anyone who's even been to my annual Pigs & Pinot event knows, I love pork. To prove it, here are a trio of pig categories: a salumeria that's been around long before the charcuterie craze, a quirky source for an authentic Southern regional sausage, and a traditional cure master's American adaptation of a classic European ham.

New York City: Old-World style Italian salami
Since 1925, Salumeria Biellese has been making salami the old-fashioned way—slowly and with great attention to detail. Now using only Berkshire pork, they continue to use the same painstaking methods in all their selections, from salame Biellese, mildly spicy in classic Piedmontese style, and the meaty, robust Cacciatorini or "hunter's style" salame. Think of it as Italian jerky.

To purchase: http://www.salumeriabiellese.com  

La Place, Louisiana: Authentic Cajun Andouille sausage
You can't "cook Cajun" without Jacob's World Famous Andouille sausage, a staple since 1928: Over 81 years and still smoking. Made with seasoned small chunks of pork (rather than ground) and smoked over pecan wood, Andouille is used in Louisiana's renowned regional dishes like gumbo, red beans & rice, and jambalaya.

To purchase: http://www.cajunsausage.com  

Surry Farms, Virginia: Local Serrano-style ham
Spain has its famous Serrano ham and now, we have our "Surryano." With three generations of country ham tradition behind him, curemaster Sam Edwards uses 100% pasture-raised, Certified Humane Heritage Berkshire hogs, each fed two pounds of Virginia peanuts per day to create meat with serious marbling and extended the aging time for a richer, concentrated flavor with overtones of salt and smoke. Slice it thin and serve on a charcuterie or cheese tray, with minimal accompaniments like roasted almonds and briny olives.

To purchase: http://surryfarms.com/  

Maryland: American Cheese Society award-winning goat cheese
Made on an Allegheny Plateau farm with milk from local organic-fed goats, Firefly's award-winning selections include MountainTop Bleu, a soft and creamy surface-ripened blue veined goat cheese, and Cabra La Mancha, a gorgeous smooth Spanish-inspired washed rind tome.

To purchase: http://www.fireflyfarms.com  


The American pantry, re-imagined

Athens, Georgia: "Resist bad coffee" is their motto.
Part of the emerging "Slow Coffee" movement, 1000 Faces is roasted by hand on Mondays and shipped on Tuesdays. Superbly flavored and beautifully presented in brown bags with colorful folk-art labels that reveal the source of the direct-trade beans, the offerings include single-origin, blends and espresso.

To purchase: http://www.1000facescoffee.com/  

Louisville, Kentucky: Bourbon by-products from "The Napa Valley of the Bluegrass."
Blue Grass Soy Sauce—the only micro-brewed soy sauce in the country—is made from locally grown non-GMO soybeans, custom roasted wheat and uses filtered limestone spring water, just like Kentucky's native small batch bourbon. Aged in reclaimed fermentation barrels from Woodford Reserve, the caramelized sugar in the white oak gives the sauce a pleasurable sweetness shot thru with the tickle of saltiness and a lingering slightly woody back taste. A must have for any sushi lover.

Bourbon Smoked pepper: Cracked peppercorns with a wispy hint of smoke and a subtle oaky flavor.

To Purchase: http://www.bourbonbarrelfoods.com  

Boerne, Texas: Pickle-licious
Made from an old family recipe, Fickle Pickles are probably the best pickles in the world. In the words of the original "Pickle Lady" Billie Shaw, they start out sweet and finish spicy. The pickles come in original, extra spicy, and you can even buy a jar of the marinade from the "pickle girl," who takes order over a phone shaped like a pickle.

To purchase: http://www.ficklepickles.com

Remember that handcrafted foods are created in limited quantities. Don't disappoint the neighbors; order early!