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| photo courtesy of www.lespalier.com |
Don't miss the chance to watch a world-class chef in action as Chef
McClelland of L'Espalier and Apple Street Farm is featured in a
HarvestFest cooking demonstration at 1:00 pm under the big tent on
T-Wharf. For more on Chef McClelland, read this excerpt from his bio,
below:
“…food is best when it’s in its purest form. My job is to enhance
that natural flavor to allow the essence of the food to sing.” -Frank
McClelland
Chef Frank McClelland’s L’Espalier has been a perennial “best”
of America’s restaurants for three decades, earning top accolades from
Zagat, Forbes, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Frommer’s, Wine Spectator
and Condé Nast Traveler as well as nods in international media.
L’Espalier is New England’s most decorated independent restaurant with
twelve consecutive AAA Five Diamond Awards (the only one in Boston) and
twelve consecutive Forbes (Mobil) Four-Star awards. He speaks and judges
across the country at events like Taste of Vail, Foxwoods Food &
Wine Festival and the Chefs Collaborative National Summit.
At the heart of Chef McClelland’s menus of New England flavors
with French interpretation is Apple Street Farm, his organic farm in
Essex, Massachusetts that is the primary source of heirloom produce and
proteins for L’Espalier and his trio of casual Sel de la Terre bistros.
The James Beard chef and cookbook author (Wine Mondays) views his life
as a farmer-restaurateur as being on-trend. By living this life from his
youth, he was early to the farm-to-table or “locavore” dining
philosophy.
Chef McClelland's love of “field to fork” cooking began while
growing up on his grandparents' farm in the White Mountains of New
Hampshire. By the age of 25, he had been a chef in two of the most
respected Boston kitchens: The Harvest in Cambridge and L'Espalier. In
1984, he became Executive Chef at The Country Inn at Princeton in
Western Massachusetts where he established himself as a culinary talent
who made time to know local farmers. At The Country Inn he earned a
four-star rating from The Boston Globe as well as being named one of the
country's top 25 new chefs by Food & Wine.
Chef McClelland nurtured his love of fresh, regional ingredients
and applied his European techniques to create his own signature modern
French-influenced cuisine, brought his knives back to L’Espalier,
purchased the restaurant outright and never looked back.
Chef Frank McClelland is a New England cooking institution, known
for developing the Northeast’s next generation of exciting culinary
talent. His restaurants include StarChefs “Rising Stars,” and chefs are
sought out by network TV chef shows and industry competitions. Many of
Boston’s best-known restaurants are populated with alumni who were
mentored under his tutelage.
