Those of you that read our introductory post on Tuesday explaining our latest culinary undertaking, the BR's Buffalo Chef's Challenge, know that on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next few weeks we'll be ranking the participants in our little “cook off”. The competition will end on June 14th with the announcement of the winner and a thorough investigation of their remarkable entry.
Placing in our Honorable Mention category is the North End Bistro located on Hertel. Formerly Little Talia's, the business changed hands and became the North End a number of years ago. More recently it was purchased by chef/owner Marc Marotta. The cuisine remains decidedly Italian, with a good mix of both classic dishes and a few originals developed and honed by the chef throughout his career. The most popular of these is the pasta with a banana pepper cream sauce. Everything here is homemade, “from dressing to dessert” according to Marotta. Additionally, I can personally attest to the undeniable friendliness of the staff.
Marotta's decision to participate in Buffalo Chef's Challenge: Chayote was a brave one in the sense that he had only been open for six short weeks when we approached him with the opportunity. As chef and owner, his day is already filled with a whirlwind of tasks and responsibilities, not to mention those incurred by a newly-acquired establishment.
Like most of our other competitors (Amaryllis, Left Bank, Mode, Sample, Shango and Torches), Marotta had never worked with chayote before. His entry was a dish featuring both a protein and a starch. The protein consisted of a marinated porterhouse steak with a very bright bourbon and brown sugar glaze. The “mystery ingredient” made its appearance in the dish's starch offering. Marotta felt that the chayote's potato-like texture made a good match with the sweet potato, so he prepared the chayote and the sweet potato similarly and combined them with a good dose of chipotle pepper. The meal, in its entirety, was spicy and flavorful.
Thank you to Marotta and the staff at North End for participating in our first Chef's Challenge.
North End Bistro, 1458 Hertel, 14216, 446.0025, call for hours