Wednesday, August 11, 2010

A Tour of Chef Cooley's Garden

Last night, the local chapter of ISES (International Society of Event Specialists) hosted an event at the Cleveland Airport Marriott featuring Chef Ellis Cooley from AMP 150. The event was titled "Culinary Trends: From the Garden to the Table". It included a cooking demonstration and tastings from Chef Cooley, and a tour of the 1/4 acre garden that he and his team installed this spring just past the parking lot on an unused piece of overgrown land owned by the hotel. Other people saw weeds and asphalte- Cooley saw corn, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, and more!

The evening started with the cooking demo and samples of the dishes that Chef was using to highlight his definition of farm-to-table. We tried a beet salad with Ohio-made goat cheese, a scallop perched on top of Ohio-grown corn "pudding", sliced heirloom tomato on toasted bread, and a sausage-stuffed pepper. Cooley had literally picked the peppers from their garden at 2PM. It doesn't get any fresher than that!


The second portion of the event included a detailed tour of the garden by Chef Cooley himself. As he walked through the cucumbers, squash, and peppers you could tell that his own blood, sweat, and tears are in that garden. He is pretty proud of their first attempt- and he should be!


It was a fun evening- filled with tasty samplings, networking, cold cocktails in the courtyard, and the chance to finally see Chef's vision of a garden come to life.

AMp 150

4277 West 150th Street

Cleveland, OH 44135

(216) 252-5333

6 comments:

allijag said...

very very VERY cool! :)

Anonymous said...

I can't wait for him to start the "garden parties"! God I love that restaurant. I might as well move into the Airport Marriott already!

ClevelandPoet said...

There aren't enough ways to describe how impressed I am with amp150 and chef Cooley

heisschic said...

ummmmm might have to check this place out- and soon!


if/when you head to happy dog, i would recommend getting some of the mole sauce with your fries/tots. delish.

QuarryLaneFarms said...

Wait, he's gonna host events in the garden? That's cool.

Bite Buff said...

I believe that he plans to host events in the courtyard featuring his farm-to-table food.