We are extremely fortunate that Executive Chef Matt McClure of Bentonville’s 21C Museum Hotel The Hive Restaurant will be one of our featured speakers at the Foodie Friday pre conference of Megaphone Summit 2016 to be held at the absolutely beautiful Pratt Place Inn and Barn in Fayetteville.
Those of you who had the privilege to enjoy Matt’s presentation at the 2014 Foodie Friday session held at NWACC will remember what a joy he was. And I’m sure many of you have continued to enjoy his okratouille and chicken recipes he shared with us that day.
Matt was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, where his passion for food was ignited by hunting, fishing and his grandmother’s cooking. Following a stint at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, he settled in Boston working at a number of restaurants including Troquet, Harvest and No. 9 Park.
Eager to get back to his home state to reconnect with the ingredients and foodways of his childhood, Matt returned to Little Rock where he worked under Lee Richardson former Executive Chef at Ashley’s (now One Eleven) in the Capital Hotel, developing strong relationships with local farmers and producers and rediscovering the agricultural resources of his home state.
In 2012, Matt joined the opening team of The Hive, located at 21C Museum Hotel Bentonville. At The Hive, the restaurant’s menus showcase the unique culinary identity of Arkansas. McClure’s cooking pays homage to the High South, highlighting ingredients such as black walnuts, freshly milled corn meal, hickory smoked hams, peaches, melons and sweet onions and demonstrates Matt’s longstanding commitment to support local farmers and purveyors. (Courtesy The Hive).
In 2013, Garden & Gun, featured The Hive in it’s Feb/Mar edition.showcases the refined, country cuisine of the High South, focusing on the local ingredients of Northwest Arkansas and the region’s traditional methods of cooking. Matt was a James Beard Award semi-finalist for the “Best Chef: South” award in both 2014 and 2015, and was awarded Food & Wine Magazine’s “The People’s Best New Chef” award for the Midwest in 2015. He is also an active member of the Southern Foodways Alliance.
Upon dining at The Hive, you will be served Matt’s Buttermilk Corn Bread along with a dish of sorghum butter. I just happened to get lucky and received a copy of his recipe. The sorghum butter recipe is from Anson Mills. While it may not be Matt’s recipe, it’s pretty darn close.
I suppose you’ll just have to make it at home and then visit The Hive in order to make your own taste comparison.
In the meantime, go get yourself registered for Foodie Friday. I’m eager to see your smiling faces and am so excited to be sharing our amazing line up of speakers for you.
Details on the agenda and speakers will be coming in a couple of weeks. Just a head’s up
- Our Foodie Friday day will START at 10 a.m. this year.
- We will be serving box lunches.
You’re welcome:)
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons lard
- 2 cups cornmeal
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 8 Tablespoons good quality unsalted butter, softened
- 3 Tablespoons sorghum molasses
- Fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Place cast iron skillet and lard in the skillet to preheat.
- Sift together cornmeal, flour, soda and salt into a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, beat eggs and buttermilk together; add to dry mix.
- Stir well until all dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Add melted lard to mix and stir well, leaving a small amount of the melted lard in the skillet.
- Pour cornbread mixture into the hot cast iron skillet (the same pan that the lard was melted in). Make sure there is a thin layer of residual lard in the pan. This will ensure a crisp crust.
- Bake at 425° for 25-30 minutes.
- Serve hot with sorghum butter.
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- Using a hand or stand mixer, cream the softened butter until it is fluffy.
- Reduce the mixer speed and drizzle in the sorghum. Add the salt.
- Increase the speed and beat until the sorghum is fully incorporated, frequently scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Turn the butter into a small bowl or a large ramekin
Notes
I'm not sure what brand of corn meal Matt uses, but I really like Arkansas' own War Eagle Mills.
The sorghum butter is really nice on biscuits, pancakes or waffles.