Cleveland's Jonathon Sawyer has made it into Time Magazine's endless list of year-end top-ten lists. The Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat chef's made-from-scratch vinegars and bitters nabbed him the number seven spot in the Top Ten Food Trends of 2011. Here's what Time has to say:
The one thing you generally expect of new, laboriously made products at restaurants is that they will be good. But even bad can be good — if by "bad" you mean sour or bitter. The nation's avant-garde mixologists, mustachioed and otherwise, have taken up the creation of house-made bitters as part of their advanced drink programs, and their kitchen counterparts are following suit, with vinegars so complex and intriguing that they are sometimes served straight up between courses. Jonathon Sawyer serves half a dozen in tasting dishes at his Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland. Happily, they are for dipping fries rather drinking, however.
Frankly, we are surprised that Sawyer didn't snag the number six spot as well: Foraging. Sawyer delights in serving up hand-picked ramps and other goodies growing wild in northeast Ohio's forested parts. On the other hand, there was that time he poisoned himself with a bad mushroom.
The Foraging accolade went to a world-famous chef from Denmark—René Redzepi, who Time says, all other forager-chefs are simply trying to copy.
