Entertainment/Ticket - Dining

Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2008

Local Flavors: Marisol chef has a passion for fresh, local ingredients

Gregg Wangard regularly visits farmers markets for fixings and a dose of inspiration

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Gregg Wangard, chef de cuisine for Marisol at The Cliffs since November, is proof that you never know where the road less traveled will take you.

Just last year, he and wife Kelly (also a respected chef) were living in Los Angeles and making frequent trips to see her family in Paso Robles.

Typically, the Wangards drove Highway 5, but one day they opted for Highway 101. Intrigued by the Shell Beach area, they serendipitously stopped to inquire about job possibilities, and Wangard found himself in an inspired discussion with Pam Tread-well, The Cliffs’ food and beverage director.

He got a job, and he and Kelly were able to realize their dream of moving to the Central Coast.

Wangard’s considerable culinary experience — which includes the Loews Santa Monica Hotel in Los Angeles and the AAA five-diamond Immigrant Room and Winery Bar at The American Club in Wisconsin — is a great fit for Marisol, and he is also energized by The Cliff’s commitment to fresh, seasonal, local ingredients.

“We’re using farmers market food and indigenous products,” said Wangard, a Wisconsin native.

In addition to revamping the menu for summer, the restaurant is also developing new menu boards that will list the source of ingredients “so the consumer knows where we’re getting our product,” he said. “It makes a better story, especially for people coming here from out of town,” and he encourages locals to “come by and taste what’s in their backyard.”

Wangard is “looking forward to developing more relationships with local farmers,” and regularly visits a couple of farmers markets weekly, both for fresh produce and because “you really get motivated there.

“You taste a grapefruit and realize it could be used in a drink, or in a salad, or caramelized for something … from just tasting one thing, you can immediately come up with five or six dishes,” he said.

Katy Budge is a freelance writer from Atascadero. If you have a favorite “Local Flavor” you’d like to see featured, e-mail your suggestions to ktbudge@sbcglobal.net.

Popular appetizers are a snap to prepare

These two tastes are part of a popular appetizer plate at Marisol at The Cliffs, and the piquillo jam makes wonderful use of fresh, local citrus.

Unless you have a favorite blue cheese and/or bacon, Chef de Cuisine Gregg Wangard suggests Cabrales blue cheese and Nueske’s apple wood smoked bacon for the dates.

BACON-WRAPPED DATES WITH BLUE CHEESE

Makes: 12 dates

• 12 dates, pitted

• 4 ounces blue cheese

• 4 strips apple-wood smoked bacon

Carefully stuff each date with about 1/3 ounce of the cheese.

Cut the bacon in thirds (the short way), wrap a bacon piece completely around each date, and hold together with a tooth pick. Refrigerate the dates until ready to cook; preparation of dates can be done a day or two in advance.

On medium high heat, or a grill, cook dates for 3 to 4 minutes, often turning them to prevent burning.

POACHED MEXICAN PRAWNS WITH PIQUILLO JAM

Makes: 12 prawns

• 12 large (U/12) prawns

• Salt

• 2 lemons

• 1 small yellow onion, peeled and minced

• Zest and juice of 1 orange

• Zest and juice of 1 lemon

• Zest and juice of 1 lime

• 1 cup white vinegar

• 2 ounces grated ginger • 2 cups sugar

• 14 piquillo peppers (or 7 red peppers), diced small

For the prawns: Poach prawns in water with a little salt and 2 lemons—water temperature should not exceed 180 degrees — poach the shrimp for about 4 to 5 minutes until they are white all the way through. Cool off the prawns in an ice bath, then peel and devein, and set prawns aside.

For the piquillo jam: combine onion, zests and juices, vinegar, ginger and sugar in a medium sauce pan and reduce until the mixture is a syrup consistency. Add the peppers and bring to a boil (water will come out of the peppers). Reduce heat to simmer and cook until the mixture returns to a syrup consistency.

—Katy Budge