“There is nothing better than com-fort food,” says Tim Widrick, head chef at Edge Restaurant, and that's exactly what he makes at home for his wife during their rare downtime.
Tim admits that they are at the restaurant most days, but when they are at home, he loves to cook. For him, he says cooking has “never felt like a job.”
In fact, on Tim's first date with his now wife, Karen, he had planned on making something fancy to impress her, but their equal love of cheesy hot dogs won out as they grocery shopped together for the meal. Though, he says he did “fancy it up” with some roasted squash and a bottle of wine. The two were married a little less than a year later and Karen is now the manager at Edge.
If you ask most people about meatloaf, they usually have a nostalgic story to share, and Tim is no exception. His take on the classic meatloaf is a hearty one, which he watched his mom prepare when he was a kid growing up alongside four siblings on a farm outside of Bangor. “It was my mother who encouraged me to go to culinary school because I always loved cooking,” he says. Tim graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1995.
He elevates the meatloaf by using fresh ground meat for the recipe and adding his own special spice mix. One can taste Tim's meatloaf at Edge, where he serves a meatloaf sandwich on his lunch menu, proving you don't always have to be at home to share incredible home-cooked food.
Ingredients
- 2 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 cup onion, diced
- 1/2 cup red pepper, diced
- 2 extra large eggs
- 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 1 Tbsp. porcini powder
- 2 tsp. ground black pepper
- 2 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- For the glaze
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
Directions
Mix all ingredients together, and form into a loaf. Top with glaze.
Bake at 375˚F for 40–45 minutes or until internal temperature is 155 degrees.
74 W. Broad St., Bethlehem | 610.814.0100 | edgerestaurant.net
