Michael Adams is anxious to get started. As the new executive chef for the Hotel Bethlehem, he has high hopes of making an impact on the hotel's kitchen. “I don't want to make mediocre dishes,” he says. “I want to make them great.”
While his first day on the job may have been April Fools', it is no joke that he's taken on a major project. According to Adams, the Hotel Bethlehem is a “big place, with lots of moving pieces. It's a challenge on steroids.” The challenge is also an opportunity to establish the hotel as a dining destination. Hotel restaurants aren't usually the first places that come to mind for fine dining and Adams wants to change all that.
Contacted by hotel management a year ago about the position, Adams initially turned them down. The thought of operating two restaurants, three banquet facilities and doing it 365 days a year was daunting. The acclaimed chef had already made quite a name for himself as chef and co-owner of The Farmhouse restaurant in Emmaus, and that had been challenging enough working just five days a week, dinners only.
But the hotel called again, and Adams—then commuting an hour each way from his Bethlehem home to a job in Montgomery County as executive chef at Harvest Seasonal Grill—reconsidered and accepted the offer.
It is a bit of a homecoming. Adams previously served as Hotel Bethlehem's executive chef before it closed in 1998. Today, he says, it's a much different place. “My focus is on the 1741 restaurant, to fine tune the seasonal dishes but keep some of the old familiar ones for the regular clientele who come in for them.”
A first move was to create two sections on the menu. One is “1741 Classics” with simply prepared dishes such as grilled lamb chops and filet mignon, served with local farm vegetables and roasted fingerling potatoes. The other section is seasonal, changing every six weeks, and in late summer included pork tenderloin and a roasted duck breast with spiced roasted peaches and braised kale. Adams also does a Pacific halibut with cucumber, Thai basil and heirloom tomato puree. “The fish is so fresh and people are loving it,” he adds.
Other welcome additions are the market oysters on the appetizer menu, and for the first time the hotel is baking its own bread. It is essentially the same basic roll Adams served at The Farmhouse: a cross between ciabatta and baguette, very crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside, but with no added special flavors to interrupt the taste of the meal.
Adams says the key to making good food great starts with “getting really fresh and local ingredients and not doing too much to them.” He's been cooking this way quite successfully for over 20 years and is regarded as the one of the Valley's first proponents of the farm to table movement.
“There is always going to be a difference in the final dish when you source locally,” he says. “Everything is ripe and ready, either a day old or harvested that very morning by the time you get it.” Adams has a well-established network of local purveyors including Liberty Gardens (Emmaus), Valley View Farms (Bowers), Gottschell Farms (Limeport) and Lancaster Farm Fresh. On Thursday mornings he's over at Burnside Plantation to harvest a few things for the hotel's Thursday night specials.
One advantage of living in the Lehigh Valley is access to so many family-run farms, something Adams knows well. He grew up in Hometown, northwest of Tamaqua, where his family farmed their own vegetables, canned fruits, made jellies and jams and baked bread. “We got our half a steer from Dietrich's and did amazing grilled things with it,” he recalls. “And we always had five or six different cheeses in the cheese drawer. As kids we were eating triple-crème Brie and Camembert.”
He knew then that cooking was what he was meant to do. He received formal training at the Culinary Institute of America but credits his parents with instilling a strong foundation and understanding of food and the cooking process. “When I think back on how they did it, they did it right. There wasn't a short cut, there wasn't a rush.”
Adams will need to draw upon that well of patience in his new job. Right now he is pulled in many different directions: evaluating and organizing kitchen operations, securing ingredients and product consistency, plus educating the kitchen and wait staff. The scale of the hotel's operations makes it impossible for things to happen quickly. “I want to do everything,” he says, “but this place is huge, so we are taking our time with things to make sure we can execute them well.”
At 43, Adams feels like he's just getting started and he's got some interesting ideas up his sleeve. “This hotel deserves some real classy food. There aren't many places like this, anywhere.”
Stay tuned, and in the meantime enjoy his savory duck recipe. Or stop by the hotel during the holidays to take in the sights and tastes of the season!
437 Main St., Bethlehem | 610.625.5000 | hotelbethlehem.com
Balsamic Bacon Braised Kale
2 bunches Tuscano kale3 strips applewood smoked bacon1/2 Spanish onion2 cloves garlic1/4 cup balsamic vinegar2 Tablespoons honey1 cup vegetable stock
In salted boiling water, blanch the kale for two minutes. Place in ice bath. In a sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the bacon. Let the bacon render until it starts to turn brown. Add the onions and chopped garlic. Sweat until translucent. Add the kale, gently toss and coat with all of that good bacon fat. Add the remaining ingredients. Turn to low heat, cover and cook 7 to 10 minutes or until the liquid cooks to almost dry.
Butternut Goat Cheese Risotto
crispy pancetta, sage, pumpkin seed oil
Risotto
2 cups Arborio rice1 cup white wine1 pinch smoked lemon drop pepper powder (Meadow View Farm)6 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock2 each fresh bay leaves1/4 bunch thyme1 clove garlic1/2 Spanish onion (diced small)4 Tablespoons butter1.5 cups roasted, pureed butternut squash1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (toasted and salted)2 Tablespoons sage8 slices pancetta1 teaspoon pumpkin seed oil3 cups butternut squash (diced small)1 cinnamon stick4 oz. goat cheese
Melt the butter in a large heavy bottom saucepan. Add onions, garlic and sweat until translucent. Add the rice and stir until coated with the butter. Add the wine and stir until the wine is absorbed. Add the thyme, bay leaf. Add two cups of the stock and stir until the rice has absorbed until almost dry. Repeat two more times. When you add the last stage of liquid, add the pureed butternut squash. Pull from the heat. Add the goat cheese, sage, olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pancetta
Slice the pancetta very thin and place on a flat sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Fold the parchment on top of the pancetta and place another sheet pan on top to weigh it down. Bake at 400° for 12 minutes. Remove from the sheet pan and place on paper towel to absorb any fat.
Butternut Squash
Cut the squash in half. Place in a roasting pan with the cinnamon stick and 1/4 cup butter. Roast in 375° oven for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Scoop out the butternut and place into a food processor and puree. Add smoked lemon drop pepper, salt and pepper to taste.
Roasted Duck Breast with Ginger Pear Chutney & Star Anise Sauce
Duck
2, 7 oz. duck breasts1 clove garlic1 each shallot4 sprigs fresh thymeSalt and pepper, to taste
Prepare the duck breast by trimming the excess fat around the edges of the duck. With the skin side up, score the skin with a sharp knife. Season the duck breast with salt and pepper on flesh side only. In a hot skillet, place the duck in the pan skin side down and render the fat for about 5 minutes or until it turns golden brown. Pour 75 percent of the fat out of the pan. Add the garlic, thyme and shallot. Allow to sweat and then baste the duck with the fat and aromatics. Keep basting for 4 minutes and then place in a 375°F oven for 4 minutes. Pull out and baste for two more minutes. Then remove from the pan and let rest. Reserve the pan.
Chutney
1 each Bartlett pear (peeled, cored, diced small)1/2 cup onion (diced small)1/2 cup golden raisins (hydrated)1 Tablespoon ginger root3 Tablespoons honey2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar1 cinnamon stick1 bay leaf2 Tablespoons duck fat or butter
In a sauté pan on medium-high heat add the duck fat, onions and pear. Sauté until lightly caramelized. Add the ginger root. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and let simmer on low heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until chutney consistency.
Star anise sauce
3 Tablespoons sugar3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar1 shallot1 teaspoon black peppercorns1 bay leaf1 cup vegetable stock or chicken stock
In a saucepan on medium high, add sugar. Let caramelize and add the apple cider vinegar. In the pan that you roasted the duck in, sweat your shallots until translucent. Add the remaining ingredients and reduce by half. Strain the jus into the caramelized sugar and vinegar. Let simmer 5 minutes. Add salt to taste.
