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Foodies

IMGP1122 It's a long way from Telluride to TAG. Start by jumping into a rabbit hole.

If you are lucky enough to get in – the place is one of the hippest, read jammed, in Denver's oh so hip Larimer Square district –  expect the unexpected in this Wonderland of food, where, for example, onion soup winds up inside a dumpling. (Try it, you'll love it.)

Ignorance is bliss – or we have a guardian angel. We showed up without reservations with friends, former Telluride locals Jade and Ernie Graham, also TAG virgins, and managed to waltz right in. (With a little help from the charming young man at the front desk.) But it was a Monday night and TAG was merely full: pulsing, but not hyperventilating.

15 April, 2010 /

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Ivar & Susan

It was time to stretch our wings, and so we sprung ourselves from the anodyne Spring of Telluride and headed for our second home: Denver.

Our loft is downtown, just on the edge of LoDo in Curtis Park, a neighborhood in the throes of a full-throated appeal for gentrification, but still a bit rough around the edges.

12 April, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Susan's conversation with the Singing Chef]

Andy-isle-wight What do you get when you cross Mario Batali with Mario Lanza? Dinner theater in Telluride featuring The Singing Chef, Andy LoRusso. In the high stakes super star chefs sweepstakes, LoRusso is sure to bag the talent segment.


Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House is throwing a party for itself on Friday, March 19. The fun-raiser starts at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails. A cooking show and four-course Italian dinner follows, orchestrated by the guest of honor and prepared by Telluride's The Butcher and The Baker. The evening ends with a live auction and dancing to burn some of the calories – and a hole in your wallet for a popular cause.
16 March, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Sergio Gonzalez talk about SMRC, the Fling, and Telluride Pizza Kitchen]

 
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Sergio Gonzalez

The San Miguel Resource Center is the Telluride region's only nonprofit in the business of eliminating domestic violence and sexual assault. The upcoming Chocolate Lovers' Fling is the Center's only public fundraiser.


Chocolate’s history dates back at least 1,500 years, when the Mayans of Central America crushed cocoa beans into an unsweetened beverage. Closer to home, last year tests of cylindrical clay jars found in the ruins of Chaco Canyon confirmed the presence of theobromine, a cacao marker. Researchers now believe the ancestors of modern Pueblo people of the Southwest used the jars to drink liquid chocolate. Years later in Europe, chocolate was prescribed for depression and made into love and death potions. (Its bitter flavor masked poisons.) You are in good company if you find the allure of chocolate irresistible. (Cravings may be in part be attributed to the natural chemicals in chocolate, including theobromine, thought to produce feelings of well being.) But did you know chocolate is good for you in other ways? According to the Harvard Women's Health Watch, over the past 10 year chocolate has undergone an extreme makeover from "fattening indulgence" to "health food."

04 February, 2010 /

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Chef Bud and Jenna Thomas

Telluride is always high. And we mean that in a good way. The town and its surrounding mountains range between 9,000 – 14,000 feet, great if you like skiing, hiking, parasailing, mountain biking, lots of sports, but challenging for basics such as breathing and cooking. Just ask "The Tomboy Bride," Harriet Backus.

In her memoir, Backus wrote  “'The Rocky Mountain Cook Book' became my guide, philosopher and daily companion.” One memorable Thanksgiving at their Tomboy cabin, the Backuses and friends sat down for what was sure to be the best meal of the year, only to find the bird still quite frozen.

01 February, 2010 /


It's looking like deja vu at The Peaks Hotel & Spa in Telluride's sister town, The Mountain Village. And that's a good thing.

Way back when The Peaks was Telluride Inside... and Out's next door neighbor, the joint was always jumping. The Peaks' Great Room was a go-to place for locals to meet apres-ski, a hang-out where conversation and drinks flowed unedited and friends applauded friends providing first-rate nightly entertainment. Then the bubble burst way before the bubble burst. Now it's all coming back, ahead of the curve – again.
25 January, 2010 /

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Winter at Indian Ridge

We at Telluride Inside... and Out hope to sweeten your Christmas with a recipe from master chef/baker Barclay Daranyi  of Indian Ridge Farm & Bakery in Norwood, active members of the Telluride Farmers' Market in summer. In winter, not so much.

Christmas Stollen is loaf-shaped fruitcake, with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts, and spices on the inside, powdered with icing sugar on the outside. Barclay's family has made this traditional German holiday treat every year for decades. "I can't  imagine Christmas morning without it," she exclaimed.

23 December, 2009 /
[click "Play" to listen to Susan talking with Bertrand Marchal]

Bertrand Longtime Telluride locals referred to them as  les deux Bertrands, the two Bertrands: Bertrand Lepel-Cointet, now deceased, worked the front of the house. Bertrand Marchal was the chef. Together, the two owners turned La Marmotte Restaurant into a local institution.

Bertrand Marchal spent his youth studying under some of the best chefs in France, at Michelin-rated restaurants such as Le Crocodile in Strasbourg and Boyer in Reims. Today, he operates his own catering company, Bertrand's Catering.
09 December, 2009 /
IMGP0672 On the road, Telluride Inside... and Out, especially on family visits to big cities on both coasts, tends to build our days around friends and museums and our evenings around theatre, music, or dance. Now and again, food is the main event.

Kjerstin Viebrock Klein, TIO's partner in charge of social networking and optimization, lives in Pittsburgh with her family, husband Greg Klein, entrepreneur and owner of Willi's ski shops, and their two children/our grandchildren Dylan and Anna. On our weeklong visit, Kjerstin and Greg suggested an evening out at their favorite Italian restaurant.
19 October, 2009 /

[Editor's Note: In time for the 16th annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, this weekend, September 18– 20, anthropologist/cook book author Dr. Susanna Hoffman has come up with a recipe for elk (or other game meat) and brews.]

by Dr. Susanna Hoffman
April Cabin 013 Denver is Telluride's big sister city today, but back in the days of the wild, wooly West both were prosperous mining towns.

Young Denver was a rich gold-rush city, a way station for many wagon trains and cattle drives, and a merchant capitol where intrepid folks crossing the mountains could stock up on whatever goods they needed. Back then, Denver was relatively small, edging towards half million hardy souls, surrounded by open plains and, just up the road a piece, mountains teeming with game. In young Denver, it was easy to eat buffalo, elk, moose, and pronghorn. Any good butcher had the meats as did some of the finer eating establishments such as El Rancho, The Old Navarre, and the Wiltshire Country Club. I never lost my taste for the game morsels I acquired as a girl and mourned their disappearance from shops and restaurants as more and more people, along with mega-chain grocery stores, invaded my hometown.  

16 September, 2009 /