Cooking "Raw"

I guess the the phrase "cooking raw" is an oxymoron, considering anything that is true raw food is never brought abouve 116F. The reasoning behind this food movement is to preserve the "life-force" or energy of the food product used to nourish our bodies to the fullest extenet. By bringing vegetables, grains and legumes for instance above this cooking temp is believed to cook all of the natural enzymes out, leaving nothing to fill our tanks if you will . . .

We have a few guests that join us in six.one.six every once in a while looking for new and interesting raw dishes. To be a true skilled chef I believe you must be able to cook all styles of food with some sort of grace and fluidity. Raw food is some of the more difficult to do well.

Here are a couple of examples of raw dishes we have done, with a good amount of positive feedback from the deserning tounges of our raw foodists!

-Raw Sushi persimmon roll with blood plum gastrique! Sushi rice made with finely chopped parsnips and pine nuts, seasoned well with a bit of water and vinegar.

Pear Hazelnut "bisque" with raw honey cashew "creme" and macerated pear relish!

Jicama and corn "succotash" with jalepeno lime powder and avocado crudo salad!

If your interested in eating raw or just talking food, please stop and see us at six.one.six located in the lobby of the JW Marriott Grand Rapids.

Looking forward to seeing you in six.one.six, indulging in our "real food" movement!

-Andrew Voss, Executive Chef, JW Marriott Grand Rapids

Dancing Goat Creamery

Sustainability in general is the ability for an ecosystem to maintain a constant state of function, and ecological processes while remaining productive throughout it's life span. That in a nutshell is what Wikipedia has to say anyway. . .

The way this effects my life as a chef is simple, source farms that believe in producing products for quality, not for quantity. For most farmers this is a very hard thing to do . . .

This belief is what makes Dancing Goat Creamery so special for me.

Dogwood Farms L.L.C is our source for amazing organic, artisanal style fresh goat cheese that is made about twenty minutes from our door step. Dogwood Farms is home to “Dancing Goat Creamery” and “Udderly Wonderful Soup”, both of which encompass the artwork performed by farmer and artisan cheese maker Barbara Jenness and her heard of Alpine goats.

Dogwood Farms is dedicated to organic, sustainable farming practices and believes the way your treat your livestock has a direct reflection on the outcome of the end product. Barbara names every goat and gives each one individual attention based on their varying personalities. Dancing Goat Creamery produces organic farmstead cheese’s that range from fresh goat’s milk chevre and ash ripened St. Maurve all the way to her new addition, a Spanish style raw goats milk Mahone! Barbara makes cheese from only what her goats can milk, and no more. Between the months of November and April she does not milk, and such does not produce cheese. The practice of letting her herd rest for the off season produces a stress free lifestyle for the goats and the result when it’s “cheese” season is a much higher quality cheese!

If you have never had the opportunity to try this cheesy masterpiece I strongly suggest you do so, you will not be disappointed. We are featuring DGC in many different areas on our menu currently; goat cheese agnoloti’s with ramps and green garlic, chevré cheese cake with candied macadamia nuts and it’s also on our cheese menu!

Look forward to seeing you in six.one.six, indulging in our “real food” movement!

-Andrew Voss, Executive Chef, JW Marriott Grand Rapids

Restaurant six.one.six. Have you heard of us?

six.one.six of the JW Marriott Grand Rapids, is the signature restaurant off the lobby of the hotel. We offer new American farmers market cuisine with many different ethnic influences. My focus as a chef is to secure the freshest, local ingredients we can find to ensure our guests are consuming only what is in its peak season. We strive to find new and interesting ingredients grown within our area code by local, sustainable farms. Obviously when you’re located in Michigan it makes it difficult to obtain really high quality product year around, here is where it becomes interesting. When the season runs bitter cold and the ground is frozen, we as chefs have to start looking towards our farmers to see what can be done. Some of our farms have chosen to start farming year round in “hot houses” in order to provide us with some great winter crops of rustic root vegetables, hearty lettuces and different varieties of greens. There are many other choices of dried grains and legumes that are also available year around. Other times we must source great ingredients outside of Michigan, but always, and I mean always domestic!

I would like to recognize a few farms and suppliers that we feature within six.one.six:

Trillium Haven Farms: Jenison, MI Farmers: Michael Vanderbrug / Anja Mast
Blissfield Farms: Ada, MI Farmers: Natalie Bauss
Dogwood Farms: Byron Center, MI Farmers: Barbara Jenness
S&S Lamb: McBain, MI Farmers: Pierre Schierbeek
Sobie Meats: Walker, MI Butcher: Tim Sobie

There are more farms to come. We are always visiting the Fulton St. farmers market from May through December looking for the next sustainable farm that would like to participate in helping us execute our vision of what “real food” should be!

Look forward to seeing you in six.one.six, indulging in our “real food” movement!

Contact six.one.six at 1-616-242-1448 to make your reservation now!

-Andrew Voss, Executive Chef, JW Marriott Grand Rapids