This week, I’m doing a little something different. I wanted to share with you a fun culinary adventure my husband and I went on. A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to spend the weekend at The Inn of the Patriots in Grover, NC.
Chef Marti was our host for the weekend. He was the Executive Chef at Camp David under former President Bill Clinton, and was also brought in to assist preparations for larger state dinners. He also honed his cooking skills while serving on a nuclear submarine.
It was great to talk to Chef Marti not just about food, but about history too. The man is a walking history book always throwing out little bits of trivia. And, I loved to hear stories about his days at Camp David. For example, President Clinton used to like to just come to the kitchen, hang out and chat. Could you imagine having a president watch while you made tonight’s dinner?
We arrived to the inn Friday night and pretty much headed to bed after our long ride. What we woke up to on Saturday was a gorgeous day and delicious food. For breakfast, we enjoyed oatmeal with fresh peaches, blueberry scones with golden raisins and orange zest AND angel food French toast with strawberry sauce. So much good food already.
After breakfast, we enjoyed a tour of the Presidential Culinary Museum that’s adjacent to the inn. We were able to see china from the Madison, Polk and Jackson administrations, along with other collectibles. Each collectible, told a little bit of history.
Then it was off to our cooking class. We were making homemade pizza. Did you know, that to cook with authentic products from Italy it must say product of Italy – not imported from Italy? It was one of the fun trivia bits we learned over lunch.
Chef Marti made us feel right at home in his kitchen and we got to work on making our pizzas. We created three types – one with traditional red sauce, one with pesto and one white pizza.
The white pizza had pattypan squash and other vegetables on top (along with a TON of cheese) and was my favorite. I loved the addition of veggies to the pizza. We topped our traditional pizza with pepperoni, sausage and then drizzled it with a balsamic glaze. We tore up fresh basil, sliced tomatoes and added them to the pesto pizza. Those pies weren’t too bad either!
We used whole wheat flour in the dough… it was fun to get in and make it from scratch. We also added different ingredients to the dough – like Parmesan cheese, rosemary, Italian seasonings, etc – to give each pizza a unique crust. I love to make pizza from scratch and can’t wait to make these for my friends.
When not at the inn, we also explored a few wineries in the area and ate at a lovely restaurant. Check them out if you ever find yourself in town – Owl’s Eve Vineyard, Baker Buffalo Creek Vineyard and NiFen Bistro. You can visit the The Inn of the Patriots‘ website if you’d like more info.
I enjoyed so much good food on this trip, you can be sure I did not leave North Carolina hungry. It was like an amazing day in the Test Kitchen! If you could cook for any president, who would you want to cook for?