Fine dining is never far away with Georgia-grown food, which will be put on center stage again this summer with the Georgia Grown Dinner series at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Chef Carlos Granderson of Atlanta’s Southern National restaurant presented a four-course meal at the botanical gardens outdoor kitchen during the May 15 installment of the series. The dinners feature ingredient was chicken, which was provided by Grateful Pastures Farm of Mansfield, a producer of certified, pasture-raised organic poultry.
Chef Carlos Sanderson of Southern National in Atlanta answers questions from diners during his cooking demonstration featuring organic, pasture-raised chicken from Grateful Pastures Farm in Mansfield. (GDA/Jay Jones)
Granderson started dinner with an appetizer of Amuse Bouche with smoked chicken canape, followed by a summer salad with greens from the botanical gardens Edible Garden and a Vidalia Onion vinaigrette. The main course was roasted chicken breast with parsnip puree, blistered garden vegetables and truffle chicken jus. The final course was a lemon chiffon tres leche, a lemon sponge cake accented with mint and mascarpone whipped cream.
Sous chef Kennedy Swan prepares the summer salad during the Georgia Grown Dinner Series with Georgia Grown Executive Chef Carlos Granderson at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. (GDA/Jay Jones)
Shaun Terry of Grateful Pastures told diners about raising their chickens using movable hoop pens. The pens are moved daily to fresh patch of pasture for the chickens to enjoy. The farm started in 2015 and processes about 600 chickens every eight weeks.
“The benefits of that is they get fresh grass and fresh bugs to eat every day. As soon as we move them, they love running to the front and eating a bunch of new bugs, grasshoppers and crickets,” Terry explained. “We’re certified organic, so we use certified organic feed. We don’t spray anything on our pastures, so they have lots of different types of vegetation to eat. All of that really comes through in the flavor of the finished product.”
The Georgia Grown Dinner Series is a partnership between the Atlanta Botanical Garden and Georgia Grown. Other executive chefs will scheduled will use their culinary skills to spotlight other Georgia commodities such as peanuts, peaches, blueberries, beef and more. Information is available at the Atlanta Botanical Garden website: https://atlantabg.org/calendar/.
Learn more about the Georgia Grown Executive Chef program at https://www.garestaurants.org/.
