Cameron Mitchell Restaurants will be closed on Monday, May 28th in observance of Memorial Day.
Review By: Barbara SullivanSeptember 21, 2004Boundaries fade when it comes to sharing ingredients and ideas among cultures.One of the most popular appetizers on the menu at M, a restaurant in downtown Columbus, Ohio, is the bento box. It’s a black-and-red lacquered wooden box with five compartments, each holding an appetizer such as sushi roll, soba noodles with dipping sauce, or tempura. In the middle there might be wasabi and pickled ginger for the sushi. “We change it every day,” says Brian Hinshaw, executive chef for the Cameron Mitchell Restaurants concept. “Some days, it’s totally Korean, the next day it might be all Japanese. We have fun with it.” Times are changing when it comes to American taste buds and what they desire. International travel, the popularity of celebrity chefs, cooking programs on television and the proliferation of ethnic restaurants all create an adventurous spirit among diners. Meatloaf always will be a wonderful comfort food and steak and potatoes a big favorite, but foreign influences are finding their way onto tables across foodservice segments from coast to coast. Call it the globalization of the American menu.Coastal InfluencesMany of the young chefs responsible for bringing new global influences to the table took their training on the West Coast. Brian Hinshaw of M restaurant, for example, headed to Los Angeles and San Francisco to do apprenticeships after graduating from an Ohio culinary school in the late 1980s. “You could eat at a different ethnic restaurant every night,” he says. After a brief stint in Chicago, he moved back to Ohio a decade after leaving. “I knew the food scene had blossomed in that 10 years, but it still was not where it was on the West Coast.” Now, M diners relish such dishes at little lobster cones holding three different kinds of caviar (salmon roe, tobiko and American); and tuna tartare with wasabi-soy drizzle, both appetizers; and miso-glazed Chilean sea bass, a popular entrée. Is he pushing the envelope? “For Columbus, there’s no doubt about our being edgy,” he says. “I think we’re walking that fine line as to whether we go further. But the demand for this kind of food is going to keep getting greater.”
Review By: Barbara SullivanSeptember 21, 2004
Boundaries fade when it comes to sharing ingredients and ideas among cultures.One of the most popular appetizers on the menu at M, a restaurant in downtown Columbus, Ohio, is the bento box. It’s a black-and-red lacquered wooden box with five compartments, each holding an appetizer such as sushi roll, soba noodles with dipping sauce, or tempura. In the middle there might be wasabi and pickled ginger for the sushi. “We change it every day,” says Brian Hinshaw, executive chef for the Cameron Mitchell Restaurants concept. “Some days, it’s totally Korean, the next day it might be all Japanese. We have fun with it.” Times are changing when it comes to American taste buds and what they desire. International travel, the popularity of celebrity chefs, cooking programs on television and the proliferation of ethnic restaurants all create an adventurous spirit among diners. Meatloaf always will be a wonderful comfort food and steak and potatoes a big favorite, but foreign influences are finding their way onto tables across foodservice segments from coast to coast. Call it the globalization of the American menu.Coastal InfluencesMany of the young chefs responsible for bringing new global influences to the table took their training on the West Coast. Brian Hinshaw of M restaurant, for example, headed to Los Angeles and San Francisco to do apprenticeships after graduating from an Ohio culinary school in the late 1980s. “You could eat at a different ethnic restaurant every night,” he says. After a brief stint in Chicago, he moved back to Ohio a decade after leaving. “I knew the food scene had blossomed in that 10 years, but it still was not where it was on the West Coast.” Now, M diners relish such dishes at little lobster cones holding three different kinds of caviar (salmon roe, tobiko and American); and tuna tartare with wasabi-soy drizzle, both appetizers; and miso-glazed Chilean sea bass, a popular entrée. Is he pushing the envelope? “For Columbus, there’s no doubt about our being edgy,” he says. “I think we’re walking that fine line as to whether we go further. But the demand for this kind of food is going to keep getting greater.”