savor — guide to food & dining on the azalea coast
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While game may be a rarity in many restaurants, a handful of local chefs with previous
positions in larger markets are introducing those items to their menus. What follows is a
sampling of where the duck, quail, rabbit and bison roam around the Lower Cape Fear.
New to the Wilmington food scene
is Certified Master Chef Olivier Andreini, who recently took the culinary reigns of
the Country Club of Landfall. Having been a chef around the world from his native
Switzerland to Tokyo, Philadelphia and New York City, Andreini says he wants to
bring more game meat like his bison strip loin to add diversity to the menus at the
country club.
Using all-natural, free-range American bison from Carolina Bison in Asheville,
North Carolina, Andreini coats the strip loin in a coffee rub and plates it over a dry
chili chocolate sauce with seasonal vegetables. In the fall Andreini likes red and yellow
beets and Brussels sprout leaves, with a butternut squash and sage puree. His cooking
method consists of packing the loin in a vacuum sealed bag, immersing the bagged
bison in hot water to produce an even temperature throughout and then searing
the outside.
Andreini says bison meat cooks like any other red meat but faster, because it is
much leaner than beef. Bison would become a more popular meat if its health ben-efits
like low cholesterol, low fat, low calorie and high vitamin count were more well
known, he says.
“I think if they would promote it better, then it would sell better,” Andreini says.
“But you go to the store here and you cannot find it. In upstate New York you can
find bison steak, bison sausages, but not here.”
When thinking of a game dish for fall, Country Club of Landfall Certified Master Chef
Olivier Andreini went straight for red meat and fall vegetables with a coffee-rubbed
bison strip loin, beets and Brussels sprouts.
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