The New Kitchen at Christophe’s To Go

This is Marie, contributing an article about Christophe’s To Go. We were invited to a dinner to showcase Christophe’s and Red Hare Brewing, who had teamed up for a blogger night at the kitchens, but unfortunately Grant was not able to attend with me; he enjoys Red Hare and would have liked the meals that we sampled!

We had a tour of the facilities in Duluth first and had the opportunity to see where everything is made; it’s a very bright and well organized space with lots of storage at different temperatures for different products. Chef Christophe talked about his production methods a bit, too. Food waste is such an issue in the industry, especially restaurants, but Christophe’s can really take advantage of the process and keep that down. For instance, the first thing we had was some truly delectable salmon bites with herbed potatoes; his system uses the odds and ends from trimming a salmon into filets to make these, and boy are they good.

Christophe’s physical stores have closed, but they are ramping up their catering and delivery businesses to include home delivery. This is anticipated to start early in November, in case you want to avoid cooking this month to conserve strength for Turkey Day.

Chef Christophe talked about some of the challenges of the business, like making sure to craft food that would last well; for instance, he can’t use anything crispy as part of a dish because as you have probably found with your own leftovers, nachos (to take an example he didn’t use) are not particularly good the next morning.

Red Hare also talked about the process for making their beers. I had heard about the basics before, but they shared things like the fact that India Pale Ale was invented by accident because shippers were putting a lot of extra hops in the beer to keep it from going bad on the way to India.

We were able to enjoy a wide selection of items. Although not all of them are suitable for reheating at home, some of what we had would be excellent as catered meals – one of my favorites was the warm carrot puree with spicy pistachios and popcorn. Another favorite of mine was the pumpkin bread with ginger bits that came with the rabbit and barley salad, which were good in and of themselves, and as mentioned the carrot puree. But if I could only pick one single thing from today’s meal to have again, it would be the salmon with creamed potatoes. And it doesn’t even need to be warmed up!

The storefronts are no longer open, but if you live in the Atlanta city limits or some of the northern suburbs, you can order their meals for delivery. Visit their website ( https://www.christophestogo.com/ ) to see the menu, and drop them a line. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we do!

(As noted, this was a media event and our meal was complimentary. It’s our policy to always note when we’ve received our meal without charge. If you would like to invite us to your restaurant’s media events, please drop Grant a line at gmslegion@gmail.com .)

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