For the past few weeks, people from across the country have been uploading their family recipes onto familyreciperevival.com, as part of Il Mito's Chef Michael Feker's first initiative in a year-long plan to encourage people to make dining together at the dinner table a priority again.
Feker cites the convenience of eating on the go and pre-packaged meals as part of the reason families have lost touch with the true meaning of mealtime.
"Even family recipes, which long represented togetherness, have become something we make only during holidays and special occasions," he says.
Feker's Family Recipe Revival strives to remind people of the importance of the home-cooked meal, and that every meal is a special occasion.
For the next three weeks, the general public can vote for the recipe and story they like best. Feker will select weekly winners and reward them by featuring their dish on the Il Mito menu the following week.
Net proceeds from the sale of each winning menu item will go to the winners' charities of choice with Feker matching that contribution and donating it to the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee. After four weekly winners are chosen, the public will decide on the ultimate family recipe, which will be featured on the Il Mito menu for an entire year. Additionally, Feker and his contest sponsors will award the recipe champion a prize package worth more than $2,000.
The first week's winner was Paul and Lori Fredrich of Milwaukee, who shared their family recipe and story for chocolate hazelnut schaum torte. The schaum torte will appear on Il Mito's menu from Sunday, Feb. 28 through Saturday, March 6.
If you would like to submit a family recipes and the story behind them, visit familyreciperevival.com. In addition to helping the winners' charities of choice, each weekly winner receives a prize package from Il Mito Trattoria, Strauss Free-Raised products, Time Warner Cable, Regal Ware cookware and Sub Zero-Wolf.
Amy L. Schubert is a 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry and has worked in every aspect of bar and restaurant operations. A graduate of Marquette University (B.A.-Writing Intensive English, 1997) and UW-Milwaukee (M.A.-Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing, 2001), Amy still occasionally moonlights as a guest bartender and she mixes a mean martini.
The restaurant business seems to be in Amy’s blood, and she prides herself in researching and experimenting with culinary combinations and cooking techniques in her own kitchen as well as in friends’ restaurants. Both she and her husband, Scott, are avid cooks and “wine heads,” and love to entertain friends, family and neighbors as frequently as possible.
Amy and Scott live with their boys, Alex and Nick, in Bay View, where they are all very active in the community. Amy finds great pleasure in sharing her knowledge and passions for food and writing in her contributions to OnMilwaukee.com.
