For the sixth straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com, presented by Concordia University. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as the winners of our "Best of Dining 2012."
Last week, Milwaukee Art Museum opened "Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London." At the same time, the museum's Cafe Calatrava launched a new menu inspired by the show, which runs through Jan. 13.
"Creating a menu to accompany the masterworks of the Kenwood exhibition has been especially exhilarating, and not just because the works were donated by the Guinness family, whose beer has been the gold standard of stouts since it was first brewed," quipped Chef Josh Stefanko in a statement.
"My imagination bustled while contemplating the cooks and servants who must have kept up the kitchens of the neoclassical Kenwood House during its heyday in Europe's Belle Epoque."
Looking at English cuisine and the food of India – inspired by the Colonial Age connection – Stefanko's menu features dishes like the Ploughman's Lunch (with ham, English cheddar, pickles, apples, pickled onions, mixed greens and crusty bread), a wild boar and sage bangers and mash, fish and chips, pasties and and English cheddar and caramelized onion sandwich, alongside samosa starters and a roasted curried vegetable and paneer batard.
On my mind for the next visit? The dilled salmon rilletes, that boar bangers and mash and some steamed mussels.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
