WORDS Caroline Rosen
Downtown Farmer Jetson Brown pilots his green Regions Bank bike through the traffic of downtown Montgomery, dodging cars and well-wishers in equal measure. It’s Friday, time for E.A.T. South to make its weekly delivery to Executive Chef Leonardo Maurelli at Central. A few months ago, Leo started a new Friday tradition for Montgomery: he takes delivery of vegetables from E.A.T. South and creates a meal built around the locally sourced produce. Leo has no idea what he will get before Jetson arrives, and has only a few hours before dinner service to come up with a menu and get cooking.
“It’s invigorating,” Leo said in an interview last week, “it takes me back to my 20’s when I was a food geek who couldn’t wait to explore ingredients and put my hands on new food.” Leo, whose roots are in Panama, refers to these dinners as “desde el jardin y el mar,” translated as “meals from farm and sea.” In addition to the fresh produce he receives from E.A.T. South, Leo orders day-fresh fish and shellfish from Destin Connection, with as much from the Gulf as possible.
Leo shares the entire process on Instagram (chefleo3), from delivery to finished product. First, Leo takes pictures of the produce once it arrives from E.A.T. South. Then he puts together a list of all the ingredients he has on hand, starting to think through combinations, then dishes. Finally, Leo shares the menu through social media, including his inspirations for each dish. Leo has given credit to family members, mentors and others as the dishes come together in his mind. Leo “wants people to feel like they are walking through the process with me,” and he takes pictures of the product “so people can see the food and be as excited as I am about the dinner as it happens.” Following Leo’s pictures, you almost feel like you are walking around in his imagination, a peak into the way a chef’s brain works.
Each week the menu is different, and Leo does not want to have a formula. Some nights there can be three courses, some nights five, but each course is available a la carte. While normally a garden and sea dinner would be something a restaurant would put together on a Tuesday or a Wednesday - mainly as a way drum up business on a slow day - Leo decided to host these dinners on Friday. “Rather than make the benefit one-sided and all for Central,” Leo says, “I wanted to give these ingredients the stage on Friday when the dining room is already busy.” By having these dinners on Friday, Leo can showcase the quality of the ingredients to a packed house, and as far as Leo is concerned, “the more people that learn about the important work being done at E.A.T. South, the better.”
Leo’s dinners show how a partnership between chef and purveyor can grow into an amazing tradition. Look for garden and sea dinners for the rest of the summer; each week will bring different vegetables and seafood for Leo to combine into a memorable meal.
www.central129coosa.com Call: 334 517 1155