TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/974613
partners, came to us one day and said, 'I found our chef. He's going to come over tonight and cook for us.' Matt said, 'ok, I'm going to go out and get a bunch of stuff and throw it on my table and see what he can prepare.' Jason came over, introduced himself, Matt said, 'here are all the vegetables, have at it, we're going to do some errands and we'll be back.' So he's in Matt's kitchen with all his cooking equipment and literally prepared one of the best meals I've ever had. We said 'okay, this is our guy.' He can be flexible and take good, fresh ingredients and make them absolutely tasty. We've gotten a few awards, and that's great, but what really matters is when real people can say, 'that was one of the best meals I've ever had.'" Those aforementioned awards include number one place to try by Only In Your State; Reader's Digest's `Most Romantic Place in Kentucky to have Valentine's Day–"but it's a Castle, of course," Bramer said–and an Open Table award. Bramer said he is looking forward to seeing the menu grow as the Castle's farms and gardens do. In the meantime, Walls sources the food not yet produced on-site from his network of local farmers. "Our menus right now are very classic," Bramer said. "We wanted to go for fine dining, but we believe fine dining can be farm-to- table as well. They don't have to be mutually exclusive." Having visited Castle Farms twice last month, I can attest to the fact the team there has created an excellent fine-dining, farm-to-table experience. I call it an experience because while