This week at PRFM

Chef Demo by Aaron Russell of Restaurant Eugene, 10:00 a.m.

Live Music by Alex Gordon, Happy Nest Kids Activities, all morning

Chef Demo with Aaron Russell
of Restaurant Eugene

10:00 a.m. on 8/17

Chef Demos are sponsored by

COUNTRY Financial

Aaron Russell, Pastry Chef at Restaurant Eugene, worked his way through culinary school while baking bread at night at Breadgarden, Atlanta's finest bakery at the time. After graduation, he became pastry chef at Nikolai's Roof, the first restaurant in the Southeast to receive 4 Mobil Stars. This led to a position as Assistant Pastry Chef at The Dining Room in the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, which cemented his career path. While there, he was promoted to become the youngest 5 Mobil Star Pastry Chef in the nation. Aaron then took the position of Pastry Chef at Guenter Seeger's namesake restaurant Seeger's. Chef Seeger's austere approach to local, organic ingredients and simple preparations has held the most influence on Aaron's current style.

In 2008 and 2009, Russell was nominated for "Outstanding Pastry Chef" by the James Beard Foundation while working at The Chocolate Bar. In 2010, Chef Linton Hopkins invited Aaron to take charge of the pastry kitchen at Restaurant Eugene, where Russell has received three more James Beard Award nominations. This Saturday, Chef Russell surprises us with a summer dessert!

Local Nation

Chef Demo
with Peter Dale of The National
10:00 a.m. on 8/10
Chef Demos are sponsored by
COUNTRY Financial
Y'all know Hugh Acheson. Meet Hugh's executive chef from his Athens restaurant The National—Peter Dale. No, really, you should come meet him this Saturday. A UGA grad, Peter pursued his culinary passion shortly after college. With family heritage from Ecuador and Greece, he had experienced an array of cuisines and was ready to get his start in the field. He began as an apprentice at Hugh's Five & Ten restaurant, with plans to attend culinary school thereafter. Instead, he chose travel as his education and spent time in Europe (mostly Spain) where he found further inspiration and honed his skills. In 2007, Dale and Hugh opened The National, combining their interests in cooking, travel, and food politics. The daily-changing menu features ingredients from local farms and pairs the seasons of Georgia with the flavors of Spain, France, North Africa, Greece, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East. This weekend you don't have to travel around the world, or even to Athens, to get a taste for Peter's fantastic dishes—you just have to stop by PRFM!

Canning with Martha
8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Welcome back our canning expert Martha McMillin—she’ll be on hand all morning to share tasty summer canning recipes (like how to freeze corn) and answer all of your questions about home canning—yes, you (can) CAN!


- Jennifer Maley

Digging In

Chef Demo with Hilary White
of The Hil at Serenbe
10:00 a.m. on 8/3
Chef Demos are sponsored by
COUNTRY Financial
Chef Hilary talks the talk and walks the walk, y’all. Having grown up around the rural farmland of Ohio, she was drawn to the Serenbe community and its ethos of sustainability when picking the location of her namesake restaurant, The Hil. Before that, she had built her knowledge and experience traveling the globe, earning a degree from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and working her way up as the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group’s first female executive chef. But the farmland called in 2007, and Chef Hilary opened The Hil at Serenbe with her husband, Jim, and her mother, Sandy Pitsch, at her side. She spends time tending the farm and growing produce, using the fruits of her labor to create comforting dishes worth the short drive to Serenbe. The critics love her (she’s been lauded by the likes of Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, and The New York Times) and her community does, too (she’s involved with Les Dames d’Escoffier, Southern Foodways Alliance, Georgia Grown, Share Our Strength, and Wholesome Wave). When she’s not spending her spare time volunteering or mentoring young chefs, you can find Chef Hilary exploring the roads on her Harley. Or, we might recommend spotting her at PRFM this Saturday, where she’ll show us how to make some quick and delicious fridge pickles.

AgSouth AgAware Day at PRFM
August 3 from 8:30 a.m. to noon
Join us on Saturday, when AgSouth Farm Credit will dedicate a picnic bench to PRFM volunteers, build a raised flower bed and herb garden for the Market, and host the “Ag Experience” for youth and their families—kids will learn what it takes to farm, including getting money from the bank, buying seeds, planting, harvesting, and selling. Then they’ll use the “profits” to play games!


- Jennifer Maley

AgSouth AgAware Day at PRFM

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner?

Chef Demo with Todd Richards
of The Shed at Glenwood
10:00 a.m. on 7/27
Chef Demos are sponsored by
COUNTRY Financial
Check out last year’s love letter to Iron Chef and Today alum Chef Todd Richards. He’s still throwing down at The Shed, with a new fried chicken night for the people, and has some exciting plans in the works for Atlantic Station—there, he and The Shed owner Cindy Shera will open the Pig and the Pearl in January 2014. We can’t wait for the smokehouse’s offerings: locally sourced meats and fish, a raw bar with fresh oysters, and of course a cool cocktail menu. In the meantime, visit Chef Todd under our demo tent this Saturday (and at The Shed anytime). P.S. look out for the COUNTRY Financial folks handing out PRFM bags—they’ll also have a chance for you to win a Shed gift certificate!

Save the date…
On Saturday, August 3, bring the kids for AgSouth AgAware activities from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Learn what it takes to farm, including getting money from the bank, buying seeds, planting, harvesting, and selling. Then use the “profits” to play games!


- Jennifer Maley

Tomato Time

A rainy summer means a shorter tomato season, but fear not! Gather up summer’s juiciest fruit and can and freeze your way to a happy winter. You’ll also want to check out Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival founder Chef Ford Fry in the demo tent, and get inspired by the sounds of Irish Traditions music wafting about this week’s market.

Chef Demo with Ford Fry
of Rocket Farm Restaurants
10:00 a.m. on 7/20
Chef Demos are sponsored by
COUNTRY Financial
For our homage to Ford Fry, one of Atlanta’s culinary giants, click here. Since we saw Ford under the demo tents last year, he’s added Buckhead’s newest hotspot King + Duke and Westside smash-hit The Optimist and Oyster Bar to his roster which also includes JCT. Kitchen & Bar and No. 246. Dedicated to using local products and making each of his restaurants a community gathering place, Ford is tireless in his creativity and reach. That’s why we’re not surprised at how many more projects he’s got in the works: the just-launched People’s food truck (benefiting non-profit City of Refuge), this fall’s St. Cecilia (Mediterranean in the former Bluepointe spot), and new concepts in Inman Park’s Krog Street Market and Alpharetta’s Avalon development next year. He’s also founder of one of Atlanta’s most scary-good events, The JCT. Kitchen & Bar Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival (benefiting Georgia Organics). Be sure and ask him about the annual fest happening this Sunday—we hear tell of a chef/bartender/celeb dunk tank.


- Jennifer Maley

Summer’s Peak

Chef Demo with Drew Belline
of No. 246 – 10:00 a.m. on 7/13
Chef Demos are sponsored by
COUNTRY Financial
Chef Drew Belline isn’t just the executive chef and partner (with Ford Fry) at Decatur’s favorite Italian-inspired hotspot, No. 246. And he isn’t just a critically lauded chef who's worked with the likes of Charlie Palmer, Tom Colicchio, and team Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison. But he's also got some pretty cool hobbies: fly fishing and foraging for mushrooms. So it’s no surprise that Belline is an avid believer in using local products at their peak, and his food is a showcase of these ingredients; these ingredients plus a pretty sweet wood-fired oven. What else is pretty sweet? The demo he’s got planned for Saturday, of course.

Canning with Martha
8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Welcome back our canning expert Martha McMillin—she’ll be on hand all morning to share tasty summer canning recipes and answer all of your questions about home canning—yes, you (can) CAN!


- Jennifer Maley