Judging for 'Bru Appetit:' From 'bee cap' to cooking fresh wild boar, Horn brings beer cooking show to the 'Ham

If all goes well, I will make my cable television premiere this fall.

I recently was a judge in the taping of a cooking contest, which is central to a new beer-and-food themed cable television show, Bru Appetit. Think of it as being akin to the Japanese version of Iron Chef (where cooking is treated as sport), tossed with the adventurous spirit of the cable television show, Dangerous Grounds.

Horn is a home cook, home brewer, personal chef and culinary instructor who is in the process of moving from Alabama to Atlanta. He is trying to parlay a solid concept and good looks into a television career.



Jason Horn

He said he has a deal for his pilot episodes, but must stay mum for now on the specific network. Hopefully soon we will discover which channel will broadcast the show.

The premise of Bru Appetit: Horn and crew -- producer Carlo Overhulser and videographer/photographer Chris Eldridge -- feature a beer from a single state. Horn challenges a chef in that state to a cooking throw-down using the beer and other food items he has locally sourced.

Now, by locally sourced, I mean Horn and crew hunted, killed and field-dressed the wild boar that was the protein in the Alabama throw-down. They went to the apiary that produces the honey used in Truck Stop Honey Brown Ale, the Alabama beer featured in that episode.

They get up close and personal, as you can see from this photo of Horn:

'If you ... don't act a fool, they won't mess with ya.'

Our segment was taped at The J. Clyde beer bar in Birmingham’s Southside district. Horn challenged J. Clyde’s executive chef, Charles Ryan Nichols.

One of the judges was Carla Jean Whitley, managing editor of Birmingham Magazine (who edits my stories for the magazine). The other was Danner Kline, a specialty beer rep for a local distributing company and the founder of Free The Hops, the consumer group that helped usher Alabama’s beer laws into the 20^th Century – even if the state legislature had to be dragged into it, kicking and screaming, nearly a decade into the 21^st.

Taping Bru Appetit is a whirlwind affair, mostly planned but sometimes off-the-cuff.

After starting at Back Forty Beer Co. in Gadsden, the crew traveled to Cold Creek Honey Co. in Hokes Bluff.

On the Bru Appetit page on Facebook, Horn recounts sage advice he got from Cold Creek’s Terry Thomas, who was preparing to shake a tree swarming with bees:

“If you respect them and don’t swat at ‘em or try to act a fool, they won’t mess with ya.”

It was a run or hive moment for Horn. But it had a happy ending.

If the photo below doesn’t wind up on some kind of Back Forty promotion, they’re asleep at the switch.



Like the honey from the bee

At a hunting camp near Geiger, the crew spent a grueling day trying to bag the wild boar for the cooking contest.

Early on, it seemed like all would go smoothly as the party got its first pig in the morning.

But the second pig proved elusive. They waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, around dusk, the mission was completed.

The crew hauled hog and honey to the J.Clyde. Horn and Nichols cooked their respective dishes on a Saturday morning as invitees gathered to provide a background crowd for the taping.

We judges were perched on a side bar, with a narrow space on the other side for the contestants. It was amazing how technology allowed the crew to shoot multiple angles in an extremely confined space.

For our portion of the show, the chefs described their dishes and we tasted each. We also were asked to give feedback, including how well each showcased the state’s chosen beer, Truck Stop Honey Brown Ale, and the special ingredients, the boar and honey. Then we were to confer and choose a winner.

As the guest, Horn was first to present. In a way that was a shame because he made a dish suited for dinner while Nichols followed with his down-home Southern-style breakfast.

Horn’s dish evoked a post-hunt dinner on a French estate. He seared a two-inch-thick wild boar chop, topping it with a sweet-savory mixture of roasted garlic and sweet onion preserve cooked in Truck Stop Honey Brown beer and Cold Creek’s wildflower honey.

That was placed atop a puree of turnips, sweet potatoes and apple. Accompanying was braised Belgian endive cooked in Stone brewing’s Imperial Russian Stout. The whole thing was drizzled in chocolate balsamic vinegar that Horn had purchased in Gadsden.



Jason Horn's seared boar chop

It was an elegant dish, worthy of a white tablecloth setting and a hefty price tag. My only complaint was the chop could have been served more on the medium side, instead of cooked through. The meat was incredibly moist – as wild boar should be – but difficult to saw through.

Still, it was my favorite of the two. To my regret, it was whisked away before I could ask for a to-go box. But I did not want to overindulge; that would not be fair to Nichols.

It’s a good thing I saved room, because Grillades and Grits is one of my favorite brunch dishes. Nichols laid down a great version. He started with cutlets of the pork, which he soaked overnight in buttermilk and Truck Stop Honey Brown Ale. In the morning he pounded and pan-fried the cutlets before finishing them in creole-style gravy.

That topped some of the best cheese grits I ever have tasted. Nichols perfectly cooked the stone-ground grits to a smooth consistency, tossed in smoked cheddar and smoked Gouda cheese and topped it with fried country ham. Accompanying was a biscuit coated in a wonderfully sticky reduction of Cold Creek honey.



Chef Nichols' Grillades and Grits

Carla Jean and Danner both voted for the Grillades and Grits, which no doubt spoke to the Southerner in them. I preferred the chop plate, but frankly the brunch dish came in a close enough second that I said I had no heartburn with the majority's choice.



Danner Kline (left) talks to Jason Horn (right) as Carla Jean Whitley and I listen.

We announced the winner, a 2-1 split vote for Nichols. Horn, who is a great guy, graciously accepted the verdict, heaping praise on Nichols’ talent and generosity for graciously sharing his kitchen with a stranger.

But as the crew packed up to move on to Georgia and tape another episode, I couldn’t help but look back at our decision to vote down the host of Bru Appetit. I wondered:

Did we blow our chance for the premiere episode?

(Thanks to the Bru Appetit crew for the photos.)