Navigator’s Table Dinner Series

After a successful season one, Andrew Zimmern is bringing his famous Navigator’s Table Dinner Series back again. As an imaginative extension of second season Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, The Depot hosted a dinner series. I was fortunate to be part of the dinner. Chef Chris Hammer created a menu inspired by the Milwaukee Road Train History and he absolutely killed it!

Boneless short ribs milanese with root vegetable puree

Barley salad with roasted tomatoes, cucumber, sweet onion in dill lemon oil

My favorites out of all definitely has to be the barley salad, closely followed by the boneless beef short ribs in second place. I am not sure how he managed to make barley taste so good but he did and it was amazing. It was bursting with flavors yet so fresh! I could have easily eaten 5 of those in a row without even thinking. My second favorite from the dinner, the beef short ribs in Milanese sauce served with root vegetable puree was so tender and soft that you could easily pull using just a fork.

Here are some of other dishes that Chef Hammer created:

Left: Roasted Acorn Squash Bisque with Tarragon and Creme Fraiche with Maple Syrup Cotton Candy
Right: Pomegranate and black pepper sorbet with basil syrup served in petal infused frozen shot glass 

Home-made Lebnah cheese and cracker

Rare seared duck breast with mustard green duck confit ragout

Pan seared sea bass , braised fennel in sambucca sauce

Banana caramel bombe

If only I could cook like this, I would be in the gym half of the time I am awake…trying to lose all the weight gain from all the eating. Maybe it is a good thing that I am not very good at cooking! Just saying!

Thank you Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, The Depot and Navigator’s Table team for having me! Season 2 of Navigator’s Table premiered October 17th.