Top Chef Kevin & Woodfire Grill

Adam surprised me with an early birthday present this past weekend. He made reservations at Woodfire Grill in Atlanta. If you are a Top Chef fan, you know that this is Kevin Gillespie's restaurant. He is my favorite contestant of all time! I am a huge fan of the show, as most of you are probably, so this was a dream come true for me!

If you are ever in Atlanta, you have got to go to Woodfire Grill...but make reservations in advance because Adam had a bit of a hard time getting a good time, but Praise the Lord it finally worked out for 7:00 on Friday night, because it we'd eaten at our original time of 9:00 we wouldn't have gotten to meet him. That's right....we got to meet Chef Kevin!!! He was so gracious and down to earth. Adam asked our server if he ever came out to greet the guests and she said most people just go up and talk to him at the grill area, but she thought he had left for the evening because he had to catch an early flight the next morning. She went to check and came back a few minutes later and said that he had left, but he came back and to follow her to get to meet him!!!

(Chef Kevin is on the left. We had a view of the wood fire from our table)

The way their menu is set up is that each course builds on the next, plus the menus are seasonal so they use the freshest ingredients possible. This meal was truly amazing and I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to eat such a wonderful meal and have such a wonderful experience. The whole staff was so professional, helpful and attentive. They refolded your napkin on the table anytime you got up from your seat and gave new silverware for each course. An unforgettable birthday for sure!!

Onto the food. This has to be up there with one of the best meals I've ever had. We opted to do the 5 course blind tasting. I highly recommend doing this if you go. It just made the evening such a memorable experience. With each course they would bring it out and present it and tell you what the chef had prepared this evening. It felt like we were a judge on Top Chef! They started us off with three different breads served with herbed butter.

The first thing they brought out was a bonus course...an amuse bouche that they called a dried cherry gusher with local cheese topped with cinnamon. It was exploding with flavor and really got our palate ready for the evening meal.


For the first official course, we had a corn puree topped with wild porcini mushrooms and a salad of california asparagus. It had such a nice sweetnes with a little tang from the vinagrette on the salad.


The second course was my absolute favorite. It was a cornmeal fried rainbow trout atop a sweet & sour tomato relish, topped with an avacado puree & sugar snaps. Words can not even express how delectable this dish was. So savory but with a slight sweetness and just so light. I couldn't get enough!

Next they sent out a tasting course to cleanse our palate and I've never had anything like this before. It was a shooter of tomato water, compressed melon, basil oil and mozzarella. It reminded me of marinara sauce and it did it's job of cleansing our palates.

The Fourth course was wood smoked pork belly with a green chile sausage on the side atop a tomatillo salsa verde and smoked pork jus, topped with a roasted green bean salad. The pork was so tender it just fell apart and it had a nice caramelized taste with the background of smokiness. Divine!


Adam and I thought that the pork was the last course before dessert and we were getting close to being full but after we returned from the restroom we realized there was a new set of silverware with a sharp knife letting us know there was another meat course. So the Fifth Course was wood grilled lamb loin, topped with a fig puree, over roasted small poatoes, turnips, radishes & frisee with creamed farro gratin. The lamb just melted in our mouths. So tender and perfectly seasoned. We had never had farro before but we loved it! It had a crispness to it but it was creamy on the inside. Perfect ending to the meal.

Next they brought out dessert which was a coca-cola cake with a coffee caramel mousee served with an inverted root beer float and salted pecans. It was moist and had just the right amount of sweetness. I don't even like root beer and the float was amazing! Plus the presentation was so cute!

Lastly they gave us these pistachio truffles boxed up to take home. We were absolutely stuffed so we didn't even try them until a couple days later, but they were delicious! Also, they gave us a print out of the tasting menu signed by Chef Kevin (that's the only way I could remember all the details of our meal to share with you...haha!)

This was hanging in the bathroom and I couldn't resist taking a picture!

In case it's hard to read it says, Tell the Voltaggios: Tricks & Foams may break my bones, but bacon will never hurt me! So cute and hilarious!!