It’s 7:30 in the morning and I’m drinking gas station coffee while flying down the highway and cursing myself for the now-empty bag of Taco Bell’s breakfast tacos greasing its way into my passenger seat. Despite this, spirits are high because I’m heading to Virtue Farms for a unique blending session with Virtue’s Cidermaster Ryan Burk and Chef Chris Consentino. No amount of bad breakfast decisions can take that away from me.
Chef Chris Cosentino, winner of Top Chef Masters, is known for his incredibly unique nose-to-tail cooking and offal dishes. He’s adventurous and award-winning with, as his website claims, “meat as his muse.” Today he’s visiting the farm to work with Ryan and the Virtue Cider team to construct a beverage with food and flavor in mind. By the end of the day, he’ll have created a custom cider to complement his unique cooking.