Back in 2014, Michael and Jeniphur Pasquarello embarked on a bold mission to bring a hybrid butcher shop-restaurant concept to Fishtown. Fast forward 5 years and a couple of reworkings, Kensington Quarters has not only survived but thrived in a crowded food scene. For the last year, this spacious outpost has been led by Matt Harper, formerly of Zahav. With co-class leaders Kevin McWilliams (Marigold Kitchen) and Colin Freeman (Zahav, Goldie), Matt came in for a Sunday dinner class to share some of what is making KQ’s menu a must explore.Ironically, this trio from a very meat-centric restaurant queued up a totally meatless menu, but no one was disappointed when it was all said and done…especially when you start the evening out with a grilled peach salad. In addition to the seasonal fruit choice, there were crisp, sweet snow peas added. Tossed with local mixed greens and pickled chili, this salad screamed summer. If you want to compose this salad at home, be sure to utilize peaches that might be slightly underripe for the grilling part, Colin suggests. Too ripe and your peaches may stick to the grill and no one wants that.

When guests say things like, “I’ve never really liked beets but these are amazing,” you know you’ve done something right. Kevin, who composed this course, poached the beets with olive oil to get that velvety texture guests were raving about. Slicing them paper thin, they were joined by cultured cream, pickled green strawberries and mint. Similar to our visit from Samar Lazzari and Sara May a couple of weeks ago, Kevin suggests using herbs to make infused oils as a way of getting the most out of your produce. You can take the herbs, add them to a blender with your favorite olive oil, and let stand in your fridge for a couple of days.

I once worked for a chef that said, “You can’t say you don’t like something. You can only truly say you don’t like how you’ve had it.” I’ve lived by that ethos ever since. So for people that say they don’t like okra, I implore you to try this creation. Shaving raw okra on a mandolin and frying them before lightly salting has to be my favorite iteration of okra ever. Integrate it on a plate with blistered cherry tomatoes, local sushi rice and pickled okra, and you will be very happy.

If the okra chips weren’t enough to trust the chops of these three gentlemen, maybe this next dish will cement it. Fried eggs are a sunny side godsend. They appear in many forms across a number of mediums. My favorite is probably at breakfast on some grits with some kind of bacon or sausage. Never in a million years would I have considered serving it with chanterelles with hazelnuts and dusted with white chocolate. Consider 17 minds blown. 

While the original intent wasn’t a vegetable menu, Colin felt some pressure to keep up with his teammates when coming up with this last savory dish. Drawing some inspiration from his current favorite menu item (they’re all very proud of the pork schnitzel that was just added by the way), we were treated to fried eggplant with shiso ricotta and pepper-onion relish. Want to try this at home? Making ricotta is very simple. Take a 2-quart pot, add in 3 cups of whole milk and 1 cup of heavy cream. Let it come up to a boil. Remove it from heat, add in some salt, and stir in 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. After 10-15 minutes, take the pot with the cheese and gently pour or spoon the curds through a cheesecloth-lined (you can use a fine gauge sieve as well) into a bowl. If the cheese is too dry, Colin says you can fold some of the whey back into it.

For dessert, Matt made some blueberry jam on the fly with fresh Jersey blueberries and sugar. Spooning that into the bowl with sweet creamed corn, blueberries  and buckwheat crumble, the sweet course was finished with whipped cream. It was an interesting combination of sweet and savory components that quieted the room.

If you live in the Frankford and Thompson area, you’ve certainly darkened their doorstep at this point. For those that haven’t, put this on your list. They still offer butchering classes, and while the butcher counter is no longer in place, there are still packaged meat options available through their website.