SMITHTOWN SEAFOOD & Holly HIll IN THE PRESS!
KENTUCKY PROUD: HONEYWOOD
Sophisticated Living Lexington, September/October 2017
As a young cook, I didn’t want to think. After years of debating and writing papers, discussing and taking tests in college, all I wanted to do was work in a kitchen. In 1987, after graduating from the University of Kentucky, I headed to New York City and threw myself into cooking with a kind of innocent, reckless abandon...
THE BARN OPENS ITS DOORS
LEX 18, September 15, 2017
“The Barn” at The Summit at Fritz Farm officially opened its doors Friday.
The food-fall dining experience is the first of its kind for the Commonwealth. It has a focus on all things local using Kentucky ingredients.
Some Lexington favorites are opening their newest locations there, such as Crank and Boom Ice Cream, Athenian Grill, and Chef Ouita Michel's Smithtown Seafood...
THE BARN IN SUMMIT AT FRITZ FARM IS 'ONE OF A KIND'
Lexington Herald Leader, September 7, 2017
Smithtown Seafood owner and chef Ouita Michel talks with Janet Patton of LexGo Eat about the structure and restaurant offerings within The Barn in Summit at Fritz Farm, which will have a public grand opening mid September...
11 Reasons to Drive to Lexington, KY
Zagat, September 6, 2017
Nestled in the heart of Kentucky’s Bluegrass region, Lexington, known for its champion horses and fine bourbons, boasts an immense local bounty which fuels a farm-to-table culinary culture. Chefs and restaurateurs in the area commonly maintain relationships with producers and craft menus driven by what’s locally available. A day’s drive (or less) from many major American cities, Lexington could inspire your next culinary road trip. Here, we present a taste of the local dining scene, from a tiny bakery selling donuts that people still wait in lines for (even after 85 years) to a bar with more than 600 bourbons...
HAM OR LAMB? THE EASTER CHOICE MAY BE CHANGING
The New York Times, April 2017
For Easter cooks, there is one fundamental question: Is yours a lamb family or a ham family?
Like most Americans, mine are ham people. My mother grew up on a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin. When the weather turned cold, they slaughtered a few pigs and hung the hams in the curing room. In the spring, after a long Lenten diet...
CREATOR OF SIX BLUEGRASS EATERIES EXPANDS HER EMPIRE TO THE SUBURBS
Kentucky.com, March 2017
When Ouita Papka Michel and her partner won the University of Kentucky national debate title in 1986, there were only men’s watches available to award those in the final round.
It still irks her.
But the debate experience gave her the ability to...
WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY FOR THE FOOD
Conde Nast Traveler, March 2017
When Chef Ouita Michel led the University of Kentucky's debate team to a national championship in 1986—beating Georgetown, Harvard, and Dartmouth—the question of "What are you doing next?" wasn't answered with an emphatic "I'm going to law school!" It was met with an "early midlife crisis," a complete reboot of Michel's promising career before it even got started. Or, as Michel tells, it, "I moved to...
THE DISH: CHEF OUITA MICHEL
CBS This Morning, July 2016
Along with her great cooking, Chef Ouita Michel brings a unique back-story. She was raised in Louisiana and Kentucky, which has been home ever since.
After culinary school in New York, she returned to Bluegrass Country. She is now executive chef and owner of five restaurants, including the popular "Holly Hill Inn," in partnership with her husband, Chris. It being Kentucky, there's a bourbon...
CHEF/IMPRESARIO OUITA MICHEL, A CHANGE AGENT OF THE REGIONAL DINING SCENE, IS PLANNING HER MOST AMBITIOUS RESTAURANT YET
Keeneland Magazine, Spring 2016
On a Wednesday morning in January, with the sky over central Kentucky pale blue and the air cracking with cold, Ouita Michel was surveying her empire, existing and planned, restaurant after restaurant. Michel, a nationally celebrated chef who has helped transform Kentucky’s food and dining culture in the past decade, began the day at a 10:00 a.m. staff meeting at Windy Corner, the restaurant she owns on the north side...