Featured Locations

You Found: Culinary Arts School Michigan, Culinary School in Michigan

Explore the Different Culinary Arts Schools Located near your area.
Click on a School Link Below to Learn More...

Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago - Chicago, IL

• AAS in Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts
• Baking and Pastry Certificate

Request More Information

• Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Program

Request More Information

Culinary Life in Michigan

It's been ten years since our first book, The Best of the Midwest, appeared. Our pick of 32 of the Midwest's best restaurants came with an essay and recipes about and from each. Our picks were good and stand the test of time. Yes, a few have closed. Chefs have changed venues or careers. But most are still there, grown and developed, still serving splendid food, still loving the work. Many of our picks turn up now in national food magazines and on James Beard Award Nomination lists. In fact, the May 1995 night we won our Beard award, Rick Bayless was honored as Chef of the Year, and Jean Joho was Best Chef in the Midwest.

As we did the book we found ourselves making the definition of "Midwest" smaller, just to meet our travel times. We eliminated the Dakotas; but did not cancel Nebraska until we got there and found it seriously wanting, at least in a culinary way. We did eat some awful food along the way. Milwaukee, at that particular time, was really suffering, its celebrated ethnic restaurants were cutting corners and food was anything but fresh and delicious. We only identified ourselves at restaurants when food was so obviously outstanding that we knew the place was a "keeper." Then we would ask to meet the chef and/or owner.

Our interviews invariably led to our asking about other chefs we should not miss. "Of course you know Pete Peterson," was said to us time and time again from Chicago to Minneapolis. We didn't and it soon became clear that we had to find him.

When we did we also found heaven! Harlan "Pete" Peterson is owner/chef of Tapawingo, a glorious restaurant in Ellsworth, Michigan, about 7 miles of winding country road inland from Charlevoix on Lake Michigan. Pete had been a designer of Ford interiors. He loved to cook and fell in love with serious cooking after spending time in a Paris cooking school. It changed his life; soon he was cooking weekends at the Rowe Inn, a small restaurant upstate in Ellsworth. Little by little the bug took hold and eventually he left Ford entirely. Sometime later he bought a house _ mile down the road; its lawn backed onto a beautiful lake where a pair of swans spend their summers. It has now been his restaurant for sixteen years.

The property was known by its Indian name, Tapawingo. Pete cooked and people came in droves every summer. Word of this marvelous place spread throughout the Midwest. The region itself is a much-loved summer destination for Chicagoans, as well as Ohioans and Michiganders. Traverse City is about 40 minutes to the south; Petoskey is a less than that to the north. And just a bit farther is the beautiful little town of Harbor Springs. It is a glorious part of this country.

I have written before about Pete's approach to food. His flavors are intense, yet never overwhelming; he has a superlative understanding of how taste and texture can both please and stimulate all the senses. His food has been earthy, yet sublimely sophisticated. One of the most exciting dishes I've ever enjoyed was his symphony of morels, a signature dish for the restaurant. Dried morel powder became a tender fettuccine, while other morels were the base of a richly fragrant cream sauce for both the pasta and delicately sautéed scallops of veal. Whole fresh morels, lightly sautéed in butter were liberally strewn about the plate.

Tapawingo's food is always seasonal. Morels, fiddlehead ferns, rhubarb in the spring; apples, Bigos (a Polish hunters' stew), venison, pheasant in the late autumn. It has drawn us back to Tapawingo time and time again.

We stay at The House on the Hill, a lovely B & B just down the road. And for three sybaritic evenings we eat dinner at Tapawingo. We've seen Pete's hair turn silver. We've also watched him move others into the line as he relinquishes more of the nightly cooking responsibilities. Pram Acharya, a celebrated Detroit sommelier, moved his family up North so he could build a world-class wine cellar for the restaurant. Pram's considerable ability to match food and wine has brought the Tapawingo dining experience to new heights for those of us who enjoy such things. In fact, we just sit back to enjoy whatever Pram selects for us. His are always fascinating choices.

We've missed the last two years due to assorted demands on our time. But we found that something wonderful was better than ever. The menu format has changed. Offerings are now labeled "First Dishes, Second Dishes and Principal Dishes." Selections from each of the first two are included the cost of the principal dish.

There are additions to the building, itself, and expansive, beautiful gardens outside. The spacious new wing houses a smashing wine room, new rest rooms and an elegant private dining area which opens out to a lovely verandah and the garden. The main dining area has been expanded, not to add more seats, but to create more space between the tables---to make dining a more enjoyable experience.

The other significant change is in the kitchen. Stuart Brioza, an impish-looking young man, is now the executive chef. While only 26, Brioza was lured to Tapawingo from a successful stint at Chicago's Savarin. His style continues Pete's dedication to exuberant flavors tempered by nuances of restraint. His passion for cooking is palpable. You are embraced by it in just a momentary conversation. And you really know it with the first bite!

Our meals were dazzling. I still salivate at the thought of one small plate: a slice of perfect foie gras terrine, surrounded by light-as-air Cape Gooseberry aspic, a whole gooseberry, a slice of duck prosciutto and toasted brioche. The flavors were just so bright and lively, the foie gras so perfectly unctuous and buttery.

Over three nights we managed to taste nearly everything on the menu. Diced salmon gravlax and hearts of palm to make a sparkling topping for a bed of mache and shredded radishes. Slices of lusty duck prosciutto were piqued by a lentil and salsify salad, fresh figs and heavenly summer truffles. Slices of sugar-sweet golden beets and crispy fennel were accompanied by shaved parmesan, balsamic vinegar and basil oil. Not at all prosaic was the simple green salad; with tangy Roquefort cheese, walnuts and pears, lightly touched by a sherry vinaigrette, it was totally luscious.

The young chef takes delight in contrasting something elegant with the humble. Two nights in a row one of us enjoyed the Potato-Fennel Bourride. Brioza's take on a classic French soup was delightful. Usually a fish soup thickened by aioli (a garlicky mayonnaise), he let the vegetables do the thickening, saving the fish for the top. One night there were three thin slices of pickled mackerel (one of my favorite preparations), another night tiny, briny fried oysters. An elegant creamy terrine of lobster and fingerling potatoes was accompanied by a small salad with ham hock napped with a tomato vinaigrette. Braised veal cheek, so very tender and flavorful, was positively divine with its accompaniments of sliced artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, a bit of frisee and a sauce of browned butter and capers.

The hits continued with such principal dishes as sautéed golden spot tilefish served over a bit of light broth, parsley oil, Maine shrimp and artichoke. We were blown away by the lamb plate---a chop, a sausage, some of the tenderloin, leg and braised shoulder, accompanied one night by crispy potatoes Anna, another night by glorious mashed potatoes. How about perfectly cooked duck breast with an olive and prune sauce? Or roasted veal loin with chanterelles, exquisite potatoes and creamy fontina? Or a tender roasted game hen stuffed with Michigan morels with lentils, Swiss chard and a pan sauce rich in fresh thyme?

Another addition to Tapawingo is the cheese cart, a perfect conclusion to any meal, at least in my book. However, pastry chef Adam Bolt's accompanying bread was so good that we knew we couldn't pass on desserts. The lemon meringue tart was perfect; no other way to say it. Guilding that lily was some blackberry sauce and lime ice cream! The Tapawingo peanut butter cup was sublime---creamy peanut butter mousse in a chocolate shell, topped with candied crispy rice and peanut butter ice cream (on a peanut butter crème Anglaise). And I am still wondering how the apricot baba could be that light and tender and how the toasted almond ice cream could be that richly flavored and smooth. (Don't you marvel at my restraint?)

It's unlikely we'll be back this fall. But I have promised myself to make an early winter trip. Perhaps for one of the cooking class weeks. It's an easy six and a half hour drive, and one can always fly into Traverse city.

This was, I believe, the fourth year that Pete Peterson and Tapawingo have been nominated for a Beard award. It is my prayer that next year will finally be theirs.

-------------------------------------------
Executive Chef
Ryan Weirenga

Executive Chef Ryan Weirenga landed back in his home state of Michigan after culinary adventures with restaurants at Walt Disney World.

His professional education started at Grand Rapids Community College in the culinary program where he took on apprenticeships at Kent Country Club. An internship provided his first position at Walt Disney World in Orlando. He then returned for a full-time sous position at Kent Country Club and then was hired as executive chef at Centennial Country club.

In 1995, he returned to Florida to work for the Levy Restaurants group which staffs and manages several hotels in the Walt Disney World resort complex. His return to Michigan was prompted by the opening of Mitchell's Fish Market where he quickly advanced to executive chef within the restaurant's first year of business.

Despite his non-Italian heritage, Chef Ryan says his favorite style of cooking is Italian -- an appreciation he developed from spending time in the kitchen with an uncle-by-marriage of Italian descent. He credits his uncle with inspiring his choice of profession and now devotes his home cooking time to creating pasta, ravioli and potato gnocchi from scratch and sourdough bruschetta.

Chef Ryan spends his free time enjoying family activities with his wife and two daughters in East Lansing.

Culinary Schools

Culinary Articles