All April, Marigold Kitchen will be offering a special five-course country ham dinner for $50 per person.

The menu will include three country hams from Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee; a baked halibut in ham broth; stuffed chicken breast with country ham, morel mushrooms and sugar snap peas plus a rhubarb tart.

Marigold Kitchen [Official Site]

UWISHUNU’s All Up In Their Grills is back with another episode, this episode features Marigold Kitchen’s Erin O’Shea. O’Shea talks about Marigold’s relatively new southern menu and her “bad-ass” grits.

Philly Chefs: Marigold Kitchen’s Erin O’Shea [UWISHUNU]
Marigold Kitchen [Official Site]

Marigold Kitchen’s Chef Erin O’Shea was on the 10 Show today where she prepared sweet potato ravioli with fried okra. Although not as amazing as Johnny Goodtimes’ appearance it is enough to get you hungry for modern southern.

Chef Erin O’Shea, Marigold Kitchen [10 Show]
Marigold Kitchen [Official Site]

Philadelphia Weekly reviews Marigold Kitchen and their new southern inspired menu finding the service stiff but the food for the most part, tasty.

In West Philly the Southern occupation is underway at Marigold Kitchen with Maryland native Erin O’Shea taking over for Michael Solomonov. Influenced by turns cooking in Virginia, Texas and South Carolina, her Marigold menu is warmed by Southern exposure.

The latest incarnation under owner Steven Cook is flowering nicely within the crimson walls of this stately Victorian manor. O’Shea manages to polish up Southern fare for the Penn profs and V-necked literati without getting too fancy or fussy.

Marigold Kitchen [Philadelphia Weekly]
Marigold Kitchen [Official Site]

Even Trey Popp’s complaints are complimentary in his take on Marigold Kitchen and its new chef, Erin O’Shea.

Sweetbread nuggets won converts who usually steer clear of pancreas. Their toothsome breading countered the often slippery texture of the glands, whose richness was expertly cut by a bed of French lentils that rang with a pleasantly acidic tanginess. The subtly hammy flavor of O’Shea’s milk-white turnip soup married well with a little biscuit frosted with apple purée in the middle of the bowl.

O’Shea extends her palette further in the entrée course. Two dishes were particularly good. The first was a chicken breast — an item that big agribusiness has sucked virtually all the flavor from. This one came stuffed with pears and corn bread, whose flavors penetrated the succulent meat, while a side of braised cippolini onions added an earthier sort of sweetness to round it out. Even better was a perfectly pink cured pork tenderloin topped with pickled peaches — an almost forgotten gem of the Southern pantry that brought a dazzling ray of summer into the heart of this winter meal.

Margin of Erin [City Paper]
Marigold Kitchen [Official Site]

Kirsten is involved in other work so we’ll skip the gushing over Rick Nichols Sunday Inky column although it is as usual excellent writing. Today Nichols goes in depth with how Erin O’Shea makes great grits at Marigold Kitchen.

So Marigold regulars who may have ordered sweetbreads with crispy chicken skin and tahini, or juicy barramundi fish with creamy apple and celery-root puree as recently as Christmas, need to radically adjust their compass headings.

And not just for the land of cotton: What O’Shea is doing with Southern fare – not playing to type, or country, or soul – is on the order of what Susanna Foo did with Chinese; kept the accent and pantry, but upended the predictable feel, technique and presentation.

They will serve no grits before their time [Philadelphia Inquirer]

The Bite has a bite from the new menu at Marigold Kitchen and also provides some counter programming to Restaurant Week.

New menu after the jump.

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Marigold Kitchen is getting a new chef and a new menu with some southern flair in the new year.

Erin O’Shea will be introduced as executive chef January 2nd replacing Michael Solomonov who will be focusing on his latest endeavor, Zahav.

O’Shea’s cuisine will be inspired by Southern ingredients but will also be modern with some subtle French influences. She will serve traditional Southern items like country ham from Edwards of Surry, VA, and grits from Byrd Mill, a small-scale producer that has been stone-grinding corn into grits in Ashland, VA, since 1740.

Menu highlights after the jump.

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Trey Popp eschews the normal brunch spots to dine on fine southern cooking at Ms. Tootsie’s on South Street.

It would be hard to best the fried chicken, which boasts a crispy crust free of superfluous grease. The meat is moist, and the leg and thigh I got suggested a hen big enough to strike fear into the heart of the proverbial fox. A heap of collard greens carried just the right level of salt, and a bowl of black-eyed peas was stellar in its straightforward flavor.

Lunch Drunk Love [City Paper]

Foodzings checks out the soul food and music of Warmdaddy’s on a Sunday night.

Service is so so. So is the food. But the music? Yeah, the music is hot. It’s just a fun place. So head down there!

Checking out Warmdaddy’s [Foodzings]
Warmdaddy’s [Official Site]