Omnivore - 2015 Killer Tomato Fest approaches, ATL chefs reminisce

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Atlanta has an entire festival devoted to summer’s most beloved ingredient: the tomato. Now in its seventh year, JCT. Kitchen’s Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival returns to the Westside Provisions District this weekend, bringing with it the promise of tomato-ey creations from more than 50 local chefs and nearly 20 Atlanta mixologists. In anticipation of the annual Georgia Organics/Giving Kitchen fundraiser, CL asked some of the festival’s former and current participants to share their fondest tomato-related memories from past AKTFs and beyond.

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Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival $45-$145. Sun., July 19, 1-5 p.m. JCT. Kitchen and Bar, 1198 Howell Mill Road N.W. 404-355-2252. www.jctkitchen.com. Purchase tickets here.

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‘MATER MEMORY: “I am becoming more of a simple cook as I get older. My favorite way to eat a tomato is a sliced tomato, homemade mayo, a little salt and pepper, and H&F bread. Tastes like summer.” BEST OF THE FEST: “One year the Holeman and Finch and Restaurant Eugene team crafted our logos out of cherry tomatoes on toothpicks. It was pretty great. I think we won for best booth or something.”

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‘MATER MEMORY: “Last year was my first tomato season at the Farmhouse. We grew 13 varieties of heirloom and four to five cherries. The gardener told me in years past they had provided so many that there was no way for the kitchen to keep up. I took it as a challenge and decided to put tomatoes on just about every dish in some form or another. We used every last tomato and it was one of our most successful menus. I cannot wait for this season’s bounty.” BEST OF THE FEST: “Of everything I tasted, Gunshow’s tomato hand pies in 2014 knocked it out of the park!”

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‘MATER MEMORY: “My mama used to make fresh tomato juice sweetened with raw honey when I was a kid. It was bliss in a glass, summer at her best.” BEST OF THE FEST: “When I won Judge’s Choice for best tomato dish two years ago and got crowned queen. I made curried cherry tomatoes. Simple and delicious.”

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‘MATER MEMORY: “Creole tomatoes, a variety that only grows in Louisiana. Growing up, no doubt this is my tomato memory. Perfect acid and sugar balance and basically the perfect description of someone from Louisiana. My mom would always make tomato gravy to go over her meat pies with tomatoes from our garden.” BEST OF THE FEST: “I think Anne Quatrano and Andy Carson crushed it last year with the tomato tasting with more than 20 types of tomatoes from Quatrano’s Summerland Farm. It’s all about unadulterated awesomeness of the tomato. Everyone is wildly creative but to me it boils down to the education and history of it.”

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‘MATER MEMORY: “Growing up we only ate tomatoes in the summer and it seemed like whatever plate you had, there was always a sliced, salted tomato on the plate. I had no concept of seasonality. We just ate tomatoes in the summer. I can still see a plate with a hot dog, some cole slaw, and a giant slice of tomato with salt and pepper — all the juices running together. It’s very happy.” BEST OF THE FEST: “Guy Wong’s tomato cheesecake and ice cream bun, a collaboration with Morelli’s Gourmet Ice Cream in 2012. That year Livingston manager Bart Maldonado dressed as Santa. At one point he was dancing on stage with the band, then we dunked him in the dunk tank. People were getting their photos taken on his lap.”

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‘MATER MEMORY: “My oldest and most fond memory is sitting at the breakfast table at my grandparents house in Macon and watching my grandfather get excited over bug fresh summer tomatoes from a produce stand down the street. Never refrigerated and just salt and pepper equals perfect.” BEST OF THE FEST: “Joey Ward from Gunshow did cherry tomato sweet fried hand pies in 2014 that were on point.”

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‘MATER MEMORY: “Early on in my career I held a vine-ripened tomato. The tomatoes were locally grown (there was not a logic around this idea then). It wasn’t that pretty. When I bit into it I thought “Wow! These taste great.” No tricks or gimmicks. Those were what I wanted to cook with from then on. Tomatoes in Georgia are awesome.” BEST OF THE FEST: “JCT. Kitchen chef Brian Horn’s tomato jelly donuts with bacon fat mayo in 2010.”