A MAGAZINE FOR AND ABOUT LOUISVILLE
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recipes | louisville's restaurant favorites | BY ROBIN GARR | PHOTOS BY DAN DRY
 The Hot Brown, the famous local concoction with the name that gives visitors pause, jostles for position with Derby-Pie® as the dish that most clearly utters the word "Louisville." Both the saucy turkey-and-bacon sandwich and the nutty chocolate pie stand tall as culinary symbols of our fair city, and both trace a local heritage that goes back for generations. 
But there's one critical difference between them: Come up with your own version of Derby-Pie and put it on the menu, and a squadron of lawyers will come after you with bench warrants and restraining orders. Kern's Kitchen, the commercial baker and copyright holder, owns the name "Derby-Pie" and defends it aggressively. But seek to put a Hot Brown on your bill of fare, and the chefs at the Brown Hotel will greet you with a smile, offer you the recipe, and provide a few helpful hints to help you get it just right. "It's the kind of publicity money can't buy," said Joe Castro, the Brown's executive chef. Staff at the 80-year-old hotel at Fourth and Broadway, now a property of the Camberley chain, get requests for the recipe all year 'round, Castro said, to the extent that they offer printed copies and a detailed procedure on the hotel's website, www.brownhotel.com. "It's continuous," he said with a laugh. "It definitely picks up four to five months before Derby, but we get it all year long." Indeed, a crew from cable television's Travel Channel was in town as we went to press, spending a blustery March Saturday in the Brown's English Grill filming the classic procedure. The story has been told so many times, surely you know it by now: Back in the Roaring Twenties, hotel Chef Fred Schmidt came up with an innovative creation to satisfy hungry guests who sought a midnight snack after the hotel's nightly dinner dances. As an alternative to ham and eggs, the chef topped a little toast with a slice of turkey (then still mostly known as a holiday treat), a dollop of cheesy Mornay sauce and a couple of strips of bacon. A new dish was born, and it has been popular ever since. "People like the dish," Castro said. "It's well put-together, it goes down easy. Anything that's put together that well has some staying power." Most local restaurants, and home chefs with a hankering for a taste of this Louisville treat, stick pretty closely to the original. But variations abound, including a pointed if friendly jab from Castro's brother John, executive chef at Winston's at Sullivan University, who created a seafood-based Not Brown. "That rascal," Joe Castro said with a laugh. But the Hot Brown's classic simplicity does lend itself to variations, Joe Castro said. Want it vegetarian? "It's an open-face sandwich," he said. "You could go with tofu, you could go with any selection of mushrooms, a veggie that doesn't add a dominating flavor. I've seen it done with country ham - I love country ham on everything. I've seen peaches," he said and then paused, trying to imagine such a thing. "A little braised peach hanging next to all that, it might work." Still, he said, "When you come in here, we want to give you the real tradition." Castro checked the recipe on the hotel website and declared it the real thing, although he added a tweak or two that the editors apparently overlooked. Here's his official version, ready to fashion at home for a lazy Sunday or Derby brunch. 
The Brown Hotel's Hot Brown(Serves four) 1. The process goes fast, so have all your ingredients measured and ready before you start. 2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour all at once, whisking to make a thick roux. Add the milk, whisking to mix it in well. Stir in the Parmesan cheese. Reduce heat to low. 3. Whisk the egg lightly in a cup or small bowl. Stir in a little of the hot sauce to "temper" the egg so it won't scramble when you add it to the sauce. When the egg is well mixed with a little of the sauce, whisk this combination into the saucepan. Heat the sauce briefly until it becomes smooth and thick, taking care not to let it come to a boil. Remove from heat. If you're using heavy cream, whip it and then fold it into the sauce gently. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. 4. For each Hot Brown, place two slices of toast on a flameproof dish such as a metal plate. Put one or two slices of turkey on each piece of toast. Pour a generous amount of sauce over each and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Place the dish under a broiler until the sauce is bubbly and speckled brown. Remove from broiler, cross two pieces of bacon on top of the dish, and serve immediately. |
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