Chris Long

Natalie’s winning Butter-Poached Lobster recipe

Posted on by Pat and David
Prepared with grilled maitake and oyster mushrooms along with a corn-parsnip ragout, this is the recipe that won Chris Long plaudits as the 2013 Maine Lobster Chef of the Year. The recipe below and photo above are adapted with permission from Natalie’s Restaurant (nataliesrestaurant.com) at the Camden Harbour Inn (camdenharbourinn.com). (The corn stock directions are ours, so don't blame Chris and Shelby.) Ingredients 1 Maine lobster 1 pound butter at room temperature 2 ounces fresh thyme 1 shallot, minced 1 cup corn stock * 1 cup corn kernels 1/2 cup chopped parsnips 1 lemon salt and pepper to taste 2 ounces wild mushrooms parsnip chips micro arugula basil flowers Directions Boil lobster in salted water, 7 minutes for claws and 3 minutes for tail. Shock-chill...Read More

Natalie’s celebrates lobster on its home waters

Posted on by Pat and David
Natalie's co-chef Shelby Stevens is a Mainer, but she's not from lobster country. She grew up in Farmington, an inland town where mountain timber meets upcountry lakes. But perched on the hillside over picturesque Camden harbor, Natalie's occupies a prominent spot on the Times Square of Lobster Land. Roughly half of the state's annual lobster catch—130 million pounds in 2016—is landed at Penobscot Bay ports. Stevens and her husband, co-chef Chris Long (pictured above in their official portrait), naturally developed an extensive repertoire of lobster fine-dining dishes to wow the guests at the tony Camden Harbour Inn (camdenharbourinn.com). When the crustacean is in season, Natalie's offers a five-course tasting menu of four lobster dishes and a dessert as one of its menu options. When we...Read More

Popping into Portland’s Danforth for Natalie’s popup

Posted on by Pat and David
With nine handsome rooms in an 1823 Federal mansion, Portland's Danforth Inn (danforthinn.com) is a nifty hideaway in Maine's biggest city. That's what hoteliers Raymond Brunyanszki and Oscar Verest, owners of the Camden Harbour Inn (camdenharbourinn.com), had in mind when they purchased the Danforth in 2014. Their extensive upgrades included creating Tempo Dulu (tempodulu.restaurant), a fine-dining restaurant focused on Southeast Asian, Indonesian, and Malaysian cuisines. Chef Michael McDonnell recently got a few days off from riffing on rijsttafel. At the end of March, Tempo Dulu hosted a popup of Natalie's (nataliesrestaurant.com), the Camden Harbour Inn's gastronomic showcase. It was a homecoming of sorts. Natalie's co-chefs Shelby Stevens and Chris Long were married at the Danforth last year. (That's a picture of the dining room below.)...Read More