Aug. 16, 2024 10:15a
(WGTD)---So how did a Milwaukee-based restaurant group become a major sponsor of a Kenosha-based foundation that offers scholarships and career paths to Kenosha area kids? It came about with a chance meeting some 10 years ago between Mahone family member Tim Mahone and one of the founders of the Bartolotta group, Joe Bartolotta, who has since passed away.
But the relationship has only flourished because the families discovered over time that they share many of the same values.
For one thing, there’s a deep appreciation for good and healthy food, and the farmers who produce it.
Speaking on WGTD’s Morning Show this week, Bartolotta Corp. Executive Chef Aaron Bickham noted that
the philosophy is a bedrock of menu preparation. "Squash, egg plant and tomatoes are kind of peaking right now with the early rain and the heat that we've gotten," he said.
"The tomatoes are just full of flavor and when you look at something like that...let's celebrate this tomato. Let's put it on the plate and how do we just enhance the tomato without throwing it on a salad with 16 other ingredients when it's something that a farmer spent so much time all these weeks watering and maintaining and fertilizing it and now it's coming to its peak form."
Another top Bartolotta chef will be featured shortly after the gates open at noon Saturday for the Mahone Foundation’s annual HarborPark Jazz, Rhythm and Blues Festival.
In the cooking studio, Kenosha resident Connor McNeil, recently named executive chef at Joey Gerard’s Supper Club in Greendale, a Bartolotta restaurant, will prepare a Wisconsin fish fry with a Caribbean twist.
The music begins shortly after the cooking show ends.
The day will be capped with South African musician Jonathan Butler.
Tickets are available online at mahonefund.org.
Proceeds benefit the Mahone scholarship program.
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