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Alta Cucina
1200 N. Roan St., Johnson City, Tennessee 37601
Phone: 423.928.2092
Cuisines: • Italian • Pizza • Seafood • Vegetarian
Features: • Full Bar • Take Out
Authentic Italian restaurant featuring full bar and great wine menu. Gourmet pizzas available for carry-out only at anytime. Appetizers include crab cakes, stuffed portabella mushroom, calamari, fresh mozzarella and smoked salmon pizza.
Lunch is served with homemade bread and offered with a variety of salads, fish, chicken, pasta, subs, calzone and stromboli. Full Details ...
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Chef’s Secret different, but it’s very good
Reach the Mystery Diner at diner@johnsoncitypress.com.
At a glance: The Chef’s Secret, 3018 Peoples St., Suite 103, Johnson City; 929-2005; by appointment only
You order from the menu. They prepare the meals. You pick up the check.
Sounds normal, eh?
But suppose there are no tables and chairs, no waitress in a uniform, and even though they fix the meals, you do the final preparation yourself. No tipping is necessary, but you do the dishes.
The Chef’s Secret isn’t your typical dining establishment, yet the food, the price and service earns high marks in my book. Here’s how it works: You visit the Web site where the monthly menu is featured; usually, there are around 14 featured entrees. You then pick which entrees you want, the number of servings desired, select a pickup date and then pay with a credit card.
You arrive at your appointed time with a large cooler or laundry basket in tow, and a member of the staff helps load your meals and sends you on your way. All the meals are frozen and are individually bagged and labeled with the directions on the front.
Leaving Chef’s Secret the first time, I was apprehensive. I’ve heated up thousands of box dinners, especially in college, but this was different. Among my chief concerns were quality, portion sizes (I was feeding for more than one) and the difficulty of the directions.
Turns out, the meal was nothing less than gourmet, I had leftovers for lunch the next day, and there were no 9-1-1 calls to my mother to help translate the directions.
The menu changes every month, which makes it difficult to recommend a few star items. In general, there’s a salmon dish, quiche, burgers, tilapia, tenderloin and three or four chicken entrees. A few favorites make an encore appearance. I’ll share my observations on a few recent entrees.
Hands down, the best is the Tilapia Amandine. The filets are nice and tender and the almond and breading mixture on top made this entrée simply superb, and it was just as wonderful the next day. I also enjoyed the Tangy Braised Chicken. I’ve had tangy ribs before (somewhere else) and the sauce was more of a sweet and sour, but Secret’s tangy sauce has more of a delicate sweetness.
Most of the entrees come with sides such as green beans, rolls or baby potatoes, which are roasted in the oven. They need a little extra salt, but they’ve become one of my favorite sides.
I’ve had disastrous experiences trying to make quiche at home, but Chef’s Secret has helped boost my confidence. A recent feature was the Quiche Di Napoli, which had chicken, feta, mushrooms and a nice blend of Italian seasonings. With the pie crust, it’s somewhat of a heavy dish, but worth it.
I’m hoping the burgers stay on the menu past summertime, especially the South of the Border Stuffed ones. Though sinful, the Shrimp Fettuccine has one of the best Romano cheese/garlic/cream sauces I’ve ever experienced. I was impressed with the amount of shrimp that accompanied this meal.
The only snag meal was the barbecue pork. It just didn’t win me over.
The best part of Chef’s Secret is lying to your friends at dinner parties and telling them the dish was your own creation.
Mystery Diner Published in the Johnson City Press on August 1, 2008
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