Monday, July 26, 7:00 pm
Members $90, guests $115

“If there are any ghosts of New Canaan’s past hovering over the dining room of the historic Roger Sherman Inn, surely they are smiling,” Karen Berman wrote in New Canaan – Darien magazine. Belief in the supernatural notwithstanding, we agree. As executive chef at the historic Inn, Martin Schotte prepares a mix of classic and contemporary cuisine that pays equal respect to proprietor Thomas Weilenmann’s Swiss heritage and to Schotte’s own German birthright and extensive continental cooking experience.

Before he arrived in New Canaan, in February 2002, Schotte made his way around the kitchens of Germany, including Nuremberg’s Restaurant Funk; the Schlosshotel Lerbach in Bergisch Gladbach, a Relais & Châteaux property; La Frasca and Kleine Weide, both in Kassel; and Hotel Erbprinz, in Ettlingen, where he was sous-chef. Schotte also spent a few months as sous-chef in Brockenhurst, England, at the Thatched Cottage Hotel and Restaurant, whose culinary focus is on “new forest cuisine.” He is a graduate of the Hotel Management School in Heidelberg, Germany, where he received a master head chef diploma in 2001. During his tenure at the Roger Sherman Inn, Schotte has had his recipes featured in Westchester magazine and on Connecticut’s News 12, as well as in the New Canaan Advertiser, wherein Fran Sikorski noted, “It’s the detail and treasured service that makes the difference at the Roger Sherman Inn. Owner Thomas Weilenmann, general manager Rudi Granser, and youthful chef Martin Schotte, who is enjoying riding his bicycle for miles over the Connecticut hills, are making sure that everything is right.”

Named for Roger Sherman, a prominent attorney and a delegate from Connecticut who signed The Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution, the Roger Sherman Inn has been beautifully restored to reflect its rich Colonial heritage. Sherman’s niece Martha lived in the original structure on Oenoke Ridge from 1783 to 1806, and it remained a private dwelling until 1925, when a Mr. and Mrs. H. Tebbets purchased the property and opened the Holmewood Inn and Colonial Cottage. It was renamed the Roger Sherman Inn in 1961, and between that year and 1997 had a succession of owners. After a busy day making American history, did Roger Sherman like to revive himself with a fine meal and a glass of full-bodied red? We like to think so, and that, accordingly, his ghost is pleased that Martin Schotte is in the kitchen.