Adam Vickerman - CafE Levain | Ryan Lund - Lucia's | Thomas Kim - The Rabbit Hole
Robert Wohlfeil - The Oceanaire Seafood Room | Leonard Anderson - Tongue in Cheek
Aaron Slavicek - Bar La Grassa | Lucas Almendinger - The Third Bird | Susan Dunlop - Joan's in the Park
Marshall Paulsen - Birchwood Cafe | Lisa Carlson and Carrie Summer - Chef Shack Ranch
F o o d s er v i ce Ne w s
L
et me introduce you to Foodservice News’ Top Chefs Twin
Cities for 2014. It’s no small task to narrow this list to 10
when our chef community continues to evolve and impress
in myriad ways every year. We consider ourselves fortunate,
of course, to have this challenge here in the Twin Cities, where
the men and women leading the kitchens — and sometimes
the entire restaurant — are doing so with skill and ingenuity.
This year it’s all about flying under the radar as we sit down
with chefs whose names might not be perpetually in the
headlines but who are making a distinct impact not only in their
restaurants, but also on the Twin Cities culinary scene as a whole.
ingredients in neighborhood eateries. They’re striving to
introduce our Midwestern palates to new, adventurous flavors,
and even when it’s not their name on the door, these chefs are
committed to executing each menu item at a high level and
sharing their passion with all who take a seat at the table.
In the Twin Cities’ crowded restaurant scene, the talent of these 10
chefs stands out. And though none will deny that praise from their
customers certainly doesn’t hurt, it’s the food, not fame that brings
them back to the kitchen each day.
Our 2014 chefs all took different paths to the kitchen — sometimes
that career as a drummer just doesn’t work out — and each
puts their own twist on their menus. They’re serving sustainable
seafood in high volume operations, sometimes feeding 400
people in a day, and crafting comfort food with fresh, local
Laura Michaels
Managing Editor
t a b le o f c o n te n t s
Marshall Paulsen
4
Birchwood Café - www.birchwoodcafe.com
Aaron Slavicek
6
8
10
Tongue in Cheek - www.tongueincheek.biz
Thomas Kim
Rabbit Hole - www.eatdrinkrabbit.com
Susan Dunlop
16
Joan’s in the Park - www.joansinthepark.com
The Oceanaire Seafood Room - www.theoceanaire.com
Leonard Anderson
14
Chef Shack - www.chefshackranch.com
Bar La Grassa - www.barlagrassa.com
Robert Wohlfeil
Carrie Summer and Lisa Carlson
Ryan Lund
18
Lucia’s Restaurant - www.lucias.com
Lucas Almendinger
20
The Third Bird - www.thethirdbirdmpls.com
12
Adam Vickerman
22
Café Levain - www.cafelevain.com
Sponsored by
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
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Marshall Paulsen
Birchwood Café
A
By Beth Ewen
Buddhist meal prayer is front and center when customers visit
the Birchwood Café in Minneapolis. “Innumerable measures
bring us this food. We should know how it comes to us,” reads
the quotation above the counter.
But this second day featuring Birchwood’s latest menu — head chef
Marshall Paulsen changes them eight times a year — doesn’t feel very
Zen. Rolling out a menu that relies on local and seasonal sources — in
this case on mushroom foragers who’ve been scouring the woods to
supply Birchwood for the next six or seven weeks — comes with plenty
of logistical anxiety.
The café employs one person whose full-time job is to coordinate
all those suppliers and deliveries, for example. Paulsen long ago
abandoned the idea to change his menu by the calendar. “We just
made up our seasons based on the Minnesota weather,” he says. “A
date doesn’t tell me when a menu starts; the farmers tell me.”
The prayer is soothing nonetheless. “It’s in our brains all the time. It
reminds us of where to keep our minds,” says Paulsen, 34, who’s worked
at the Seward neighborhood restaurant going on eight years.
His introduction to the café was frenetic, too. He showed up for a
stage for sous chef one day, only to be told the chef had been fired the
night before. He volunteered to stay and make a soup, and just kept
coming back until he got the top job.
The prayer is more than a slogan for Paulsen; its sentiment sits at the
heart of his work. “Food is such a personal thing. You’re taking something
someone made you and putting it in your body,” he says. “Knowing who
planted the seeds, knowing who received the food in the back of the
restaurant … knowing that whole cycle is so important.”
He spends time building his team in the kitchen, which begins with the
interview process. He’ll ask prospects to give an example of a conflict
and how they handled it. “We want to weed out the people who yell
and throw pans,” Paulsen says. Job descriptions include items such as
“demonstrate respect for food, equipment and people,” and “have fun
and enjoy your work.”
Why does he spend time on such “soft” skills? “It came from the
realization that unhappy people make awful food,” Paulsen says. “Some
people might think that’s a waste of time, but if you want to look at it from
a nuts and bolts perspective, good food comes from a cohesive unit. If
you have conflict, if you have someone lone-wolfing it, pretty soon you
turn out a sloppy dish. It affects the bottom line.”
He’s also watchful of the restaurant’s bottom line, aiming to provide
4 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
the best ingredients but still keep prices low so neighbors can come in
regularly, not save up for a month to afford a night out. One tactic is to
use every bit of food, which he admits explains how he came up with the
halibut pizza he prepared for this interview.
“So Foodservice News is read by industry people, right?” he confirms
before revealing his practical side. “It was driven by a desire,” and he
hesitates, “to clean out the freezer,” he says with a laugh. “But a better
way to say it is to use all the food.”
Halibut featured heavily on a previous menu, and for each serving
they’d always slice off a bit. “The stuff left is still 16 bucks a pound, so we
roasted it and put it on a pizza and it was great,” Paulsen says.
For him, feeding people healthy and delicious food, knowing where
it comes from, and welcoming them back regularly is a satisfying
formula. While he often meets line cooks who aspire to work at five-star
restaurants, that’s not for him.
“It’s mind-boggling that someone would want to attain a position where
they only want to cook for rich people. Why not cook for everybody?”
That’s a belief even the Buddha would endorse.
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Halibut Pizza
1 ea pizza crust
1 Tbsp horseradish mustard oil (recipe below)
¼ cup halibut scraps, diced & sautéed
2 Tbsp fennel, small diced & lightly roasted
1 cup parsnips, coined & lightly roasted
2 Tbsp leeks, copped & lightly sautéed
¼ cup provolone, shredded
¼ cup chevre, crumbled
Sprinkle with course sea salt, drizzle with Locust Lane Verjus, grind
toasted black peppercorns. Cook in convection oven on a pizza
stone at 425 degrees for 7 minutes.
Horseradish Mustard Oil
½ cup horseradish, grated
2 Tbsp whole grain mustard
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup sunflower oil
Salt
Black pepper
Puree everything in a blender. Taste for quality and seasoning;
adjust as needed. Yields approximately ½ cup.
Congratulations
to the 2014 Top Chefs
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2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
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Aaron Slavicek
Bar La Grassa
A
By Mecca Bos
aron Slavicek is soft spoken, quick to smile and pleasant to
be around. He’s like a breath of fresh air. Before taking his
post as executive chef of Bar La Grassa — first by way of
several one-year stints each at Solera and La Belle Vie — he stepped
down as executive chef of Cafe Maude to become an unpaid intern.
A restaurant guest was so impressed with the menu, says Slavicek,
that he was invited to go and live with the diner’s mother in San
Sebastian, Spain, and learn world-renowned Basque cooking.
So, he packed up his knives and went. He started at the top-rated
restaurant at the time, Arzak, a three-star Michelin-rated bastion of
New Basque cuisine. Slavicek found it to be “foofy.”
“I understand modernist cuisine,” he says, “but it’s not my favorite.”
So he moved on, to Zuberoa, also Michelin rated, but this time
situated in a 300-year-old farmhouse run by two brothers, focusing
on traditional Basque cuisine. Here, he felt at home: “Ninety percent
of the ingredients used were from that area. They imported chocolate
and not much else. They're very proud of their wines and cidres;
we had fishermen knocking at the door at 7 a.m. with their morning
catch.”
While Slavicek says it was challenging to step down from being
the boss to becoming the lowest man on the totem pole, he thinks
it was the best thing he could have done for his development as a
chef. “It made me fully appreciate all the roles in the kitchen.”
This back-to-basics approach may be the key to his success at
La Grassa, where he says tutelage from chef/owner Isaac Becker
begins with quality. “Pretty much the entirety of the line gets prepped
new from scratch every day. [Becker’s] focus has never been about
cost. If there’s something he can do to make a dish better, he will do
it,” says Slavicek.
Like any young chef, he says he once suffered from attempts to
be over creative with a dish, by putting three too many elements on
the plate. But under Becker’s wing, he says he’s learned the way of
rending just three ingredients into a finished product. “His focus is on
simplicity and everything being perfect and absolutely the best that we
can get — that’s the whole philosophy,” Slavicek says of Becker.
Slavicek refuses to be placed in any box, culinarily speaking,
and wants to clear the air regarding the notion that La Grassa is an
Italian restaurant. “We certainly aren’t — there are Spanish dishes on
the menu, and we have a broad Mediterranean influence,” he says.
Slavicek won’t name any one dish or cuisine he has any special
6 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
affinity for, even when I try to push him to name something he’d feed
his mom if she came in. “Whatever she wanted,” he simply says. “She
likes seafood. And prawns.”
He explains that the best part of his time in Spain was the diversity
of the staff. “I could stand in the kitchen and see people from all over
the world. From Korea, from Japan — it was amazing.” On their day
off, chefs and cooks gathered in someone's apartment and cooked
dishes from their home countries, sharing them with one another. It
was this experience, Slavicek says, that gave him an affinity for every
kind of food, and when the day comes to open his own place, it will
be small, and eclectic.
He shuns the chef as celebrity trend, and worries for “the whole
generation of young cooks who are losing sight of what really
matters.”
But lest you think Slavicek is completely beyond reproach, I do
draw one story out of him. His first cooking gig was making omelets
to order at Ciatti’s in Burnsville, based solely on the wage being
higher than any other teenage job. One day, the mother of a girl he
had a crush on came in to dine. With a bit of a sly grin he recalls,
“She was so impressed that I was the omelet boy, and then I got to
thinking, maybe there is something cool about this whole cooking
thing.”
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Fregola and Clams
Pasta Water
2 gallons water
¼ cup diamond crystal kosher salt
2 cups dried fregola (preferably from Sardinia)
Bring water to mellow boil. Add the salt, stir with wooden spoon until
salt is dissolved. Add the dried fregola, cook for 8-10 minutes, until tender
but still has a bit of bite. Strain fregola (reserve some pasta water for
later), toss with some olive oil and cool rapidly.
Clams
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp sliced garlic
Large handful fresh manila clams, cleaned
Good pinch of salt
Couple glugs of dry white wine
Nice pinch of chili flake
1½ cups fregola, cooked
Heaping Tbsp butter
¼ cup Grana Padano, grated
Splash of Pernod
Pinch of parsley, sliced
Squeeze of lemon
Salt, to taste
Sprinkle of fennel pollen or fresh ground toasted fennel seed
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Over medium heat: toast the sliced garlic with olive oil in a 10-inch
sauté pan. Stir with wooden spoon. Once the edges of the garlic turn
golden, add the cleaned clams, white wine and chili flake away from
the flame.
Once the pan calms down, put it back on the heat and cover with lid.
After a bit, carefully open the lid to see if any clams have opened. Use
tongs to grab the clams as they open and place in a separate bowl,
keeping covered until you finish the fregola.
Over the heat, add the cooked fregola and butter. Once the butter
melts, add the cheese, stirring often with wooden spoon. Add the pernod;
add the rest of the ingredients. Taste, adjust, taste, then top fregola with
clams and a bit more fresh lemon juice.
foodservicenews.net | Foodservice News | 7
Robert Wohlfeil
The Oceanaire Seafood Room
M
By Beth Ewen
ore than 260 for happy hour every day. Up to 400 a day
on weekends. Some 130 pounds of fresh fish cut daily.
Those are a few statistics Robert Wohlfeil throws around, as
executive chef at The Oceanaire in downtown Minneapolis.
In the chandelier-studded dining room where he presides over all
those numbers, Wohlfeil explains the pace is one reason why he loves
the restaurant business. “I’m an impatient person. You open, you serve,
you close. Every day you see what you’ve produced,” he says. “I like
to be busy.”
He’s got an enormous staff — 11 servers, four cocktailers (as he calls
them), three bartenders, seven wait assistants, five dishwashers, nine line
cooks, to name a few, on a typical Saturday night — but this day he
runs around himself to get his guest a glass of water. Later, as the dish
he’s preparing for the Top Chefs book roasts in the oven, he grabs a
customer’s ticket off the line and cooks it himself.
Wohlfeil, now 32, started in the business at 15, washing dishes at
Pearl’s Diner in Fargo.
“That was an experience I wouldn’t suggest for everyone, but it’s an
experience you have to have in this business,” he says. “You’re the utility
guy. You do it all. It’s something to keep in the back of your brain today,
so you’re maintaining that level of respect” for the staff doing the dirty
work.
Later he worked for Famous Dave’s, helping the barbecue chain
open new restaurants, then landed at Oceanaire nearly nine years ago.
There, Wohlfeil experienced another number like many in the restaurant
business: Chapter 11, when Oceanaire’s owners filed for bankruptcy
protection in 2009.
Then operating on an out-of-the-way floor at the Hyatt hotel, the staff
tried mightily to turn the place around, offering cut-rate brunches, for
example, to draw in the crowds.
“The approach was bring people in any way we could, $20 prix fixe
stuff,” he recalls. “It diluted the brand, which was upscale dining.”
Landry’s, the Houston-based restaurant giant that owns more than
450 properties and operates more than 40 brands, bought it in 2010,
and the price was “cheap, cheap,” Wohlfeil says ruefully. “We both had
to adjust,” Landry’s and he.
But Landry’s started pouring in money, including relocation in 2012
to street-level space off Nicollet Mall and Sixth Street, and a gorgeous
renovation in which Wohlfeil had a major say. Business increased more
than 50 percent, with the new location drawing happy hour crowds,
8 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
early and late diners. “In the Hyatt it was strictly a destination.”
Today he’s part of the sustainable seafood and freshwater fish
movement, and Oceanaire was the first restaurant to sign on to the
Minnesota Zoo’s Fish Smart program, in 2011. Members now number
more than 30. “Are we doing what we can to make sure the fish will still
be there,” is the goal of Fish Smart, he says. “It’s creating a future for the
ocean.”
He’s also a fan of the straightforward. “The molecular gastronomy, the
foams and the air, is very, very cool but it doesn’t fit with what we want to
do,” he says. “I want the food to look approachable.” He doesn’t want
the diner “to wonder how to eat it.”
Wohlfeil is aware some would turn up their noses at such a highvolume restaurant, or one that’s part of a chain. “I don’t like to compare
myself to local names because they’re doing great things but they’re
different from me,” he says.
Being in the corporate world, with 13 Oceanaires company-wide, is
its own challenge, and one that suits him perfectly. “It’s huge,” he says,
referring to the size of the operation. “It’s important to have somebody
who can make it happen, and that’s me.”
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Guajillo Sauce
Ingredients
6 ounces sugar; granulated
3 ounces lime juice
3 ea Guajillo chilies; dried, deseeded
8 ounces soy sauce
2 ounces corn starch
Procedure
In a medium saucepan, caramelize the sugar over medium heat
until melted. Add lime juice and chilies. Pull caramelized sugar from
the bottom of the pan with a spoon or spatula. Add the soy sauce.
Allow to simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar
is dissolved. Make a slurry with the corn starch and add gradually to
thicken. With an immersion blender, puree the sauce. Serve.
Escabeche
Ingredients
½ cup red peppers; fine julienne
½ cup green peppers; fine julienne
¼ cup jalapeño peppers; fine julienne
¼ cup red onion; fine julienne
½ cup carrots; fine julienne
½ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup water
2 ounces granulated sugar
½ Tbsp cumin; whole, toasted
2 ounces fresh cilantro; chopped
1 Tbsp salt
Procedure
Mix all vegetables together in a mixing bowl. Set aside. In a small
saucepan, bring remaining ingredients to a simmer and pour immediately
over the top of the vegetables. Toss together and cover with plastic
wrap. Allow to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Add fresh cilantro
and serve immediately atop choice of grilled or pan-seared white fish.
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
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Leonard Anderson
Tongue in Cheek
I
By Mecca Bos
n the age of obsessive food TV, of Eater-brand myopic fetishism
down to the signage on restaurant windows, of Fieri-style
bellowing, it may seem that there’s no such thing anymore as a
pensive chef. One who seems relatively disinterested in press, or in
branding, or in bellowing.
And yet, that’s pretty much what I found when I went to interview
Leonard Anderson, chef/owner of Tongue in Cheek. Along with
wife Ashleigh Newman and kitchen staff Dan Ohl and John Rossiter,
Anderson has created something quite different in the up-and-coming
Payne Avenue neighborhood of St. Paul.
While the space maintains a cool, casual St. Paul feel with marble
slab bar, checkerboard floor and vintage, filigreed building facade,
they’re putting no such restraint on the plate. In an ambitious campaign
to A) bring classic French cuisine with a heavy, Marcus Samuelssonesque Asian inspiration to the east side, and B) advertise an equally
ambitious stance on animal product ethics, the team brings forth their
brand-new restaurant.
The latter piece is the work of Newman, a longtime animal rights
advocate, who’s worked with PETA and similar organizations in the
past. The couple insists their place is a restaurant with a mission,
devoted to using only meat, fish and dairy raised or caught in a
humane and sustainable manner.
They landed on the East Side after living in the area and dying for
somewhere to eat besides fast food joints and taquerias. Anderson
tips his hat to Strip Club Meat & Fish, which opened on Dayton’s
Bluff several years ago, taking a chance on selling finer food in the
traditionally blue-collar neighborhood. “We are well aware of the
hazards and caution signs, but we ourselves are the kinds of middleclass people who live here and want to eat here,” says Anderson.
In further non-traditional chef style, Anderson says he hated cooking
when he first took it up as a teenager — hated smelling like food all the
time, especially. It wasn’t until he circled back to it as a Le Cordon Bleu
student that he decided the life was for him. “It was the knife cuts up
on the screen,” he says, simply. He worked for Samuelsson at Aquavit,
and later at W.A. Frost, the Hanger Room in outstate Minnesota, and
a private catering business, but always knew he wanted to have a
place of his own “to go and to be.”
He says he subscribes to the Momofuku/Travail models of
restaurateering: “casual and non-pretentious,” but still pushing
culinary boundaries. On my visit he treats me to some “teasers,” tiny,
10 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
two-bite composed plates for an insane $2 each. A braised pork
belly, for instance, with Asian rub, stone fruit salsa, sesame aioli and
peanuts. The size could have been a holiday feast for a Barbie doll,
but instead is sweet torture for a grown-up lady—one that leaves a
smile on your face and wanting yet another bite. Slap down eight
quarters, and it’s yours.
“That's the point,” says Anderson. “We want to under promise and
over deliver.”
By this time, Anderson is smiling and loose. He’s been hovering over
his mise en place in the kitchen, and finally seems a little at ease with
my presence now that we’re hunkered over a table and I’m shooting
down another teaser—this time a cocktail—Berries & Bubbly, where a
berry sphere, submerged in sparkling wine and ginger explodes in
my mouth. “That's so fun!” I exclaim. The chef’s grin widens.
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Scallop Crudo
8-10 bay scallops, with their “shoe/boot” removed
1 tsp fried garlic
1 pinch sea salt
5 sprigs micro wasabi greens
3½ Tbsp wasabi vinaigrette (recipe below)
1 Granny Smith apple, small dice
Method
Mix all of the ingredients except wasabi greens and apple together in
a bowl and let marinate for about 2 minutes. Place in a serving bowl and
garnish with the apple and wasabi greens. Serves 1-2.
Wasabi Vinaigrette
1 cup garlic oil
2 lemons, zested
1 cup lemon juice
3 tsp wasabi oil or horseradish oil
½ Tbsp coriander seed, toasted and cracked
3 Tbsp dark agave
1 Tbsp ginger juice
3 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
Method
Whisk the ingredients
except for the oil together
and then slowly whisk in
the oils in a smooth steady
stream. Season with salt and
pepper, and store for up to a
week. Makes 3 cups.
Braised Pork Belly
3 pounds skinless pork belly, with the fat side scored with a knife in a
diamond pattern.
1 Tbsp ginger powder
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp black pepper
Method
Mix the salt, sugar and spices together and rub all over the pork belly.
Place in a baking dish and roast fat side up for 5 minutes at 500 degrees,
turn heat down to 250 degrees and roast uncovered until a tooth pick
comes out clean with little resistance (about 4-5 hours). Let cool in its
own fat and once cool cut into bite size pieces. Once all the pork is
portioned, fry in a deep fryer at 350 degrees for about 2 minutes until
crispy. Garnish your pork with any condiments you like—it goes great with
fruit salsas, aiolis, herbs or just by itself, too. Makes 15 small bites.
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2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
foodservicenews.net | Foodservice News | 11
Thomas Kim
The Rabbit Hole
T
By Nancy Weingartner
homas Kim’s fantasy is to introduce street-style Korean fare
to inquisitive Midwesterners who aren't afraid to fall down
the rabbit hole into a world of intense flavors. “The menus
are changing and getting more adventurous,” he says, of the latest
offerings at his second restaurant, The Rabbit Hole, but he has to be
careful not to push Midwestern palates “so far out of their comfort
zone they don’t come back (to the restaurant).”
Take for instance, his plan to add silkworm larvae to the menu. “I
served it to the staff and it became obvious to me no one would order
it,” he says. Likewise a popular sweet, smoky drink called That’s What
She Said. People liked it until they heard the ingredients: Midori, dashi
stock and dried bonita flakes.
“Unfamiliar has been our biggest issue,” he laments.
He’s had more luck with the braised pig tail, although diners are
surprised at the size of the tail — 12 to 14 ounces — and the look. “It’s
not the animated curl … it’s phallic looking,” he acknowledges. But it
also resembles a “tasty rib” that exceeds customers' taste expectations
once tossed in roasted scallion sauce. Kim tends to cook what he likes
to eat, and what he’s been craving but can’t find in other restaurants.
Midwestern sensibilities also struggle with another Korean mainstay:
a buzzer on the table used to summon the waitstaff. “Koreans value
privacy, instead of a waiter hovering,” he explains. Minnesota-nice
people, however, hate to bother the server and tend to wait for him or
her to make the rounds. But they’re catching on, Kim says.
But for all the differences, the draw to the restaurant in Midtown
Global Market in Minneapolis is those hard-to-find taste profiles served
by knowledgeable servers. There's also a large Korean population
here looking for the tastes of home.
The decor is imaginative, combining the look of Korean street cafés
with whimsy. It's been compared to Alice in Wonderland, but it’s not
intentional, he says. Cookbooks, strung in a floating arch, h o v e r
above the host stand. Colorful graffiti adds some
authenticity to the tables, along with low metal
chairs and menus hung from wire. A feathered
lampshade dominates a small grassy room in
the back. In the bar, an oblong chandelier
is constructed from multiple sizes of paper
lanterns. Kim's wife gets credit for the decor, as
well as their fun website.
Kim, who is a second-generation Korean
12 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
raised in Southern California, started out at the Midtown Global
Market as The Left-handed Cook. (Left-handed sushi chefs, his training,
are frowned upon, Kim says, so he had to learn to cut right-handed.)
When the larger space opened up, he closed his Left-Handed Cook,
so another chef could take advantage of the space and perks the
market provides start-ups. Kim just finished re-conceptualizing the
original Left-Handed Cook as a “micro-restaurant,” a stationary food
cart, open for lunch outside The Rabbit Hole. One idea is to serve
Korean steamed buns and American “dirty-water” hot dogs, where
the holding tank water will be flavored with spices such as star anise,
cinnamon and coriander. Toppings also will be unexpected, such as
fermented vegetables and onion marmalade.
The Rabbit Hole is open for dinner only, because “the style of food
and service tend not to work well with grab and go,” he says. He’s
much more focused on presentation at Rabbit Hole. “I live and breathe
food,” he says. “The story behind cooking is personal.”
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Ro Tteok (Rou Jia Mo/
Hotteok Sandwich)
3 ounces of Red Braised Pork
1 Hotteok bun
Cilantro
Green Onion
Pickled Jalapeño
Take the hotteok bun and slice it in half. Toast the outside of the bun
until deep golden. Top with pork, then garnish with cilantro, green onion
and pickled jalapeño. Enjoy with your favorite pickles.
Red Braised Pork
1 pound pork jowl
1 pound pork belly
1 pound pork shoulder
6 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp Shaoxing Chinese
Cooking Wine
2 Tbsp mushroom soy sauce
2-inch knob of ginger,
cleaned, smashed
2 whole star anise
2 3-inch pieces of cassia bark
(or sub cinnamon stick)
4-5 dried red chili peppers
Blanch the pork in boiling water for 5 minutes. Dump the water and
rinse the pork. Cut the pork into 2-inch cubes. Toast the dry spices until
fragrant. In another pot large enough to hold the pork, add the sugar, soy
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
and shaoxing. Fully dissolve the sugar, then add the spices and ginger.
Add the pork then fill with enough water to cover the pork. Simmer for 1
to 2 hours until tender. Remove the pork then reduce the sauce by ¹⁄³ and
add the pork back in.
Hotteok 1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp dry active yeast
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups all purpose flour
Dissolve the sugar with
the warm water. Add the
yeast and let it sit until frothy, about 10-15 minutes. Add the rest of the
ingredients and mix until smooth. Let the dough rest and double in size.
Punch down the dough one time and let it rise again. Punch down once
more, then portion to 2.5-ounce balls. Cook in a pan with oil or on a
griddle. Making sure that the inside is cooked through.
foodservicenews.net | Foodservice News | 13
Carrie Summer and
Lisa Carlson
Chef Shack
C
By Nancy Weingartner
arrie Summer’s signature Indian-spiced organic mini donuts
came about because her boss at Spoonriver “implored us
to create a product for the Mill City Farmers Market” next
to her restaurant in Minneapolis.
“Brenda [Langton, owner of Spoonriver] wanted crepes,”
Summer’s partner Lisa Carlson explains, adding that she suspected
crepes were more a personal preference than an in-demand item.
Summer, a pastry chef, decided to cash in on a dream. “I’ve
always dreamed of [making] a mini donut modern,” she says.
Setting up shop at the farmer’s market, however, wasn’t without
risk. For one thing, donuts can be challenging to make. “They take
focus,” she says. And for another, it required investing in an expensive
donut machine.
But word of mouth — especially from Star Tribune restaurant
reviewer Rick Nelson’s lips to consumers’ ears — spread. “We went
from giving them away to hour-long lines,” Carlson says.
And they went from working for others to investing all their travel
savings in a trailer so they could sell made-from-scratch food at
farmers markets. They now own three food trucks and two standalone restaurants. Even more impressive is that both brick-and-mortar
restaurants came about within a year of each other.
Both chefs have had the good fortune — is it good fortune when
you work really hard? — to train under celebrated chefs in the Twin
Cities, New York and San Francisco. They met when Carlson hired
Summer as her sous chef at Barbette in Minneapolis.
The couple got into the thriving food truck business early in the
game. Their food, which includes the mini donuts, plus bison burgers
topped with a fried egg and pulled-pork nachos, has been included
14 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
on some pretty notable national lists, such as Bon Appétit’s and
Saveur’s lists of memorable market meals.
When they couldn’t find suitable property in the Twin Cities, the two
invested in a turnkey restaurant in Bay City, Wisconsin, opening Chef
Shack. Barn wood salvaged from Summer’s childhood home adorn
walls and the decorative doors on the outside of the building are the
gates her champion horses once stood behind. She also borrowed
from her antique collection to add personality to the space.
Chef Shack is a popular spot off Great River Road — on which 7
million cars are said to travel down from May to October — but it’s
also the couple’s retirement plan.
Buying, rather than leasing, the building was paramount, Carlson
says, because “chefs all around the world” invest so much of their
time, talent and reputation into a restaurant and if they don’t own the
building, they can be out in the street or at the mercy of significant
rent hikes.
The chefs describe their food as “ranch rustic, country French.”
The menu at their latest restaurant, Chef Shack Ranch in the
Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, is more along the lines of
“healthy truck-stop food,” if the truck stop is into fresh produce and
scratch cooking.
While they’re chefs first, they also see themselves as mentors and
educators. “We like cooks who interact with customers,” Summer
says. They believe in paying a living wage to their staff and more
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Mignonette
3 Tbsp champagne vinegar 1 Tbsp pomegranate juice
½ shallot, minced
½ tsp fresh cracked pepper
1 pinch white sugar
1 Tbsp cranberry puree
Combine all ingredients into a shallow bowl and serve
immediately with fresh oysters. This is great for holiday oyster
entertaining.
than minimum wage to their servers. Tips are a bonus, Summer
contends, not part of their salary.
Summer teaches the cooks how to drive the food trucks — her
advice is to take it slow, since when they’re loaded down stopping
takes longer. And they demand cooks taste the food they’re
GIVING
preparing several steps along the way to ensure it’s perfect. The two
have even been known to quiz employees to help them grow their
food knowledge. They also feed their own brains. “We still try to
step into kitchens when we travel,” Summer says. “It’s a never-ending
learning experience.”
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2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
foodservicenews.net | Foodservice News | 15
Susan Dunlop
Joan’s in the Park
I
By Nancy Weingartner
t seems like a lot of work just to get a Sunday off.
But that was at least one of the motivations behind the once-amonth Chef’s Day Off dinners at Joan’s in the Park. The Monday
night offering fills up quickly, because the 12- to 14-course meals use only
raw ingredients that grow or graze in upper Midwest fields.
“That means no lemons or oil olive,” says Susan Dunlop, the chef and
co-owner of Joan’s who came up with the “labor-saving” plan. “We grind
our own flour (for bread) and press sunflower seeds and hazelnuts (for
oil).” They also churn butter from organic cream and make condiments
from scratch. “You can’t do that every day,” she says of the 50 covers a
day they do on weekdays and 80 on weekends.
To keep the guests from getting too stiff from sitting over the course of
the three-hour dinner, she serves one course in the kitchen, where she also
performs — such as in October when she butchered a duck. Only one
person passed on the duck dish, a case of “seeing is not eating,” Dunlop
says, adding, “It’s important to know where food comes from.”
The dinners are another way of saying “eat locally,” a phrase Dunlop
thinks is overused. While the daily fare is also made from scratch, what
her purveyors have fresh often determines what’s on the menu. “No
zucchini?” she says, “So I have three hours to come up with something”
the rep does have fresh off the farm.
The day we visited she cradled a giant head of kale, showing it off with
a mother’s pride. There was also a box filled with misshapen heirloom
tomatoes that received high praise.
Dunlop’s partner Joan Schmitt is the “Joan” in the moniker. The name
came from Dunlop’s favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, Joan’s on Third.
“Joan’s on Snelling didn’t sound very catchy,” she says, but with the
eatery’s location in St. Paul’s Highland Park area the name is legit.
Schmitt serves as maître d’ and bartender, and two of her children
have joined the small staff. The couple bought the eatery complete with
a pizza oven that is still their main source of heat. The large deck oven
replaces a broiler, sauté station and a fryer. “You have to adapt recipes
to this style of cooking,” Dunlop says, adding, “You do what you do with
what you have at the time.”
Originally, they thought it would stay a pizza restaurant, but “two
months into it, we decided pizza wasn’t our dream,” Dunlop says. What
was there destiny is a white-tablecloth restaurant and cooking from
scratch.
“It’s not (just) cooking,” she explains, “I love feeding people.”
Dunlop had an unorthodox pathway to chef/restaurant owner. She
16 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
started her career as a tax assessor in New York, then moved to California
with plans to go into real estate appraisals. While she took classes, she
started working in L.A. restaurants and found she liked prepping, even
though at one place the sink was in the walk-in cooler.
“I like the competitive aspect of restaurants. I was active in sports and
this replaced it,” she says. “I have to have things ready, quality has to be
there and it’s a physical job with an artistic aspect. Food touches all your
senses.”
It’s also personal. Her food is her art and if people don’t like her steak
or rutabaga raviolo, it’s hard not to take it personally. It’s made her aware
that most professionals take special pride in what they do. “Now, I even
thank my dentist,” she says, grinning.
Rutabaga Raviolo
2 cups rutabaga (peeled & cut into ¾-inch cubes)
¼ tsp salt
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1 Tbsp butter (soft)
Pinch salt
1 egg white
6 Swiss chard stems (cut ¼ inch, sautéed in butter for 1 minute)
2 ounces micro greens
Fresh pasta dough
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
• Add the rutabaga and 1 Tbsp salt to a medium saucepan and cover
with water.
• Bring to a boil then reduce heat and cook at a slow boil for 40
minutes until very tender. You may have to add additional water.
• Drain the rutabagas and place them into the work bowl of a food
processor with the butter, cream and salt and puree for several
minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary, until a
smooth puree is achieved.
• Taste the puree and add additional salt if necessary.
• Pass the puree through a wire mesh strainer into a mixing bowl, cover
and refrigerate.
• Once the filling has cooled, prepare a pasta sheeter and set it to the
widest setting. Using a bench scraper or knife, cut the dough into 4
equal pieces and return 3 pieces back into the plastic bag and using
a lightly floured work surface, press out the dough into a flat square
about ¼ inch thick.
• Dust lightly with flour and pass the dough through the widest setting
of the pasta sheeter.
• Fold the dough in half and pass through the widest setting again. Do
this procedure 5 times, flouring the dough as needed so that it does
not become sticky.
• Now adjust the sheeter down one more setting and pass the dough
through, no longer folding it in half. Continue this process one setting
at a time until you reach the next to the last setting. You should have a
smooth long sheet of dough.
• Set your pasta sheet aside on a floured work surface and prepare
an additional sheet just as you did the last one. (Using a pasta cutting
wheel or knife, you can trim up the sides if you like, although it is not
necessary.)
• Once you have 2 sheets prepared, take one sheet and working left
to right, center 2 tablespoons of filling 2 inches from the left edge of
your dough. As you proceed, keep each addition 2 inches apart
from the last. You should be able to fit about 4 portions of filling on
the sheet of dough.
• Whisk the egg white until it is just frothy. Using a pastry brush, lightly
brush the egg white around the filling. This will help seal the raviolis.
• Now take your second sheet and gently set it on top of the first sheet.
Working left to right and one ravioli at a time, using your 2 index
fingers, begin pressing down the dough to seal the dough around the
outside of the filling. It is important to avoid air pockets in your ravioli.
• Using a 3-and-a-half-inch round cutter, cut out each ravioli and gently
press the seams together to insure a good seal.
• Place the ravioli on a floured sheet pan. Do not cover the raviolis.
• Repeat this process for the additional dough and filling. You should
have about 8 ravioli.
• Prepare a large pot of boiling salted water. Drop the raviolis in the
water and cook for 4 minutes.
• Drain the ravioli and lightly blot with a paper towel to make sure there
is no residual water.
Place a dollop of the duck sauce in the middle of a pasta bowl, place
the ravioli on top of the sauce and cover the ravioli with 1½ ounces of
the sauce, garnish with the Swiss chard and the micro greens.
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Duck Raviolo Sauce
2 Tbsp duck fat
¼ cup diced bacon
2 Tbsp shallots (¹⁄8 inch dice)
1 Tbsp molasses
1 cup ruby port wine
½ cup ground duck heart,
gizzard, liver
2 cups duck stock
1 cup apple cider
8 ounces chilled butter (½ inch
dice)
1 Tbsp green peppercorns,
chopped
Note: This sauce can be prepared through step 4 and then finished
just before service
Method of Preparation/Procedure
• Using a large sauté pan, add the duck fat, bacon and shallots and
sauté on high heat until the shallots are slightly caramelized.
• Add the port and molasses and cook until port is reduced to a glaze,
reducing the heat as necessary to prevent scorching.
• Strain the sauce of the bacon and add it back to the sauté pan. Over
medium low heat add the ground duck and cook, stirring until mixture
is broken up and just cooked through.
• Increase heat to high, add the duck stock and apple cider and cook
for about 15 minutes until sauce is reduced to about 1 cup. As sauce
begins to thicken after about 10 minutes, reduce heat to medium and
then again to low as it continues to thicken. Using a rubber spatula
stir the sauce in the final minutes to prevent scorching.
• The sauce can be held at this point.
• When ready to use, heat the sauce on medium until is reaches a
simmer, then reduce the heat to low and, using a wire whisk, add the
butter a couple of pieces at a time, waiting until the first addition is
incorporated before adding the next addition.
Once the butter is fully incorporated add the salt and peppercorns,
taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Keep the sauce warm, being
careful that it does not get too hot or the sauce will break.
foodservicenews.net | Foodservice News | 17
Ryan Lund
Lucia’s Restaurant
L
By Laura Michaels
ucia Watson is held in high esteem for her commitment
to local and sustainable sourcing and classical cooking
techniques that yield expertly prepared dishes brimming with
Midwestern wholesomeness. Which is why she is one of the Twin
Cities’ preeminent chefs.
And for those cooking at the restaurant that bears her name,
there’s more than a little pressure to execute at a high level.
“It’s very humbling, it’s very scary, if I can say that,” says Executive
Chef Ryan Lund. “I’m always working to live up to Lucia’s name and
her standards.”
He’s had plenty of practice. Since beginning his tenure at the
Uptown restaurant as a part-time line cook eight years ago, Lund has
adopted the Watson way as his own. That means getting the best
of the best ingredients from Minnesota growers and producers and
not screwing them up. A promotion to chef de cuisine four years ago
meant working more closely with Watson, who Lund says helped
rein him in.
“Back in my younger chef days I’d come up with some things that
were kind of ridiculous, trying to cram six components into a dish that
should only have three,” Lund says, laughing. “Lucia, she’s been an
amazing mentor.”
Now in his executive chef role, Lund leads the restaurant, its
adjacent wine bar and Lucia’s To Go, the small market next door
selling grab-n-go items and baked goods. He’s grown into the role
and now says he turns toward classic pairings for inspiration. “Stuff
that grows together goes together,” he quips, the saying a perfect fit
at a restaurant synonymous with seasonality.
In the wake of dozens (nearly 100 by one count) of restaurant
openings across the Twin Cities this year — and the dining public’s
tendency to converge on the latest thing — the pressure to jump on
new trends to attract customers could be tempting, especially for a
restaurant in its 29th year. Not so at Lucia’s, says Lund, where the
restaurant’s core approach helps it not just endure but thrive.
“It’d be hard for us not to stay relevant because we reinvent
ourselves every week,” he says of menus that change weekly and a
constantly rotating well of ingredients that keeps customers interested.
And to keep himself interested and avoid falling back on the same
recipes from one year to the next, Lund creates his own challenges
to come up with variations of different dishes, such as one of his
favorite pairings: pork with apples. On this visit it’s pork loin and pork
18 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
belly with grilled sweet potatoes and pan-roasted Brussels sprouts in
Calvados jus, a French apple brandy.
Like many chefs, Lund worked his way up from dishwashing, a job
he took to make extra cash between music gigs. “When I graduated
high school, I didn’t have a career path, so to speak,” he says, and so
sought to make it as a drummer. Moving from Duluth to Minneapolis,
Lund picked up catering work through D’Amico before a fortuitous
walk by Lucia’s — “back when they used to put ‘help wanted’ signs in
the window" — brought him into the kitchen for good.
“In my opinion, there’s no wrong way to get into the kitchen,”
says Lund, who opted not to enroll in culinary school. “We treat this
restaurant and kitchen as a training tool … we have the opportunity to
learn and Lucia always
asks employees what
their goals are.”
For Lund that meant a
shift to a different kind
of stage — “It turned
out I was a better cook
than a drummer” — and
perhaps one day seeing
his own name on a
restaurant door.
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Pork Two Ways with Sweet
Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts,
Pickled Apples
4 ounces pork loin
3 ounces pork belly (cured overnight with salt and brown sugar, then
roasted for 2 hours at 250 degrees, and pressed overnight)
1 sweet potato sliced, grilled and roasted until tender. 5 Brussels sprouts (loose leaves separated)
5 batons of pickled apples (2-1-1 rice vinegar, sugar, water)
Calvados jus
1 cup calvados
1 cup apple cider
10 cups pork stock
Reduce until it coats the back of a spoon.
Pan-roast the pork loin to medium rare and rest. Sear the pork belly and
just heat through. Pan-roast the Brussels sprouts, adding the reserved leaves
right before plating. Slice the loin and plate everything together. Triple
Threat
It’s a flavor trifecta. Built with
smoky grilled ham, savory pulled
pork and cutlet Milanesa, this
Puerto Rican sandwich delivers
more amazing flavor per bite.
To learn how pork can amp up
global and sandwich menus, visit
PorkFoodservice.org and sign up for
our newsletter, The 400.
Pork Torta Tripleta
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
©2014 National Pork Board. Des Moines,
IA USA This message funded by America’s
Pork Producers and the Pork Checkoff.
foodservicenews.net | Foodservice News | 19
Lucas Almendinger
The Third Bird
R
By Laura Michaels
ack up $60,000 in culinary school debt or learn on the
job from an accomplished chef and get paid for it: Lucas
Almendinger chose the latter, working at W.A. Frost under
Leonard Anderson and then Wyatt Evans, soaking up every drop of
knowledge during his transition from woodworker to chef.
“I was building guitars and working in the cabinet industry and I
got bored with it,” says Almendinger, a simplified answer to a career
change that’s since led to his opening of prolific restaurateur Kim
Bartmann’s latest Minneapolis project, The Third Bird. “Leonard said
he would teach me everything I needed — without being stuck with
that debt.”
In the six years since his W.A. Frost beginnings, the 31-year-old has
steadily built a resume chefs in the business twice as long would be
jealous of, including working the line at Haute Dish and Tilia when
they opened to rave reviews and leading the transition from Union
to Union Fish Market. He’s now drawing from each experience in
different ways in his executive chef role at Third Bird, where expert
technique is applied to simple flavor profiles.
“We’re taking things that people are familiar with and preparing
them in ways people are not so familiar with,” explains Almendinger,
pointing to a chokecherry pork belly dish on the menu and the plate
of coffee-glazed roasted carrots prepared on this visit. “Everything is
elevated, but they’re still Minnesota dishes that are familiar.”
Almendinger also brought home the over-embers cooking
technique used at Saison in San Francisco — an approach he says
creates clean, pure flavors. “That was a huge influence stylistically
in how we approach things here,” notes Almendinger, and a key
reason he opts for a wood-fired oven to prepare much of the menu.
“And of course we have that local and sustainable approach
Kim is known for at all of her restaurants,” he adds of the seasonal
rotating menus at the neighborhood spot overlooking Loring Park.
“The whole menu is open to constant evolution.”
So, too, is Almendinger, who grew up preparing prime rib
sandwiches at his mom’s South Dakota café and working at Subway,
two experiences he says actually turned him off from cooking. When
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2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
he did finally return to the kitchen, perhaps it was only natural that
he connected with fellow Mount Rushmore State natives Landon
Schoenefeld and Steven Brown and helped open their respective
restaurants (the aforementioned Haute Dish and Tilia).
“It was a very eye-opening, very surprising time,” says Almendinger
of those experiences. “I think W.A. Frost is a really great spot for
young cooks because they execute at a high level and a high
volume—there’s a lot thrown at you.
“But,” he continues, “Frost is a pretty well oiled machine where
systems were already in place. Actually putting all those things in
place while you’re trying to open a restaurant…” Almendinger can
only shake his head.
Being asked about his rapid culinary ascent elicits a similar
movement and fitting response: “I’ve only been cooking for six years;
it’s kind of ridiculous.”
Coffee-Glazed Roasted
Carrots
4 ounces carrots
2 ounces coffee glaze
Salt, sugar, lemon juice to
taste
1 ounce buttermilk cheese
½ ounce chervil
½ ounce hazelnuts
Coffee salt to taste
Combine carrots and coffee glaze in pot; season with salt, sugar
and lemon; glaze carrots. Plate carrots down center of the plate, top
with chervil, buttermilk cheese, hazelnuts and coffee salt.
Sous Vide Carrots
100 g carrots
10 G sugar
4 G lemon juice
2 G lemon peel
1 G thyme
2 G bay
1 G malic acid
25 G buttermilk whey
2 G salt
Don’t be fooled by the imitators. Schroeder Heavy Cream performs
better, whips faster and stays whipped longer than any other heavy
cream on the market today. Schroeder’s gourmet Heavy Cream is
produced using a gentle, vat-pasteurization process that preserves
the natural strengths of milk solids and protein structures. This vatpasteurization process also creates a higher performing, better tasting,
and a more fully textured whipping cream.
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Peel or scrub carrots, turning to remove the green tops and remove
long roots from the tips. Combine all ingredients in vacuum bags,
put a vacuum on high and cook at 85 degrees Celsius for 1 hour.
Immediately remove carrots from bags, strain the liquid and cool the
carrots in the cooking liquid. Cut into interesting shapes. Char carrots
(fully cooled) on the French top, cool in the walk in.
Carrot Coffee Glaze
10 carrots
50 G coffee beans
3 g xantham gum
Juice the carrots and reduce by half. Add coffee beans, steep for
3 minutes. Strain blend with xantham gum on high for 2 minutes.
Coffee Salt
10 G Maldon salt
10 G ground espresso
Combine ingredients.
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Made In Minnesota
foodservicenews.net | Foodservice News | 21
Adam Vickerman
Café Levain
S
By Laura Michaels
ince meeting in 2004 when he interned at the restaurant under
Steven Brown, it’s been an on-again, off-again relationship for
Adam Vickerman and Café Levain. Vickerman has taken his
cooking talents to Barbette, Sea Change and Haute Dish and even
Levain’s own sister restaurant, Trattoria Tosca.
But the two have been going steady since Vickerman returned as
executive chef in 2011, and he shows no signs of directing his affections
elsewhere.
“I kind of had that calling to come back home,” says Vickerman. “I
always wanted to come back and finish what I started.”
The restaurant opened as classic fine-dining French bistro Restaurant
Levain in 2003 before closing and reemerging as the café concept in
2007. Vickerman is now leading the evolution of Levain with a French
technique and heavier American influences that he says result in “rustic,
humble cooking.”
“I think I’m pretty comfortable in my style of cooking, and what I like
to eat and drink fits with what our customers expect,” says Vickerman of
dishes such as braised short ribs, a simple onion soup and, of course,
roast chicken.
“People don’t really focus on chicken as something that’s new and
exciting, but it’s something we’re really proud of,” says Vickerman. “If I’m
cooking at home I love roast chicken. It’s always satisfying, even when
I have it 100 times.”
That’s not to say the 29-year-old chef isn’t looking to offer innovative
dishes with new or more unfamiliar ingredients. He draws inspiration
from his travels to cities such as San Francisco and Seattle, and overseas
to Italy and likely Paris next fall.
“You always want to try harder and do new things,” says Vickerman,
especially given the rise in new restaurants competing for diners’ attention.
But for Vickerman and Café Levain it’s not so much a competition as a
continual effort to do what they do best. “We don’t try to be something
we’re not,” continues Vickerman. “We’re a neighborhood restaurant
through and through and we’re still deeply rooted in classic French
technique. “We’re not trying to be a destination restaurant.”
Being at the mercy of area farmers also helps Vickerman keep the
Levain menu fresh. “I take what we have and make it taste good,” he
says.
Growing up in the south suburbs of Minneapolis, surrounded by “a lot
of corporate dining and fast food,” Vickerman credits his middle school
home ec class as influencing his eventual decision to attend Le Cordon
Bleu in Mendota Heights. “I just liked cooking,” he says simply. “I didn’t
22 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net
grow up pulling on my grandma’s apron strings or anything.”
Though his title is executive chef, Vickerman is on the line five nights a
week, cooking all the entrées — something he feels is integral to his style
of cooking. With Café Levain’s open kitchen, Vickerman acknowledges
it’s sometimes tough to play both host and cook, but he thrives on the
positive feedback he hears from guests.
“That’s what keeps me coming back,” he says.
Like the environment in which he works, Vickerman says he’s been
described as very nurturing in the kitchen, able to handle the stress
of 100-plus covers on a busy night and stay even-keeled. “I kind of
personify the restaurant and the restaurant personifies me,” he says. “I’ve
grown with the restaurant over the years.”
Roast Chicken with
Polenta
For the chicken
2 chicken breasts, skin on
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp butter, unsalted
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
Preheat oven to 450 degrees; take chicken breasts, skin on, and
season with kosher salt and black pepper. Heat a pan with canola
oil until hot, place the breasts skin side down in the pan and cook
over medium high heat, adjusting to not burn the skin, until the meat
around the sides turns slightly pale and the skin becomes lightly
golden. Then add a large pat of butter to the pan and let slightly
brown; once there, put into preheated oven. Roast the breasts skin
side down until meat on top is almost completely pale, with a hint of
pink toward the middle. Once there, flip the breasts over and roast
until slightly underdone, where the thickest part of the chicken still
has a slight amount of give to it. Remove from oven and let rest in
the hot pan for at least 5 minutes. Once rested, set the breasts aside
in a warm area, add a squirt of lemon juice, and season the brown
butter/pan drippings with kosher salt. For the polenta
1 quart water
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup coarse ground corn meal (We use Riverbend Farms.)
4 ounces grated aged cheddar
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
steam with a tablespoon or two of water and take off the heat. Add
in the oil, squeeze some fresh lemon juice to taste, and season with
kosher salt, black pepper, and a teaspoon or so of red chili flakes.
For the Brussels sprouts
Bring the liquids to a controlled boil, add the corn meal and stir
until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Turn heat to a low simmer
and cook corn meal until no longer toothsome, about 45 minutes for
coarse ground, much less for fine ground. Add cheese, season to taste.
For the kale
½ bunch of lacinato kale, finely shredded
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Kosher salt, black pepper, and chili flakes to taste
Get a sauté pan hot (without any fat will work) and place the kale
into the pan, tossing to slightly char. Once charred to your liking,
16 ounces Brussels sprouts, raw, ends cut off, halved
2 ounces butter, unsalted
1 shallot, peeled and finely shaved
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely shaved
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp finely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
1 Tbsp finely chopped chives
Kosher salt, black pepper, and chili flakes to taste
Brown the butter in a sauté pan and add the sprouts, sautéing
until deeply brown and caramelized. Add the shallot and garlic and
continue sautéing until they are opaque and cooked. Season with
the lemon, herbs, kosher salt, black pepper, and chili flakes.
Commercial Kitchen Services
We have the resources to solve your most
complex kitchen needs
•
•
•
•
Turnkey installations, skilled technicians, 24/7 service
OEM and generic parts for kitchen equipment plus in-stock plumbing parts
Conveniently located off I-94 or Hwy 280
Locally owned and operated
764 Vandalia St. • St. Paul, MN 55114 • 651-641-0164
www.commercialkitchenservices.net
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2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
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2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
A Franchise
Opportunity
with sprinkles
on top.
Hockenbergs is a single source for your design, supply and equipment needs. We stock
a wide range of products for both the front and back of the house including equipment,
smallwares, disposables and janitorial products. We also offer design ser vices, custom
stainless, millwork, custom refrigeration as well as full opening packages.
2015 Silver Bell Road, Suite 150 Eagan, MN 55122 • 612-331-1300 • 888-283-1300
Have your cake and sell it, too
Does your menu include just one or two choices of cake?
Look at what your guests aren’t eating!
Bundt
Cupcakes
Pound
Angel
Babka
Aranygaluska
Boston cream pie
Banoffee
Battenberg
Biblingka
Bienenstich
Birthday
Buccellato
Carrot
Chiffon
Coffee
Crystal
Cremeschnitte
Croquembouche
Tres leches
Dacquoise
Financier
Fragelité
Frog
Fruitcake
Funing big
Geooa cake
Goose Breast
ice Cream
Kreówka
Lady Baltimore
Lamington
Magdalena
Mantecada
Mooncake
opera
Pavlova
Dobaos
Kabuni
dundee
Eccles
Esterhazy torte
Princess
Budapestiangd
Faworki
Karpatka
Kiev Cake
King Cake
Kladdakaka
Fat rascal
Kouign-amann
rEd BEan
rum
Snow skin
Suncake
Swiss roll
Need some fresh ideas for upgrading your dessert offerings?
Let them eat cake, but let them eat exotic cakes,
ethnic cakes, unexpected cakes.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Midland Hills Country Club – Roseville, MN | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
For more information on the show and exhibit opportunities contact
Amy Gasman at 612-767-3215 or [email protected]
www.sellingdesserts.com
Congratulations to the 2014 FSN Top Chefs!
Thank you to all of the creative chefs that are bringing top notch
innovation to our local restaurant marketplace.
www.bixproduce.com
2014 Top Chefs - Twin Cities
1415 L’Orient Street, St. Paul, MN 55117 651-487-8000 800-642-9514
28 | Foodservice News | foodservicenews.net