By Chef David Kinch: Into the Vegetable Garden...The evolution of a dish

The Chef wrote this post.  When I asked him about including a photo of the dish, he said, "People need to smell, taste, and feel it to really experience it.  Seeing a one-dimensional picture of it isn't the same."  I've had the pleasure of eating the dish.  I couldn't agree more.  Here are his words:

The relationship between Love Apple Farm and Manresa Restaurant is very special. Love Apple is not a show garden, nor does it exist for just PR purposes. It is not just a seasonal garden; it’s where the bulk of the restaurant produce is grown year round. It is a working farm, an integrated facet of the restaurant, just as important as anything or anyone else. Its role is unique; not many other restaurants have the opportunity to create an exclusive farm to table relationship that has such an impact on a menu.

From the very beginning, we wanted to create a dish that celebrated the garden, that showed the special nature of our relationship and how it constantly changes, not only with the ephemeral changes of the seasons, but with the thoughts and designs of the kitchen team.

It had to be a vegetable dish and the obvious choice was to create one in which the complexities come from the abundance of the produce itself.

There is a reference point for a dish like this. Michel Bras in Lagioule, France is one of the most influential chefs of the last century and into this century. Ingredient obsessive, and a forager of forgotten flavors, his food is unmistakably French. He nevertheless embraces, in fact, helped create, the modernist aesthetic we see developing around the world. He has a huge (and is perhaps the largest) influence on Ferran Adria and the other Spanish vanguardists who garner a lot of current press. Bras’ dish was simple; a “gargouillou” or a dish of vegetables (with a touch of ham). It contained herbs and vegetables, cultivated and foraged, raw and cooked, grains, flowers, etc. He wanted this melange to reflect the landscape and country that he was in. The dish changed as the seasons did, a perfect reflection of that seasonality. This dish has had enormous influence on a whole generation of chefs around the world, many who took the idea and built their own theme into it. Some, like Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz, just outside of San Sebastian and one of the world’s brilliant talents, has placed his own stamp on what has now become a signature dish at his restaurant worthy of his name.

So how did we start? The only real rule for this dish was that if it had arrived from the garden, then it had to be on the plate.

We originally started with a dish called “Potato gnocchi and burrata cheese, vegetables from the garden." After awhile the gnocchi became a superfluous element, especially since Cynthia started harvesting fantastic varieties of potatoes.

So it became “Potatoes and vegetables from the garden, burrata cheese.”

But through the course of our first four full seasons we wanted to go even more. We did not want it to be a collection, but a plate as if we had held a mirror up to the garden and it showed an edible reflection. The ephemeral nature of what the unfolding seasons show us, the daily nuanced changes that only Cynthia and her team see must be present.

Over time we have learned how we can use different elements of a plant at different times of its life: roots, stems, seed, flowers, buds, leaves, shoots, etc. The possibilities are endless. This changed things dramatically. We began to view the dish more as a concept, a mirror, and not just as a plate of food. We wanted customers to step into the garden, to enter it in their taste and in their minds when they ate the dish, to feel as if they transported themselves to the garden of which we are so proud.

So we changed the name and called it “Vegetables from the garden, their vegetable juices.”

We then created an edible “dirt” based on roasted chicory root and dried potatoes, which not only played its visual role but a superbly flavorful one, contributing the slight bitter note that we had been searching for.

We changed the name one more time.  It became “Into the vegetable garden.” This concept of a sense of place on a plate, not just a reflection of the terroir, but for the dish to actually represent the location is a big step. There are some groundbreaking chefs who are taking these ideas to the next logical step of what we are just touching on. It is fascinating.

We have a lot of visitors to the farm and the restaurant, both customers and people in the industry. It is amazing the reaction that we get from them when they have the dish after a visit to Cynthia’s special place. It is interesting that almost all understand the idea, and some even take it with them.

This dish has now been on our menu for two years and the name never changes. But the dish does.

Everyday.

Like a day in the garden.

Comments

[Janis]

I had the most memorable meal I ever ate at Manressa. I do not say this without saying that I have eaten at MANY amazing restaurants throughout the states and other countries yet the one I had here was the most memorable to me. I believe that was the first year it was open. Too bad for me that we now live on the other coast.

[Kristin]

Just dined at Manresa for the first time this past weekend, and two years on, this post still captures the essence of "Into the Garden." Chef David is spot-on in not posting an image - one must truly experience each and every bite. The dish is amazing and defies its own complexity. Every bite is another step into the garden's pathways. I especially love the chicory dirt - not a gimmick, but a beautiful flavor and texture. Bravo to all who make the vegetables the star of the show.

[Mary-Anne]

Chef David's recipe for Crepes is simply the best I have ever made. I do various variations with the Beggar's Purses and everyone raves and I tout whose recipe it is Chef David Kinch of Manresa. The easy ready made crab salad from Costco makes for a real easy version for guests.

I have filled them with Thai curried crab or fresh Bay Shrimp (lightly curried), Copper River Wild Salmon with green onion and dill-Crème fraîche, and whatever bleeps into my mind.

Some day we really want to dine at Manressa. We are up in Alamo and the drive for dinner can be taxing as my husbands catches a 6 AM flight out every Sunday and is only home on Saturday.

Alamo Foodie,
Mary-Anne

[David]

Hi David! Can't wait to come back and try that again...and everything else too. Love the vegetables (and the chef...and the girlfriend too!)

[christopher]

As a co-worker with Cynthia at the garden, I have the honor of seeing the Chef when he comes to help harvest and apply biodynamic preps. But I was totally blown away by his power of words! Truly, a poet can work with as many media as s/he cares to employ.

[sam]

This dish, is beyond any doubt, my absolute favourite on the Manresa tasting menu. I can't explain why, exactly, a plateful of vegetables should be so memorable, it doesn't sound logical, but this plate, somewhere near the middle of the meal is a stunner that I whip up in my mind's eye whenever I want a delicious memory. The only problem is that having eaten it, I am now less enchanted by my farmer's market where I am for ever looking for a little pink radish as pale and tender as the ones that come from Love Apple farm. At least I know where to go if I want to eat it again. Thanks for everything you grow, Cynthia.

[aaron]

wonderfully written, chef

[Jamie]

Wow, that was a really beautiful and evocative post. Thanks Dave!
Cynthia, is that lunar phase thing new? I'm enamored.