Issue 3 • March/April 2015 • Grow
Grow
It’s time to Garden
like an urban homesteader p.10
Discover
the power of farmers markets p.22
Ferment
your own veggies p.40
$4.95 FREE at select locations
Caputo’s Food Affair
p.30
2 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 3
22
Weekend Incubator Follow Utah products from farmers market stalls to store shelves Cover photo: Kale salad from Pallet Photographer: John Taylor
40 KIMCHI COMFORT
Vanessa Chang reflects on a childhood favorite
THE
Spread
Chow Station Park
Contents
Personal Chef
Matt Caputo
Former “partier” takes charge of Caputo’s Market & Deli
20
38
3010
14
THE
Deconstruct
Franck’s Restaurant Sous Vide Duck
Farm by Month
Follow Salt Lake’s most dedicated urban farmers
Gorge on Greens
Dig into sublime salads that are hearty enough for a meal
Spirit Guide
Top shelf local liquor to satisfy your thirst 4 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
46
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 5
Devour Contributors Staff Publisher JOHN SALTAS General Manager
ANDY SUTCLIFFE
Editorial Editor Contributing Editor Copy Editor Contributors
Photographers
Heather May Ted Scheffler Brandon Burt Vanessa Chang, Austen Diamond, Heather L. king, Julia Lyon, Kelli Nakagama, amanda rock Niki Chan, John Taylor, Billy Yang
When not preaching pork at her day job for Creminelli Fine Meats, freelancer Vanessa Chang regularly nerds out on chocolate and cheese.
Production Art Director Assistant Production Manager Graphic Artists
Susan kruithof Mason Rodrickc Summer Montgomery, BJ Viehl, Josh Scheurman
Business/Office Accounting Manager Associate Business Manager Office Administrator Technical Director
CODY WINGET Paula saltas YLISH MERKLEY BRYAN MANNOS
Julia Lyon is a freelance writer specializing in small-business reporting and consulting. She is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
Marketing Marketing Manager
Jackie Briggs
Circulation Circulation Manager
LARRY CARTER
Sales Magazine Advertising Director Newsprint Advertising Director Digital Operations Manager Senior Account Executives Retail Account Executives Devour Store Assistant Manager
Jennifer van grevenhof Pete Saltas ANNA PAPADAKIS DOUG KRUITHOF, kathy mueller Jeff Chipian, JEREMIAH SMITH ALISSA DIMICK
Heather L. King writes about food, travel and culture in Utah and beyond. She is the founder of Utah Ladies Who Lunch and a proud Great Dane owner.
Distribution is complimentary throughout the Wasatch Front. Additional copies of Devour are available for $4.95 at the Devour offices located at 248 S. Main, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Copperfield Publishing Copyright 2015. All rights reserved
6 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Austen Diamond specializes in creative portraiture, commercial photography and editorial photojournalism. He created 13% SALT, a photo journal of Utah’s modern pioneers.
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 7
Growing
a Food Culture
I
n the 20-plus years that I’ve been writing about food and restaurants in Salt Lake City and its surroundings, I’ve witnessed a dining scene that has grown exponentially. Gone are the days when fish and seafood, by necessity, were anything but fresh. A chef friend of mine recently recounted that when he moved here in 1994, few even knew what mesclun or frisee were, let alone where to find them. But, oh, how we have grown! The growth of the Utah food culture can, in part, be credited to those intrepid pioneers who blazed culinary trails of their own. I think of people like Steven Rosenberg, whose Liberty Heights Fresh helped enlighten customers to the wonders of oddities like fingerling potatoes and imported salts, vinegars and other (then) little-known foodstuffs. Tony Caputo, too, taught us to taste a difference in olive oils and vinegars, and with his son Matt, turned us all into cheese and chocolate snobs. In Park City, Bill White brought dining to new heights with restaurants like Grappa, Chimayo, Wahso and others; while in Salt Lake City, Karen Olsen’s Metropolitan restaurant raised the stakes of fine dining in this city forever. Before her, the founding partners of Gastronomy Inc.—John Williams, Tom Guinney and Tom Sieg—brought a metropolitan flair to downtown with their restaurants The New Yorker, Baci Trattoria, Cafe Pierpont and Market Street Oyster Bar. Today, young restaurateurs like Scott Evans of Pago, Finca and Liberty Tap Room and Ryan Lowder, creator of Copper Onion, Copper Commons and Copper Kitchen, continue to feed and educate our palates, while chefs such as Bowman Brown and Viet Pham—the creators of Forage—proved that strikingly innovative, world-class cuisine doesn’t necessarily have to reside in places like New York City, Paris, Madrid or San Francisco. And, with excellent new eateries springing up every week—I’m thinking of restaurants like Handle, Provisions, Rye, From Scratch, Harbor, Avenues Proper and others—our culinary future looks very bright, indeed. But to see into that future, we must also look to the past. And I can’t help but wonder if the restaurants I just named would have been possible without those intrepid foodie forerunners like Mazza’s Ali Sabbah, The Paris and Sea Salt founder Eric DeBonis, The Red Iguana’s Cardenas family, Italian impresario Valter Nassi and so many others. Would the sadly missed L’Avenue and Au Bon Appetit have ever existed if not for Max Mercier’s Le Parisien before them? So, we remember our restaurant roots even as we hungrily anticipate the future. In my time on the Utah food scene, I’ve seen a culinary culture go, as Chef Dave Jones of Log Haven restaurant—with tongue firmly in cheek—recently put it, “from zero to 60 in two decades.” It’s been a delicious ride, and I personally can’t wait to taste what the next 20 years will bring. —Ted Scheffler
8 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 9
Gorge on
Greens
You may skip the entree and get stuffed on these hearty salads By Kelli Nakagama Photos by john taylor
L
et’s be honest: Salads are often the most overlooked section of a menu, conjuring up reminders of diets and scarcely flavored greens. But with all the fresh produce available these days, chefs are putting a new spin on salads, creating unique masterpieces that taste better than ever.
Finca 327 W. 200 South, SLC 801-487-0699 FincaSLC.com The bitterness usually associated with Brussels sprouts has no place here, because the dish features the green leaves of those minicabbage heads instead of the whole sprout. Flakes of Spanish Mahón cheese, with flecks of orange rind, add a nice salty, milky flavor. Studded with pecans and dried cranberries, and coated in creamy sherry dressing, this salad is rich and filling.
10 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Ensalada de Bruselas $ 10
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 11
Beet Salad $ 9
Copper Kitchen 4640 S. 2300 East Holladay 385-237-3159 CopperKitchenSLC.com
Kale & Fennel Salad $ 12
Copper Kitchen, like its downtown Copper siblings, may be better known for its housemade pastas, but its ) s are just as worthy. The beet salad is full of the usual red root and avocados—but is also deliciously topped with toasted pistachios to give it a kick of crunch and salt. Served on a cloud of whipped ricotta and topped with a drizzle of shallot vinaigrette, it’s a medley of textures and tastes, while remaining refreshingly light.
Cucina Deli 1026 Second Ave., SLC 801-322-3055 CucinaDeli.com It may look traditional, but this pile of greens offers more than meets the eye. In addition to chopped kale and sliced fennel, the dish mixes in whole pistachios and roasted Brussels sprouts tossed in a creamy, citrusy pistachio dressing. It’s leafy, crunchy and delightful— and it’s huge. 12 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 13
Kathleen Westrook & Jonathan Krausert
Follow Salt Lake’s most dedicated urban farmers as they work their Rose Park homesteads By Amanda Rock
ong before there were magazines and blogs catering to trendy modern farmers, there was Jonathan Krausert. Salt Lake City’s most determined urban farmer, Krausert grows about 90 percent of the vegetables and 80 percent of the fruit he eats from about one-third of an acre in Rose Park. A transplant from Wisconsin, Krausert spends his free time gardening and canning; keeping bees and chickens; and making cider, beer and soap. “A lot of my family is in farming,” he says. “My great-grandfather was a farmer, and his dad tended to a huge garden. My cousin runs a farm that was started in 1858. We gardened to survive.” Living any other way has never occurred to Krausert. On a recent winter day, seedlings crowd the front door. A cardboard box in the living room is home to a dozen fluffy chicks. A sun room, which heats up to 85 degrees on winter afternoons, awaits newly planted seeds, while garlic and peppers hang from the ceiling to dry in a room filled with handmade furniture. Krasuert, who shares his life and homesteading tasks with Kathleen Westrook, might be a lot more hardcore than the average gardener. (In fact, the couple is adding a second homestead with a garden and chicken coop to Westrook’s former home two blocks away.) But his gardening schedule can serve as a guide for anyone. Whether you care for a few containers on your porch or spend every spare moment in a giant garden, follow along to learn Krausert’s craft. March is the busiest time of year for an urban farmer. The longer days, mild temperatures and spring showers
L
r m a F by
month 14 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Farm by Month find Krausert turning the newly thawed earth and adding fresh topsoil to his many garden beds. He and Westrook had collected discarded Christmas trees in January, which they use to make an acidic mulch to balance the alkaline soil. “You know your life is pretty simple when you’re all excited about old Christmas trees,” he says. Krausert looks forward to a rewarding harvest as he transfers almost 600 plants to his greenhouse from the heated indoor growing system he built, called light racks. During the past month, he had planted a couple hundred tomato seeds, plus seeds for eggplants, peppers and tomatillos in the racks. Those chicks from the living room are now graduating to a brooder box in the garage. This month also finds him planting garlic and seeding a couple hundred containers scattered throughout the yard with spinach, lettuce, kale, and radishes. Nature will provide much of the water needed to keep these plants alive: When it rains a half an inch, Krausert gathers 2,200 gallons of water in large rain barrels outside. This desire to be self-sufficient is deepseated in Krausert’s belief system. “I spent a lot of time as a child listening to stories of great-aunts and -uncles who lived through the Great Depression and World War II,” he says. “I make it a habit to make something out of nothing.” April is another busy month in the garden. The couple plants the first wave of potatoes, peas, onions and corn. Staggering the planting ensures a plentiful crop despite sketchy weather. Cruciferous veggies such as Brussels sprouts that grew from seeds sprouted under warm indoor lights in January are planted in the earth. Herbs are started in the light racks. The couple moves warm-weather crops—including 200 tomato and 200 pepper plants of about 18 different varieties—to the greenhouse. The bees that were lost during the winter are replaced in the hives. The first day of May sees the couple planting vine crops, such as beans and cucumbers, with plastic Devour Utah • March/April 2015 15
In February, the couple makes sugar syrup for their bees.
tubes of water surrounding each plant to keep in the heat. Plants from the greenhouse are also hauled and planted outdoors. It’s important to get those crops in around May 15, after the danger of frost has passed. Krausert moves baby chicks to their coops, and he ferments and bottles cider from last fall. June is marked by ripe red cherries and a second planting of beans, carrots and potatoes. These are the basis for many garden-based meals he makes, including a salad of onions, potatoes, celery and parsley with chicken. Basil, one of the most finicky things Krausert grows, is planted at the start of the month, while garlic, plush greens and rhubarb are ready to be harvested. Cauliflower, broccoli and peas are blanched and frozen to be used 16 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 17
Farm by Month
Krausert looks forward to a rewarding harvest as he transfers almost 600 plants to his greenhouse from the heated indoor growing system he built, called light racks.
18 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
throughout the year. His grandfather’s crock is put to use making pickles and sauerkraut from earlier harvests of cucumbers and cabbage. In 2014, they ended up with 62 quarts of pickles. Ripe strawberries are made into jam. Rich jewel-toned currants appear in July, red and black. Onions are dug up and stored in the root cellar. Krausert and Westbrook make relishes while the solar dehydrator Krausert designed and built runs all month Apples drying tomatoes, peppers and fruit. and Picked apricots end up as puree to pears are freeze or preserve in jars. pressed The month of August is full of into 36 hard work, canning everything— gallons of up to 300 jars—from homemade delicious tomato sauce to beans. Ripe grapes cider. become juice or are dried for raisins. September is when they bottle barbeque sauce—45 jars last year. Honey is harvested and filtered. Apples and pears are pressed into 36 gallons of delicious cider. Herbs are collected and driedfor culinary use. The harvest comes to an end in October. The garden, fertilized with a blanket of chicken manure, is put to rest. Krausert and Westrook finish canning carrots, beets and potatoes and then cruise the neighborhood in search of leaves to use for compost. They make beer in November, and December is set aside for making lotions, lip balms and soap from the lard they rendered from meat over the past year. Meat is one of the few items on their grocery list, and they use every last bit of it. Honey, dried citrus and herbs also go into their creations. Krausert grinds pork shoulder in January to make tasty sausage they’ll eat year round. February starts the cycle anew, when he plants his seeds and lets them sprout on his indoor light racks. Both Krausert and Westbrook work full-time jobs. She’s an accountant, and he is a construction superintendent and a talented homebuilder. Almost every hour of their evernings and weekends is spent working on the homestead. “It’s a seven-day-a-week job,” says Krausert. “Anything that you do with passion and are successful at takes a lot of time.”
Jonathan Krausert loves to share his passion and the skills he finds crucial to living on an urban homestead. He teaches classes at Wasatch Community Gardens on container gardening, beekeeping, dehydrating produce, making beer and cider, and garden structure. A former member of the garden’s board of directors, Krausert says, “One of the greatest honors I have had in life was serving on that board.” Devour Utah • March/April 2015 19
The
pread S
20 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Chow
F
ive years ago, SuAn Chow’s mobile Chow Truck ushered in Salt Lake City’s tasty food truck movement. With a bold design and flavors to match, the Chow Truck became a Utah culinary icon, appearing at special events and concerts, parking lots, and any place people with a hankering for “haute Asian cuisine on the go” might gather. Coming in from the cold, so to speak, Chow has launched a second spicy venture—a brick-and-mortar version of the Chow Truck located in the food pavilion at Farmington’s Station Park. I like to think of it as the Chow Station. “It’s nice for people to be able to have tables and chairs to sit down and enjoy our food,” says Chow about her new Station Park digs. “And, we have a kitchen here and can experiment with menu items more than on the Chow Truck, where we’re limited by the foods and ingredients we’ve loaded for the day.” But don’t worry: The Chow Truck is alive and well and continues to patrol the streets and boulevards of the Wasatch Front. When asked if she has any plans for a full-blown restaurant, Chow—a former restaurateur herself— says, “No, but I like to dine in them!”
SuAn Chow
112 N. West Promontory, Farmington, 801-451-5583, ChowTruck.com —Ted Scheffler Photos by John Taylor
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 21
Linnaea & Sergio Mendoza
salsitas mendoza
Growing
Utah Businesses
Farmers markets are perfect places to launch a company— one stall at a time By Heather L. King photos by niki chan
22 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
T
housands of shoppers will descend on Utah’s many farmers markets this summer in search of sun-ripened peaches and handcrafted chocolates. Such markets take consumers back to a simpler time, when they could get to know the farmers and vendors whose food graces their plates. But don’t let the nostalgia fool you: There is big business going on behind the scenes. The Downtown Farmers Market in Salt Lake City receives almost three applicants for every food stall at Pioneer Park because vendors find these markets are the first stop on the road to starting successful—even nationally recognized—brands. In just the last couple of years, a multitude of Utah market darlings have found space on local and national grocery shelves or have opened storefronts. “Farmers markets are built-in incubators,” says Lydia Martinez, who created the Sugar House Farmers Market
salsitas mendoza SquareUp.com/Market/ Salsitas-Mendoza
and is a marketing specialist at Whole Foods Market. “They are the best way to find out what people love about your product and what they don’t like. It’s a really good way to create your persona and brand, which will sell your product.”
Farmers Market Benefits While customers clearly enjoy their personal interactions with vendors at the farmers markets, producers benefit even more. Artisans who make their products from raw ingredients often shop at the markets alongside their customers to find and befriend the very best local growers—which strengthens other Utah businesses.
Liz Butcher, founder of Butcher’s Bunches in Logan, says she wouldn’t have found superior ingredients for her handcrafted fruit preserves and balsamic drizzle if she hadn’t been selling at farmers markets. “I’ve met Mololo Gardens, Johnson Family Farms, Woodyatt Cherry Farms and Gray’s Fruit. Utah fruit—there’s nothing like our peaches, berries and cherries. There isn’t any[thing] else I’ve tasted that’s better, and our farmers take good care of what they grow.” The markets also offer a grass-roots approach to conducting research. Pop Art Snacks may be stocked on store shelves across the country, but the married duo behind the gourmet-flavored popcorn, Venessa and Mike Dobson, will remain at local farmers markets to test new bites. They’ll offer side-by-side comparisons of the same flavor with tweaks, along with new choices. After all, the market is where their blockbuster Coconut Curry took shape. “We would do two different batches, adding cayenne and coconut milk. We would have people do a taste test face to face,” recalls Mike Dobson. The immediate feedback they received allowed them to make changes and bring the new product to market quickly—with the knowledge that real customers had already responded favorably. It’s those same interactions with customers that Linnaea Mendoza, founder and Devour Utah • March/April 2015 23
owner of the salsa company Salsitas Mendoza, has seen propel her business from her original roasted tomato salsa to a line of 10 salsas, a red chile sauce and handmade tortilla chips. “Meeting my customers face to face on a weekly basis gave me invaluable insights as to what they wanted from me and how I could better serve them,” she says. Robb Abrams, founder of The Bagel Project, which serves New York Citystyle bagels and bialys six days a week in a new downtown restaurant, is most moved by the personal connections he’s formed with customers at the market. “We saw how our product touched people,” he says. “One customer told us that the taste and texture of our bagel brought her back to her childhood. Others have expressed pure joy as they took a bite and remembered bagel experiences in other cities. These emotional ties would have been impossible to witness had we not been a part of the farmers market.”
Robb Abrams
The bagel project
Going In Store
the bagel project 779 South 500 East, SLC 801-906-0698 BagelProject.com
24 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Martinez, from Whole Foods, says her passion is growing local businesses. And she’s been able to do that, in part, by foraging at farmers markets to find the best products to put in her own pantry as well as on Whole Foods shelves. Just five years ago, the chain carried 30 Utah-made products. Today, that number is 80 and climbing quickly. Some of the brands that have made the
Liz Butcher and her family
Liz Butcher
Butcher’s bunches
butcher’s bunches ButchersBunches.com
jump to the supermarket, both in Whole Foods and Harmons Grocery, include Happy Monkey Hummus, Creminelli Fine Meats, PepperLane Preserves and Butcher’s Bunches. Martinez shepherds producers through the process of scaling up for a much larger distribution than the seasonal markets. And the food artisans need—and welcome—the help. She helped Laziz Foods get onto the shelves at all five Whole Foods stores in Utah. The company’s hummus, muhammara and toum are also in Harmons. “I got 10 e-mails a week as they worked through the process over eight or nine months. ‘Where do I go?’ ‘Who do I talk to?’ ‘Is this what you need?’” Martinez says. “They’ve just done phenomenally. They do a great job being the face behind their brand.”
Harmons also plays a critical role in the early development and growth of local products, including Salsitas Mendoza. The products are now available from Ogden to St. George, and the family business produces well over 1,000 pounds of salsa each week to supply store and market sales. “Harmons grocery store has been a godsend,” Mendoza says. “They are so supportive to local business, and my farmers market customers already associate local products with Harmons, so the sales took off right away.”
Market-to-Table Farmers market vendors are dreaming bigger than store shelves. Some aspire and succeed in opening their own storefronts. Devour Utah • March/April 2015 25
Mike & Venessa Dobson pop art snacks
PopArtSnacks.com
In Draper, you’ll find two farmers market favorites now with their own brick-and-mortar locations just doors from each other. Bake 360 offers European pastries and baked goods that built up brand loyalty at Wasatch Front Farmers Market, while Oak Wood Fire Kitchen has transformed its mobile pizza oven into a wood-fire dining destination. In Salt Lake City, Laziz is in the planning stages of a new production facility, along with a Middle Eastern deli. Mamachari Kombucha just opened a stand-alone taproom, and Vive Juicery sells cold-pressed drinks in Sugar House. Perhaps most celebrated are the recent opening of The Bagel Project’s restaurant and the long-brewing addition of La Barba coffee shop at Finca’s new downtown location. Just a couple of years after launching at the Downtown Farmers Market, La Barba Coffee now employs 22 people within the operation, including the coffee shops at Finca and the University of Utah business school. Its owners hope to reach $1 million in sales this year. Josh Rosenthal, who teamed up with co-founder Levi Rogers and is chief executive officer of La Barba, credits the farmers market with preventing costly mistakes for the company. For example, they tried selling logo merchandise at the market—and learned it wasn’t a good idea. “People want good coffee more than they want the merchandise surrounding it. Testing that at the farmers market allowed us 26 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
pop art Snacks PopArtSnacks.com
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 27
to make that mistake without a huge loss,” Rosenthal says. La Barba has found that the restaurant business does not come without its challenges. “A brand isn’t strong enough to bring people through the door. ... They have to be asked and reminded and reminded and reminded in a clever way,” Rosenthal says. At The Bagel Project, Abrams estimates 60 percent of his current restaurant customers come from the farmers market. “They comprise our most loyal base. These loyal fans are our marketing team who constantly spread the word about our boiled and baked bagels. They are dedicated to supporting local businesses and appreciate artisan food,” says Abrams. Even with all of these brands’ success in the traditional commercial marketplace, each will continue to participate in Utah’s farmers markets this summer in hopes of making their products household names. Martinez says there’s a good reason for that. The marketplace connections are the key to their success. “That is why Utah has this burgeoning food culture—because we have developed it not as individual businesses but as a true food community.”
Josh Rosenthal La barba
La Barba 327 W. 200 South, SLC CharmingBeard.com
Levi Rogers la barba
28 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 29
Matt Caputo
Family
A Food Affair T
Son takes the helm at Caputo’s Market & Deli By Julia Lyon Photos by austen diamond
30 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
he young punk partier wasn’t supposed to take over one of Salt Lake City’s premier food businesses. In fact, his parents did everything they could to convince him to choose another path. “I’ve seen way too many instances when family members would take over a family business ... because it’s convenient,” says Tony Caputo, whose son, Matt, recently became CEO of the growing gourmet food and deli business the elder Caputo launched in 1997. “It seems like a very easy way out.” After years of serving customers, Tony, now 65, didn’t believe in romanticizing a company that was built on making sandwiches. He recalls telling his oldest son: “If you think we’re Emeril Lagasse or all those guys on TV, we’re not. We slice salami for a living.” He wanted his two sons to have other opportunities, new experiences—not a lifetime of cheese and deli meat. As it turns out, one of them wanted nothing else.
A passion
takes hold
From the beginning, Tony didn’t keep his kids away from his work in the food industry, even before he opened his namesake business. When Matt was 5 years old, he occasionally helped put frozen ravioli in bags for $3 an hour at Granato, another Italian and Mediterranean specialty food shop, where his dad worked. The money helped Matt buy candy and video games.
Matt Caputo’s
Go-To Pasta Recipe Italian food’s beauty lies in the simple recipes that showcase amazing agriculture and food artisanship. This pasta can be transcendentally good, but scrimp on any one ingredient, and the magic is lost.
Boil water with ample salt. The water should be as salty as the sea. Add pasta once water is boiling vigorously and check often for doneness. While pasta is cooking, saute pancetta in dash of oil until browned and crisp. Set aside on a paper towel and saute shallots in the pancetta fat and about 1/8 cup of oil. When shallots are almost translucent but not yet caramelizing, add minced garlic. Let the garlic brown just a touch, then add alcohol and deglaze with a wooden utensil, making sure to get all browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Add whole can of tomatoes and smash and stir until the pasta is done. Drain the pasta when it is more al dente than you’d like, because it will continue to cook until it is served. Add drained pasta to the sauce, mixing over low heat for 30 seconds. Add the rest of the oil and half the cheese, and stir to combine. Garnish plated pasta with remaining cheese and pancetta. Serves four.
Josh Scheuerman
1 package Maestri Pastai Calamaretti pasta 1/4 pound Salumeria Biellese’s pancetta pepato, diced 1/4 cup Umbrian olive oil, divided 2 shallots, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced Healthy dash of beer or wine 28-ounce can Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes 1/4 pound Fulvi Pecorino Romano, grated, divided Large handful of sea salt for boiling water
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 31
Clinton “Quimby” Roundy
The cheese cave at Caputo’s Market downtown stocks more than 200 farmstead cheeses.
32 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
When Tony opened the first Caputo’s at the corner of 300 West and Broadway, he had no plans for Matt, who was about to graduate from high school, to be involved. Though the teenager and his younger brother, Peter (now a urologist in Cleveland) helped out at the store, Matt didn’t necessarily see his future there, either. But, a few years later, Matt, a self-described young punk partier, stumbled into a Foundations of Business Thought class at the University of Utah and was transfixed. Studying didn’t feel like a grind as he read the business philosophy textbook—twice—for fun. The kid who once considered himself “the failing guy” shocked himself by doing well. “I thought to myself … ‘I did this by relating it to my [dad’s] business and food,’“ says Matt, now 35. So he kept studying while continuing to work at his dad’s business anywhere from 20 to 30 hours per week before graduating with a degree in marketing. “I’m very all or nothing,” he says. “That’s my approach to cheese and chocolate, too.” As father watched son transform, “stricken by the nuts and bolts of [business], it was lovely to see,” Tony remembers. Matt told his parents to stop fighting his decision. Joining the family business was what he really wanted to do. So his parents relented, and they haven’t looked back. “Without Matthew there, we have no business right now,” Tony says.
Organic, Raw, Gluten Free & Vegan
2148 Highland Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84106 Ph: 801-486-0332 www.omarsrawtopia.com
Endles� ta pas t u e s d ay s
25
$
wood fired craft kitchen
NOW SERVING DINNER
per persoN
meditrinaslc.com
1394 s. west temple 801.485.2055
801-410-4046 3364 s 2300 e, slc slcprovisions.com Devour Utah • March/April 2015 33
A store
French Raclette is aged for at least one month.
34 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
for food nerds
At the downtown Caputo’s Market & Deli just north of Pioneer Park, the legacy of Matt’s vision and his father’s years of work are both apparent. At the top of the stairs behind a curved glass case sit hundreds of filled chocolates from Chocolatier Blue, one of the best chocolate makers in the world, according to Matt, who notes that the California company uses chocolate from Salt Lake City-based Solstice. A few steps away, a steady influx of customers are ordering prosciutto sandwiches and the pasta special of the day. But this isn’t the original Caputo’s corner deli where the line of sandwich buyers stretched out the door. Now, customers are just as likely to shop for authentic Parmigiano Reggiano and airdried truffle slices. Shelves are lined with high-quality extra-virgin olive oils from countries such as Spain and France, and cheeses from Italy to Utah fill a case against the wall. “Everything we nerd out on, you can find at Caputo’s,” says Vanessa Chang, marketing and education manager at Creminelli Fine Meats in Salt Lake City. “You can find chocolates other retailers haven’t even heard of.” In the eight years she’s known Matt, she’s seen his knowledge deepen in some areas like chocolate, but his passion for food has remained constant. “You need guys like Matt who dive off the deep end,” she says. One of the hallmarks of the Caputo’s shopping experience is providing the customer with in-depth information about products. Over the past 10 years, Matt transformed into a chocolate connoisseur after getting “shoved down the chocolate rabbit hole” at a San Francisco food show with the help of Domori imported Italian chocolate. His obsession led him eventually to eat about 2,000 calories per day in chocolate as he sampled potential products. Now Caputo’s carries chocolate from nearly everywhere—Madagascar and Venezuela, Lithuania and Iceland. Matt believes his collection of fine chocolate is the largest in the United States. And he tastes music beneath the wrappers. Matt describes one as a symphony in his mouth and another like Led Zepplin: loud and brash but classic and timeless at the same time.
(+% H# HiViZ HigZZi -%& ('-"'%,,
lll#]^bVaVnVc`^iX]Zc#Xdb
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 35
Caputo with affineuse Antonia Horne.
Matt and wife Yelena co-own A Priori, a specialty food distributor.
Pillar of
knowledge
Since Matt came on the scene, Caputo’s has grown from a single storefront operation to four locations in seven years. Tony attributes that aggressive expansion largely to his son. “I know my limitations,” the father says. “I’m very good at my little place downtown. I never wanted another one.” During the rapid growth of Caputo’s, Matt also led the fast-paced evolution of A Priori, a specialty food distribution business based out of the basement and offices of the downtown store. The six-year-old company, which Matt and his wife, Yelena, own, had more than $1 million in sales in 2014, supplying shops ranging from Whole Foods markets across the Rocky Mountain region to Liberty Heights Fresh in Salt Lake City. More than 80 percent of A Priori’s business is in chocolate. Despite all the success, Matt acknowledges he has had his failures as well. For five and a half years, Caputo’s cheese cave, which Matt had dreamed up as an addition to the downtown market, was a “gigantic money sinkhole.” It was expensive to create, and the $4,500 cooling coil had to be replaced every 18 months due to ammonia released by the cheese as it ages. At first, Matt and his employees struggled to keep cheese at optimal humidity as they tried to master the art of aging and ripening. More often than not, cheese was ruined and had to be thrown away rather than sold to customers. “I can’t believe my dad let us go on with that,” he recalls. “We didn’t know how to take care of [the cheeses]—we didn’t know what they wanted.” But, many mistakes later, the cheese cave is a success, 36 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
and the store now has a waiting list for certain cheeses. One hundred eighty pounds of house-made Copper Caputo, created by aging Asiago cheese with a sour-cherry and brandy reduction made by the Copper Onion restaurant, sold out last August in three hours. Matt and another employee are now certified cheese professionals. Holladay assistant manager Andy Fitzgerrell spent seven months preparing for the 2012 certification exam with him. Matt was a great study partner, he recalls. “When he finds other people who work for him that clearly have their own broad-based knowledge, he includes them and wants to hear from them,” Fitzgerrell says. “He works really hard to definitely be the pillar of knowledge within our company.” Matt’s towering passion for the food business dates back to his upbringing; he was raised by an Italian father and Greek mother. “The kitchen has always been the center of family life,” he says. But food resonates with Matt in a unique way. Whether it’s recognizing the tangy, rich flavor of good Greek feta from memories of childhood or, as an adult, learning about the subtle nuances that distinguish different varieties of chocolate, Matt is simultaneously captivated and consumed by the culture, history and mechanics of making food. And the Salt Lake Valley will be the beneficiary. He hopes to make Caputo’s “my idea of the best speciality food store in the world.” He realizes that may not happen quickly, but expects his company’s culture of “never being satisfied” will point the way. Food, he says, is “something more than just a business and much more than delicious.”
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Devour Utah • March/April 2015 37
Deconstruct
JOHN TAYLOR NIKI CHAN
The
38 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Franck’s Restaurant
Sous Vide Duck Breast 6263 S. Holladay Blvd., Holladay 801-274-6264 FrancksFood.com
I
mages of butter keep rising to the top when Chef Robert Perkins describes the ingredients for one of his Tasting Tuesday dishes. He cooks free-range duck sous vide so that it’s perfectly mediumrare and the fat emulsifies into the protein, turning it into “duck butter.” He hangs Greek yogurt in a linen napkin overnight, creating what looks like a pale mound of cheese and tastes like yogurt purified. He builds an “allium garden” out of much of the onion family: charred red onion; a chive “mayonnaise” sauce; an onion marmalade made of reduced sugar, salt and apple cider vinegar; sliced garlic that’s been slowly cooked with honey and star anise; and shallots that have been roasted in thymespiked chicken stock for hours so that they melt. The pear-like flesh of the tropical rambutan, hidden in a red, hairy peel, is pickled for this dish. Eggplant is blackened. “I wanted to get a nice roasted, kind of dark flavor,” he says, “and have it accented by bright and tart notes.” —Heather May
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 39
Kimchi Comfort Sometimes the best medicine is what tastes really good By Vanessa Chang Photos by Billy Yang
40 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
A
life in food is prone to degrees of overindulgence. And I’m the first to admit that I fall under the spell of various health trends in an effort to regain some sense of balance. I managed to avoid all starches—even rice (don’t tell my mom)—for a while, but then I rediscovered potatoes. I’ve fasted during the day, then gorged at night. I even did a juice cleanse—that lasted about a day and a half before I caved in to the overwhelming desire to chew something again. But one trend—the conscientious consumption of foods with probiotics—stuck with me. Yogurt has always been on the radar of those looking to feel better about their corporeal states. As a kid, I saw ladies in high-cut candy-colored unitards dancing around with Yoplait in commercials. But lately, the probiotic brigades have added other fermented beauties such as sauerkraut and, to my surprise, kimchi, to the eating-well list. For those of you who haven’t come across kimchi on a menu or a shelf at Whole Foods, a brief introduction: Contrary to what my fellow third graders insisted, kimchi isn’t rotten cabbage. It’s a fermented product—any vegetable really—that is brined and then aged with a pungent mixture of ground onions, garlic, Korean chili flakes and a mélange of just about anything else, such as sliced green onions,
KOREAN RADISH
KIMCHI
Writer Vanessa Chang and Tommy Nguyen, chef at Rye, make kimchi at the Salt Lake City restaurant.
greens with bite, carrots, Asian pears and so on. The end product is Korea’s national food. Kimchi’s culinary impact is expanding, and people are consuming it by the jarful in the expectation that the fiber and probiotic magic within each crunchy, perfectly balanced bite will rebalance gut flora and make carcinogens and free radicals quiver. My dad even swears that kimchi is the reason why Korea remained largely free of the SARS epidemic, while the rest of east Asia was rocking Hello Kitty surgical masks. But to speak of the nutritive value of kimchi alone isn’t enough. It’s more than a trend. To scores of Korean kids like me, it’s a salve. Simply put, kimchi is comfort food. Some kids got macaroni & cheese. Others got matzo-ball soup with a generous slick of schmaltz on the surface. For me, it was always the scarlet kimchi bowlful playing the vital wingman to the bland but restorative tag team of perfectly cooked white rice and beef-bone broth—all made by Ma.
4 pounds Korean radish peeled, washed, and cut into 3/4-inch cubes 2 tablespoons kosher salt 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons minced garlic 1 teaspoon minced ginger 4 green onions, chopped 1/4 cup fish sauce or salted shrimp (found at Korean markets) 2/3 cup Korean hot-pepper flakes Combine the radish, salt and sugar in a large bowl and toss. Let sit for 30 minutes. Drain the radishes, reserving the juice. Add the rest of the ingredients along with 1/2 cup reserved radish juice to the radishes and combine well until red and glossy. Put the kimchi into a container (I like glass Tupperware or reused jars) and pack down to minimize air pockets between the radishes. You can eat it right away or let it sit at room temperature for two to three days to allow fermentation. Refrigerate and keep airtight to enjoy within six months.
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 41
Kimchi is for the sick and the healthy, as it’s an everyday food. Even bachelors with limited kitchen skills can always top rice or packaged ramen with kimchi. In my mom’s case, it was something familiar in a place where, when she first arrived, she didn’t speak the language or have any friends. She just had me. And she fed me kimchi. With fish. With pork. With seafood. Sometimes stir-fried with rice and sesame oil. Sometimes just the liquid poured over piping-hot rice and laced with butter. Some of my first memories are of Ma making kimchi paste. She would clobber naked cloves of garlic at the base of a large vessel using a huge pestle that resembled a baseball bat. She donned huge pink dishwashing gloves to handle the slurry of garlic and ginger when she added the brickred chili flakes, turning everything a garish shade of red-orange. It was mesmerizing—and pungent. She kept all her kimchi in a separate fridge located in the garage—not only to
42 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
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ferment it but also to isolate what everyone said was an offensive odor. I didn’t get it. I always loved the smell, while others crinkled their noses. To this day, there is nothing sexier than garlic and its fermentation. When I moved away from home, I didn’t miss Ma’s maternal nagging (if worry and anxiety were Olympic events, she would be Team USA captain), but every day, I missed her kimchi. When I started experimenting to make my own, she was indignant. “Why?” she asked, her voice dripping with worry over the phone. “It smells so bad, your friends won’t like it.” But they did like it, and most of the kimchi I make to this day is for them—_proving that kimchi isn’t really made for yourself; it’s made for everybody else. And, even though I’m fully capable of feeding myself kimchi whenever my immune system says “enough” to too much whiskey and not enough sleep, Ma always insists. “Come home. Come eat some kimchi.” 44 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
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caputosdeli.com Devour Utah • March/April 2015 45
The
Boozehive State
Local liquors make for exciting craft cocktails Story and Photos By Austen Diamond
D
uring the West’s railroad boom, the Beehive State made an impressive array of liquor. Thirtyseven distilleries were operating on record, and an abundance of watering holes allowed consumers to imbibe their libations. Then came the squeeze on the booze biz—after 1870, there were no distilleries left in Utah for 137 years. David Perkins broke the long dry spell with the opening of High West Distillery & Saloon in 2007. Now, Utahns can lap up the fact that local distilleries are making a comeback— with more on the way. Local spirits range from aged, caramel-y whiskeys to sagerich gin, to fruit-flavored vodkas. Mixologists employ these liquors to put new twists on old classics or to create something completely fresh.
46 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
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The Drink
Sugar House Mule
Sugar House Mule bourbon house
The Spirit Sugar House Distillery Vodka The Maker Bourbon House 19 E. 200 South, SLC 801-746-1005 BourbonHouseSLC.com
O
n a spring day, few things are as refreshing as a mix of lime, vodka and ginger beer served in a copper mug. So simple, and so Moscow—er, Sugar House. The classic cocktail, Moscow Mule, gets a local twist at this subterranean bar.
Spirit gui de
48 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 49
Under Mary gracie’s
Spirit gui de
The Drink Under Mary
The Spirit Ogden’s Own Distillery’s Underground Herbal Spirit The Maker Gracie’S 326 S. West Temple, SLC 801-819-7565 GraciesSLC.com
W
ith notes of orange, root beer, fennel and tarragon, Underground Herbal Spirit is both a digestif and a restorative. A bloody mary, combined with a giant brunch, is both a hangover cure and proof there is a god. The mixologists at Gracie’s know this, so they mixed Underground with tomato juice and a bevy of spices for a pleasantly surprising day drink, good for any season or physical condition.
50 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
The Drink
Mexican Fruit Stand The Spirit Vida Tequila Reposado
Mexican Fruit Stand provisions
The Maker Provisions 3364 S. 2300 East, SLC 801-410-4046 SLCProvisions.com
I
nspired by a Mexican candy Provisions bartender Giancarlo Farnia ate as a child, the Mexican Fruit Stand combines heat, sweetness and tartness. Lime wedges and fresh apple are muddled with chili powder and combined with a chili-apple simple syrup and Remy Martin V.S.O.P. brandy. The star of the drink is the absurdly delicious Vida Tequila Reposado.
The Drink
The Ogden Local The Spirit Ogden Own Distillery’s Porter’s Fire The Maker Lighthouse Lounge 130 E. 2500 South, Ogden 801-392-3901 LighthouseLoungeOgden.com
O
gden’s Own pays homage to the “Destroying Angel of Mormondom” Porter Rockwell with its own spin on the spicy Fireball. Built with amaretto, almond milk and a splash of ginger beer, this cocktail is a nice sipper. This and many more cocktails concocted by the Lighthouse Lounge’s new ownership make the establishment a worthy stop on your Ogden bar crawl.
The Ogden Local lighthouse lounge
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 51
The Broadway faustina
Spirit gui de
The Drink
The Broadway The Spirit Salt City Vodka The Maker Faustina 454 E. 300 South, SLC 801-746-4441 FaustinaSLC.com
F
austina has pulled out the red carpet for Utah’s newest liquor. The Broadway is a regal affair, where a jigger of Salt City Vodka meets blood-orange purée, simple syrup and Campari. The libation is slightly bitter, enjoyably tangy, and it could win a Tony for Best Supporting Role to your entree.
52 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
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Devour Utah • March/April 2015 53
The Drink
The Hachi Hive
The Hachi Hive Takashi
The Spirit Beehive Distilling’s Jack Rabbit Gin The Maker Takashi 18 W. Market St., SLC 801-519-9595
S
age and honey are the stars of the show in the Hachi Hive, a drink developed to launch Beehive Distilling’s Jack Rabbit Gin. The bar steeped local sage in a honey syrup (made from beehives on the restaurant’s roof) to play with the sage-forward gin. Yuzu, a Japanese citrus, and St. Germaine elderflower liqueur up the drink’s dynamic profile.
Spirit gui de
54 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 55
W , g r n itin i d a g, Re
Rearing
Kids learn by raising crops By Heather May
56 Devour Utah • March/April 2015
Enrollment at Little Farmers Preschool has grown to 75.
U
tah’s food culture is about more than what’s being served on the plate in a fine restaurant. Increasingly, it’s about teaching children and teens about the power they can wield with a fork and a shovel. Check out these innovative ways schools are connecting learning to food.
Little Farmers Preschool
LittleFarmers Preschool.com It’s never too early to learn where food comes from. For parents who want their 4-year-olds to recognize their letters and explore the food chain by dissecting owl pellets, there’s Little Farmers Preschool. Open since 2011, the Riverton school located on the Petersen Family Farm has grown from 20 children to 75, with more hopefuls on a waiting list. Kids pick tomatoes, inspect the plant’s roots and discover how it ends up in their favorite pizza. When they learn the letter A, they go to the farm stand to examine apples and determine which color corresponds to the best taste. They watch chicks hatch and help feed the goats, pigs and sheep. “They know even when it’s cold outside, farmers take care of their animals,” says owner Hilarie Petersen. “They kind of understand reproduction, because they see our goats grow in size and give birth. “Our tag line is, ‘Come learn and grow on the farm.’ ”
Roots High School
RootsHigh.org Instead of learning geometry and biology from a book, high school students at a new charter school in West Valley City called Roots will search for answers in the dirt: They will map out garden plots, plant seeds and learn the life cycle of the crops they will be tending. They will care for the pigs they will eventually get to eat. Utah’s first farm-based high school is opening this summer at 2250 S. 1300 West. Up to 300 students in grades 9 through 12 will build animal shelters, care for goats, pigs, chickens and bees, prepare the soil and sow crops while learning math, science, English and art. “Helping them grow their own food helps them understand the power they have. In our culture, that power has been taken away from families and given to corporate farmers,” says founding director Tyler Bastian. Boosting self esteem is an important goal. So is connecting what students learn in the classroom to the real world, as the school seeks teens at risk of dropping out. The first several months of class will be devoted to landscaping and preparing the soil, with crops planted and animals arriving next spring. The students will sell produce to the public. Eventually, the lunch menu will be based on what’s growing outside. “The school is a lot of win-wins for the buy-local community,” says Bastian.
There are other ways to get urban kids involved in agriculture: Wasatch Community Gardens offers programs for youth ages 4-17, including a City Sprouts summer camp. And at Real Food Rising, teens ages 14-17 can earn money working on an urban farm at Neighborhood House and be part of a youth farm mob to help swamped local farmers. WasatchGardens.org/ Youth-Programs-Overview Uah.org/RealFoodRising
Devour Utah • March/April 2015 57
arts e th to t e k c ti r u o y
Abravanel Hall Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
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