Did any of you read the story about Santa Fe restaurants that ran in The New York Times the Sunday before last? Henry Shukman's piece, "Adobe Walls, but Fare Beyond the Southwest," covered three local restaurants-Aqua Santa, Trattoria Nostrani and Kasasoba-none of which serves what we think of as New Mexican food. Shukman told me that although he adores Southwestern food, he wanted to write about these three restaurants in particular; the fact that none of them is stereotypically Santa Fean struck him as an interesting connection.
I called Shukman up to chat about his story because it touched on something I've been thinking and talking about for a while, the connection (or lack of connection) between the city's restaurants and their milieu. A large percentage of the country's finest restaurants describe themselves as serving what's called New American cuisine, a style of cooking that strives to blend indigenous ingredients (locally grown, ideally) with multi-ethnic flavors (like five spice powder, chipotles in adobo and white truffle oil) and techniques (prune and Armagnac dessert tamales, anyone?) for a menu of dishes that reflect Americans' voracious culinary curiosity.
Northern New Mexico is home to what I believe is the oldest, boldest and most delicious regional cuisine in the country. The city of Santa Fe is home to many ecstatically good restaurants that serve this regional cuisine; it is also home to a relatively large number of New American restaurants that have achieved local and national praise. So what responsibility do Santa Fe's New American restaurants have to acknowledge their milieu?
Should we demand chicharron burritos from Geronimo? Certainly not (although I bet they'd be really, really good). But I do think we should expect our New American restaurants to give a nod to the region, whether it's with flavors, techniques or ingredients. Next time you eat out, take a hard look at the menu and ask yourself: What about this menu acknowledges that this restaurant is in Santa Fe? I've got folders full of menus in my desk. Here's one from Counter Culture, a restaurant I like and wrote about favorably a few months ago. This dinner menu includes a seafood stew from southern France; lasagna with ground turkey; and curried vegetables with an East Indian chutney. The quesadilla is made with feta cheese and portobello mushrooms.
I've also got an old menu from O'Keeffe Café, another restaurant I like and have written of glowingly. It includes deep sea scallops in a wasabi crust and warm lobster with champagne-tarragon-truffle oil vinaigrette. The menu is fabulous, but you can't tell from the entrées in which city the Café might be located. Until…way way down at the bottom, in bold lettering, they advertise a special Farm-to-Table entrée of organic Pollo Real Chicken (Socorro) stuffed with Shepherd's Lamb (Tierra Amarilla) mousseline, Bueno green chile (Albuquerque) polenta and a sage-infused cream. Oh-ho! Now that's what I'm talking about!
I wrote about the Farm-to-Table program when it started up this summer, and Rick Lass of the Santa Fe Alliance tells me a few restaurants are still running special dishes even though the program was only supposed to last one month. A total of 16 restaurants and 13 farms partnered for Farm-to-Table menu items between August and now.
At O'Keeffe Café, they've changed the Farm-to-Table entrée to a grilled buffalo tender (from La Mont's) with Native American sweet corn green chile pudding, burnt onion tomato cream and Farmer's Market vegetables. Michael O'Reilly, who owns both O'Keeffe and Pranzo, reports that, "At both places it's going really well. Customers call you over to the table and tell you that they're so happy about it, that there's so much support in this entrée. They love it." Fabulous! So why can't every dish be a Farm-to-Table dish? Well, because it's kind of expensive, that's why. "You have to charge a premium," O'Reilly explains, "because the local products are so expensive." But, he says, that customers don't mind paying more, so he plans to continue offering Farm-to-Table entrées at both restaurants indefinitely.
But back to the restaurants Shukman mentioned in his story. Asked for her reaction to The Times piece, Trattoria Nostrani Chef Nelli Maltezos says she was just happy to be mentioned in the paper of record in a positive manner, and happy to be part of Santa Fe's culinary landscape.
At Kasasoba, Chef Christian Geideman cooks Asian noodle dishes from ingredients almost exclusively Japanese and Californian. "We're a neighborhood place, a gathering place for the community," he says, explaining that the connection he feels to his milieu is a personal one.
At Aqua Santa, one of the Farm-to-Table participants, Chef Brian Knox describes himself as a regionalist. "I believe that if you can get your food a mile away then that's where you should get it." His menu is full of local ingredients-from lamb to greens and grassfed beef-although the preparations are not. Knox says his food is a product of this environment, but also other influences as well. How very New American.
Aqua Santa
451 W. Alameda St.
982-6297
Kasasoba
544 Agua Fria St.
984-1969
Trattoria Nostrani
304 Johnson St.
983-3800
Tell me where to eat! I need your input. Send all of your tips, gripes and raves to food@sfreporter.com.
