Amy Stocklein
Noah taps a maple tree and syrups in various vessels.
Farm-to-table is more than just a concept in Madison. Farmers and chefs and diners are more like a family at times. And like all families, this one has stories. Stories of how food is bred, grown and harvested. Stories of the land. Stories of the farmers who toil in what can often be an unforgiving climate, and of the chefs who value their work and craft divine, innovative dishes. Gratitude is an emotion that comes up frequently, gratitude that in a city like ours, surrounded by small farms growing and nurturing incredible products, chefs can take dishes to the next level without going far afield. Here’s a closer look at this delicious dynamic as plated at some of our most dedicated farm-to-table restaurants.
Nook
Although this east-side prix fixe spot opened just last November, chefs Julie and Noah Przybylski have been planning for this space for over a decade. Every detail of the restaurant has been thoughtfully designed, created, arranged and sourced by the couple. While they have a longstanding relationship with Becker Family Farms in Lodi and make frequent visits to the Monona Farmers’ Market, the Przybylskis also grow many of their own ingredients.
Fresh sorrel and various herbs, plus a lime tree, adorn Nook’s front window, a nod to utilitarian decor. The couple has foraged mushrooms behind the restaurant. Berries from the garden at the chefs’ east-side residence are used fresh, as well as preserved for use in winter dishes.
“We like to see firsthand what we are cooking with and pick the right items for our restaurant,” says Julie. Using plants from their own backyard creates “a story to tell our guests.”
Anything but traditional, their version of crème brûlée accentuates maple syrup they’ve tapped from their backyard trees since 2011. This signature dessert represents maple flavor in three distinct forms: a crunchy, vitreous maple sugar disk you can crack your spoon into; a wobbly maple gelée; and a creamy maple custard, paired beautifully with a tart tangerine puree and silky whipped cream.
Julie says their gardening ventures allow them to be more mindful of farming culture. “Growing in our backyard also leads us to a deeper appreciation and understanding of how hard farming is and how the business lives or dies by the weather.”
Amy Stocklein
Crème brûlée may come from France, but with Nook’s version, the inspiration is Midwestern.
Brasserie V
Owners Matt and Andrea Van Nest love their farmers, and their farmers love them. “They have been really supportive of us,” says Kevin Oppermann of Highland Spring Farm in the town of Dunn. “They’re so great to work with. I value the relationship we’ve formed.”
Brasserie V was Oppermann’s first restaurant account. His Scottish Highland cattle, with their thick, wooly coats perfectly suited to enduring Wisconsin weather, are consciously butchered, dry-aged and processed to become the base of the restaurant’s signature V Burger.
“All the grass and hay that they eat really adds a lot of depth of flavor,” says chef Scott Phillips. “It’s some of the best beef that I’ve ever had.”
Every ingredient in the V Burger is local, from the Vern’s Cheese muenster out of Chilton; Madison Sourdough toasted bread; onion straws, tomato and mixed greens from Elderberry Hill Farm in Arena; and buttermilk and heavy cream from Sassy Cow Creamery in Columbus.
“Since we have all that available, it’s almost irresponsible to not use it,” says Phillips. “A lot of chefs in other places would go to great lengths to get this kind of product and it’s right at our back door.”
John Kuehl
V is for very local when it comes to Brasserie V’s V Burger.
Heritage Tavern
You need only about five minutes with Dan Fox to realize how passionate he is about his pigs. The chef is raising exactly the breeds of pigs that he and other chefs want to use in their restaurants.
“It started as a hobby,” says Fox, whose farming roots go back to his time at the Madison Club, when he worked a plot of land at Fountain Prairie Farms. Then, he had an acre of produce, some ducks, and seven Mangalitsa pigs.
Over time, his locale shifted and his pig count grew. In 2017, Fox acquired Willow Creek Farms, a pioneer in raising and processing heritage pork. It’s now part of his own Fox Heritage Farms.
His purpose: to respect the heritage breeds and to utilize the full animal. “You’re preserving and trying to support breeds that potentially would no longer be here if we didn’t make them popular.” That’s why Heritage’s crispy pork jowl showcases a cut of meat that isn’t always popular. But its marbled fat means yielding, tempting morsels. “We have the time to educate our customers on an underutilized cut of meat that’s really beautiful,” says Fox.
Salvatore’s Tomato Pies
The story of how Salvatore’s started working with neighbors Wells Farm is quite beautiful. After the gas line explosion in downtown Sun Prairie last July, Sarah and Kenny Wells felt compelled to help in any way they could. But as first-generation farmers who had recently purchased their very first farm, in nearby Rio, all they could offer was 10 pounds of ground beef.
“‘Can this even help at all?’” Sarah recalls asking herself. The answer from Salvatore’s, which had lost its entire inventory of meat, was a grateful “yes.” And, happily, the restaurant and the farm have continued the relationship.
“It’s good for us, getting our name out there, but it’s also been fun to see what they do with our beef,” says Sarah.
The latest Salvatore’s special to feature Wells Farm beef is a dish called svizzerina, a presentation of their ground chuck that is hard-seared outside but cool in the center (sometimes described as a combination of a hamburger and steak tartare). It’s topped with a goose egg from Hickory Hill Farm of Loganville; butter-poached shiitakes, oyster and morel mushrooms sourced and foraged from Indian Farm Mushrooms and Hops of Merrimac; Sartori SarVecchio cheese; ramp oil; pea vine; and grilled Batch Bakehouse scali bread.
“We work with local farmers because we believe in strengthening our local food system, and food simply tastes better when in season,” says chef Patrick DePula. “Having personal relationships with growers and producers is valuable and satisfying. It always seems strange to me when those semis filled with imported produce roll past Wisconsin family farms on their way to deliver at restaurants. We like making choices that help us be good stewards of our environment.”
Harvest
The very name of Tami Lax’s fine dining restaurant should give it away: Working with local ingredients is “part of the fabric of what Harvest was created with,” says Lax.
Lax’s family has deep roots in farming and foraging. She views her restaurant as an opportunity to buy from local, family-owned farms. “If a lot of people had that business model, we could save a lot of farms,” says Lax.
Harvest’s winter beet dish features roasted red and golden beets and caramelized sweet potatoes from Elderberry Hill Farm in Arena, topped with crunchy bulgur wheat, sherry vinaigrette and whipped buttermilk. Lax says her “palate just goes wild” eating vegetables and fruit that carry the terroir of the various regions of Wisconsin.
Estrellón
Chef Tory Miller is a full-on evangelist for the farm-to-table experience. “Until everyone is doing it, it hasn’t succeeded in its mission and it hasn’t supported all the farms that need supporting,” says Miller. Food just tastes better, Miller insists, when there’s an established relationship between farmer and restaurant.
“It’s a win-win,” he says. “Your restaurant has the most delicious food and you see your food dollar go directly into a farmer’s bucket. What they can do with that — it’s special.” Equally important is making sure guests “know it’s amazing, and why.”
There’s a big difference, Miller says, between the story being “the semi came today and brought us this box of plastic-wrapped lettuce” and “this farm has been working really hard all winter to grow this lettuce for us.” The difference elevates the experience beyond “just dinner, just going out,” he says.
One of many farm-centric dishes at Estrellón is a savory carrot cake that uses winter carrots from Driftless Organics in Soldiers Grove in multiple ways. First, the carrots are grated and mixed into the batter, along with bacon, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. Another handful of carrots is roasted, then charred a la plancha (seared on a metal plate) before being scattered around the dish. Finally, the finished cake is garnished with a crisp tuile wafer, also made of carrot.
Pasture & Plenty
Diners will notice the prominent chalkboard with a list of all the local producers and purveyors that Pasture & Plenty works with. Owner Christy McKenzie has extended the board several times to fit in everyone.
Sunny Frantz
Pasture & Plenty serves fish caught in Lake Superior.
“We source as much as we can from as close as we can,” says McKenzie, who has a background in rural sociology and a passion for promoting sustainability and the local food system. She started Pasture & Plenty as a way to promote Wisconsin’s food producers by educating customers, and to support them by buying their goods.
“Part of this puzzle is figuring out how to support some of those innovative growers who are doing things to help extend the season,” says McKenzie. McKenzie herself came up with an innovation in this regard: Pasture & Plenty packages meal kits that include seasonal produce; customers cook the meals themselves at home.
Frozen dinners prepped by Pasture & Plenty are also available to take home, along with dine-in and hot take-out options. Pasture & Plenty’s Friday fish fry is one of the few in these parts that relies on local fish. P & P uses both smelt and walleye from Lake Superior. Seasonal sides like cabbage apple slaw, creamy cucumber dill salad, and four-onion gratin are all sourced locally from Elderberry Hill, Vitruvian and Riemer Family Farms, among others.
