The Naturals

Warm weather begs for dinner parties out on the deck with cool drinks and good food. But instead of hot dogs, hamburgers, and potato salad, why not pull together a few seasonal dishes to impress your friends? We enlisted some help from a few chefs who all rely on local produce year-round. Scott Pampuch welcomed Brenda Langton, Lucia Watson, and Lenny Russo into his Corner Table kitchen, and together they whipped up about half a dozen dishes in under an hour—not that we were timing them—and let us in on a few summer entertaining secrets.

“When I put together a menu, I think about what I’m hungry for—usually it’s in sync with the season or weather,” says Lucia Watson. “On a cold-weather day, I don’t crave gazpacho, and on a warm summer day, I don’t want split-pea soup with ham hocks.” Watson was recently honored by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy for her work with Lucia’s, which she says is the highlight of her life thus far. “Fresh is always best,” she says. “Early summer is the first opportunity to turn attention to local produce. Go to the farmers’ market first and come up with ideas, which, in a way, is simpler.”

That may sound intimidating to list-makers, but it’s very chic, Parisian, and “less constricting,” according to the woman who makes everything look effortless. Buy a few ingredients—fresh trout, local cheese, asparagus, strawberries, peas—then pull out the cookbooks (she recommends the basics: Julia Child, James Beard, Joy of Cooking) to look up items if you need some guidance. “Then use your imagination,” she says. “If you have chives in your garden, use them.” She encourages home cooks to open up, get creative, push the flavor, and take every dish one step further. “Think about what tastes good.”

Uncomplicated French and Italian dishes only have a handful of ingredients, but when everything is natural and grown nearby, a few powerful flavors make each meal a knockout. In an effort to deliver this quality to the Twin Cities, Brenda Langton, who opened Café Brenda twenty years ago, is launching The Mill City Farmers Market, a collaboration with Farm in the City, Mill City Museum, and other local donors. Stretching from the museum’s covered train shed to a courtyard shared by the Guthrie, the farmers’ market includes about thirty vendors. Sustainable family farms and small businesses will supply organic produce, beef, poultry, dairy, eggs, herbs, artisan cheeses, flowers, and more. (The market opened June 10 for one-stop shopping every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through October.)