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.)
Instead of relying on trucks carrying produce from California, Langton champions buying directly from farmers and local producers, cutting out the middleman. “We need more people to understand the connection of buying produce from the farm,” says Langton. The new market is steps away from Spoonriver, her new restaurant, so she’ll be close to some of her favorite farmers, including John Wemeier of Bar Five. He supplies her favorite smoked chicken, which only requires slicing, for her gorgeous summer salad. Her dish was ready in minutes, so she had time to joke with her colleagues. “Some guys like Lenny [Russo] will smoke their own chicken, tongue and everything. Not me. I’d rather have John get me this beautiful one,” she says, flashing her Joan Cusack smile. 

“I make everything from scratch,” says Lenny Russo, who got to the core of regional cuisine when he opened Heartland in St. Paul. Now he’s shifted his efforts to several concepts at the new Guthrie. As executive chef, he’s in charge of the upscale, ground-level Cue, slated to open June 27, and the fifth-floor pretheater area and fourth-floor crudo bar, as well as the catering for all the theater’s banquet venues. Teaming up with Bon Appetit Management Company, Russo shares the company’s vision that, whenever possible, buy local and sustainable ingredients.

From pan-seared trout to a cheese course, his seemingly decadent dishes definitely have a wow factor. In reality, everything is so healthy and pure, there’s no guilt, which makes sense since the fare comes from a guy whose idea of junk food is mixed nuts. He does believe, however, that when it comes to entertaining, “you can’t pour too much rosé.”

Just when it seems that chefs never have time to cook at home, summer comes and the restaurant biz slows down. Scott Pampuch says it’s because everyone is in the backyard barbecuing. Before he was bound to the kitchen, he’d spend three days prepping for big barbecues, smoking brisket, rubbing pork ribs, and basting chicken with beer and butter. He got inventive cooking for his family and friends. One of his favorite dishes is pizza, which is great for the grill, perfect for parties because of the DIY factor, and good enough to serve in his quintessential neighborhood restaurant.

“The key is treating the grill as an outdoor oven,” Pampuch says. Nearly everything except burgers needs some indirect cooking, so he heats his grill to 400 or 500 degrees for the best temperature and smoke combo. (He uses natural lump charcoal from Clancey’s Meats in Linden Hills.) He starts the food in the center of the grill, then shifts it to the edge to cook over indirect, radiant heat so it won’t burn, and puts on the lid. “In the restaurant, you sear for caramelization and color and then finish in the oven—all this translates to the grill.”

Pampuch says the secret to pizza is making your own dough, but that can be done well in advance. Then it’s quick and easy: He throws it on the grill, flips it, and moves it to the side to add fresh tomatoes or sauce, toppings (he uses grilled veggies and spinach), and cheese (Stickney Hill goat cheese).

Once all the dishes were on the table, chefs seated, and forks in hand, everyone went straight for the pizza. Just as Watson says, most people would rather eat simple, uncomplicated stuff than fussy food. But it’s got to be fresh.