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FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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The Salt Cellar

salt cellar st paul minnesota picture by alan bergo

The first branding image I shot for the Salt Cellar’s website.

Even though it’s only been a few months, it feels like ages since I signed on with a new restaurant. For me it’s hard to believe, since last year at this time I was living in my friends basement, reeling mentally and physically from Lyme disease; feeling a little hopeless.

My new adventure started when my boss Chef Lenny Russo told me he was consulting with a group of guys who were going to open a new restaurant. I loved my position at Heartland, and the direction it pointed my life in: one of culinary exploration, and excitement.

salt cellar st paul branding image

Branding image ver 2: Russian salt caddy.

Heartland, and it’s daily changing menu allowed me to travel into my psyche and create, and teach myself about just about any food I wanted to cook with. It changed my life, my style of cooking, and my perception of food in general.

It wasn’t all fun and games though. To work in what some people call a “temple of local food”, I sacrificed. I made a line cook’s wage, and was forced to give up my one bedroom apartment and basement hop for 2 years to make ends meet to be able to cook the food I loved.

I could’ve gotten a cushy corporate chef job after my first year, but somehow I knew I couldn’t do it. I waited until the right opportunity came: The Salt Cellar-a restaurant of which I would help create the culinary concept, train the staff and work to make the kitchen all my own.

pots and pans from the salt cellar saint paul minnesota

I sent emloyees to local thrift stores to score quality cast iron for induction burners. Picture by Mark Slick.

The concept was a difficult one though- A “retro” steakhouse, replete with table-side service. I spent plenty of days talking with Lenny about how we could adapt my skills to something like that. I didn’t know if it was possible, but he was convinced.

the salt cellar in saint paul minnesota

The front door. Picture by Mark Slick.

The concept, in it’s simplicity was a bit difficult to work with at first. Some of the items we were going to put on the menu seemed dull: tableside caesar, chateaubriand, and, bananas foster. Keep in mind this is coming from someone cooking at Heartland, where pig ear salad, elk tenderloin, and smoked chocolate cake are mainstays.

I more than once found myself thinking:

This is impossible. EVERYONE has Caesar salad. It’s the antithesis of what I should be making.

Compounding the issue was my love of wild food, and hunting things where I live. How on earth could I incorporate the cuisine I’m known for into something as mundane as Caesar salad?

Cheese from the Caesar salad at the Salt Cellar, St. Paul, Minnesota

Pecorino and grana padano for Caesars. Picture by Mark Slick

Things became more clear to me after I had a number of “research dates” with my girlfriend, who took it upon herself to bring me around to every restaurant she could think of that served played-out, old school food. We ate a la carte steaks, ceasar salads, cured salmon, Nicoise salads and lobster bisque until we’d tasted every variation we could find. After a while I started to notice a theme:

All the food tasted like crap. It was what I expected: hum drum, and made with cheap ingredients.

From there I began to see how I could embrace the concept, and use it to grow. Making a salad with pig ears would have been easy for me. But making a Caesar salad, and making it taste good enough to stand out from the sea of mediocre plates I ate through would be much harder.

salt cellar saint paul's bone in new york strip

We cut steaks in house on a bandsaw, Here’s the Kansas City strip loin.

I put in a long notice at Heartland, and then took a solid 2 weeks off to do some soul searching and prepare for what was to come.

Afterwords I was in a sort of purgatory.

I was employed as a cook, but had no kitchen to cook in, since the new restaurant was still in the build-out stages. I spent my days working in the kitchen of Heartland doing early morning menu development, crafting and tweaking recipes.

Opening Menu Outtakes

For fun, here’s some dishes that didn’t make the first menu cut. They’ll be nightly specials down the road.

recipe development from the salt cellar, poussin brined with spruce
Poussin brined with spruce.
recipe outake from the salt cellar st. paul mn, foie gras torchon
Foie gras torchon with maple and sumac.
recipe outake from the salt cellar saint paul's opening menu, torchon of salmon and bay scallops
Salmon and bay scallop torchon.

I had as a checklist, a menu outline I hashed out after a couple talks with Lenny. It began with it’s feet in tradition. There was fettuccine alfredo, buttered carrots, and filet mignon (my least favorite cut of beef).

After a couple trials with old recipes though, and a no-nonsense chat with friend and food critic Dara Mascowitz, I knew that in order for me to stand behind the cuisine I had to put my touch on it: I had to make “My Food”.

a branding image of mushrooms from the salt cellar st paul

There will be mushrooms, oh yes.

The seasons and character of the Midwest needed to be there, as did the wild food. But how on Earth could/should I integrate them?

I worked alone in the kitchen of Heartland in the mornings before the line cooks showed up, trying to recreate things I remembered cooking in crappy steak houses near Willmar Minnesota. After a while I began to see places were I could substitute indigenous Midwest Ingredients. I didn’t want to scare diners, or my new employers, so I only made subtle changes, to start.

Here’s 3 brief examples of how I’ve made the food my own:

Sumac Gravlax

Lox, or cured fish is already on plenty of menus. There is room for creativity in the cure though, which is typically a combination of herbs, salt and sugar.

Sumac is usually thought of as a Middle Eastern ingredient, but it grows wild, across the U.S., including plenty of the grassy clearings where I hunt wild herbs. I blend the salt and sugar with the sumac in a highspeed blender before using it to cure the fish.

sumac gravlax from the salt cellar, st paul mn

Sumac gravlax

Sumac is interesting in that it acts as a spice, but also has natural preservative qualities, just like rosemary and juniper do. It’s citus-y kiss adds a pleasant, unexpected touch.

Lox should be served with a cracker or some vehicle, which gave me another idea of how to use another unused ingredient: lotus. Most people think of them as an “Asian” ingredient, but they actually grow in the Midwest too, a little something I learned from a guy named Samuel Thayer. They make a wonderful chip, and have been very fun to work with.

lotus root from the salt cellar st paul

Ingredient shot for the Salt Cellar website: lotus root.

Cream of Bolete Soup

Cream of mushroom soup is another classic. With my knowledge of wild mushrooms, I knew I could make this interesting.

I make this using a great dried bolete species from Chile. What was funny was that when I received the first shipment of boletes, I noticed their Latin name was listed as “Boletus luteus”.

cream of bolete mushroom soup from the salt cellar

My cream of bolete is dark, and rich. A 4 ounce portion is plenty.

There is no mushroom named Boletus luteus in nature, but there is a Suillus luteus, a slippery jack, which lives under the greater family of Boletus. These Chilean mushrooms are a world apart from dried slippery jacks I pick though.

Even though they share the same name as a mushroom I pick here, they couldn’t be more different. They’re super rich, but without the skunkiness slippery jacks I pick in the Midwest might have.

As time goes on, the species of dried mushroom will change regularly as I see fit, it’s an easy way to nurture the menu and keep it fresh.

The Relish Tray

Probably my favorite part of the menu. Even though it isn’t on “the menu”

relish tray from the salt cellar in saint paul minnesota

A sample relish tray: Pickles, ginger kraut, pub cheese, marinated eggplant.

Plenty of steakhouses and supper clubs serve relish trays before a meal. A couple celery sticks, some cottage cheese, a canned olive, it’s pure monotony. Our relish tray is different. It’s a nod to my training at Heartland, and an ode to the beauty of creative, natural cooking.

The relish tray at the Salt Cellar changes daily, and functions as our amuse-bouche. It’s comprised of different things that I allow the line cooks to have a bit of creativity over, with these guidelines:

  • The relish tray should be punchy, intense, salty, sour, aggressive, etc.
  • It is a place for pickles and preserves to shine.
  • It should be colorful.
  • The more variety and number of things on the relish tray, the better.
Still rocking the same hat I always wore behind the stove. Picture by Mark Slick.

Still rocking the same hat I always wore behind the stove, because I’m still there. Picture by Mark Slick.

Special thanks to photographer Mark Slick for the photos taken the day of our soft opening.

P.S. Check out the Salt Cellar website, the pictures may look familiar 🙂

Ciao.

Related

Previous Post: « Partridge with Pears and Pickled Ramp Glace
Next Post: Rabbit “Wings” »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Diane

    January 3, 2015 at 9:04 am

    We will see you at the Salt Cellar! Good luck!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 3, 2015 at 10:27 am

      Thanks, looking forward to seeing you.

      Reply
  2. sam schaperow

    January 3, 2015 at 9:21 am

    Hi Alan:

    When you say “the Midwest is one of the only places where sourberry/sumac can be harvested in the United States”, are you referring to a particularly unique species? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhus_trilobata looks to be a unique one, but seems to be west of your location. Other species, such as staghorn and smooth sumac, are found pretty widely, no?

    When I looked at the banana statement in this post, I had a thought: What if that banana dish were made along with candied toasted banana peels?

    Let us know if you ever get those mushrooms identified. 🙂

    Sam Schaperow, M.S.
    PsychologyCT.com
    https://sites.google.com/site/forageahead/

    Reply
  3. Dan Farmer

    January 3, 2015 at 7:30 pm

    Very cool post, Alan! I loved hearing how you put your own twist on the classics… something I knew that you would just have to do. I tried your bolete soup… nice to hear the back story. I was wondering why they ‘bolete” intead of specifying which bolete.

    Looking forward to a possible blog issue regarding your spruce-brined chicken. Interesting idea!

    Best of luck, Alan… its exciting to watch you grow!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 4, 2015 at 10:12 pm

      Thanks Dan, it’s been hard to find time to nourish this site working 100+ hours a week, but I had a couple tricks up my sleeve. Glad you could stop by for the soft opening.

      Reply

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Alan Bergo
I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. You tak I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. 

You take the pure juice of the leaves, mix it with salt, Koji rice, and more chopped fresh ramp leaves, then ferment it for a bit. 

After the fermentation you put it into a dehydrator and cook it at 145-150 F for 30 days. 

The slow heat causes a Maillard/browning reaction over time. 

After 30 days you strain the liquid and bottle it. It’s the closest thing to plant-based fish sauce I’ve had yet. 

The potency of ramps is a pretty darn good approximation of the glutamates in meat. But you could prob make something similar with combinations of other alliums. 

The taste is crazy. I get toasted ramp, followed by mellow notes from the fermentation. Potent and delicate at the same time. 

I’ve been using it to make simple Japanese-style dipping sauces for tempura etc. 

Pics: 
2: Ramp juice 
3: Juicy leaf pulp 
4: Squeezing excess juice from the pulp
5: After 5 days at 145F 
6: After 30 days 
7: Straining through Muslin to finish

#ramps #veganfishsauce #experimentalfood #kojibuildscommunity #fermentation #foraging
Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Pepin used to make for French president Charles de Gaulle. 

You bake eggs in a ramekin with shrimp topped with creamy morel sauce and eat with toast points. 

Makes for a really special brunch or breakfast. Recipe’s on my site, but it’s even better to watch Jacques make it on you tube. 

#jacquespepin #morels #shrimp #morilles #brunchtime
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
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