Neidy in Wonderland

Neidy Venegas, our new pastry chef is young and gifted, a heady combination when you’re also channeling Alice in Wonderland’s wide eyed appetite for adventure. With every creation she establishes a familiar reference point you can relate to, then takes a leap in a direction you least expect. Only last week she noticed something we walk by everyday at the farm without ever thinking of it as edible - beautiful fig leaves from our 100 year old trees - and transformed them into a magical dust and an aromatic oil to finish a confection that was both sophisticated and childlike - a lush perfectly baked chocolate financier cake with clouds of white chocolate crémeux and a summery blackberry sorbet.

This week’s new dessert showcases an ingredient grown only a few miles from the Barn, but to my knowledge one we have never used in the kitchens before: Husk Cherries. It’s a confection as delightful as a hat at Ascot, with delicate sherbert shades, flirtatious form, and flavors both fresh and capricious.

These are desserts that feed the body and soothe the aching soul, perfect companions to Jordan’s remarkable command of all things savory. The irony that this level of talent is reaching full expression in a time of Corona, wildfires, and a maddening election (oh my) has not been lost on us. But there’s never been a better time to put food like this on the Barndiva menus. We are grateful to our Executive Chef Jordan Rosas and to Lukka for bringing Neidy and her beautiful collaborative energy into the Barndiva Family.

Husk Cherries, a distant relative to the Cape Gooseberry, are an Ashwagandha nightshade sometimes referred to as Indian Ginseng. Its flavor is ephemeral, with notes of citrus, pineapple and tomato. The fruit grows in a delicate calyx which Neidy has made a central feature of her dessert. This confection presents the Husk Cherry’s delicate flavor four ways - raw, lightly frozen, candied, and as jam. Our Husk Cherries come from Freckle Farms here in Healdsburg.

After carefully removing the cherries from the calyx without breaking, it is lightly candied and set aside. Husk Cherry jam is pipped over an almond GF sable cookie, then decorated with sliced slightly frozen fruit. The sable sits atop a scoop of house made lemon verbena ice cream, held in place by a dollop of jam. Raw whole Husk Cherries are delicately placed in the candied husks.

Pears from the farm; Neidy Venegas (@spontaneidy); the new Barndiva Bagel (soon to make a debut on our all-star Brunch Menu with a Jordan Rosas signature schmear.)

#saverestaurants #staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #eattheview #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #mendocinocounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong #ediblemarinwc #lovehealdsburg #biteclubeats @barndivahealdsburg  @chef.jordan.rosas @spontaneidy @frecklefarmhealdsburg

Food Now

When Jordan Rosas took over our kitchens the country was teetering towards a total lockdown. Then we fell. It’s a hell of a thing for a chef to take the leap and move from a big city like Los Angeles to a small rural community in the best of times, even to a town as food savvy as Healdsburg. To do so at the start of a worldwide pandemic was perhaps a bit mad. He had two kitchens to reorganize, existing staff to train to a more exacting standard, an unfamiliar farming community with dozens of important players to get to know. Oh, and he almost immediately had to pivot to a To-Go menu which neither he, nor Barndiva, had ever offered before. So yes, a bit mad.

Or absolutely brilliant. He landed in a beautiful landscape, a line out of a novel, where the distance he has to travel to meet farmers and artisan purveyors - a huge impetus for his move in the first place - is a few minute’s drive if he doesn’t feel like biking it. He has our full support to challenge himself creatively, which he thrives upon. For Jordan, responsible sourcing and foraging don’t just play out in wonderful flavor combinations or beautiful plating. A true advocate of root to stem cooking he is committed to addressing the least sexy but most sagacious component of farm to table sustainability: honor the soil by making the fullest use of your ingredients. Waste nothing.

Everyday is a roller coaster in our industry right now; literally no one operating in hospitality can project the future, much less next month or week. There is the constant worry about keeping staff healthy, a myriad of new safety protocols that must be rigorously followed. Trying to keep the joy in cooking present in a time of such great global anxiety would be daunting for the most experienced chef, yet somehow this remarkable young man has pulled off this transition with aplomb. It is a testament to his character, as much as his considerable talent.

It helps that we have put in extraordinary safety measures and creative ways to continue to engage with guests, even with our limited contact safe distance dining. But Jordan’s Garden Dining menus are some of the finest dishes we’ve ever served. And he’s just getting started.

We will get better at documenting his process, but here are a few dishes to whet your appetite.

Above is White Bass with heirloom Nye Ranch tomatoes, first of the season Barndiva Farm Gravenstein apples and anise hyssop. The Bass is brined in tomato water served with a sauce of tomato, ginger, lemongrass, fish sauce and kaffir lime. The Gravs are put to good use in an apple purée with brown butter, coriander, and our first generation of apple cider syrup, with a bit of raw apples for texture. A fine dusting of tomato powder and tiny aromatic leaves of anise hyssop finish the dish.

In every menu he conceives, waste is considered with remarkable creativity. Both the tomato water for the brine in this dish as well as the finishing tomato powder (dehydrated tomato skins) were ‘saved’ from the preparation of Pan con Tomaté (below). The anise hyssop is grown by Daniel Carlson at our farm in Philo.

Last week’s blog was all about figs, and here they are fresh and glazed in a Robata grilled pork loin with corn succotash and chanterelles with a pork jus finished with orange zest and lime. Everything on this beautiful plate - with the exception of our figs from Mendocino County - was sourced in Sonoma County.

Above is Hamachi Crudo with green papaya, Easter Egg radish, fermented peach, and fresh garden micro herbs. The Japanese Hamachi is ocean farmed in the southern Kansai region, lightly seasoned with lime zest, Maldon and Piment d’ville Espellete grown in Boonville a few miles from the farm. After thinly slicing the fish is drizzled with Nuoc Cham - a refined version of a classic Vietnamese dipping sauce consisting of fresh lime and orange juice, ginger, lemongrass, sugar, and fish sauce, which the green papaya has been compressed in. The fish is served with fermented Sayre Farm peach purée, Freckle Farms shaved Easter Egg radish, mint from our garden, and bolted cilantro leaves and flowers, which Jordan feels tends to have a more aggressive flavor than regular cilantro. The dish is finished with grilled Serrano Chile oil.

Nye Ranch and Red Bird Bakery and a whole lotta garlic, aged sherry vinegar, and EVOO are the deceptively simple ingredients in this perfect share starter of PAN CON TOMATÉ which captures the incandescent flavors of summer. It relies upon the quality of superb heirloom tomatoes - thank you Nye Ranch - but perfect texture here is key, the result of peeling, grating, then straining the tomatoes to separate the water from the pulp, leaving only the fullness of Mediterranean flavors to saturate the bread.

HOUSEMADE LUMACHE is a celebration of local summer squash, grilled corn, pickled ramps, Padrón peppers, house-made marinara, fresh basil. The squash is carved leaving one plane of outer skin intact which is charred for extra flavor. This is a vegan dish that does not rely on any dairy which would weigh down the pasta. Instead the lumache is finished in the pan with the sauce and a little pasta water, constant stirring to bring out out the natural starch. “Gotta treat each dish like it is going out to mamma,” Jordan says, which, in this case, it was.

@chef.jordan.rosas

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Barndiva Mother's Day 2020

At Barndiva we ‘normally’ celebrate Mother’s Day with great fanfare, starting with an expansive Sunday menu that is served in the gardens on what is usually one of the last utterly gorgeous days of Spring. Large floral displays snake their way up to the ceiling on the main bar and overflow the back windows as mothers of all ages are fêted. It is at heart an optimistic holiday, a time to celebrate (or repair) the defining relationship of our lives, a longing to make good on that particular defining notion of love that once upon a time set everything in motion.

Knowing we cannot be together this Sunday to do what we’ve done for the past 16 years gave us momentary pause, it’s true. So many won’t and can’t be with their mothers this year. All the more reason to celebrate the relationships that have long sustained us, finding in the shadow of our fragility right now a deeper appreciation of the connections we make to one another that are the most indelible. So as you cannot come to us, we’ve designed a way to bring the best of wine country, Barndiva style, to you.

This is Chef Jordan’s first Mother’s Day with us and we couldn’t be more proud that he’s chosen to honor our traditions with a groaning board of locally grown or produced delicacies - from Freckle Farms, Front Porch Farm, Bernier Farm, Jackson Family Gardens, Journeyman Meat Co, Pennyroyal Farm, RedBird Bakery. We are curing salmon, making cultured honey butter and Sarah is baking up a storm. Chappy is including a bottle of chilled Rochioli Wine. We are especially delighted to send a Barndiva Farm bouquet down from Philo where it was grown and arranged by Daniel.

All pre-orders for Sunday will include delivery anywhere along the 101 corridor from Healdsburg to SF.

For the feast: shop.barndiva.com

This is a great time to add a few special bottles to your delivery. For that, contact our intrepid wine director Chappy at wine@barndiva.com.

Though it will not make it to the main bar this Sunday….

#staytuned #stayhealthy #stayhealdsburg #healdsburgchamber #stayhome #eattheview #shelteringinplace #barndiva #togo #healdsburg #thisishealdsburg #sonomacounty #sommtablehealdsburg #sonomastrong