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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Outstanding, indeed!

Even if you throw huge dinner parties for a living, as we do, it’s not every day you see a single table set for 220 people. On the top of a remote mountain surrounded by vineyards. But Jim Denevan, founder of Outstanding in the Field, does this for a living, traveling to remote, always stunning locations across America (and now Europe), outsourcing food and spirits to one night only partners. They rarely, if ever, visit the same location twice, or work with the same chefs and vintners.

We’ve always wanted to do an Outstanding event, and thanks to our good friends at Flowers Vineyards & Winery, we were afforded this opportunity on June 23. Outstanding handles all the logistics, from choosing the location to picking up the last dessert spoon, but the task of pulling off a remarkable, locally sourced menu that does justice to these truly outstanding locations falls to culinary talent working without a net, with no refrigeration and only the most basic cooking implements (think fire).

Camp Meeting Ridge Vineyards, where Flowers Vineyard & Winery is located, is on the Extreme Sonoma Coast on the top of a rolling mountainous range two miles above the Pacific. When an unexpected heat wave made their original choice of location, which Flowers had spent weeks grooming, untenable, they took it in stride, relocating a 300' long, single sinuous table to a graceful setting under an oak tree grove whose boughs dipped and dived over the heads of bemused, but now happily shaded diners. Earlier in the day, when the Barndiva team arrived at Camp Meeting Ridge (elevation 1150') in a refrigerated truck, Ryan, Andrew, Jordy, Lukka and Cathryn were met by a dozen or more OITF staff beneath two spacious tents, adjacent to four long charcoal grills. As the evening progressed it increasingly felt like the last night extravaganza of a foodie summer camp. If the group had broken out in song midway through the four hour dinner service (more Celebrate than Kumbaya) no one would have been surprised. It's obvious that for OITF pulling off a great event every time has to be, first and foremost, chill for all the participants. While that starts and ends with the guest list, it happily includes chefs and vintners who cannot help but be inspired by the hip professionalism of OITF's  team of expediters and servers. 

In honor of that spirit, here then is an album of the evening as viewed from BOH. From the oohs and ahhs reported by the servers who scaled dark hillocks loaded with groaning platters, I'm happy to report the food was a success; for anyone fascinated with the speed and timing and smallest details of food production,  the real action was down in the tents, redolent with grilled duck smoke, sounds of laughter, the pulling of numerous corks, low recitations of the ingredients and purveyors of each dish headed up to diners. 

First Up: As the OITF bus ferried diners to the tasting room lawn,  Flowers poured copious amounts of their Rosé, while Barndiva began the evening with a modern take on a precolonial cocktail, Fleurette @ Flowers, a collaboration with New Alchemy Distilling. Canapés consisted of lemon verbena infused watermelon cubes, Dungeness crab tostadas, deep fried goat cheese croquettes sprinkled with lavender flowers and honey, and Scotty Noll's caviar crème fraîche black pepper panna cotta cups . 

Fleurette @ Flowers featured New Alchemy's Arborist gin, pink grapefruit juice, BD Farms rosemary honey, In Pursuit of Tea's Jasmine Pearls, and clarified whole milk. It was finished with Fleurette gin and garnished with bachelor buttons from the Barndiva gardens. 

1st Course was huge loaves of toasted levain from Red Bird Bakery, Preston olives, pickled Barndiva Farms onions, Rancho Gordo white bean hummus and roasted garlic bulbs.

Following a 2nd course of Bernier Farms baby gem lettuce Caesar (plated in the refrigerated truck), the 3rd course was grilled "ratatouille," with rosemary brushed romesco sauce, green and gold squash, roasted tomatoes, garlic sherry vinaigrette, vibrant basil pistou and Pennyroyal Farm's delicious Laychee sheep and goat milk cheese (milked and made in Boonville, the heart of the Anderson Valley. Laychee is Boontling for milk.)

Rosemary basting 'brushes' soaked in Bernier Farms garlic butter

4th course was Liberty Farms grilled duck breast and legs, served on a mount of stone ground polenta, finished with Barndiva pickled ramp bulbs, fresh chives and a glistening stream of roasted Flowers Pinot Noir duck jus. Grilled halibut and vegetarian entrées were also provided.

All hands were on deck for the dessert course of Russian River Farms macerated strawberries, Scott Noll's brown butter financier cake, cream quenelles, and a light sprinkling of lavender, lemon zest, bachelor buttons and black pepper. 

A big shout out to the OITF staff, especially ace expediter Matt. To Chantal and all the folks at Flowers Vineyard & Winery, you rock it, especially Jake Whiteley (and I’m not just talking wine). To Ryan and Andrew, for the planning, organization, prep, cooking and presentation, wow, what a meal, accomplished with the same finesse you manage in the Barn and the Bistro. Caps off to Jordy, in charge of the fires, who remained extremely cool under Chef's steely glare while managing to keep four enormous charcoal grills to an exact temp before the “fire duck now!” order went down.

Lukka had the most arduous and greasy jobs of the event: driving the precariously loaded truck from Healdsburg up the 18% Meyers Grade without spilling the jus, then jumping into the heart of the smoke when Jordy and Andrew just could not handle the number of duck breasts and legs that had to hit the heat at the same time. Our restaurant manager Cathryn was everywhere, as she is here at the Barn: mordantly funny but a dead calm participant. Last but certainly not least, a huge thank you to New Alchemy Distilling's Jason and Chandra Somerby. When OITF asked us to provide a celebratory libation to start the evening we wasted no time roping them in to help. They not only devised the kick ass cocktail (a two day process to clarify the milk tea infusion until it was crystal clear, thank you Isabel!), they somehow managed to serve it chilled without breaking a sweat.

Chef Andrew Wycoff, owner Lukka Feldman, restaurant manager Cathryn Hulsman, artist Jordy Morgan, aka HOBO grill master extraordinaire

While I have only been a watcher to the entire process (not counting a 6am bachelor button harvest for the cocktail garnish), the OITF event with Flowers has been an unmitigated delight. There are so many complicated pieces to serving great food to large groups and family-style is not our usual approach, but oh how we love its abundance, and the joy of watching everyone dig in. While the beauty of each course did not suffer for the speed at which the platters needed to be assembled, the flavors sang a beautiful song of summer in this time and place.

We were all pretty exhausted by the time it was growing dark and we hauled out huge containers of macerated strawberries for a financier shortcake, but it presented a final perfectly syncronated moment for the Barndiva team: Andrew forming perfect vanilla whip cream quenelles, Jordy sprinkling lavender flowers, Ryan grinding black pepper, Cathryn grating lemon zest (lightly, no rind!), Lukka sprinkling blue cornflowers. It did not matter we were on top of a mountain, what I saw in their teamwork was analogous to what we do everyday here at the Barn. Great food is the product of great producers and chefs who are inspired and, yes, obsessive to every detail - wherever that food is served. The Outstanding in the Field event with Flowers on June 23rd was an Eat the View moment to remember. 

Wish you were there.

Chef Ryan takes a bow; gives thanks to purveyors, participants and of course our guests

Who We Are Now

We feel damn lucky the fires didn't reach Healdsburg but hearing the words ‘we were blessed’ the other day, though well intended, was disconcerting. There is no blessing, that I can see now, for Sonoma County, where everything good is interconnected. The food and wine we produce, and the communities and economic networks that form around them fuel our lives and our projects. Many friendships have grown out of these connections, which also extend to Mendocino and Napa Counties.

Another word I am prickly upon hearing is 'entitled', which before the fires you would still hear all the time in conjunction with the words 'lifestyle' and 'wine country'. When you work at our end of hospitality where what is grown outside our windows takes long careful hours to prepare, cook and present to the world, you may feel grateful, but never entitled. The thing about exquisite plates of food is that they disappear in minutes, and you need to start gathering and making them again. It's humbling, which it turns out is a good thing. 

The generosity we’ve watched spread across the county since October 9th may not be endemic to human nature, much as we’d like to hope, but it clearly resides at the heart of our North Bay culture. If the fire is ever to be remembered someday as having an upside, this will be it. We have been reminded, in these times of great distrust, that we are indeed a generous community, one with shared goals we want to protect, others we are proud to nurture.

Every little bit will help in the months ahead. We are pleased to contribute over $10,000 from our Somm's Table fundraiser this weekend, but it's just the beginning. We hope to work next with Wells Guthrie (of Copain) and the ever stronger worker-focused network of CorizonHealdsburg. In early December we will join other chefs, restaurants, and wineries for a Rise Up Sonoma group fundraiser. Stay tuned.

But back to Saturday Night. It was a joy to be able to welcome Arnaud Weyrich of Roederer Estate and Darrin Low of Domaine Anderson after weeks of missed calls and frenetic half conversations as we expanded what had been scheduled as an intimate Somm's Table spotlight series dinner into a larger North Bay Fire Relief Fundraiser. It was harvest - and we were all still reeling from the fires - but both wineries were on board, donating all the sparkling and wine. The menu subtly referenced Roederer and Domaine wines - rehydrating dried fruits for the marmalade, poaching the quince - in classic Fancher style. For a complete list of purveyors who donated 100% to the dinner, please see below. The Gallery Bar kitchen team, guided by sous chef Andrew Wycoff, has been incredible these past few weeks, keeping the doors open while helping Chef coordinate feeding those in need who were temporarily re-located to Healdsburg from their lost homes and schools. The extraordinary spirit of our staff is not a surprise, but we want to say grace.  

Here is the Roederer/Domaine menu.  We resume the spotlight series December 8, with Eric Sussman of Radio Coteau. Join Us!

Barndiva's Chef Ryan Fancher with our Sommelier Alexis Iaconis; Winemakers Arnaud Weyrich and Darrin Low of Roederer Estate & Domaine Anderson.

All of us at Barndiva wish to thank:
Adrian Hoffman at 4 Star Seafood
Kim Huynh at Hobbs Applewood Smoked Meats
Sheila Angerer at Angerer Farms
Issac Cermak at Red Bird Bakery
Bonnie Z at Dragonfly Floral
Encore Event Rentals  

And a special shout out to Katrina at Abstract Loren for the powerful artwork (weheartsonomacounty, top image) she has donated to the City of Healdsburg,

...and to everyone who supports #sonomastrong. 

Chef takes a bow.

Zeni soil from Roederer's Philo Vineyard is part of on ongoing and interactive display in The Somm's Table in Studio Barndiva.

The 2003 L'ermitage was an unexpected gift- Merci Arnaud! 

Dia de los Muertos, Plaza de Healdsburg

It was a wonderful day on Sunday as we celebrated the living by honoring the dead. Live music, Baile Folklorico, pozole, traditional alters. Drums and dress up, kids and dogs. 

Many Healdsburg restaurants and businesses participated in the Dia de los Muertos celebrations this year. All proceeds from food and drink went in support of The Healdsburg/Windsor Fire Departments/Cal Fire First Responders and CorizonHealdsburg. Corizon is a vital bilingual community support organization which Ari and Dawnelise Rosen, of Campo Fina, were instrumental in starting through their non-profit, Scopa Has A Dream, two years ago. To find out how you can get involved contact Leticia@corazonhealdsburg.org.

Down Home Moves Uptown, Spirit Intact

One of my fondest memories growing up was rushing in from a hard morning of play terrorizing the neighborhood to one of my mother’s infamous tuna fish sandwiches. Though she started out a purist: just tuna, Hellman’s and celery, by the end of my childhood she had expanded into a Daliesque oeuvre that included apples, pickles, capers, red onion, sliced hard boiled eggs, even - quelle horreur - a dash of mustard. All were delicious. So it was all smiles when I saw many of these same ingredients laid out in the kitchen the other day as Chef worked through a first course for one of our French Country Sunday Suppers in the Gallery. 

The fish did not come out of a can, it was line caught and pan seared in butter, garlic and thyme; the mayo did not come out of a jar, it was house made aioli. The baby kale had been harvested that morning and the bread - from a new supplier, Red Bird - was not Jewish Rye but perfectly crusted Levain, toasted, with a light slick of garlicky olive oil. 

But with the exception of a bouquet of bright yellow rapini flowers and some tiny breakfast radish Mom would have smiled in recognition at Ryan's artful display of quail eggs, capers, red onion (marinated to take the raw edge off), cornichons (instead of huge kosher pickles) and kumquats (which technically never appeared in her tuna fish, but we used to pilfer for her from a neighbors tree). Even with the upgrades, served open faced, more bruschetta than sandwich, all the signature flavors I loved were there, and then some. 

Thanks Ryan. We may not be in Kansas anymore, but the only thing missing was Mom.