Chefs talk about seasonal cooking for the holiday months
CHEF WALTER MANZKE in his restaurant République.
Apart from harvesting one’s own produce, seasonal fruits and vegetables from a farmers market is the healthiest way to shop and cook. Not only is the produce at peak flavor, but their nutritional value is also highest when they haven’t been stored or shipped for long distances. By the cooler holiday months of November and December, the pleasure of raw fresh-picked tomatoes and ripe juicy peaches go by the wayside, and squash, pears, and apples take center stage.
How do local restaurants adjust their menus to the season? And how can the home cook incorporate the best of California’s fall and winter bounty?
Let the farmers
market drive your menu
Chef Walter Manzke of République stressed that he doesn’t go to the farmers market with an exact list in hand. “I go to the market twice a week and whatever excites me, I bring to the restaurant.” Those ingredients find their way into cocktails, savory dishes, and desserts.
Seasonal shifts in the République menu include their hamachi and kampachi crudo preparations. Summer melon and sungold tomato are replaced with persimmon and passionfruit, then tossed with the Vietnamese flavors of lime, chili, and fish sauce. Winter squash appears as a roasted pumpkin filling in agnolotti, a type of pasta. White truffles enhance risotto or soft scrambled eggs. Roasted quince and beets accompany duck in blackberry and peppercorn sauce. Apples star in James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef 2023 winner Margarita Manzke’s apple tart with vanilla bean ice cream and caramel sauce.
POTATO PANCAKE, smoked salmon, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, roe and caviar from République.
People tend to eat potatoes all year round, but Chef Manzke said they are best in winter. This season they star as a plate-sized potato pancake with smoked salmon, soft poached eggs, hollandaise, dill, and salmon roe with the option to add Kaluga caviar, a sustainable hybrid of sturgeon.
For family-style cooking, Manzke recommended roasting and cutting pumpkin into chunks and mixing it with cooked dried Italian-made spaghetti (even he uses dried pasta at home), great olive oil, hazelnuts, and parmesan. For a salad, combine farmers market arugula with sliced raw pears or apples and toss with an olive oil and Meyer lemon juice vinaigrette sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
Tweak staple dishes with seasonal ingredients
CHEF EVAN ALGORRI and co-owner and general manager Andrew Lawson by Ètra’s kitchen.
Evan Algorri, chef and co-owner of the two-year-old Italian restaurant Ètra, stated that seasonality is a priority. “I use the farmers market extensively twice a week,” he confirmed. “I go to both the Santa Monica and Hollywood markets.” He often keeps popular dishes on the menu over multiple seasons by tweaking the recipes with the freshest ingredients. The holiday season version of their country pork chop grilled over binchotan (Japanese) charcoal is slathered with a seasonal persimmon, sherry vinegar, honey, white pepper, and coriander lacquer while cooking. A mountain of chicory salad blanketed by grated parmesan switches to crispy pale green, purple-spotted radicchio called Castelfranco when in season. Brined and house made hot-sauced roast chicken forgoes the accompaniment of a summery tomato and bread panzanella for sautéed chanterelle or hen of the woods mushrooms in the fall and winter.
Winter vegetables deserve their own showcase, such as varieties of winter squashes. Chef Algorri favors the diminutive honey nut squash, bred from butternut squash to be sweeter, with a more delicate, edible skin. It’s roasted and splashed with a caramelized onion, honey, and red wine vinaigrette.
ÈTRA SOUS CHEF Nick Bessire preps a pile of squashes.
Ètra co-owner and general manager Andrew Lawson emphasized, “Seasonality is a big part of what we do. We use the beauty of California produce.” His blueprint for a seasonal salad for the home cook is to shop the farmers market for whatever mushroom varietal and green is in season and toss them with roast squash and a simple vinaigrette with hard cheese shaved into the dressing.
Chef Algorri suggested an easy pasta. He is partial to dry pasta from Rustichella D’Abruzzo and recommended adding roasted root vegetables and kale for a quick, seasonal, and healthy meal.
République, 624 S. La Brea Ave., 310-362-6115, republiquela.com.
Ètra, 737 N. Western Ave., Ste. B, 323-672-8606, etra.la.
Category: Entertainment
