Where’s Poppy? Herbfarm exchef Jerry Traunfeld close to opening restaurant
Since word got out last spring that Jerry Traunfeld was leaving The Herbfarm after 17 years, intent on (finally!) opening his own restaurant in Seattle, inquiring minds have been wondering: When will his place open, and where?
While the answers aren’t set in stone, this much is fact: He’s got a lease in hand for a North Capitol Hill space, and until it’s signed, sealed and delivered (cross your fingers, he’s close), I swore to keep mum on the address. Wild horses couldn’t drag it outta me! today, anyway. But here’s what I know:
If negotiations go favorably, late summer is Jerry’s best guesstimate for opening a 100-seat restaurant and bar. He’s envisioned the design as Danish Modern: “natural materials, clean lines, no artwork, nor patterns” and if all goes as planned, Poppy, (nick)-named for his mom, will be like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
The menu, surprisingly, was inspired by a trip to India.
“My idea is not to do an Indian restaurant, but to borrow the concept of the thali,” a large platter used to serve many different little dishes. “I might have a soup, a salad or two, a couple of interesting vegetables, a braised meat and a grilled fish, flatbread and a grain,” he says.
It’s no surprise that the modest chef, who’s won national acclaim for his cookery and his cookbooks, will depend on local and seasonal ingredients including fresh herbs. But in addition, he says, “I’ve been playing around with learning more about cooking with spices. It’s exciting, because it’s a change from the style I’ve been doing at The Herbfarm and more of the kind of restaurant I’d like to eat at. Instead of plates being a work of art, each dish will be really quite simple, focusing on two or three ingredients.”
Wait! Before you scream, “No, Jerry, No! Not another seasonally inspired small-plates restaurant!” let the man explain further:
“People love to eat small plates and little bits of things. That’s the trend. But when you go to one of those places, you pass things around and you only get one bite of something. Here, you don’t have to share. You don’t have to pass it around. You’ll have lots of different tastes” but they’ll be all yours.
Dinner, served six nights a week, will cost about $30 per person for an individual thali composed of about 10 or 11 items, and vegetarians will find many reasons to seek the place out. “Without a set menu, you’ll have to trust me that it’ll be wonderful,” Traunfeld says. Those who don’t want the full-meal-deal can turn to the bar menu, indulging in appetizers and desserts, including signature dishes like his pan-fried mussels with rosemary aioli; crispy, cheesey “jump-in-the-mouths” (which earned a place in his second cookbook, “The Herbal Kitchen”); and delicate hand-pulled strudel.
Looking back on his decision to leave The Herbfarm, Traunfeld says, “I had no intention of leaving, but once I started thinking about this restaurant, the time was right.” Executive chef Keith Luce took the helm in October, and Traunfeld left soon after.
Remembering the day the right concept for his own restaurant struck him, Traunfeld recalls wondering, “What if I did the thali, but with my own style of food? The minute I thought about that, everything started to make sense.” And that’s when he decided he “needed a new direction, a new challenge.” Fingers crossed, looking toward the future, he acknowledges, “I’m certainly going to get that and more.”
Readers react about “undercooked” food
Last week’s column regarding the Rare Food Movement (seattletimes.com/nancyleson) got readers talking. Many agreed with “Mrs. Cook,” who complained vociferously about restaurants that serve rare or “undercooked” meat, poultry and seafood. Others couldn’t fathom why anyone would feel pestered when a waiter asks about their cooking preference. Everyone’s got an opinion or a story. And here’s a handful including one that busts Traunfeld’s chops!
From James Knodell: “If the server asks how you prefer your meat cooked, what’s the beef? If you like your meat well-done, just say so. Personally, I prefer mine the way the chef thinks it ought to be cooked.”
From Lani Caprio, recalling an experience in Washington, D.C.: “The waiter described a continental-style salmon special that sounded delicious. Before ordering, I asked him how the fish was cooked. He said it was just very lightly seared on the outside. I said I would prefer my fish cooked through. He told me the cook would refuse to prepare it that way. I then requested that he ask the cook to prepare my salmon cooked through. He refused to even make the request, saying that this is the way fish is prepared at the restaurant, so if I didn’t like it cooked that way I needed to order something else. At that point, with the agreement of my dining partner, we left the restaurant.”
From Jim Zebert: “As a chef, I can tell you from my 28 years of experience that cooking food to a certain degree of doneness to be chic does no favors to the consumer or the food itself. Foods have different characteristics and need to be treated accordingly … I would never serve a veal chop rare. The meat is too young and tender to have fully developed its flavor and texture. By cooking it at least medium to medium well, you develop a wonderful ’sirloin’ feel on your palate and intensify the flavor of the meat. Served rare, the veal has the texture of wet, soggy, chewy rubber. Sound good to you? Eat the food the way it tastes the best. Don’t let trends take over your sensibility.”
From Loretta Vosk: “I love rare meat. Always have … Recently, we ate at Joule, and I ordered the bison hanger. I was asked how I’d like it cooked. I responded that since I’d never had bison hanger steak before, I’d leave it to the discretion of the chef. I was glad that I did; it was just perfect. As Kevin Davis demonstrated [via his remarks in my column], good chefs know how to cook a piece of meat or poultry to maximize its flavor and texture. So, when I’m in a nice restaurant I will leave it to the chef’s discretion. And when I’m in a burger joint, the answer is ‘RARE!’ ”
From Peter Cummings, GM of Issaquah’s Coho Cafe: “With food costs so high, and margins thin, I encourage all my staff to get it right the first time. This either prompts us to comment on our preferred cooking temp, or ask [the customer] theirs.”
From Virginia Towne: “My mother had a good line when we were at a pre-wedding dinner on the Oregon coast and she had ordered her steak well-done. The meat came out bloody, and she turned to the waiter and stated, ‘Do you have burn ointment for this cow?’ ”
From Marsha Stueckle: “While dining at Woodinville’s The Herbfarm a few years ago, I noticed that the squab, that evening’s fare, was rare but not until I had taken a bite! To quiet my gag reflex I discreetly placed the offending bit into my napkin. Two hours into our dining event I realized that I needed to use the restroom, and to my horror I noticed that servers were replacing used napkins with clean linens if a patron left their table for any reason. I scooped up my napkin as ladylike as possible and tossed it into the kitchen as I passed!”
Tags: fingers, herbs, rta, vegetables, work of art0
