Ubuntu Restaurant, Napa, CA - Restaurant Review

I first heard about Ubuntu when Chef Jeremy Fox won a Best New Chef award from Food and Wine in 2008. I was thrilled to hear that a restaurant was cooking vegetables at that level, and simultaneously despondent that I wouldn't be able to make it to Napa anytime soon. When Sarina and I planned a San Francisco trip for our five year anniversary, I knew right away that we had to make a detour up to wine country.

Fox, along with his wife Deanie (the pastry chef) opened Ubuntu after leading the Michelin 2-star kitchen at Manresa in Los Gatos. The idea that a chef of his caliber and experience is choosing not to cook meat is revolutionary. Many of his colleagues with similar credentials would say he'd gone crazy. Crazy like a ... Fox... oh wait.

I can't tell you how nice it is for me to have an entire menu to choose from at a fine restaurant, instead of what is all too often a vegetarian afterthought, thrown begrudgingly on the menu by chefs who look down their noses at any entree that doesn't feature a "protein".

Ubuntu serves no ordinary hippie vegetarian dishes. To make the distinction, Fox invented the apt term "vegetable-inspired cuisine". The vegetables, many of which are grown in their own biodynamic garden, have inspired him to create food that is by turns sensuous, rich, austere, surprising, humorous - in short, on a par with the best modern restaurants anywhere in the world.

Most of the items at Ubuntu are just a little bit bigger than a typical "small plate", but small enough that as a party of two, we could readily eat five of them plus dessert and not be overstuffed. This was great because we had the opportunity to try lots of tastes. Each course was perfectly paced so that we could share and enjoy, then have a few minutes to relax before the next appeared.

Service in the airy, modern dining room was just as you would expect. The staff was friendly and perfectly professional. They gave us great guidance about how much to order and what plates would go well together, and handled Sarina's nut allergy with reassuring confidence. For those of you with other dietary requirements, the menu indicates which dishes are vegan or can be made so, and they are also quite willing to help the gluten-free folks.

Let me walk you through the courses (with apologies in advance for any details I have wrong - the lunch menu isn't online, and there is a lot of detail in these dishes!)

First off, above, were these fried, very light vegetable fritters. The fritters themselves tasted of leek, reminscent of the keftyes de prasa my Sephardic family makes at Passover, and were served with two sauces: a whipped chevre and a puree of sweet peas (or maybe favas?). The surrounding salad was "The Nasty Bits" - fennel fronds, tiny beet leaves and other oft-neglected but flavorful vegetable parts. This is Fox's herbivore twist on the nose-to-tail philosophy that is popular among omnivore chefs these days. Consider it an invitation to experience the taste and texture of foods you've probably been blindly binning until now.

Our second course was roasted onions in their own jus. The oniony broth had a profound umami depth and complex sweetness, offset by the slightly sour purslane leaves. It would be hard to choose, but this was probably my favorite dish, for the combination of long-cooked and raw, together with the simple surprise of experiencing onions in a starring role.

 

Next up was a simple, light and velvety puree of heirloom beans from nearby Rancho Gordo. Unfortunately I didn't catch either the variety of bean nor what type of chips were served with it. I was completely taken with the zucchini blossom you see in the accompanying salad. What, you don't see it? That's because the petals were trimmed away, leaving only the shocking yellow stamen. See it now?

 

Time for breakfast. Local stoneground grits and a poached egg accompanied by "bacon" made from smoked trumpet mushrooms with BLiS oak-aged maple syrup and fried sage leaves. Good lord man. I could eat this every day. Meat analogues in general are sort of silly, but the bacon analogy here was apt. The mushrooms were simultaneously crispy and chewy, sweet, smoky and savory. Chef Fox grew up in Atlanta, no wonder he makes grits that could make this Southern boy go all misty-eyed. Hmm, maybe this was my favorite course.

This dish of fregola resembled a traditional entree more than anything else we sampled, and of course the kitchen chose quite rightly to send it last. Fregola is a Sardinian toasted pasta, served in a tomato broth with carrots, onions and celery and topped with grilled Spanish Padron peppers and green beans, along with agretti - the bit that looks kind of like rosemary in the picture above, but is actually a succulent. I wish I had a reliable source of Padron peppers here in Seattle. They have a complex, green flavor with minimal heat (at least in this batch, apparently later in the year they can be muy picante).

 

And for dessert, vanilla bean cheesecake in a jar. Pastry chef Deanie Fox has found a beautiful way to simultaneously maximize the clean, sweet dairy flavor while taking some of the unwanted heft out of the classic cheesecake. A perfect cool finish before walking back out into the hot Napa sun.

So what more can I say? This was easily among the top handful of meals I've had in my life; I loved everything about it. It was a tremendously satisfying lunch on a physical level, and it was even more exciting to me as a cook. It would be a thrill to me if I would even occasionally manage to get out a dish of the caliber I experienced here. I'll keep trying.

In the meantime, if you are anywhere within hailing distance of Napa, you need to go to Ubuntu. Whether or not you normally eat meat, I predict you are going to leave very, very happy.

Spicy Tomatillo Salsa aka Salsa Verde - Recipe

Pan-Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Green tomatillo salsa, aka salsa verde. Most people are familiar with it, but never make it. We think it only comes in jars or somehow magically appears at Mexican restaurants. It actually is ridiculously easy to do at home and tastes way better than the pre-packaged version. Once you've got it, you can serve it at the table with any Mexican dish or as a dip for tortillas, fry eggs in it, or use it as a sauce for enchiladas verde.

Let me introduce you to the tomatillo. You guys should be friends. You know, those green things that look like a tomato, usually in the "specialty produce" part of your grocery? Wrapped in a papery husk? Go buy 8 or 10 of them, around 1.5 pounds. You can thank me later.

The version of green salsa below uses a pan-roasting technique, but you can also boil the tomatillos whole, or oven roast, and you can optionally fry the finished sauce in some oil to deepen and intensify the flavors. I've gone for a pretty garlicky hit and medium heat, but you can certainly add other herbs (cilantro, epazote, oregano), or chipotles if you want a smoky spice, or just more serrranos or jalapenos for a biger kick.

Basic Pan-Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free
Yields about 2.5 cups

• 1.5 pounds tomatillos, outer husks removed, rinsed, cut in half
• 8 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
• 3 to 6 serrano chilis, stems removed
• 1/2 white onion, roughly chopped
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Heat a large dry frying pan over medium-high flame. Add the tomatillos, garlic and chili peppers. Cook about 4 minutes on one side, then flip everthing and go another 4 minutes, until the tomatillos are quite soft. You can remove the chilis and garlic sooner if they are starting to burn.
2. Puree the vegetables along with the onion, salt and olive oil in a blender for several minutes.
3. Strain and serve. How easy was that?

Raspberry-Blueberry Buckle - Recipe

Raspberry-Blueberry Buckle

A long time ago (the late nineties) in a galaxy far, far away (Milwaukee), I used to play a lot of pool. One Pocket was my game, but I also played a lot of Nine Ball. In Nine Ball as long as you hit the lowest numbered ball first, you win on any shot that sinks the 9, so it is quite possible to get lucky. In the slang at least of our particular poolroom, if you were going to shoot a shot that you thought might end up lucking in the 9, you'd say "Buckle Up!", to warn your opponent that their nerves (and wallet) might need seatbelts to survive the next inning.

And I tell you this story why? Because whenever I think of the dessert named "buckle", it always takes me back to the poolhall. But this dessert is no gamble.

Wow, that was a cheesy segue. My apologies.

So what is a buckle? It is a rustic American baked fruit dessert, in the same general family as cobblers, crisps, crumbles, grunts and slumps. (Rustic Americans were nothing if not picturesque in their nomenclature.) You make a quick cake batter, mix it with a raft of fresh fruit, top it with a little streusel and bake. Apparently the name derives from how the streusel top buckles (bends and cracks) in the oven.

I made this buckle with raspberries and blueberries, because they are overflowing out of our farmer's market and refrigerator, but you can do it with any fruit that could live in a pie. Pitted cherries, pears, peaches, apples, heck pineapple if you want to. Like its cousins, buckle seeks out (and destroys) vanilla ice cream, or just a pour of heavy cream.

For the cake batter, you can use cake flour or all purpose flour, but my favorite choice is whole wheat pastry flour. It is low in gluten so the crumb will be tender, and you get a little bonus nutrition but without any overt signs of being "health food".

I think this could easily be my new favorite homey dessert. Buckle Up!

Raspberry-Blueberry Buckle
(based generally on a Joy of Cooking recipe)
Vegetarian; not vegan nor gluten-free
Serves 8

For the streusel:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, preferably fresh ground
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt or sea salt
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces

1. Mix all ingredients except the butter in a small bowl. Add the butter and work it into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it looks like coarse cornmeal, just like when making a pie crust. It is fine if there are a few larger bits of butter. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the cake:

• 1.75 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt or sea salt
• 4 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1.5 cups fresh raspberries, rinsed and patted dry
• 1.5 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and patted dry

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9x9 baking pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
3. In a mixer, beat the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until fluffy.
4. Beat in the milk.
5. Gradually add the flour mixture and combine gently until just mixed, like you would for pancake batter.
6. Gently fold in the fruit. It will seem too much fruit.
7. Pour the batter in the pan, and sprinkle on the streusel top evenly.
8. Bake until browned and a toothpick comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
9. Let cool for 20 minutes and serve while still warm, with vanilla ice cream, yes.