FOOD & DRINK
TREASURE HUNT
How foraging has become an integral part of cooking at Jordan Estate
By Matt Villano
In a nation filled with discerning palates hungry for more, chefs are continuing to push the boundaries of ingredient sourcing. Fresh, local, organic and GMO- free cultivars are no longer enough. In recent years, a culinary renaissance has taken root across the country, with chefs drawing inspiration from far more distant times in history.
B 20 Todd Knoll, executive chef at Jordan Winery, is following a similar path.
Sometimes he doesn’t shoot off an email order to a farm or take the easy walk down to the garden to pull carrots or retrieve eggs from the chicken coop for the next meal. Sometimes, he takes the longer route to find beautiful, fresh ingredients by throwing on some hiking boots, grabbing a satchel and exploring the remote corners of Jordan’s Alexander Valley estate. There, amid the gnarled oak trees, near the grapevines, grows miner’s lettuce, red clover, chamomile, yarrow and many other wild plants that apply the winemaking concept of terroir on an entirely different level.
“Nothing creates a stronger sense of time and place than foraging in the Alexander Valley,” Knoll says. “If I collect [ingredients] from the hills there or between the rows of vines or olive groves the day of a private meal or culinary event, there is nothing more immediate and specifically Jordan than that. Ultimately, I hope that is what the guests take away with them.”
ehind every great chef is a kitchen full of the best ingredients. These provisions usually arrive by truck from a nearby farm, though airplanes and boats are still essential for the ocean’s best catch and the Far East’s most rare, exotic spices. Ambitious chefs who are fortunate to have access to fertile land often choose to grow and harvest their own produce for their restaurants.
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