There’s a bumper crop of delicious and nutritious fall ingredients debuting on menus as chefs welcome the flavors of autumn.
“I love everything about the fall season,” says executive chef Stephen Herman of Haven restaurant in Brookhaven. “The weather turns, the leaves turn and menus become more earthy.”
So Herman bids so long to summer salads and hello to Kabocha squash soup with pumpkin seeds, glazed acorn squash with apples, walnuts and local goat cheese.
Salads dress for fall fashions in richer colors of dark green kale, purple onions and deep red oven-dried tomatoes. (Nutrition note: Darker colors in produce indicate a higher concentration of nutrients such as beta carotene in orange and yellow vegetables and a good source of antioxidants in purple and red produce.)
As Southerners get ready to hang around their backyard fire pits and stock up on firewood for cooler temperatures ahead, smoke hits fall menus, too. Smoky notes punctuate Haven’s charred lemon vinaigrette, grilled romaine for the Caesar salad and a smoked chicken and shrimp gumbo.
“From football to Halloween and local festivals, there are so many reasons to love the fall, especially here in the South,” Herman says.
Fall menu times 10
Haven celebrates its 10-year anniversary this fall. Owned by Michel and Tonya Arnette, it was the first upscale dining outlet on Dresden Drive, now a hub of culinary activity in the Brookhaven community. Looking at a time capsule collection of fall menus served at Haven over the years, there are similarities and differences as dining trends morphed over the decade.
On an early menu, a traditional classic Tournedos of beef “Diane” with roasted cipollini onions was an entree star. Today, a bone-in filet comes with a choice of three different sauces. Still on the menu all these years, Parmesan tater tots and you can count on some kind of kale or collard greens. The 2013 fall menu features Florida Black Grouper with creamed turnips, field peas and kale.
But Herman refuses to give in to customer demands to keep certain dishes on the menu. Case in point: the tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich on his first Haven menu. “I tell them to try something new and to trust me that I’ll coax out the flavors and continue to add things they’ll like,” he says. “Chefs like to do new things even if it’s with the same ingredient.”
More farmers
Herman notes that they’ve always used local farmers and producers. A decade ago, that meant buying produce from pioneering local farmers Neal Taylor or Crystal Organics. But today he says there are more local producers than ever: “We’ve got a shrimp guy, a trout guy, a farmer who just grows squash and another who just grows kale. It spreads the wealth and helps them specialize in what they do really well.”
