Forage in Salt Lake City - An Incredible Dining Experience

On a recent trip to Salt Lake City, I had one of the most incredible dining experiences of my life. It was at a small restaurant called Forage (http://www.foragerestaurant.com/), where a colleague and I had a 15-course meal. Each course was small, but exceptionally creative and delicious. Moreover, each course was served in a very artistic way. At the end of the meal, we were delighted with the many different tastes we had experienced, but did not feel in the least bit full. We accompanied our meal with a nice red wine from northwest Italy.

It was my colleague who discovered Forage in Internet browsing, and suggested we try it. As soon as I read the reviews he forwarded to me, I agreed that we should try it.

Forage specializes in using local foods "from the wild and from small farms and ranches." It serves a single set menu of 15 courses for $87 per person. It also offers wine pairings for $65, or juice and other non-alcoholic pairings for $26. It also offers a small, but nicely constructed wine list. The wine we chose was a bottle of 2011 Pecchenino San Luigi Dolcetto di Dogliani DOCG (a red).

Forage was opened in 2009 by Chefs Bowman Brown and Viet Pham. Chef Pham subsequently left in 2012.

In 2011, Food and Wine Magazine included Chefs Brown and Pham in a very small group of the Best New Chefs in America.

In a January 2013 Iron Chef competition, Chefs Pham, Brown, and Luke Fowles defeated Chef celebrity Bobby Flay. Their most innovative dish then was a beef fat ice cream with cherries. It blew away the judges. (http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/01/07/utah-chef-defeats-bobby-flay-iron-chef)

Each course that we enjoyed had only a few bites and was served in a very creative fashion. In some cases, food was served in a way that it blended in with non-food items in the dish - so that one almost had to "forage" for the food. Of course, the server pointed out the actual food item.

The restaurant is located in what appears to have originally been a residence. It is relatively small inside.

Two servers waited on all the clients. There was a young woman named Brooklyn, and a young man of Nepalese ethnicity named Pratik. Both were very attentive, professional, and helpful.

After returning from my trip, I sent an email to Chef Brown thanking him for the terrific meal and asking him to review my descriptions of the dishes. He kindly responded and corrected a couple of my errors.

The courses we enjoyed were:

Appetizers

 

Juniper Soda and Sorrel Sorbet - with salt around the rim

Potato Crisp with Elderberry Caper, Shallot, House-Made Sour Cream

Burn Eggplant Crisp with Eggplant Purée

 

 

Elderberry Leather with Chicken Liver Paté

 

Grilled Dragon Tongue Beans

Smoked Cheddar, Malted Barley, Epic Beer Batter

Main Dishes

Smoked Tomato Broth, Corn, and Fresh Trout Roe

Idaho Sturgeon and Cabbage infused with Rosemary, and with Buttermilk Whey

 

Plum and Tomato with Sheep's Milk Cheese and Basil Purée

 

Vegetables with Roasted Chicken Vinaigrette

 

Smoke Trout with Rosehips, Wild Sumac, Apple Juice, and Rosehip oil

 

Aged Duck with Beets and Burnt Onion

Desserts

 

Muscat Grapes, Celery Sorbet, and Sorrel Powder

 

Asian pear purée and Douglas Fir Mousse

 

Rosehip sherbet, vanilla meringue, sparkling yoghurt, dried raspberry.

 

At the end, we were served a couple of candies, probably home-made.

Wine

Dolcetto is a type of wine produced from a grape of the same name. It is from the Langhe area of the Piedmont Region of northwest Italy. The Langhe is one of Italy's greatest wine producing areas. Its star wine is Barolo. While Dolcetto is one of the Langhe's lesser wines, this one was very nice. I think the price was about $40.

 

Thanks Chef Brown!