2WIF1409HD Town Council Kitchen Transcript

- Announcer: This week on Wisconsin Foodie...

- Morning, Jon.

- Jon Horan: Welcome to Neenah.

- Luke Zahm: Thanks. Neenah is being reborn, and the valley is taking notice. This is Town Council Kitchen and Bar.

- I like sourcing locally because it adds a lot of character to the food.

- The thing I love about farmers' markets is everybody's so happy.

- But, yeah, look at-- these are beautiful.

- Oh, my God.

- Here, I can hold the bag.

- Thanks. It gives me a purpose.

- Jon: There you go. You know, yes, I absolutely love this market, but it is time to get back and see what we're gonna do with all this.

- Alright, let's go.

- Alright, is that my lovage?

- Yeah.

- Harry, what do you have?

- A leek. I get the lovage from my mom's garden, so my kids picked that today. That's pretty much to die for. I love a good charcuterie board. All these flavor combinations on here, it's like build-your-own-adventure through one chef's lens.

- Here we have a lovely seared duck confit leg.

- That's really, really good, Chef. I'd say that this dish is quacking! Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters:

§ §

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite 

Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that, in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.
[people cheer]

Just look for our badge. It's on everything we make.

- Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland? So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land or land conservationists who make delicious food? Yes, yes, we are. Organic Valley.
[lively banjo music]

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone. Come for the adventure, stay for the memories. Go wild in Wisconsin! To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- Twenty-minute commutes, weekends on the lake, warm welcomes, and exciting career opportunities, not to mention all the great food. There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin. Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore. From local animal sourcing to onsite, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers. The Conscious Carnivore. Know your farmer; love your butcher.

- Luke: Additional support from the following underwriters...
[contemplative music]

Also, with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
[upbeat, lively music]

[butcher paper rustles]

We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet. We are a merging of cultures and ideas shaped by this land.
[meat sizzles]

We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.
[glasses clink]

[sharpening knife]

We are storytellers. We are Wisconsin Foodie.

- Hi, my name is Jon Horan, and this is Town Council Kitchen and Bar in downtown Neenah, Wisconsin. Well, I'm classically French trained. I went to Le Cordon Bleu in London. I worked at Restaurant August in New Orleans for a while. Did a little stint at L'Etoile. So, I think everything is still sort of steeped in that classic, you know, French technique. 

But I also like to do as much seasonally and locally as I can, and also here and there, putting a little bit of local or Wisconsin twang onto it, whether it be something like, you know, a fried fish dish or silly stuff like salted kohlrabi, you know, the things that people here in Wisconsin love. 

So trying to stick to the classic traditions and techniques that I learned and, you know, pay homage to all the people that gave me a shot while, you know, bringing it home to my hometown.

I guess over the years had some thoughts, and I think probably was my end goal to own a restaurant. Whether I thought it was actually going to happen or not, who knows? But then when we moved back to the valley and I just sort of evaluating my opportunities in the industry here and I was like, the best thing for me is gonna be to open up my own place and sort of started to at least get that ball rolling when I realized that and took a few years. But here we are. The food community around here is very tight-knit, and being able to have this contributes to a local economy rather than, you know, getting things from a big box purveyor. 

I like sourcing locally because it adds a lot of character to the food. Sometimes you go to a restaurant, and you've got, you know, the tri-cut veg, you know, year-round, you know, carrots, asparagus, off-season, all of these things, and it's just the same all year, and that just doesn't really do anything for me. I'd rather have a carrot that we got at the farmers' market that's imperfect, but that we peeled and cooked well, it tastes great, than just being like, I'm just gonna go for easy and consistent, but at the end of the day it always feels worth it to me.

Well, we've had a big influx of new people into this community, moving into these new high-rise apartments and other people coming in from out of town, and so we're getting a lot of new customers, and it's been really well-received by a lot of them. People coming from bigger markets saying, oh my gosh, we never thought that a restaurant like this might be in Neenah, Wisconsin, yet here you are. I mean, that's always really satisfying to see.

One of my goals in doing this was, you know, for the restaurant and the city and myself to sort of get a little bit of notoriety outside of the Valley community echo chamber. And in the last couple of years I really have felt that reach starting to extend and it's at once like both very exciting and sort of terrifying.

I think for me, when I'm done with work, I go home and spend time with my family. So, to be able to do this and not become like a total egomaniac and still be able to spend time with my family and spend time with my wife, who I love very much, and stay grounded in that way, has been just a total treat for me.

- Started working on cooking omelets when Lois was a baby, because I've never really been a breakfast cook and it was a struggle, but I think I've got it down now. Yeah, we flip it over that first try. Wow, nice. 

Here you go, honey. 

Being able to see my kids and their enthusiasm for the type of food that I'm making and, you know, seeing the gardens and all the fresh produce, going to my mom and dad's house and picking through the gardens, and they understand, you know, that food comes from somewhere. They understand the things that dad's doing are not simple and they take time.

You know, Lois, when she was less than a year old, would come in with Katie, and they'd sit down and share a little pot of chicken liver mousse. So, I'm like over there looking at my daughter being like, wow, she's eating chicken liver mousse right now at nine months old. You're like, that's incredible. I love it. You're gonna go to KK and Papa's garden and get this list of stuff for Marcos and I to use at the restaurant later, okay.

- What?

- Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. All right, love you guys.

- Love you.

- Love you.

- See you later, Dad.

- Yeah, later, Dad.

- Oh, there's some turkeys. We got 'em. Yeah, so right now, we are going to visit my friend Rick at Produce With Purpose up in Kaukauna. He's got a box for me of things that we ordered for the restaurant this week, and we can see if he's got anything else that might be nice that we can take back and cook for Luke.

- My name is Rick Slager, and I'm the owner of Produce With Purpose Farm. We started this food hub about a year ago, and this is our storefront that we allow the public to come in and get kind of wholesale pricing on fresh produce that we bring in from our array of farmers, artisans, fruit farmers, and things like that. We're trying to provide a little fresher of fruit and vegetables to the public. 

Fruit season and vegetable season are done here. We have things that are in storage, like potatoes, onions, carrots, and things like that, that people can get locally all year long. So, behind us, we have through these doors here, we pack produce for a number of wholesale accounts. 

We have an online presence where it's called 'Build A Box', and you could put your order in at midnight tonight, and we'll put it on your doorstep tomorrow. We have over 300 items that you can choose from, and so, again, we're trying to make food more accessible. 

I've been doing business with Jon at Town Council for seven years. It's been a whirlwind.

- What's up, Rick?

- How's it going?

- I'm good. How are you, bud?

- Not too bad.

- Good, nice to see you. You got a box for me today?

- I do today.

- Lovely.

- I started selling wholesale in the early stages of my career here with Produce With Purpose, and Jon was somebody that wanted a little better product. He's always about fresh and that I really appreciate because I think people deserve to have a little fresher food, not only here, but in the restaurants, as well.

- In we go.

- Thanks, Jon.

- Yeah, no problem, Rick, thank you very much.

- You're welcome.

- Yeah, we'll see you soon.

- Thank you.

- Rick, very special guy. 

You can tell he is just full of passion and you know, making strides to create a much better, you know, food community here in the valley, which, thank you very much, Rick. We appreciate that. Now we're gonna be heading down south to Oshkosh to check out Thunderbird Bakery. 

What's up, Lizz? How are you?

- Lizz Redman: My name's Liz.

- Trent Wester: And I'm Trent, and this is Thunderbird Bakery. Thunderbird Bakery was started in 2018. I built a wood fire oven in my driveway, and that's how we got started. We proved that people wanted our stuff at the farmers' market and then eventually moved into here in 2019.

- So we strive to make the highest quality sourdough bread and pastries that we can. We use Wisconsin butter. We source some of our flours from Meadowlark Organics. And the quality in our products and our workplace is something that really drives us forward. 

So, we moved back to Oshkosh in 2017. I'm from here. And Town Council quickly became our favorite restaurant. 

So when we were looking for wholesale accounts, we brought some samples to Jon, and I think he called us back the next day, excited about our bread. So we were absolutely honored that he was gonna be buying our product because the quality and the craftsmanship in their food is incredible. 

I think one of the reasons that Trent and I came back to the Neenah Oshkosh area is that there is some new and fresh energy happening. So, just like Jon, we've spent time outside of the valley, learned, grown, and have come back to add to this community. So places like Town Council and other spots that have popped up in the last year are really energizing the local food scene here. 

And just by visiting the farmers' markets every season, you're seeing more artisan bakers, creators happening, and I think it's gonna be awesome to see what happens in the next ten years.

- Good morning, Jon.

- Good morning. How are you, Luke?

- I'm great, brother. How are you? I'm great, thank you. Welcome to Neenah.

- Thanks.

- Let's go check this farmers' market out.

- Let's go.

- Cool.

- Thing I love about farmers' markets is everybody's so happy. It's almost like watching Neenah wake up.

- To the farmers' market.

- It is watching Neenah wake up.

- You know, when people are always asking me like, well, how do I develop my own storyline with food? These markets are the perfect way to meet the growers, the producers, the artisans who bring all this stuff together. And I think as a chef, give me reference points for how to pull all these ingredients in. Specifically this time of year. Like you can't find ingredients that don't work well together.

- Exactly.

- It's really hard. You gotta struggle to do it.

- All right, these guys have the best snap peas, so we're gonna have to stop here as well. Good morning, how are you guys? I need like all four of these please. And your eggplants look absolutely beautiful, and I love eggplants, so we're gonna get some of these as well. Just go in here with those

- Here, I can hold the bag.

- Thanks.

- It gives me a purpose.

- There you go.

- You know.

- Thank you very much.

- Thanks a lot, friends.

- I got Luke Zahm carrying my groceries.
[Luke laughs]

- Oh, man, I'll carry your luggage any day of the week, brother.

- Thank you.

- Two pounds of the mix, please.

- How often do you change the menu at the restaurant?

- So we don't really ever do a full overhaul. It's kind of we print every week. So, it'll be like this week we're gonna change this dish, this dish, this dish, print. Next week, we're gonna put this one on the chopping block, this one on the chopping block, and just keep it rotating throughout the season.

- Sure.

- Thank you.

- Thank you very much.

- I'm definitely gonna get some zucchinis, but yeah, look at-- these are beautiful.

- Oh, my god. Like, I'm a two yellow, one green guy,

- Two yellow, one green.

- Yeah, three for two bucks.

- It's just sold.

- Yeah, how about that?

- You a Packers fan?

- Absolutely.

- I could probably use a dozen ear o corn, as well. Sometimes I'm like a little bit too picky. I'll break these off and just look at it. Yeah, look a little bit. I go for girth, too, if I'm being honest.

- Yeah, yeah.

- This is gorgeous corn.

- Sometimes you have to remind yourself that over-deliberation is a little bit unnecessary, you know?

- It's what makes you an artisan, though.

- Well, we're at about ten there, right?

- Yep.

- Alright, well, thank you very much, Green Valley Acres.

- Yeah, this is a beautiful stand. Thank you. Keep up the great work.

- All right, here we are at Thunderbird Bakery.

- Ooh, I love a good bakery.

- Hello. Good morning.

- This looks spectacular.

- So we use the seeded whole wheat sandwich sourdough. That's what we use for our pate. The country rustic sourdough we use for crostini and for our red for the Bolognese. Rye, we use as well for our charcuterie boards. And then on Saturday, we get treats.

- Alright, my man, we've got this beautiful haul. Neenah's farmers' market definitely represents like this cross-section of flavors and farmers and all sorts of like community connection. Should we take this back to the shop and get it squared away?

- Yes, I absolutely love this market, but it is time to get back and see what we're gonna do with all of this.

- Alright, let's go.

- Hey, guys, you got everything I asked for from KK and Papa's garden? Is that my lovage?

- Yes.

- Harry, what do you have?

- A leek. You have leeks. Alright, guys, can you help me get this into the restaurant, please? Thank you, guys, so much. You've been working hard. Wow, what a haul. Thank you, guys, so much for your help.

- Bye.

- Okay, you have fun, too, bud.

- Alright, bye, guys.

- Bye-bye.

- Bye, Sissy. You have a good one, okay.

- See you later!

- Bye, Dad.

- Bye, guys.

- I'm back, baby.

- There you are. I got all changed up from the market, and it's no surprise when I see you working in that space how you are kind of encapsulating the heartbeat of a community through your cuisine. But right now, my favorite part of the gig is being able to taste the food. So, what do you got for us?

- Thank you very much. Well, Marcos, Robert, and I have been working really hard, and we've got several dishes for you. So, these are our three staple in-house charcuterie items. We have our chicken liver mousse capped with some Riesling jelle, pork rillettes, capped with some duck fat. And then, our country pate with a little bit of duck jelle.

- Luke: I love a good charcuterie board. All these flavor combinations on here, it's like build your own adventure through one chef's lens of the ingredients that they have available to them. So all the richness that you pull through this particular pate, it's balanced by that Riesling jelle and the crunch of the sourdough takes all those notes to like a different level. 

So you get like the softness of the pate itself and then you get the toast point and the pate is so rich. My favorite thing about this experience is the richness and the counterpoint of the crispy with the richness. 

And then the ability to add little pickle bites changes the complexity of all these flavors as they sit on your palette. 

That's that pork shoulder. That is so good. You've got a really good richness that's kind of pulled in by some of the other flavor elements that are in there. And, of course, accented by that super crispy, crunchy bread and the country pate.

I love the Nueske's on the outside. It doesn't really get more Wisconsin than that. When you're wrapping it in Nueske's, it means that you're wrapping it in love.

- That's pretty much to die for.

- This is beautiful, worth the price of admission alone.

- This is, you know, one of the hallmarks of what we do. And anytime someone tries it for the first time, and they're like, I, you know, was feeling pretty timid about it going in, but I loved it. That's always instant satisfaction for me.

- Yeah, it's great. It's delicious. And I think one of the things that I love about it is there's a million ways you can cut corners.

- Yeah.

- And doing pates and rillettes, this tastes like no corners were cut ever at any step in the process. And that's a hallmark of a true professional man.

- Well, thank you. Thank you so much.

- I appreciate that.

- Delicious, of course.

- So this is the potato and lovage vichyssoise. I mean, the reason that I do this is because I get the lovage from my mom's garden. So my kids picked that today. 

And the reason that I started making lovage potato vichyssoise is 'cause my mom had so much lovage that she was basically throwing it at me. So I was like, fine, I'll make some soup. A little bit of herbed crème fraîche on there for some creaminess and a little bit of acidity. And when I made it, I was like, "Mom, that's actually really, really good." 

So it's kind of become like a summer staple for us. Over here, we made some of our own homemade Durkee Straws, and then we have some Rambo radish greens that I'll garnish it with. Potato and lovage vichyssoise, chilled.

- That is gorgeous. This is definitely a feast for my eyeballs. I can't wait to taste it. That lovage is off the hook.

- People, when they ask me what it is, I say it's basically celery on steroids.

- Yeah.

- It's kind of how I describe it. But yeah, it's so fresh and vibrant. Just a touch of lemon juice and salt and pepper is really all it takes.

- Man, and then, that crème fraîche in there, too. It's a nice like, creamy rich counterpoint, but when you get with the subtle crispiness of like the shoestring potato, it's absolutely fantastic.

- It's good stuff, huh? Thanks, Mom.

- Yeah, thanks a lot. You know, thank your mom for me, please.

- I will, I will.
[joyful instrumental]

- Oh, man, that looks amazing. Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you, Robert. All right, so seasonally speaking, we're right in the heart of corn right now. So we've got a nice roast corn panzanella made with the country rye that we picked up at Thunderbird today. So, we've got roast corn, some roast tomatoes, confit shallots, brown butter vinaigrette, some parsley, chives, and tarragon. Finished with some lovely mizuna from, again, my mom's garden.

- In the best way possible, this tastes like all the love of the people that we met at the market this morning. You know, kind of brought together in like one essence, and I love the fact that you work your mom's ingredients in there. That storyline cooking is so close to your heart and--

- It's good for food costs too.

- Don't--
[laughs]

yes, it is a great financial decision to have people dropping off free produce.

- Yes.

- Seriously though, those roasted tomatoes with that little bit of heat added, they take on a whole different complexity. They really do. They lose a little bit of that acidity. You get a little bit of the caramelization of the sugars in there. This is delicious.

- So next we'll just put in some of these grilled summer squash, some lovely grilled eggplant. Lady cream peas are cooked in duck stock, so we save that liquid. You never throw away cooking liquid here. And that's what we'll use to tie this all together. I oftentimes go rather heavy-handed with my sets. So, filling in the bowl nicely, just a little drizzle on the leg. Stuff is delicious.

- Oh, yeah.

- All right, here we have a lovely seared duck confit leg. Today, I'm serving it with some Louisiana Lady Cream Peas. It's a dry good that we use as a conduit for a lot of our specials. Grilled summer squash, grilled eggplant, fire roast tomatoes, and a little bit of Napa cabbage. And it's all tied together in a savory broth. Our duck stock that we use to cook the peas, strained, reduced down, made extra yummy for you. And the leg is finished off with just a little fish sauce caramel.

- Already, just like even the sensory smell of this thing. It's so comfortable. I mean, it's taking like one of those wintertime classics, that duck confit, that is really so versatile, but then you're pairing it with all these beautiful summer vegetables. Good Lord. Get on there, Lady Cream Pea. Yeah, yeah, that's really, really good, Jon.

- Keeping it simple, but adhering to our techniques, right?

- Oh, my gosh, I love it

- Oh, so do I.

- The Lady Cream Peas, honestly like kind of smooth, creamy, texturally. You think that when I look at it, I see about the size of a lentil, and you kind of go into it with that mental perception, but they're really, really good. The broth is well seasoned, kind of ties everything together, pulls it all in close, and then that confit of duck, so rich, so crispy.

- Sort of thing that gets me excited, that's for sure.

- Seriously, I'd say that this dish is quacking! 

From the farmers at the market to the way each one of these dishes was expertly prepared, this restaurant is truly fantastic. It's worth the trip to see Neenah reinvent itself and reinvent itself through food. I can't explain enough how each dish made me feel like I was taking a snapshot of the moment in the season and having it translated to some delicious bites on my plate. 

Neenah is being reborn, and the valley is taking notice. Don't sleep on Town Council. 

Jon, thank you so much for everything that you've rolled out here, your hospitality. It's so amazing to watch you walk through that farmers' market and see how vibrant the community of Neenah is because of the food you make, man. This is truly the real deal.

- Well, thank you very much, Luke. I appreciate you saying that. I honestly didn't think that this would ever happen, so it's been a very good day.

- It's been a long time coming, brother.

- Oh, thank you. Thank you, I appreciate you.

- Of course. So, we have the Riesling jelle. We have the pate.
[laughs]

- And then, finish with some lovely...
[laughter]

- Oop, fumble.

- Yeah...

- If you want, we can talk about Robert now that he's in the background, too. Yeah. Hey, Robert, can you turn around and give your mustache a little tweak for us?

- Whoa! This is PBS. We got a lot of, like,
[inaudible]

. Yeah, yes.

- Fork out.

- Fork out. Fork out!

- Fork out.

- Fork out of the shot! Oh, it's not a forking around shot. It's a fork out of the shot. Alright, go.

- Fork in.

- Fork in.
[laughs]

- What the fork is going on here? 

- Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: 

§ §

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that, in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.
[people cheer]

Just look for our badge. It's on everything we make.

- Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland? So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land or land conservationists who make delicious food? Yes, yes, we are. Organic Valley.
[lively banjo music]

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone. Come for the adventure, stay for the memories. Go wild in Wisconsin! To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- Twenty-minute commutes, weekends on the lake, warm welcomes, and exciting career opportunities, not to mention all the great food. There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin. Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore. From local animal sourcing to onsite, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers. The Conscious Carnivore. Know your farmer; love your butcher.

- Luke: Additional support from the following underwriters...
[contemplative music]

Also, with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin. Are you hungry for more? Then go to our YouTube channel and subscribe and be in the loop every time we release new content, behind-the-scenes footage, and new episodes that you can preview before anyone else. Check us out.