TRUMANSBURG, NY: Hazelnut Kitchen

For four years I went to school in the town of Ithaca, in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate NY, surrounded by miles and miles and miles of farmland. When I went to the local restaurants near my school, I hoped to find a few places taking advantage of the glorious bounty of the Finger Lakes, featuring ingredients from nearby farms such as The Piggery for heritage pork, High Point Farms for grass fed beef, Stick and Stone Farm for beautiful produce...[the list keeps going and going]. What I primarily found, instead, was uninspired food cooked with ingredients shipped in from god knows where. The bulk of the student population seemed complacent with restaurants serving average food with little culinary inspiration. I, on the other hand, spent my four years in Ithaca desperately holding onto the belief that there was one chef, one noble soul who had come to the Finger Lakes region BECAUSE of its abundance of small farms growing incredible produce and raising animals on pasture. As it so happens, at the dusk of my college career, I found two chefs, CIA graduate Jonah McKeough and his wife Christina, doing just that. They opened the quaint Hazelnut Kitchen about 20 minutes outside of Ithaca in the town of Trumansburg, where they turn the plethora of offerings from Upstate NY's farmers into culinary gold. Thank you Jonah and Christina, thank you.

Hazelnut kitchen is located in the small town of Trumansburg, 12 miles outside of Ithaca, NY. Duck fricassee (stew) over crispy polenta. Ohh yeahhh.

Greens with wild strawberries and local goat cheese

Chive butter...mmmmm

Xarmant txakoli [pronounced: cha-ko-lee] from the Basque region of Spain

Potato and leek galette with romesco sauce, asparagus, and morel mushrooms
Deconstructed (by my fork)

Roast chicken with asparagus, baby radishes, fingerling potatoes, and FIDDLEHEAD FERNSSalmon with fiddleheads, shelled peas, baby radishes, and asparagus

Grilled hangar steak with a red wine reduction, served with handcut fries and malt vinegar aioli
La Piece de Resistance: The grass-fed beef came from just down the street

Plummy, ripe fruit, smooth tannins, good acidity. Perfect to wash down local grass fed hangar steak

Creme fraiche pot de creme with strawberry-rhubarb compote

Hazelnut butter cake with blackberry caramel and hazelnut ice cream

[farewell Ithaca :( ]