Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, June 21, 2012

It's easy to forget sometimes just how processed most of the food is these days unless one takes the time to look at the ingredient list.

That's not the case for chef Katie ROUTH and her new position at the Wallace Center in Orient, however. The Wallace Center of Orient may be off the beaten trail for most folks looking for a bite to eat, but it is well worth traveling a few miles out of one's way to get a taste of what ROUTH is cooking up.

Using only the freshest meat and produce, grown right in the Wallace Center's own garden or by local farmers, ROUTH prepares a delicious, nutritious seasonal and weekly menu, and many of the dishes are of her own creation.

ROUTH, 31, who grew up in Mount Ayr, has always had an appreciation for food. As a child, her family did some cross-country traveling, allowing her to gain exposure to a wide variety of dishes, and her family gatherings often included a generous amount of time spent in the kitchen.

Even so, when it came time for her to choose which career she would like to pursue, she was not interested at first in becoming a chef. ROUTH instead began school to become a dietitian.

In order to fulfill the requirements for her dietetics degree, she took a food preparation class. It was there that she discovered just how much fun cooking could be.

ROUTH then set her eyes on culinary school.

After reading a marriage announcement in the Record-News from a local woman whose groom-to-be was an instructor at the Colorado Mountain College Culinary Institute at Keystone, a city where ROUTH had gone skiing with her family while growing up, she decided to enroll there.

After completing her degree there and working in Keystone for two years after her graduation, ROUTH decided to move to North Carolina with a friend of hers, also from Mount Ayr.

She began to work at Magnolia Grill, whose ingredients were dropped off at the back door by local farmers, and what wasn't delivered was purchased from a nearby farmer's market.

This got her interested in the idea of farm-to-table fresh foods.

"That's how it started," ROUTH said, "just seeing how great food could taste when you knew where the vegetables were coming from."

ROUTH continued to seek out employment at restaurants that worked closely with local farmers. She had always wanted to cook in a large city, so she moved to Chicago where she worked at a restaurant called Perennial, located across from a farmer's market. This allowed her the opportunity to speak with farmers about the crops they were producing.

"I just wanted to see how vegetables were grown and get the farming aspect of the culinary arts," ROUTH explained. "It's not something they teach you at school; you have to seek it out for yourself."

In order to gain experience with seeing how the ingredients she used were grown, ROUTH began to look into farm internships and this led her to accept a position as a farm chef in Wisconsin. She cooked for 50 farmers during the week and the four owners of the establishment in the evenings using only ingredients grown by the farmers she was feeding. Also during this time, she began writing newsletters for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes, featuring a different vegetable each week and a recipe that used that vegetable. This allowed her to learn about her ingredients in a more in-depth way, not only how to prepare it, but how it was grown, stored, and prepared, as well as the nutritional value of each one.

"Working on the farm has been highly influential to me," ROUTH said. "[It allowed me to] learn where food comes from and how to nourish the body."

Working at a farm-based restaurant exposed ROUTH to many different types of produce that she had never even known existed before.

"There are so many more great vegetables out there than just lettuce, tomatoes and onions," ROUTH noted.

She could not wait to experiment with some of her new finds. Though she finds it impossible to name a single, all-time favorite vegetable, she has discovered a few that she wishes more people knew about: kohlrabi, senposai tatsoi, and, one that she especially loves, fennel, which is quite versatile and able to be sweet or savory.

After working in a number of other places, including the Bahamas and Switzerland, ROUTH decided she was ready to move closer to her family and home.

"There're great people in south-west Iowa," ROUTH said. "It's agreat place to live."

The opportunity at the Wallace Center opened in January, and ROUTH snatched it up eagerly.

The Wallace Center describes ROUTH'S dishes as having a "French flair," but ROUTH can't really call the French cuisine her favorite to work with.

"The Italians may disagree with this statement, but French cuisine is at the root of so many other [EuroAmerican] cuisines," ROUTH explained. "I would say that my sauce-making is influenced by the French style, but [my version is] lighter."

She prefers curries, especially Thai and Indian, as well as Mexican flavors like chilies.

"I like to mix different cuisines," ROUTH said. "After all, the US is a melting pot for different cuisines."

Because the Wallace Center's menu is so heavily influenced by what is ready for harvest at any given time, the dishes offered there change weekly. When certain commonly used ingredients are not available, ROUTH must get creative about how to attain the flavor she wants with what ingredients she has. This may seem like a daunting task, but ROUTH loves to experiment and develop new dishes.

Some of the delicacies she has created recently and is proud of are her lamb meatballs with couscous, snap peas, and kohlrabi with sorrel sauce, sautéed semposai and kale, and rhubarb ice cream.

Though Routh understands the appeal of using inexpensive, non-local ingredients, she believes strongly that using farm-fresh ingredients is better for everyone involved.

"The fresher [the ingredients] are, the more nutrients you can get from them," ROUTH advised. "If they're not fresh, you miss out on the nutrients that your body could be getting from your food. [Because you know your neigh-bor], you trust them and you know what's in the produce. Also, by purchasing locally-grown products, you're supporting your neighbors and your community. If people have more income, the community will grow. Not only that, but fresh ingredients taste better too!"

There are other things that one can do to cook more healthily beyond purchasing farm-fresh ingredients. Fortunately, cooking healthily doesn't always mean sacrificing flavor.

ROUTH recommends using herbs and spices to lessen the amount of salt necessary to season. Use butter in moderation and substitute maple syrup or honey for sugar, she suggests.

ROUTH practices her own advice when she cooks meals at the Wallace Center.

The restaurant is open Thursdays and Fridays for lunch and supper for those who would like to have a scrumptious and healthy meal while also supporting the local community.

Reservations are recommended.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2012