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rom the eastern tip of Ohio to the western edge of North Dakota, the Midwest is a land of lakes and streams teeming

with walleye and pike, grazing grounds for beef and bison, and farms raising pigs, poultry, vegetables and stone fruit. It’s the homeof theCornBelt (and thewheat belt), andoften calledAmerica’s breadbasket. Wisconsin is the largest producer of cheese in the country. Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin are among 10 cattle-ranching states in the U.S. Nearly 68 million people reside in the 12-state Midwestregion.ManyareofGerman,ScandinavianorEasternEuropeanheritage. They brought their traditions, especially their culinary ones, with them when they arrived. While the Midwest is home to restaurants featuring dishes from around the world, those original cooking and eating traditions continue to be a part of what is known as Midwest cuisine. The varied menu at HoDo in the Hotel Donaldson, Fargo, North Dakota, includes knoephla, aGermanpotato soup.TheScandinavian bread lefse is used for wraps. And lingonberry pie is a popular item at various dining spots in Wisconsin. At Polonia in Hamtramck, Michigan, czarcie jadlo—pork and lamb with potato noodles—is on the mostly Polish menu.

Home cooking The Midwest has long been known as a meat-and-potatoes region. It still is, but it’s changing, according to chefs such as ColbyGarrelts.“Asharingcultureandsociety,coupledwiththeadvent of the information age, have made people more willing to step out of their comfort zone,” he says. In the Midwest, though, “people still love their meat and potatoes, fried chicken and pies—foods that are earthy and represent solid home cooking.” GarreltsandhiswifechefMeganGarrelts,whofocusesonbakingandpastry,owntworestaurantsinKansas.BluesteminKansas City highlights Colby Garrelts’ progressive American

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hy OPPOSITE: Found Kitchen’s lamb meatballs.

MEALS MIDWEST

THIS 12-STATE REGION IS RICH IN CULINARY TRADITIONS. BY SUZANNE HALL

cuisineandMeganGarrelts’contemporaryAmericandesserts.Rye, their more-casual restaurant in Leawood, celebrates the Midwestern cuisine they both grew up with. There, they give traditional dishes a chef’s point of view while preserving the important heritage of the dish. The breakfast menu at Rye includes burnt-ends hash with spicy tomato sauce, red bell peppers, potatoes, onions and sunny-side-upeggs.Burntends,aKansastradition,arethetipsofbeeforporkbrisketcutfromtheflatsideofasmokedroast.Theyalsoappear on the menu as an appetizer served with sourdough toast, pickled celery and barbecue sauce. At lunch, there’s an open-faced burnt-ends sandwich. Other Midwest traditions on the lunch menu are fried chicken with mashed potatoes, ham gravy and greens, and a pulled smoked-pork sandwich with coleslaw, fries, pickles and barbecue sauce. The chicken is a signature item atRye,asareMeganGarrelts’pies,includingmokanpiemadewith Kansas pecans and Missouri black walnuts.

Socializing at the supper club Tami Lax is a chef who now focuses on menu planning and management at The Old Fashioned, the Madison, Wisconsin, restaurant she owns. She agrees that the Midwest has a meat-and-potatoes tradition, but, she says, “Our food culture has stepped up in the last 15 years.” “Where Wisconsin is king” is the motto of The Old Fashioned, which is inspired by Wisconsin taverns and supper clubs—restaurants only open at night where whole families gather to socialize. The Old Fashioned’s menu follows the supper-club tradition of offering nightly specials.Fridaynight’sfishfryhasachoiceofbeer-batteredwalleyeorcodorflour-dustedperch.Allareservedwithpoppyseedcoleslaw,matchstickfries,lemon/capertartarsauceandryebread.

20 THE NATIONAL CULINARY REVIEW • APRIL 2017

REGIONAL CUISINE meals from the midwest

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Walleye appears on the menu at restaurants in many Midwestern states. Walleye hash with scallions, potatoes, peppers and poached eggs topped with hollandaise is on the menu at the downtownMinneapolislocationofFireLakeGrillHouse&CocktailBar,whereJimKyndbergisexecutive chef. At lunch, he offers an heirloom corn-crusted walleye with wood-roasted vegetables and piquillo pepper sauce, and aMinnesota walleye burger with homestead slaw and lemon/tarragon rémoulade. The corn-crusted walleye is also on the dinner menu. TheScandinavian influencecropsuponmenus throughout theMidwest.Lena’sMeatballs,a Swedish-inspired dish on the FireLake menu, are a combination of pork, duck and beef, and come with porcini mushroom sauce, potato puree, lingonberry compote and zucchini pickles. The Sunday night special at The Old Fashioned is a Scandinavian chicken dinner. A half-chicken on the boneisrubbedwithcinnamon,juniperandcardamom.It’sthengrilledoveralivefireandservedwithsausage/currantdressing,smashedredblisspotatoes,andbutteredparsnipsandcarrots.

New Midwestern Root vegetables such as parsnips and carrots are found on menus in many Midwestern states, especially those with especially short growing seasons. Kyndberg has a beet salad on the menu. He offers roasted root vegetables as a side and with his rotisserie chicken. Beet saladwith hazelnuts, grapefruit, goat cheese andwatercress is on themenu atChicago’sGreenRiver,whereAaronLiretteisexecutivechef.Healsoservesbabycarrotsandturnipswithhisroasted chicken. Nicole Pederson, a Minneapolis native, is executive chef at Found Kitchen and Social House in Evanston, Illinois. Her root vegetables are served with charred leek soubise and pomegranate.

ILLINOIS: Chicago-style deep-dish pizza; Italian beef sandwiches; ranch dressing; horseshoes, sandwiches made from toasted white bread topped with a hamburger patty, french fries and cheese sauce

INDIANA: sugar cream pie; persimmon pudding; a combo of chicken and waffles

IOWA: sweet corn; melons from the town of Muscatine; pork tenderloin; Dutch letters (a cookie)

KANSAS: barbecue; bierocks, pastry pockets of hamburger and cabbage; sour cream/raisin pie

MICHIGAN: Vernor’s, a ginger ale that dates back to 1862; walleye fish and chips; square pizza; morels

MINNESOTA: lefse, a Norwegian flatbread; a hot dish filled with meat, potatoes and vegetables, called “casserole” elsewhere

MISSOURI: pizza with thin crust and provel cheese; toasted ravioli; Kansas City barbecue

NEBRASKA: frenchies, deep-fried grilled cheese sandwiches; Rocky Mountain oysters (mammal testicles); raisin pies

NORTH DAKOTA: knoephla, a German potato soup; cheese buttons, noodle dough stuffed with seasoned dry cottage cheese

OHIO: kielbasa; sauerkraut; Cincinnati chili; goetta, a German breakfast sausage

SOUTH DAKOTA: chislic, small cubes of beef, venison or lamb deep-fried until still pink inside and seasoned with flavored salt

WISCONSIN: cheese; beer cheese soup; cheese curds

STATE FAVORITES

ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: 1) At Rye, wood-fired grilled Lake Superior walleye with fingerling potato, asparagus, spring peas, leeks and smoked ham brodo. 2) Bison bone marrow at FireLake. 3) & 4) Ocean trout with beets, horseradish and kohlrabi, right, and Slagel Family Farm beef with maitake mushroom, cipollini onion, potato puree and bone marrow jus on the menu at GreenRiver.

Here is a sampling of distinctive dishes in the 12 states of the Midwest:

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To make dirty fries, Kyndberg tops natural-cut fries with barbecued brisket, cheese curds and gravy. Cheese curds, fresh tomatoes and roasted garlic are toppings on his grilled flatbreadpizza. Bratwurstandothersausages,anotherWisconsintradition,appear on menus across the state at breakfast, lunch and dinner. If sausage is a Wisconsin staple, wild rice holds the same place in Minnesota, one of the two major producers of wild rice in the U.S. (the other is California). The FireLake menu offers wild rice soup with leeks, sherry, shiitake mushrooms and rotisserie chicken. It is the key ingredient in the restaurant’s wild rice veggie burger with black beans, avocado, lettuce, tomato, red onion and sweet potato hummus, and there are wild rice pancakes served with chokeberry sauce. The hardwood-grilled salmon is served over a bed of wild rice pilaf with leeks, freekeh and lingonberry sauce. Midwestern cuisine is rich and varied. “It is rooted in our rural communities,”Garreltssays.“Thisregionisameltingpotofethnicinfluencesandthosefromotherpartsofthecountry.Itisrootedinthe stockyards, our barbecues and, of course, grandma’s table.”

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Found and GreenRiver fall into the category of “newMidwestern” cuisine. Pederson’s menu leans heavily on vegetables. Lirette serves not only Midwestern-style dishes, but international ones, as well. Italian beef sandwiches, a Chicago staple, are on the lunch menu. To acknowledge Chicagoans love of beef, the menu includes a 36-ounce Slagel Family Farm steak. Obviously meant to be shared, it comes with maitake mushrooms, cipollini onions, potato puree and bone marrow jus.

Midwest favorites BeefisafavoriteinKansasandWisconsin,aswell.AtRye,thereservewood-firedsteakprogramincludesfiletmignonandKansas City strip, and rib-eye and T-bone steaks. Prime rib is on the menu on Sundays. The Old Fashioned offers prime rib, a supper-club tradition, as the special on Saturday night. It is served with a wedge salad topped with French dressing and Wisconsin blue cheese. That blue cheese is among the many cheeses on Lax’s menu. In all, the kitchen usually stocks about 16 that rotate on the restaurant’s cheese platter. Wisconsin beer cheese soup garnished with popcorn is on the menu every day. So are cheese curds that are lightly battered and fried. “We buy about 3,000 pounds a week,” Lax says.

SUZANNE HALL HAS BEEN WRITING ABOUT CHEFS, RESTAURANTS, FOOD AND WINE FROM HER HOME IN SODDY-DAISY, TENNESSEE, FOR MORE THAN 25 YEARS.