370 EAST 900 SOUTH
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84111
(801) 708-7834
BOWMAN BROWN, CHEF/OWNER
The sound of Forage’s praise resonates loudly through the valley, but if you’re looking to dine there, you’ll easily drive past it a few times before realizing it’s the blue house next to the salon. It’s perfectly unsuspecting. At first glance it appears merely a well-kept house, but upon entering it’s a world-class food-meets-art dining experience sure to match the best of its kind anywhere in the country.
Few places capture a diner’s imagination simply through plating, and then deliver even more on the flavor end of things, like Forage. Local chef star Viet Pham started Forage with Bowman Brown in 2009, which led to a well-deserved Best New Chef award from Food & Wine magazine in 2011 for the two talents. Viet has since stepped out of Forage’s kitchen to pursue other endeavors, leaving Forage exclusively as Bowman’s canvas.
Forage offers a prefixed menu—the kind where you sit down, pay a flat rate, and enjoy every single bite from every course. Growing up in rural Arizona, Bowman says he was interested in growing food way before his interest in cooking. His nature-based approach to food warrants the name Forage as well as informs what he creates and how he creates it. Depending on the time of year, his menu changes considerably. A common winter menu might include sunchokes and apples, acorn and salted apples, cabbage and goat’s milk, or leeks roasted in coals. But one thing you can count on is Bowman’s house-made granola to grab on your way out. This breakfast treat will keep you remembering your meal even the next morning.
Forage fits a perfect niche with very little competition in Salt Lake City. If you’re looking for a prefixed menu with a dozen or more courses and top-notch wine pairings, Forage may be your only option around town. Salt Lake is still emerging as a great foodie city, and places like Forage and chefs like Bowman Brown (and formerly Viet Pham) are pushing it to the next level. When Forage started in 2009, it was ahead of the curve, and it remains that way today.
(MAKES 15 CUPS)
4 cups oats
3 cups chopped almonds
2½ cups chopped pecans
1½ cups coconut
2 teaspoons salt
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter
1½ cups maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325°F. Combine the oats, nuts, coconut, salt, and flour in a large bowl.
Toast the butter in a large skillet until browned and nutty. Let the butter cool a little, then slowly add the maple syrup and vanilla extract.
Combine the butter mixture with the oat mixture and mix thoroughly.
Spread the oat mixture out in one layer on a sheet pan (the granola cooks a lot better if it’s in a nice thick layer on one sheet pan) and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan and carefully stir the granola so the edges don’t get too brown. Bake for another 20–30 minutes, stirring once if necessary, until the granola is uniformly browned all over. Let granola cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container.
