Eight years ago, Chef Dan Barber of the world-renowned Blue Hill NYC and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York, was joking with vegetable breeder Michael Mazourek about butternut squash. Holding one up, he asked Mazourek if he could somehow make the humble, clunky squash taste any good. From there, the story goes that Mazourek developed the seeds that would produce the Honeynut squash. Significantly smaller in size, it was both nutrient dense and contained less water than the butternut. Most importantly, it was created and bred specifically to be flavorful and delicious.
Chef Michael Gallina of Vicia who cooked at Blue Hill in Manhattan for four years and then at Blue Hill at Stone Barns for five, where he served as chef de cuisine, was part of the process of creating this new squash. “We were going up to Cornell pretty often," he says. "We’d drive up on Mondays and have these in-depth discussions.” Gallina compares the creation of the Honeynut to online dating. “Breeding the squash was kind of like match.com. Basically you’re looking at qualities of one kind of squash and the qualities of another kind of squash and trying to pick out the best from both to combine them.”
Over the next few years, Barber enthusiastically shared his flavor-focused Honeynut squash with other chefs and the combination of word of mouth, articles in Vogue and the now-shuttered Cooking Light, and a robust social media campaign paid off, garnering attention from people important in the realms of both seed and produce distribution. Today, you can find the Honeynut in Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods across the country.
Barber was eager to re-create the Honeynut experiment with other vegetables, and early this winter he introduced the epicurean community to his new seed company, Row 7 Seed Company. The company had bred seven new seed varieties including the Badger Flame beet, a beet so mild and sweet it is meant to be eaten raw. Upstate Abundance potatoes are creamy and have a natural buttery flavor. Habanada peppers (pictured above) look and smell exactly like a habanero pepper but, when eaten, lack all of the heat while retaining the pepper’s incredible floral notes. And then there is the 898 Squash (pictured below), which is an improved version of the Honeynut.
As part of the launch of the company, Row 7 distributed their seeds to an extraordinary list of the world's most renowned chefs, including restaurant icons Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, René Redzepi, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Dominique Ansel, and St. Louis’ own Gallina. Now, many of the vegetables have been harvested and put in the hands of these chefs to experiment with, to put on their menus, and ultimately, spread the word.
Gallina plans on using guest’s experience dining at Vicia to introduce and inform the public about these new vegetables. “I just want to get people to taste these vegetables and really become involved with them. The average person isn’t going to necessarily know about the Honeynut squash, so when they come into Vicia and see the Honeynut on the menu or the Habanada peppers, it gives us a chance to get people excited about them by teaching them what these vegetables are.”
Gallina sees Vicia as an important part in creating a local demand for the new vegetables. “When a customer comes in and asks us what the 898 squash is, or the Honeynut, or they want to know what a Habanada pepper is, it gives us here the opportunity to share that story. Then maybe the customer goes home and looks into it even more and starts wondering where they can get more,” Gallina says. “It all starts with demand. The more and more people are excited about something, the more the demand increases.” If Row 7 is successful in creating demand for their vegetables, Gallina predicts that “hopefully you’ll be able to go into your grocery store and find a really nutritious, delicious, awesome variety of vegetables. But right now grocery stores are looking at the most economical way to offer their produce.”
Some of the vegetables have already made their way onto Vicia’s menu, and the dishes Gallina created with them were not only delicious but played on their unique qualities such as size and natural sweetness. “We used the Delicata squash for a dessert similar to an éclair. The skin of the squash is completely edible, and the flesh is super-sweet. We filled it with a popcorn pastry cream.” Gallina smiles and says: “It was a hit or miss thing. Some people hated it and some people absolutely loved it, but it was on the tasting menu so we forced people to try it.” Gallina treats the 898 squash simply. “Right now we’re basically roasting it whole and splitting it in half, adding just a little bit of salt and a splash of butter. We’ll serve it alongside a presentation of a meat with a little sauce and a small bowl of really flavorful polenta. That will all be served together on a platter meant to serve two people. They can scoop out some of the squash and add a bit of polenta and eat that with a little bit of meat.”
Gallina explains that at Vicia the goal is not to overcomplicate the ingredients. “The Honeynut is so good on its own," he says. "If a farmer is working his ass off maintaining soil health and growing these delicious vegetables, who am I to slather it up or transform it into tasting like something it’s not. Something like this squash or a really incredible carrot can be eaten with something like the polenta, and it all ties together between different components in a dish.” Gallina’s face lights up and his speech gets a little faster when he talks about the ingredients that he gets to use. “I’m excited about what we can do with each of these vegetables. We did this little pumpkin fondue last year where we served little pumpkins, roasted them whole and stuffed them with cheese. I think we’re going to do something again like that. Roast and stuff these with something—whether it’s a stew of the squash or a cheese, we’ll use the pumpkins as their own vessel.”
Look for Row 7 Seed's pumpkin-esque Koginut squash (pictured above) as the first course on the current tasting menu at Vicia (see lead image). The squash is roasted and then served with squash purée, compressed apple, fennel, candied pecans and seeds, feta, and grated raw chestnut.
