at the chef's table
Modern Wild Edibles
FORAGED FOODS: A DAILY TREAT AT THE CURIOUS KUMQUAT By Katherine Mast · Photos by Stephanie Cameron
On a warm Thursday evening in midJune, most of the twelve tables at the Curious Kumquat in downtown Silver City are full. A solo waitress, trailed by another in training, sets a new fork diagonally at each seat every time she brings out a new dish, which number six on tonight’s Chef ’s Modern Foraged Tasting Menu. In the kitchen of 26
edible Santa Fe | LATE SUMMER 2015
the small converted house, Rob Connoley, working alone with two commercial-grade electric ovens, puts the finishing touch on a second course plate. He arranges a single petal from a pickled agave blossom atop a round slice of leek flanked by three short asparagus spears that sit on a small disk-shaped quinoa cake resting in a shallow wild cherry
soup. None of this is for decoration. “I don’t garnish at all,” Connoley tells me the next morning as we set out on a foraging hike. He nearly grimaces at the thought of superfluously sprinkling or drizzling his dishes for show. On his plates, “everything is where it needs to be.”