Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie... - Henry: The reason I opened this place is 'cause I could never find that place that I really wished existed that had everything: the ambiance, the service, and the quality of food.

– Luke: This is everything you want a supper club to be.

Consistent, wonderful, simple, and elegant.

– Laura: This morning, we are going to be pressing off our Verona grapes.

The Midwest is really trying to find a very heavy-- a heavy-duty red, basically.

– Lynita: This is a classic farm-to-table type of product.

It's about representing the grape.

That's what we try to do, make the grape shine!

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: [energetic music, cash register rings] [gift card rustling] [pouring a beverage] [mystical swirling] [heart beats "lub-dub"] [bell on door chimes as door opens] - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie , and remind you that in Wisconsin we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk [cheerful whistling] with just a few simple ingredients.

Sun, soil, rain, and grass.

[bubbles popping] And grass, and grass.

– Cow: Yee-haw!

[angelic choir music] - Organic Valley Grassmilk, organic milk from 100% grassfed cows.

[banjo music] - Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin, and see where your beer's made.

[upbeat music] - Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr dot wi dot g-o-v. - From production to processing, right down to our plates, there are over 15,000 employers in Wisconsin with career opportunities to fulfill your dreams and feed the world.

Hungry for more?

Shape your career with these companies and others at fabwisconsin.com.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animals sourcing, to on-site high-quality butchering and packaging.

The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grassfed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore, know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Additional support coming from the Viroqua Food Co-op, Central Wisconsin Craft Collective, Something Special from Wisconsin, Crossroads Collective, La Crosse Distilling Company, as well as the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

– Announcer: We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We're a merging of cultures and ideas shaped by this land.

We are a gathering of the waters and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[clinking glasses] [scraping knife] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie .

[paper rustling] [contemplative music] - Luke: Henry, thank you so much for having us in to The Tornado Room.

This is one of my favorite restaurants in all of Wisconsin.

It's a place that I think a lot of people, when they come into Madison or they come back to Madison, make sure that they frequent and it's an honor to be here today.

So, I think one of the questions that warrants asking, like, walk me through an authentic supper club dining experience because I think it's something that as Wisconsinites we hold sacred.

Like, that's our iconic old school dining culture.

- Right, right.

- But I'm really interested to hear from somebody who's, you know, a battle-tested veteran.

- The reason I opened this place is cause I could never find that place that I really, that I wished existed, you know, that had everything the ambiance, the service, and the quality of food.

You know, I always imagined the supper club being on, like, the edge of the lake, some little cabins, a neon sign, you know, little smoke coming from the top of it and it's a uniquely Wisconsin thing.

That's what I've always tried to emulate here.

Like, people, you know, we're sort of on the little strip of skid row here in Madison.

It's like the last little block that survived, like, you know, urban renewal, you know?

[laughing] [Luke laughing] And so, people, like, look at the back door and they're like, "Well, this can't be the place" and they pull on this, like, rickety, old metal door and they come in and they go, "Oh yeah, look at this," you know?

- Yeah.

And, you know, and I've tried to-- So, it's sort of a time capsule in here and I just try to make it look like it hasn't changed since it opened.

So, if you were to come to The Tornado and you were dining-- - Yeah?

- What's your cut of choice?

- So, I like the New York strip, I like a little fat and chewiness.

– Luke: Mm, yep.

– Henry: I like steaks with bones 'cause I like, you know, a little marrow, I like a little gristle to chew on.

– Luke: Mm, yeah.

– Henry: 'Cause I'm a total carnivore.

[laughs] - Luke: [laughs] Just, do you ever pick it up and like-- - Henry: Yeah, I have, I do that, I do that.

– Luke: How do you cook the perfect steak?

- Good question.

Well, you need a couple things.

You need a good heat source.

You gotta have the right kind of seasoning.

You gotta have a good product to cook.

– Luke: Okay.

Seasoning.

– Henry: Seasoning, so it's, you know, I can't tell you exactly what it is.

– Henry: Because it, you know, trademark.

– Luke: It's proprietary.

[laughing] Exactly!

– Henry: It's everything that compliments meat; It's nothing that takes away.

Like with the steak, you kind of, you know, people just want that beefy steak, you know.

It's really all about the simple seasoning that doesn't overwhelm it or overpower it and most people don't even know it's really there.

– Luke: Right.

- You know?

Right now my mouth is actually watering.

[Henry laughing] Which means that, you know, I gotta do a better job eating before these shoots, but... [Henry laughing] I'm actually, [laughing] selfishly, very excited to taste a little bit of, you know, what The Tornado Room is and has been and will be.

So, is it possible to get some food?

– Henry: Sure.

- Awesome.

Wanna go back in the kitchen and check it out?

- Yeah, let's do it.

Thanks.

[laughing] - Cool.

Whoa, whoa!

- Yeah, it's pretty hot.

- I can feel-- I can feel it radiating out of here right now!

- So it's a South Bend Magic Ray Broiler and probably, I probably, [Luke laughing] it's probably from like 1965 or something.

- Sure.

- So, I've got a nice cut.

It's a bone-in ribeye.

We call it 28 ounces, but it's really 36 ounces.

– Luke: Wow!

– Henry: But if I said 36 on the menu, no one would order it.

[Luke laughing] So, we just-- I just like to season the top and the bottom.

– Luke: Sure.

- I don't do the sides.

- Okay, yeah.

Like to leave a little bit of, you know, don't want to over season, you know.

- And this is your secret seasoning?

- Yeah, and this creates a really nice crust.

- Yep.

- You know, so you don't actually have to char the meat.

You're really just charring the seasoning.

It does char the meat a little, but you don't get that burnt taste.

– Luke: Yeah.

- And so, this is, this is like the hot part of it.

It's gonna cook.

I'm gonna get a lot of color on it.

And then, I'm gonna move it down here, so a little cooler-- - Cooler, yeah.

- And it'll slow roast down there for a little bit.

- Nice!

Do you rest steaks when you're done with them?

- Well, they do.

So, all the steaks end up on a pan right here and they sort of sit in the juices and they kinda just sit there until the waiters come and pick 'em up.

- A well-rested steak, though... - Yeah, yeah.

- That is like, that's the hallmark of a good steak.

Something that's-- - Right.

- Had the opportunity to let those juices kinda re-amalgamate into the meat, which is a big word but really, it just kinda redistributes itself.

- Yeah.

- And it makes it delicious and beautiful and uniform.

- This steak is definitely gonna rest on that plate out in the dining room.

[Luke laughs] It's gonna take quite a while to eat that.

[laughing] [clapping hands] - [laughing] So happy, so happy, so happy!

All right!

What next?

- Okay, I'm gonna make a hash brown.

So, my secret to the hash brown is we parboil the potato.

And they're still pretty hard in the middle.

And then, we grate 'em.

We let them cool overnight so it gets all the starchiness out of them.

- Sure.

- So they don't get gluey.

- Yup.

You know, my thing about hash browns is they gotta be kinda, a little bit fluffy, you know, but still a little crunchy texture on the, even on the inside- - Yup.

but a real thick crust on the outside, that's the key: golden brown.

So, I use a clarified butter / olive oil mix.

– Luke: Yeah!

– Henry: I get this thing smoking hot.

– Luke: Yup.

– Henry: I kind of loosely put that potato in there.

[pan sizzling] - You are watching the technique of a master right now.

- I loosely put that potato in there.

I gotta put a few chopped onions on top.

- Nice!

- And the salt and pepper seasoning.

– Luke: Sure.

– Henry: And we're just gonna let that sit there like that.

– Luke: Okay, so it's developing the crust.

– Henry: Yep.

- So, quick question about steak temperature.

Are there other steaks, for example, is there, do you have a guide for, like, a cut?

If you're gonna have a ribeye, do you like that more medium-rare or do you always like it on the rare side?

– Henry: I think it's better more medium-rare.

So, certain steaks have a lot of fat.

This is a very fatty steak.

You wanna break down that fat to tenderize the meat.

You don't wanna chew on a big hunk of kinda cold, raw fat.

- Yeah.

[upbeat music] - Kinda gotta cook this a little more than, say, a filet.

- Sure.

- A filet is very, kind of a, you know, the fat molecules are a lot smaller in a filet.

Not to say it's leaner, but it doesn't have the visible fat that a ribeye has.

So, a filet, you can eat that like, you know, sushi and that's great.

- Right, right.

But this steak, you kinda want to cook it a little more and, you know, a lower, you know, slower and lower so that it breaks down and it works its way through and you have much less division between cooked and raw-- - Sure.

like you might have in a filet.

- Yeah!

- So, we're gonna put this guy down here and we're just gonna let her marinate a little.

– Luke: Slow and low.

– Henry: Yeah, slow and low.

and I can feel that and it's kinda rare, still.

– Luke: It's kinda rare.

- So, I like to, like, get a little feel for how brown this thing is.

– Luke: Yeah.

– Henry: I think, I don't want to burn it so it's getting close to flipping time.

- All right!

– Henry: Okay, ready guys?

Are you ready?

This is the money shot.

- Money shot.

Are you guys ready for, is this is gonna go well?

– Henry: I don't want it to be-- - Luke: His mouth says, "Yes."

His eyes are laughing right now.

[laughing] - Cameraman: Guys, you got this.

– Luke: Booyah!

[pan banging] Got it!

[hands clapping] - Henry: Oh, yeah, that looks good.

[laughing] - Bravo, sir, bravo!

[hands clapping] - I don't if we can, aah!

[both laughing] - That is good stuff!

I'm so happy for you that you got that!

[laughing] - Yeah, it worked out pretty good.

[laughing] - Yeah, awesome!

- It worked out.

- All you doubters can suck it!

I knew he had it the whole time.

[laughing] I'm gonna go back in the dining room, and I'll let you finish up.

- Okay.

Let these guys take over.

- All right, I'll bring it out.

- All right, sounds good; Thanks, brother.

I can hear it.

[plate sizzling] [laughing] Oh, my God!

– Henry: Here you go.

– Luke: Yes!

[laughing] - Henry: It's a little sizzling right now.

So, watch out, it's hot.

- Yeah.

– Do you have any A1 - Henry: Yes, I do.

- I'm kidding, I'm totally kidding!

[laughs] I'm totally kidding!

- Ah.

- You played it well.

[laughing] This is gorgeous!

[plate sizzling] - Henry: Thank you.

- Man!

The first thing that I'm struck by is the aroma.

The spice rub and the beef itself really is perfuming the air.

And the onion ring on top, with that little bit of a fried onion, delicious, sweetness thing is magic.

I'm gonna lose it if I don't taste this thing soon.

I think one of the issues with me on this one is gonna be taking small enough bites.

[laughs] That is perfect.

Well rested, juices right back where they belong.

That's beautiful.

[contemplative music] The seasoning, just like Henry said, complements the beef so I don't get lost in, like, the salt and the pepper and the other accompanying spices that, that really give this thing flavor.

It really just kind of acts as, as a way to reinforce that rich beefiness.

The temperature is perfect.

And I agree with him, with a ribeye or a steak like this, that little bit of chew and char makes all the difference.

Personally, I like the gristle.

I think that's a throwback to growing up poor.

In our family, we ate the gristle.

Mm.

But even that's richly seasoned.

The hash browns, I can already see by cutting into these things, the inside is nice and fluffy.

You can see the steam coming off of 'em.

They're nice and hot.

The exterior's crispy, crunchy, holding its shape.

I can't wait.

The crunch is so rewarding on these things.

It's so satisfying to eat!

The interior's like eating a cloud, like a soft gnocchi, a little pillow of potato.

I can see why, after tasting a plate like this, this restaurant has been so successful over the years.

This has everything you want a supper club to be.

Consistent, wonderful, simple, and elegant.

[inspirational music] [guitar music] - You can bring three and put one in the kitchen.

– Lynita: I'm Lynita and I help make wine.

- Whoo-hoo!

Thank you!

- Help clean, help get after people.

That's my job.

– Laura: My mom is an artist.

She started everything.

She went, "Let's do a specialty crop.

"I don't wanna farm exactly the way my husband's doing it when I retire 'cause I..." - Lynita: Well, he told me he'd give me acreage.

[Laura laughs] Well, what are you gonna do?

- Yep, and we fell in love with grapes.

This morning, we are going to be pressing off our Verona grapes.

Verona is one of the newest hybrids.

The Midwest is really trying to find a very heavy, a heavy duty red, basically.

[workers murmuring] You want something very deep in color, very deep in flavor.

- This is a classic farm-to-table type of product.

The farm part starts years ago because the first three years, you don't have a harvest.

The fourth year, you maybe have 1/2 to 2/3's.

The third year, we had enough to make, like, maybe 30 bottles.

[workers murmuring] And the fourth year, now we're having enough-- and I haven't done a dip in that tank-- but there will be enough to make a little tank of Verona wine.

And then, the fifth year we should be getting close to a regular harvest on it.

So, the farm-to-table aspect starts many years ago.

A lot of these guys that are behind me helped plant these plants four years ago, four and a half years ago.

They also have tended them for every year since then.

[quiet music] - I'm Laura, and I help make wine.

I help with a bit of everything, as well.

Dad was a cash crop farmer.

We weren't going to be farmers, my brother and I.

And my husband, sure as heck, wasn't going to be all crops or anything.

He's got a degree in marketing and elementary education.

It almost doesn't matter what your education is in if you are passionate about what you're doing.

And as long as you care, you can make almost anything work and you can, you can sell it that way, as well.

Granted, when Dad put everything from the farm into the winery, and into all the equipment and everything, he said, "Here's your inheritance.

"Don't screw it up.

All you have to do is make good wine."

There's a little bit more than just making good wine!

[Lynita laughing] It's a little bit more!

[laughing] [quiet music] [motors humming] Oh, yeah, grapes are coming over now.

After we pumped out all the liquid that's wine, we are now going to be pressing off these grapes so that we get as much liquid out as possible and what Jan is doing here is he's sprinkling in rice hulls.

Rice hulls are a complete tasteless component.

It's completely inert but if you were gonna take these grapes and just push in here, you'd get a lot in here, but then liquid would be trapped in the middle of this pomace that you have right here.

So, those rice hulls are creating, basically, straws from the inside of that pomace into the outside.

The Verona grapes, we're going to be calling it Verona because it is, you know, at least 80% Verona itself, Verona wine itself.

So, this is a deep, heavy red.

So, it's running up into our press.

And then, this is what the free run wine is right now.

So, that's the stuff that's just plainly running out.

It's a long-term investment wine.

- What does it mean to be a Midwestern winemaker?

What do we have to embrace about our wines that make us different, unique, special?

- It's about representing the grape and that's what we try to do.

Make the grape shine!

- Forty years ago when, 40, 45 years ago when Napa was trying to get on the map and they weren't, no one would give them the time of the day 'cause they weren't French, you know?

[laughing] And you're just, like, history does repeat itself, unfortunately.

It's just a little bit behind the farm-to-table food.

You know that people still go to the really nice restaurants say, "Is your meat locally sourced?

Wonderful!"

and then they go, "I want a California cab."

– Luke: Yeah!

"I want" you know, "a Burgundy Pinot Noir," you know, "I want all of this" and you're like, "Just, you know what?

"It's one, it's one time, just try something new."

[quiet guitar music] So what we do, we elevator in all the grapes right into here, we level it out and then there are several different slats in the side here, drains, if you will, that everything runs out of and the liquid can naturally run out and that is your most valuable, basically.

It's your free-run juice or your free-run wine.

So it's all running in, into this nice little tray and then we slowly pump it out.

- Lynita, where do you want this to go in 20 years?

What do you, when people come to Elmaro or when people see it in restaurants or in grocery stores what do you want them to associate with it?

- Ah, family, that's important to associate with it.

The beauty of the area.

We want them to think that we make a quality product.

– Laura: We wanted to create a place that people could, you know, hang out and be and enjoy themselves.

Look around, you don't see any other buildings.

It's not like you're going to, you know, stop here on your way to Target.

You know, it's a destination place and you have to treat it as such and so they come out here and they sit and enjoy, or if the tables are full, they put a blanket out in the vineyard and they sit and people actually slow down for a minute.

– Luke: Yeah.

– Laura: Because we don't, we don't get that anymore.

[quiet guitar music] - Okay, so, what I want to do is I'd like to have you two talk me through a wine tasting.

- Well, your wine before you even put it in your mouth, will tell you a lot about it.

So, you check the color of it and the clarity of it.

So, your color is going to be, you know, almost light straw.

- Yeah, straw.

- You know, just off, just off from colorless to a light yellow.

– Luke: Yep.

- To, like, a gold.

The lighter yellow usually will tell you the younger the wine is.

If it's gold, it's had more oxygen involved.

It either has aging or it's been intentionally oxidized.

- Okay.

- With reds, what's really nice is you can check the intensity of it.

– Luke: Sure.

- Those, with whites and with, like, a rose here, or this one's fruit cranberry, you don't have as much intensity, but when you look at its side and you try to read through it you can see through the middle of it, you don't read through it nearly as much.

- No.

If you look straight down.

- Yeah.

- But it gets less intense as it goes out.

- Yeah.

- The thinner the wine and not being able to see through it, it'll be a much more intense wine and whether it has more body or anything else, it'll just-- [Lynita clears throat] it's one more indicate, what?

- You have my wine.

- I do.

[glass sliding] [all laughing] - One of the first things, too, though, you watch the coating of it and you watch its legs.

- Yeah.

- So the legs will tell you several different things.

You can see that my wine's legs... - Luke: Yeah, yep.

- ...are a lot more intense than yours are.

You can see that yours barely clings to it.

Almost as appealing to water or- - Luke: Yeah, low viscosity!

- Yes, low viscosity and that'll tell you, it could tell you several things.

Whether it's a less viscous wine, like grape itself.

Whether it's less sweet or it has a lower amount of alcohol.

You don't know which one it's going to tell you.

– Luke: Okay.

- But those are your indicators.

Like, if it has a lot of legs, you know it's probably not a lighter bodied wine- - Sure.

- A lighter, easier Sauvignon Blanc style or anything.

– Luke: We have the swirl?

- You swirl, you throw your nose right in [inhaling] and you take a regular length sniff because when you take a very long sniff-- - Luke: Yeah.

- There's nothing you're getting from that last half and you pick apart.

You're like, "There's fruit here, but I don't know-- I can't pinpoint it."

There's, there is, you know, and you go from, you go from that main category of fruity to, "Is it citrus?

"Is it berry?

Is it tree fruit like apple, cherry, apricot?"

- Citrus.

- Citrus, yes!

- It's fun, isn't it?

- Almost grapefruit-like.

Grapefruit-y?

- Yes!

- Almost grapefruit, almost a little hint of lemon.

There's something, yes.

- Mm-hmm.

The next part, if you're not quite sure that's when you put, you give that swirl, you smell it and then you put it in your mouth and you let it kinda coat your whole mouth and you even trill.

- Yeah.

[inhaling breath] - You suck in that little bit of air, and that'll pick up-- - Trill.

- It sounds cool but it also picks up the backside of your nasal cavity.

[sputtering wine] - Luke: Ooh!

- Mm.

- Boy, when you do that, you really get the oak in the red.

- Do you?

- Oh, yeah, big time.

- And you can, you can.

And if you stop to take a minute to decide where, which places on your tongue feel what?

– Luke: Yep, I love that.

- Yeah.

That you, that you take a minute.

- This is everything that Napa or Sonoma or The Finger Lakes aspire to be.

I wanna offer up a toast.

- Great, thank you.

Toast in the rain!

[glasses clinking] - Toast in the rain.

[quiet guitar music] - How did you find your love for grapes?

[upbeat music] - So, I used to be a competitive curler.

I was an international competitive curler and I went to Worlds in 2000.

So, we went to Venice and Rome.

When we went to these small mom and pop restaurants a soda was extremely hard to come by, it was more expensive than wine and ice was not readily available.

So, warm soda, who would ever drink that?

[laughing] So, we drank wine.

So, Mom came back and started searching for wines like that.

- So, we started drinking red wine.

That's what happened.

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: [energetic music, cash register rings] [gift card rustling] [pouring a beverage] [mystical swirling] [wind whooshes] [heart beats "lub-dub"] [bell chimes as door opens] - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie , and remind you that, in Wisconsin we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk [cheerful whistling] with just a few simple ingredients.

Sun, soil, rain, and grass.

[bubble popping] And grass, and grass.

– Cow: Yee-haw!

[angelic choir music] - Organic Valley Grassmilk, organic milk from 100% grassfed cows.

[banjo music] - Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin, and see where your beer's made.

[upbeat music] - Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr dot wi dot g-o-v. - From production to processing, right down to our plates, there are over 15,000 employers in Wisconsin with career opportunities to fulfill your dreams and feed the world.

Hungry for more?

Shape your career with these companies and others at fabwisconsin.com.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animals sourcing, to on-site high-quality butchering and packaging.

The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore, know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Additional support coming from the Viroqua Food Co-op, Central Wisconsin Craft Collective, Something Special from Wisconsin, Crossroads Collective, La Crosse Distilling Company, as well as the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

- Are you hungry for more?

Check us out on YouTube.