The Good Life: Sacramento Chef's Guide to the Farmer's Market

Excerpt:  It's Sunday morning at the farmers market under the Cap City Freeway. Michael Tuohy has been here more than an hour, but his enthusiasm, his elation just keeps growing.

Like a lot of people here, he's jazzed by the pure freshness around him, the vibrancy in the air, the almost kinetic brightness of the colors.

"Wow," he says. "Wow. Look at these. Look at these."

He's standing in front of a big bundle of young sweet onions at a table piled with produce from West Sacramento's Watanabe Farms. More than two dozen onions are lined up neatly with their long green leaves still attached, making them look like giant scallions, except with bulbs that are electric purple mixed with an almost shocking white.

Nature. It does colors well.

Farmer's Market Foodie Feast (Sac Foodies, May 14, 2010)

Excerpt: Last week, fellow SacFoodie Brittany and I were lucky enough to be invited to a Farmer’s Market tour and lunch hosted by Chef Michael Tuohy of the much-praised Grange restaurant here in Sacramento. We joined a group of local “food enthusiasts” including Kimberley of Poor Girl Eats Well, Kristy of Cakegrrrl, Jonathan of Sacramento Press, Ann Rolke of Sacatomato, Greg of SacRag, Leigh Anne Keys of FOX 40 and the gals from Sacramento News & Review and Midtown Monthly for a tour of the Cesar Chavez Park Farmer’s Market from Chef Tuohy. The Chef pointed out his favorite vendors along the way, including Joe Gotelli & Sons cherries, Del Real Date Farm, Bariani Olive Oils and many more.

I Love the Farmer's Market: How to Shop and Enjoy the Best Produce your Region Can Offer (Poor Girl Eats Well, May 6, 2010)

Excerpt: Because Grange specializes in local, seasonal menus made with the best of our state's produce, meats and seafood, and because Chef happens to have an incredible internal seasonal-eating clock, he's the perfect guide for a tour of the farmer's market. Today he led about a dozen local writers on a tour of the market, teaching us about seasonal produce and introducing us to his favorite vendors while he shopped. Though I enjoyed learning about the different nuances of the produce that was and ought to have been in season, I personally enjoyed watching his enthusiasm at every stand. Not only did he handle the produce and select it with the casual ease of someone as experienced as he; he also asked questions that I never would have expected to ask the vendors. Usually when I go on a farmer's market run I'm on a mission, so I rarely stop to do anything except for making purchases and obsessively photographing beautiful food .

Follow the Chef through the Farmer's Market (Sacramento Press Story, May 5, 2010)

Excerpt: With more than 10 local farmer's markets open weekly starting this month, it's difficult to navigate all the options and choose something you can easily prepare. Enter Michael Tuohy, Grange Restaurant's executive chef and leading proponent of the Slow Food Movement, whose mission is to "understand the importance of caring where their food comes from, who makes it and how it’s made," according to its website.

Tuohy holds a weekly "Follow the Chef" lunch at the Grange, located on the corner of 10th and J streets inside the Citizen Hotel. At 11 a.m. every Wednesday between May and October, he meets with a group of 15 people or less at the Grange and leads them through a tour of the farmer's market at Cesar Chavez Plaza.

He introduces them to farmers, shows them his favorite farm stands and talks about the different varieties of fruits and vegetables, as well as different ways to prepare them.

Wine Buzz: Kentucky spirit comes to Grange / Special-blend bourbon joins restaurant-bar's top shelf (Sacramento Bee Food & Wine Story March 17, 2010)

Excerpt:

Plenty of local restaurants collaborate with nearby vintners to make house wines, but here's a partnership with extra spirit.

Grange has teamed with Woodford Reserve, a small-batch Kentucky distillery, to create a barrel of signature bourbon. "Wine Buzz" got an early taste, and this hooch is a winner. Sumptuous flavors of spice, caramel and citrus resonate in Grange Special Blend Woodford Reserve.

Brad Cecchi, Grange's chef de cuisine, and Grange bartender Pete Tachibana flew in early February to Lexington, Ky. They'd been approached by Woodford Reserve, which has partnered with restaurants around the country, to craft the whiskey, a slice of Sacramento in the heart of bourbon country.

"It was awesome," Cecchi says of the trip. "We did tastings all over town and in bourbon country. The drive to Woodford was all bluegrass and rolling hills – just beautiful."

They were met by Chris Morris, Woodford Reserve's master distiller, who showed them around the warehouses where barrels of bourbon were being aged. Then their palates were put to the test.

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Brewers, chefs tap Beer Week (Sacramento Bee Food and Wine Story, February 17, 2010)

Excerpt:

Back at Grange, Tuohy has been tasting Odonata beers to get a sense of what menu to pair them with on Feb. 25. As with a wine dinner, he'll consider how the weight of these ales will match with, say, goat or lamb. He'll note the beer's balance, its flavor components – hoppy? spicy? – and overall body.

And after a busy night in Grange's kitchen, you'll probably find Tuohy winding down with a cold one in hand.

"After I put in a 12-hour day, and I'm hot and tired, what would I rather have, an ice-cold beer or a cabernet?" says Tuohy. "I find myself wanting to drink more beer than ever because there's so many interesting styles."

America's Top Restaurants (Zagat 2010)

Review Highlights:

Chef Michael Tuohy works closely with area farmers to imbue his Californian breakfasts, lunches and dinners with seasonal flavor at this... Downtowner attached to the stylish Citizen Hotel; the two-story space with views of the street through high windows displays a modern rustic aesthetic, as evidenced in historic photographs on the walls, exposed beams, concrete columns and a dramatic cantilevered private loft.

Road to Recovery: Local foods spice up economic picture (Sacramento Bee Cover Story February 16, 2010)

Excerpt:

A meal at downtown Sacramento's fashionable Grange Restaurant & Bar shows how one segment of local agriculture has room to grow.

The Grange, home to politicos, tourists and hometown crowds at the Citizen Hotel, thrives on an old idea become new again: locally grown food. A typical meal, conceived by executive chef Michael Tuohy, includes Yolo pastured chicken, salad greens, organic potatoes and a "good local olive oil."

"Local food is why I came to Sacramento," said the San Francisco-born chef, who in 2008 left Atlanta for the capital. "Within 50 miles you have everything from honey to olive oil to cheese to goats to lamb to pork to vegetables."

Regional leaders say Tuohy's four-piece meal represents a small, but key, contributor to the economy. Whether discovering a fledgling chicken supplier in Yolo County or ordering wine from Amador County, newcomer chefs and consumers alike are building a niche for locally grown and consumed food in the region's otherwise globalized farm economy.

Review - Duck Off (Poor Girl Eats Well, November 26, 2009)

Excerpt:

One of the greatest things about attending the Foodbuzz Festival was being able to network with bloggers, restaurateurs, and other folks in the food industry. Though I grew up behind the scenes of this unique world, it’s quite a different thing to experience these things firsthand as an adult. It was through one of these new connections that I was able to learn about an interesting event happening at Grange Restaurant in Sacramento this month: the “Duck-Off”. It sounded like such an interesting idea and the restaurant seemed to be a place I'd truly enjoy, so I jumped at the chance to have my very first meal at this celebrated local restaurant.

Grange Restaurant receives Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for 2009

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36 Hours in Sacramento (NY Times, November 1, 2009)

Excerpt:

DESPITE California’s fiscal crisis, Sacramento has no deficit of quirky cultural offerings. Situated at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, this capital city has a gentle, small-town charm, with a strong theater tradition, delightful new restaurants and a vibrant art scene. It also has a wealth of greenery — residents proudly claim more trees per capita than any city in the world besides Paris. It’s enough to make you forget about the state’s yawning budget gap.

6:30pm
8) A Seasonal Fare

For a taste of Sacramento’s new culinary scene, make reservations at Grange (926 J Street; 916-492-4450; www.grangesacramento.com), a sleek new restaurant in the Citizen Hotel. Michael Tuohy uses local ingredients to make seasonal dishes like risotto with morels and fava beans ($22), grilled sturgeon with polenta and shiitake mushrooms ($25) and slow-smoked pork shoulder with turnips ($25).

Best New Restaurant, Hotel Restaurant and Place to be Seen (Sacramento Magazine, 2009 Subscribers' Choice Dining Awards, August 2009)

Chef Michael Tuohy Cooking Segment (ABC San Francisco "View from the Bay", April 2009)

Deliciously Close - Michael Tuohy (The Restaurant Standard, April / May 2009)

Home on the Grange (Sactown Magazine, February/March  2009)
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Grange - Breakfast Review (Sactown Magazine, February/March 2009) Click here »

Fresh Face for an Old Space (Sacramento Business Journal, April 2008)

Excerpt:

The hotel company spent months coming up with the name The Citizen last year, and it did that same legwork finding a theme and a name for its only Sacramento restaurant.

Restaurants make a statement about their locations, Conley said. The restaurant has to be a version of what Sacramento is all about, he said, and to get that feeling he's taking a cue from the likes of Randall Selland of Ella Dining Room and Bar and Rick Mahon of Waterboy, both with a passion for local ingredients. Grange speaks to the cooperative strength of farmers working together, and the restaurant is meant to be a celebration of the fresh ingredients of local farms, Conley said. The produce, meats, fish and wine at Grange will all be local and reflect local traditions.