07 Apr These Chefs Love Their Urban Cultivators
You’ve heard from our Urban Cultivator Residential customers. The UC-R can grow up to four flats of fresh and health greens, and is perfect for the home kitchen.
Many of our customers, though, are comprised of restaurants, and our chefs love their Urban Cultivator Commercial units.
The UC-C has the ability to grow 16 flats of microgreens, vegetables, and herbs, and it shows the restaurants’ commitment to sustainability and freshness.
Check out what some of our chef customers have to say about their Urban Cultivator Commercial units below!
*All photos were provided by Anthony Kucera of Lake View Grand
Jason Rambas, St. James’ Gate Irish Pub
“Our favorite thing would have to be basil because of it flavor and aroma. We are actually using a mix of microgreens on all of plates in all three of our restaurants. [The restaurant gets] a lot of reaction to our Cultivator because we put it at the entrance of the restaurant and time it so the lights are on while we are open. People usually stop to take a look to see whats growing and are pretty amazed.
Our customers and staff enjoy the extra freshness that the Cultivator provides us, when everything else is usually shipped in from else where.”
Nick Cassetteri, Alta Bistro
“My favorite thing to grow in the Cultivator is buckwheat sprouts. They start out as a rather ugly seed and after about three weeks they finish little flowers.
A signature dish that we have that uses a herb from the Cultivator is a dessert that we put on in the spring. We call it a semifreddo. It is composed of lemon curd, rhubarb compote, pistachio daquaise, freeze dried raspberries, lemon balm, vanilla semifreddo and Italian meringue. We serve it in a jar and top it off with the meringue and burn the meringue with a blow torch. Super tasty! The lemon balm really sparks up the lemon flavor in the dessert.
Our staff are really interested in our Cultivator! They love to talk about it with our guests. I have a guy in my kitchen team “Pierre Charles” he has really taken a liking to the machine and tends to it every day. The machine has brought us closer to the food we eat. We grow our own food and we are very proud of that!”
Anthony Kucera, Lake View Grand
“Currently I have a few favorites to grow in the Cultivator. I’ve been having great success growing Dwarf Sugar Peas, Sugar Lace Peas, Red Rambo Radish and Ruby Streaks Mustard. We use our greens on about 90% of our menu items but I would say our signature dish using the micros is a Porcini and blueberry cavena risotto with seared Berkshire pork belly, pea shoots, and crackling.
Our customers love the Cultivator! We have it set up as a great show piece in our dining room. So many people are truly intrigued by the concept of growing our own greens in house and the fact of how fresh the greens are and how much flavor the micros have. The staff love the cultivator as well, and I have been privileged to have a hydroponic background, so running and maintaining the machine is a snap for me. But I have several staff members that have taken great interest and after a decent explanation and demonstrations they find it fairly easy to use.”
Tim Charles, Fogo Island Inn
“We have experimented with many seeds but so far have mostly used; cabbage, mustard, arugula, pea, beet, radish. We have chosen them as they are common elements in our cooking. [Our restaurant does] not have too many signature dishes as we offer a tasting menu which changes daily. That being said, in almost any dish you may find something that we were able to grow in our Urban Cultivator.
The new staff are always a little blown away that we have such a great tool in our quiver. We wanted to be able to have access to high quality product and given our location on an island off and island in the North Atlantic where ice will often stop our ferries we can not depend on our purveyors to deliver so we have to depend on our Urban Cultivator.”
Urban Cultivator not only helps restaurants get the best and freshest food possible, but their spectacular design also makes them an impressive showpiece that customers love.
Do you have a UC-C at your restaurant? What do you like to grow in it?
Let us know in the comments section!