Renowned chef brings Slow Food movement to Ridgefield

You don’t expect to find a nationally recognized, award-winning chef – a leader of the hip Slow Food movement – in a strip mall off the interstate. But that’s exactly what you get at Ridgefield’s newest eatery, Fuel Bistro & Wine.

Located less than a mile from the I-5 Ridgefield exit, in a commercial development that also boasts a Subway shop and Papa Pete’s Pizza, Fuel Bistro celebrated its grand opening on April 16.

The new eatery is stocked with surprises – the extensive wine selection; the best-of-the-best stemware; the local, artisanal meat and cheese boards; the salads with their heirloom apples, farmstead goat cheese crumbles, local wildflower bee pollen and mess of fresh, organic greens; and the “soups of yesterday” featuring ingredients such as elk, smoked jalapenos and locally foraged, wild fennel. Of course, the biggest surprise is Chef Sebastian Carosi himself.

At 41, Carosi has already made a name for himself on both coasts. A Providence, Rhode Island native, Carosi trained at Portland’s Western Culinary Institute in the early ‘90s, apprenticed with renowned chefs in Italy and went on to lead the Farm 2 Fork movement in New England and the mid-Atlantic states. His credits include Washington’s historic Shelburne Inn, the oldest continuously operated inn and restaurant in the state; the upscale Timbers restaurant at Vermont’s all-seasons Sugarbush resort; the New England Farm 2 Fork Project; the Blackbird restaurant in Oregon’s Willamette Valley; the historic Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire; and, most recently, the Muddy Waters bar in downtown Vancouver.

If it seems like Carosi’s been all over the place, that’s because he has. When you meet him in person, you get the feeling that this chef doesn’t ever slow down. His love of all things local, artisanal and naturally grown is apparent. On his cell phone, there are hundreds of photos showing Carosi’s travels to farms, wineries and mushroom-foraging spots throughout the Pacific Northwest.

When he’s not opening a new restaurant, foraging for mushrooms and nettles in the forest – something he likes to do with his wife, Hannah, and their 5-month-old daughter, Gianni – or writing about his food and alcohol finds on his blog, chefsebastiancarosi.blogspot.com, Carosi is traveling the country to educate others about Slow Food, Farm 2 Fork and other traditional ways of growing and feeding people.

In 2011, the prestigious Monticello Foundation, which preserves Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate, invited Carosi to give a demonstration on using heritage hogs in the modern kitchen at the foundation’s annual Heritage Harvest Festival.

In person, Carosi is exploding with energy and enthusiasm for his craft. He can talk at length about the foods he’s foraged in nearby forests and the vast array of local – and by “local” he means Oregon and Washington – farmers, cheesemakers and heirloom meat ranchers. Asked why he’s bounced around so much, Carosi gets serious.

“It’s the only way to do it,” he says. “You can’t say you understand chilis if you’ve just driven through the Southwest. You have to live in an area ... get to know what’s grown here ... to really understand it.”

A firm believer that, “what grows together, goes together,” Carosi tries to only pair ingredients that would grow naturally in the same area. In other words, you won’t find chunks of mangoes in his dishes featuring Pacific Northwest foods.

“There are no seasons in an American grocery store, so people don’t know what ‘in season’ even means,” Carosi says. “I want to help educate them.”

Although Fuel Bistro is much smaller than Carosi’s former projects – a former cafe, the bistro has a tiny kitchen and isn’t equipped to handle anything more than salads, soups, sandwiches and smaller plates – the Portland-based chef says he’s attracted to Ridgefield for a variety of reasons. First of all, with an infant at home, Carosi is ready to settle down for a while.

“I was living a high-profile life, but that’s not what makes me happy anymore,” Carosi says. “Here, I can come in, meet people, train the staff, and I’m out by 2 every afternoon, so I have the rest of the day to spend with my family.”

And Carosi sees potential in Ridgefield: The town’s national wildlife refuge is a natural tourist attraction, there are several small farms in the regions that specialize in heirloom veggies and heritage meats and Ridgefield’s growing winery scene appeals to Carosi. In his dreams, he imagines moving his family to the area and opening a small, natural grocery store in Ridgefield.

For now, though, Carosi is dedicated to giving Ridgefield some street cred with foodies from nearby cities. Among his offerings at Fuel Bistro:

Small Plates

• Garden grown radishes with Netarts Bay sea salt, whipped creamery butter and a drizzle of piquant, local olive oil

• Burrata cheese with local cabernet and oak-aged vinegar, candied garlic and warm, crusty bread

Soup

• Northwest elk chili with Yakima Valley elk, Walla Walla onions, smoked jalapenos, kidney beans, organic tomatoes and secret spices

Salads

• The Freshest Mess is a sass of organic greens, strawberries, Rogue Creamery blue cheese crumbles, toasted filberts, local wildflower bee pollen and a lemon vinaigrette

• The Treehugger includes baby kale, organic raisins, heirloom apples, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, Freddy Guy’s hazelnuts from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, toasted quinoa, sundried cranberries from Sixes, OR, and farmstead goat cheese crumbles in a switchel vinaigrette

Sandwiches

• Lewis + Clark includes shaved smokehouse pit ham, double creme brie cheese, apples from Hood River, black pepper maple mayonnaise and arugula on crusty peasant bread

• The Hit Man is a blend of Italian cold cuts, mortadella and capicolla, Mama ‘Lils peppers from the Yakima Valley, fresh mozzarella, crushed basil mayonnaise, arugula and vine-ripe tomato on crusty peasant bread

Fuel Bistro & Wine is owned by Ridgefield businesswoman Suzie Pietz and offers an extensive selection of wine – Carosi’s wine flight includes two Washington wines, a 2013 Dusted Valley Vintners chardonnay and a 2013 Six Prong cabernet sauvignon as well as a 2012 Stoller Family Estate pinot noir from Oregon.

The bistro is located at 109 S. 65th Ave., suite 108, in Ridgefield, and is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., every day. For more information, visit www.fuelbistroandwine.com, email info@fuelbistroandwine.com, or call (360) 727-3759.

To read more about Chef Sebastian Carosi’s take on the Slow Food and Farm 2 Fork culinary movements, visit his blog at chefsebastiancarosi.blogspot.com.