In May 2016, The Kitchen celebrates 25 years. What a milestone! It’s humbling, awesome, and a bit overwhelming to look back on, now having spent a quarter of a century as a family business here in our hometown of Sacramento. We are, from the bottom of our hearts, sincerely grateful to our guests, many of […]

“Fiddlehead” ferns are the tightly furled fronds of the fern plant and are a wild edible found across much of Northern California in the springtime. They are another telltale sign of the season that we can’t let pass by without including on a menu. Called “fiddlehead” due to their resemblance to the curved handle of […]

Nothing says springtime luxury quite like the morel mushroom. A favorite ingredient among chefs the world over, morels pop up all around Northern California from March to May. We love these flavorful fungi, and we always include them on at least one of our springtime menus at The Kitchen. Morels are small and conical, possessing […]

Globe artichokes are a perennial vegetable in the thistle group of the sunflower family. An artichoke plant can cover about six feet in diameter and grow three to four feet tall, and the “vegetable” part that we eat is actually the plant’s flower bud. Everyone enjoys boiling or steaming these beauties and enjoying the leaves […]

We like to think of bright, fresh spring garlic as the harbinger of spring. The very earliest and first-growing part of the garlic plant, it is harvested while the plant is still immature. Spring garlic can best be thought of as baby garlic. It looks a bit like a scallion or leak with its long […]

Stinging nettles grow like a weed in the wet woods and countrysides of Northern California, perhaps so prolific because the sting wards off would-be predators. They are best when gathered early in the season, from February to mid-April. Our friend and forager extraordinaire Connie Green of Napa’s Wine Forrest Mushrooms often sources them for us […]

Don’t let the plain packaging fool you. The rather homely sunchoke is actually a mighty fine tasting tuber with a slightly sweet and nutty artichoke flavor and a texture similar to a fingerling potato, making it perfect for many preparations in the kitchen. A member of the sunflower family, the sunchoke is a tuber native […]

Endive are so special that they are grown twice. Though they were originally discovered by accident, they are truly a labor of love to farm and produce. The world’s largest producer of endive, Rich Collins of California Endive, happens to be right in our backyard of Rio Vista, California. The cool weather crop is part […]

Delicate salt-cured eggs from sturgeon make up one of the finest and oldest delicacies in the world… caviar. Since the 13th century, caviar has been an item associated with luxury and opulence. On the second course of the February menu at The Kitchen, you can relish in luxury with locally harvested caviar from our friends […]

Although winter can be the dreariest season, it brings gifts of vibrant citrus in a variety of colors, sizes and flavors. One of our most beloved citrus fruits of the season is the wonderfully aromatic Meyer lemon. Native to China as an ornamental tree, the Meyer lemon was brought to the US in 1908 as […]

As Californians, and especially Sacramentans, we relish in the fact that some of the best produce in the world comes from our home state and our local region. We proudly trail blaze the farm-to-fork movement and appreciate the incredibly fresh ingredients at our fingertips. However, there are many people in California, across the nation and […]

Truffles are undoubtedly one of the most celebrated ingredients in the culinary world. They are revered for their distinctive flavor, scarcity, opulence and can transform a dish into an extraordinary experience. Two of the most highly esteemed truffle varieties are the black Perigord and white Alba. First, we meet winter black truffles, which are often […]