Producing 8% of the U.S. food supply, our state’s agricultural roots make it easy for chefs to connect with farmers and create menus packed with locally sourced ingredients. These innovative and award-winning chefs are putting Iowa on the map as a culinary destination and doing so with products grown right in their backyard.
Jessica Baldus
TASTE
Jessica developed a love for food at an early age after a childhood watching her parents run a restaurant and enjoying meals made with produce grown on their small acreage. While attending Des Moines Area Community College’s nationally accredited Culinary Arts program, she began baking her dad’s cheesecake recipe to sell to local restaurants – an endeavor that eventually turned into a small business.
Following a short stint running a dessert shop in Des Moines, Jessica moved back to her hometown of Osage (30 miles northeast of Mason City). There, she created four businesses, connecting with dozens of local farmers along the way to show off their products.
The Bakery expanded her original cheesecake operation; Piggyback Smoke Shack is a “ghost kitchen” that serves pop-ups and stationary food truck-style dishes; Taste is a full-service restaurant that also acts as her culinary playground where she hosts chef’s tables and monthly progressive dinners; and the Market offers an “eat local” shop that sells the locally sourced produce, herbs and meat used for Piggyback’s and Taste’s menus, plus a daily selection of grab-and-go individual and family-style meals.
“I’m very passionate about farm-to-table, farm-to-fork, just for the sense that I know our farmers. The farmers that I’m working with daily, I know them by name, I know their legacy. I’ve visited their farms, and I think there’s so much to say about knowing that when my guests are walking in and supporting me, they’re also supporting our farmers and our community in a larger sense.”
Kevin Scharpf
BRAZEN OPEN KITCHEN | BAR
Along the Mississippi River, Kevin is using his national fame to elevate Dubuque’s (and Iowa’s) culinary and farm-to-table scene. Originally from Illinois, Kevin completed his culinary arts degree in Minnesota, before heading to New York City to work at the acclaimed Restaurant Daniel. He returned to the Midwest to marry his high school sweetheart and landed a job as the executive chef at Iowa’s Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque.
Along the way, he built quite the reputation. Kevin won the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s Taste of Elegance competition, competed on season 16 of Bravo’s “Top Chef” and was named one of Full-Service Restaurant magazine’s “40 under 40 Food and Beverage Professionals on the Rise.”
When Kevin decided it was time lead his own kitchen, he opened Brazen Open Kitchen | Bar in 2015. Its reputation was boosted when he was named a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for “Best Chef: Midwest.” Today, Brazen is recognized as one of the best farm-to-table restaurants and elevated dining experiences in Iowa with a focus on merging fresh, locally sourced ingredients with modern culinary techniques. Its kitchen doesn’t even have freezers – fresh meats and produce are delivered from local farms daily.
“With Iowa being one of the leading ag states in the country, farm-to-table represents an idea of bridging a gap,” Kevin said. “We already have amazing resources for farming, so it makes Iowa a perfect place to show how you can build stronger communities and local economy through farm to table.”
Aaron Holt
CATERING BY DOOLITTLE FARM
Aaron knows all too well the power of food in creating community. He’s a true expert when it comes to growing, cooking and eating good food and bringing people together to do so. Though he briefly attended school to be an architect, he changed paths by re-entering the restaurant industry as a self-taught chef. He worked at various restaurants in the Des Moines area before setting off in search of a more creative outlet to show off his skills.
After landing a contracted job preparing a four-course, farm-to-table dinner for the venue Open Door in Iowa Falls, Aaron began cooking for similar dinners throughout the state. Along the way, he connected with local farmers for the freshest ingredients, a process that paralleled his childhood memories of cooking made-from-scratch meals with ingredients from his mom’s garden.
Today, Aaron operates a catering business and works as a personal/private chef from his family’s 1905 century farm in Story City (14 miles north of Ames), where he grows produce to support his farm-to-table menus.
“Bringing this kind of good food and local produce to small Iowa towns… and putting it in a beautiful setting, just adds to the value and appeal,” Aaron said. “And I want to bring that value to our family farm. My mom was floored by the fact that I wanted to keep the land, but I decided that’s where I want to set my roots.”
Joel Mahr
PRIMROSE
Joel’s journey as a chef led him from training in Omaha, Nebraska, and cooking a special dinner at the James Beard House in New York to embracing his wife Jill Fulton’s roots in small town Iowa. As the co-owners of Primrose restaurant in Corning, the couple has proudly created what they like to call “city dining in a small town.”
While training as a chef, Joel and Jill paid frequent visits to Jill’s family’s farm near Corning, and helped her parents sell produce at their farmers’ market stand. When a historic building went up for sale on Corning’s Main Street, the couple jumped at the opportunity to pursue their dream of opening a farm-to-table restaurant and bringing an elevated dining experience to the rural community.
Despite being denied loans by several doubtful banks, one finally gave them the chance they needed, and it didn’t take long to prove the others wrong. After extensively renovating the 100-year-old building, Primrose opened in 2018 and served 95 tables on its first day, running out of food within two hours of unlocking the doors.
Today, Primrose is recognized as one of the best restaurants in the state. The menu changes weekly to highlight in-season produce from the Fultons’ garden and other locally sourced ingredients. While Joel works his magic in the open kitchen, Jill works as the mixologist behind the bar.
“I feel like [Corning] picked us, we didn’t really pick them,” Joel said. “Coming back here throughout the years and working in the garden gives me good mental clarity. It’s quiet and peaceful and serene. Now, it helps me come up with menu ideas and specials. The garden can write the menu and I’m just the technician that puts it together.”
