Agree to disagree. The willingness to concede with an eye roll and a subject change is what keeps most families together—well, that and unconditional love. But what happens when a family shares the same passion? What if instead of changing the subject, a family bands together to change their community?

Five restaurants and counting—within a year, tally seven. Not just any restaurants—arguably Sacramento’s very best dining destinations. A movement. Not just any movement—the local farm-to-fork movement, which has helped reshape the way Sacramento thinks about its identity and the health, environmental and economic impacts of our respective food choices. Social and political change happens. Our culinary landscape shapeshifts. We clean our plates and feel truly satisfied.

“Our family is in the restaurant business, but we are really a family business, making it more of a lifestyle. When it’s part of how you live, it becomes less of a job and more of a passion,” explains Randall Selland, who has been steadfastly at the helm of the farm-to-fork movement in the Sacramento area for nearly the whole of his decorated career. But let’s take a step back.

Once a commissioned stained glass artist, food became another outlet of artistic expression for Randall after meeting, marrying and having children with the lovely and talented Nancy Zimmer. The Kitchen, now a Sacramento institution, was the brainchild of a mother/daughter dream team: Nancy and Tamera. Soon, the whole family rallied behind their efforts to join the family business that echoed their innermost values and would grow to challenge our thinking about ingredients and cooking.

Randall and Nancy’s son, Josh Nelson, is now co-owner and CEO of Selland Group, and developed the logo for Sacramento’s brand identity as America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital. Their daughter, Tamera Baker, is co-owner and chief brand officer of the Selland Group. They collectively own and operate Selland’s Market-Café (Sacramento and El Dorado Hills locations), Ella, The Kitchen, and now, OBO’—a top-notch Italian establishment in East Sacramento.

OBO’ is named after Josh’s son, Owen; Tamera’s kids, Ella and Jackson nicknamed him Obo. The Selland family wanted to create an Italian restaurant and menu that draws inspiration from the simple, nourishing flavors and seasonal cooking traditions of rustic Italy, in a casual atmosphere that is accessible to all. Speaking of accessibility, you can’t beat the pricing for the quality of food that is being served up at OBO’.

Inspired by many trips to Italy over the years, chef owner Nancy Zimmer spiritedly developed the OBO’ menu. “While the menu is made up of Italian dishes, it also features many local flavors including dishes such as the market veg pasta, market veg pizza, market veg focaccia, market veg melt, market veg and fresh mozzarella sandwich and roasted market vegetables. We butcher our own meats and make our own pancetta in-house as well,” she says. “Our pastas and pizza dough are also made in-house. OBO’ desserts are made fresh daily by our in-house bakery and delivered each day to the restaurant. We also make our own Amaro, featured in the OBO’ Amaro Cocktail!” All of their restaurants, including OBO’, are well-stocked with weekly farmers market trips and locally sourced ingredients. They even collaborated with New Glory Brewery to create an OBO’ Lemon Saison.

Tamera Baker led and managed the interior design process and creative direction for the brand identity. The design came from the inspiration of a midcentury Mediterranean, warm coastal feel. The bright and airy atmosphere echoes with conversation, a pizza paddle chandelier fills the center of the room, exposed brick and robin’s egg blue paint balance warm and cool tones. Inside OBO’, the vibe is casual, yet good design is in the details. Outside, an expansive patio circumnavigates the round building shape that once housed Andiamo and Good Eats. An eclectic staff is quick to help patrons—hot orders are taken on tablets by servers while a large deli case filled with a la carte side dishes beckons.

I went with my trusty team of foodie friends to maximize how many things I could try, because I pretty much wanted to try everything on the menu (guess I’ll have to return again and again!). We ordered a bottle of Meme Chianti, which was spicy sweet and affordably priced, and a Ferrari from the bar program. The ‘Rari is comprised of Campari, aged Luxardo black cherries and lemon zest, and is served chilled. It was a REALLY delicious cocktail. Soon enough, the plates started trickling out of the kitchen as they were ready.

All of the housemade pasta is cooked perfectly al dente. The tagliatelle with poached egg was citrusy, creamy, tangy and a bit sour, mixed with prosciutto and chives. The mac and cheese was chewy, mealy with lots of bread crumbs, super sharp and creamy. My favorite dish of the evening, the rigatoni Bolognese, was loaded with beef and pork, covered in shredded parmesan and parsley and doused with a delightfully oozy, melty red sauce that was sweet, sharp, tart and savory. Vegans! They will also accommodate you upon request, and our vegan photographer, Evan, ordered vegan pasta which was a cornucopia of farmers market finds.

Oh, I’m not done yet. We also ordered a couple sides from the case. The romaine heart was a wedge salad topped with gorgonzola, green onion and a creamy lemon parmesan dressing. The texture and flavor were wonderful—crispy, fresh, pungent, earthy and sour. The chili broccoli, slightly steamed and bright green, was spicy, savory and crunchy. The market veg pizza, topped with ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheese and a tangy, sweet housemade marinara, was a vivid display of seasonal veggies that included green onion, chili, zucchini, caramelized onions, heirloom tomatoes, and summer squash—all atop a perfectly executed, buttery, thin crust. Wash that all down with the best meatball sandwich I’ve ever sunk my teeth into, and I walked out of that place happily stuffed. The best part of all is that each hot menu item costs only about $10.

The Selland Family is currently working on the development of a third Selland’s Market-Café located on Broadway in Sacramento, as well as at the new sports entertainment complex, The Golden 1 Center. Selland’s Market-Café on Broadway is tentatively scheduled to open early next year, in 2017. I’m pretty stoked on this, since their original location deep in East Sac is pretty far off my beaten path albeit always worth the trek.

Selland family values go beyond supporting local farmers. “A core value of the Selland family is the appreciation of our community and a desire to give back. We have focused much of our philanthropy on public schools in our neighborhood as well as food literacy education for children, including The School Garden at Phoebe Hearst Elementary School in East Sacramento and The Food Literacy Center, also in Sacramento,” says Sheryl Trapani, Marketing Director for Selland Family Restaurants.

She continues, “Randall Selland has been successful in lobbying local and state legislators on the benefits of locally grown organic food and sustainability. In 2008, he received an award from the nonprofit Pesticide Watch for being instrumental in overturning the law that made it illegal for restaurants to shop farmers markets in California. In 2015 Selland Family Restaurants received the Clean Air Award from Breathe California in the leadership category for the zero waste pilot program at our restaurants.”

What are the greatest joys in life? It’s a bit different for everyone, but I would wager that universally, among them, are: family, giving back to your community, and good food. In everything we tried at OBO’, you could taste joy in every bite.

OBO’ Italian Table and Bar is located at 3145 Folsom Blvd. in Sacramento. For more info, go to Oboitalian.com or Facebook.com/oboitalian.

Sacramento’s First Farm-to-Fork Week Takes Root

Sacramento has long struggled with its reputation as a cow town. But with foodies the world over regarding our city as a culinary epicenter because of its proximity to rich harvests and ranches and its multitude of highly rated restaurants, Sacramento has decided to embrace its agricultural ties and plant its cow town flag proudly in the soil by proclaiming itself America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital and hosting its first-ever Farm-to-Fork week.

The festivities organized by the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau involved large-scale events. The week kicked off Sept. 23, 2013 with the Cattle Drive from the Tower Bridge up J Street, followed by Legends of Wine on Sept. 26 featuring local wines handpicked and poured by internationally recognized culinary experts Daryl Corti and David Berkley on the west steps of the Capitol building. The Farm-to-Fork Festival on Capitol Mall followed on Sept. 28, and the event culminated in the Tower Bridge Dinner on Sunday, Sept. 29. Additionally, restaurants all over town hosted their own farm-to-fork showcase events.

This was no easy undertaking, but well worth the effort, said Sonya Bradley, Chief Marketing Officer for the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“For the farmers, ranchers, food producers, chefs and restaurants, it’s their livelihood,” she says. “While our role as a sales and marketing organization is to give this movement some context and push it to the forefront so that one day saying, ‘America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital’ becomes as natural as saying, ‘Sacramento Kings.’”

On a picture-perfect Saturday in late September along Capitol Mall, with views of the Capitol and Tower Bridge flanking the rows of booths and food trucks, the Farm-to-Fork Festival was in full swing. Among the neatly lined-up booths were California Restaurant Association, Lucky Dog Ranch, Del Rio Botanical, Passmore Ranch, Full Belly Farm, Nugget Market, Save Mart (yes, they source local produce, too!), and the Dairy Council of California, who showed up equipped with a mobile dairy classroom.

Among a sea of marketing materials promoting local businesses, Downtowngrid’s booth also handed out a flyer listing all the farmers’ markets in Sacramento. There is at least one farmers’ market cropping up somewhere nearby every day of the week, making it easy for people to buy local, seasonal food directly from farmers and other vendors who produce food within the proverbial stone’s throw. I wondered: did cities elsewhere in the country have as many proximal farms and farmers’ markets available to conscientious consumers?

Josh Nelson, whose stepfather is Randall Selland, owner of The Kitchen, Selland’s Market Café and Ella Dining Room and Bar, says that Sacramento has been America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital long prior to its recent self-proclamation.

Since opening The Kitchen 22 years ago, they’ve always shopped at the farmers’ markets for the ingredients used to create their menu. They weren’t philosophically locavores initially, but he explains that our region’s best-tasting food comes from the farmers’ market due to its freshness. Sacramento is centered within the largest piece of Class 1 soil in the world, in a longitudinal belt running in California from Bakersfield to Redding, while also being uniquely positioned surrounding two rivers. For this reason, he feels that we’re just inherently the capital of farm-to-fork fare.

He believed that to declare Sacramento as such, officially, would cause outsiders to connote Sacramento with world-class dining, while also inspiring its residents.

“Food and agriculture is what we are. The health and environmental benefits of eating locally grown food are now being nationally recognized,” he says, making this a strategic time to make the claim.

Feeling strongly that to tout Sacramento as America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital would promote the region and the already-popular concept in a positive way, the Selland family spent their time, money and resources to create the America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital logo and secure the handles on various social media outlets and the Web address (Farmtoforkcapital.com), wrote the resolution, and with the help of Patrick Mulvaney of Mulvaney’s B&L in the final meeting, pitched the idea to the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau and Mayor Kevin Johnson about one year ago.

They don’t think they deserve full credit for this endeavor by any means, though.

“What makes [the movement] special is that it’s not a single effort— it doesn’t work if it’s one person, one voice, one restaurant,” Nelson explains.

It’s clear the community has shown its support. If you look at the success of the Tower Bridge Dinner—whose tickets sold out by 3:30 p.m. the day they went on sale—or the fact that 25,000 people attended the Farm-to-Fork Festival on Sept. 28, it is obvious that this initiative has an army of locavores backing it.

According to Nelson, becoming America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital isn’t the flip of a switch, it’s an endless walk down an arduous path that involves not just marketing and politics, but grassroots participation. But thanks to the reinforcement of the local government and the SCVB, the platform is in place for the hardworking community to continue to roll out the initiative, the benefits of which are both social and economic.

“It isn’t all about the festival,” he says. “It’s just one week that is part of a year-round effort, and the festival is to celebrate the region.” Sonya Bradley agrees.

“[Farm-to-Fork Week] allows us to tell a very real and authentic Sacramento story,” she says. “This region was built on agriculture—just drive 20 minutes south to the Delta and see the rows upon rows of pear orchards, or north along I-5 and see the acres of rice fields… It’s such an integral part of our heritage.”

All Photos Courtesy of the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau

Sacramento Restaurant Receives National Recognition

The Kitchen Restaurant – 2225 Hurley Way, Sacramento

Words by Adam Saake – Photos by Nicholas Wray

Twenty-five years ago, the James Beard Foundation began honoring those in the food and beverage world who were working at a level of excellence. Beard was a highly regarded chef, author and personality whose career spanned over five decades. His passion for cuisine of all different cultures and styles is the spirit and backbone of the foundation’s scholarship program and awards process. Called the “Oscars of the food world” by Time Magazine, The James Beard Foundation Awards recognize cookbook writers and food journalists, TV personalities and photographers, chefs and restaurateurs. Some of the awards celebrate the new and most recent; but other more prestigious awards, like the Outstanding Restaurant Award, require years of consistent quality and service before even being considered. The James Beard website describes the Outstanding Restaurant award as, “A restaurant in the United States that serves as a national standard-bearer for consistent quality and excellence in food, atmosphere and service. Candidates must have been in operation for at least 10 or more consecutive years.” So when Sacramento’s own The Kitchen Restaurant was nominated as one of 20 of the nation’s most outstanding restaurants, the news brought surprise and shock to the Selland Family Restaurant Group.

“We were blown away by the whole thing,” says The Kitchen owner and Executive Chef Randall Selland. “If you look at the list of restaurants, it’s just phenomenal.”

The nomination alone is sort of like an award itself, considering the weight that a JBF Award carries. It came unsolicited as well, which means that JBF found them through the hundreds of restaurants all across the nation to be considered.

“We didn’t lobby for it, we didn’t know. It was more of a surprise to us than anything else,” says Selland. “It’s not the award part of it, it’s the recognition. I’m excited to no end that we got this nomination.”

But it really is no surprise that The Kitchen be considered for this prestigious award. The kind of experience offered to guests during the one-seat-per-night dinners is truly of the highest caliber and is sought out and enjoyed by diners searching for the best. It is a spectacle; a show with a cast of characters who throughout the night take the stage to present their course like a ringmaster describing the perils of the lion tamer and trapeze artists. Watch as it all happens right before your eyes! The ringmaster is most certainly Chef de Cuisine, Noah Zonca. Zonca is a showman, a personality and most importantly a talent. When he talks to the crowd, he holds them in his hand, and when he personally addresses you, you feel important in the moment. He prepares visually dazzling courses right before your eyes, often bringing members of the crowd up to hold the pan as it flames up into the hood. He laces the night with humor, making guests feel warm and comfortable at the same time he commands his young staff, ensuring that each course is properly executed.

At the beginning of each dinner, doors open at 6:30 p.m. as a brand new group of elated guests spill into the main dining area. They’re immediately greeted by the impeccable Kitchen manager Eric Philbin, jackets carefully removed, purse hooks pointed out and seats shown. From the second they arrive, they’re pampered in a true professional fashion. The busy dining room fills with chatter, quiet laughter and the encouraged nosiness. One of the chefs stands main stage, preparing a sushi roll filled with yellow tail. “Come on up if you like,” he says to a group of bystanders. They step up into the kitchen and approach as he begins explaining the ingredients, their provenance and flavors. This is a show, but it’s transparent with no curtains. What you see is where it all happens and that is why The Kitchen has become a premier dining experience in not only Sacramento but in the country. It’s all about making the guest feel comfortable, giving them what they’ll enjoy and showing them a good time. And they do it well. Don’t like the first course? They’ll make you something else. Feeling like dessert first? Coming right up.

The main attraction is the food, of course, and Selland, Chef Nancy Zimmer and Zonca construct plates and flavors that are inspiring to look at and enjoy. With the colors and combinations of ingredients, conjuring styles of French technique woven with Thai and Japanese influences, their New American cuisine is the finest of dining in the most accessible way. This is how Selland prefers his plates to be.

“I get people to come in, and they feel a bit uncomfortable because they read the menu and they’re more meat and potatoes. Then they find out we’ll give them whatever they want and also, the menu reads a certain way but then when they get the food, the food’s always approachable,” says Selland.

The opening dish for their March menu, called Act II, which followed Zonca’s in-depth description of what guests would be enjoying and how it would be prepared, was a show stopper right from the get-go. A Maine lobster “black” carbonara with crispy lardo, tarragon and a luscious quenelle of Parmesan–a dish whose mere remembrance of makes my mouth salivate. Each course that followed had some peppering of distant cuisines, something that Selland and Zimmer pride themselves on from their past travels to countries like Mexico and Turkey where they found big inspiration in small corners.

“We get more inspiration from the taco cart or the hero sandwich in Turkey, or the little mom and pop place somewhere,” says Selland.

Act III, the second plate, certainly tasted of Thailand with a soup of lacquered pork belly, coconut milk, Kaffir lime, chilled vegetables, chilies and coriander. It reminded me of a light, more citrus-y curry broth with the coconut milk and Kaffir lime really shining through and playing nicely off the fatty pork belly. What followed was Intermission, hardly cookies and coffee, but an elaborate array of sashimi, sushi rolls, freshly ground wasabi root and other light appetizers. Guests meandered around the restaurant, snacking with their wooden chop sticks and poking their heads around the wine cellar and back of the kitchen.

Selland describes the early years of The Kitchen: the restaurant was based off of a concept and it was his and his wife’s side gig. He put every bit of free time into it, cooking at The Kitchen on his only day off during the week.

“When we started The Kitchen, it was a once a month deal, basically trying to drag people off the street, beg friends to go,” says Selland candidly.

It slowly started to come to fruition and what started out as once month turned into once a week, then three times a week. The beginnings were simple; $35 a head and guests would bring their own wine. The original concept was a lot like how it is today, minus the price tag, which has gone up considerably over the years.

“The same thing we do now; it’s social interaction. You get to interact with the people cooking your food,” says Selland.

What is most endearing about The Kitchen is its uncompromising commitment to excellent service. Selland and Zimmer wanted to service the guests and make food for them that they would enjoy and walk away feeling good about. Not scratching their heads wondering what exactly they just ate or feeling like the reason they didn’t like their meal was because there was something wrong with them.

“We don’t care that you didn’t like it. I’ve been to restaurants where I’ve had the waiter say, ‘Well I’m sorry sir, but that’s how the chef cooks it.’ I don’t care about that,” says Selland with passion in his voice. “Here if I cook it perfect for someone and they don’t like it, my question to them is not, it’s supposed to be like this, it’s a matter of what did you not like about it and let me prepare something different for you that hopefully you will like.” As the last course approached–a grilled natural veal, perfectly pink that Zonca sliced himself–two, four, six cooks appeared one by one behind the line, mixing and changing places with plates and duties, Zonca calling out assignments of where to be, what time and dietary restraints. Each cook was listening, interpreting, reacting to each instruction. It’s a rare opportunity to see all the working parts of a kitchen all happening at once to bring you the plate that will sit before you. The drama that unfolds on a nightly basis at The Kitchen, a Sacramento destination restaurant that sits quietly behind an ivy-covered retaining wall, hidden, is what landed them a JBF Awards nomination.

The finalists were narrowed down from 20 to five this past Monday, March 19, 2012 and The Kitchen did not make the cut. But there should be little disappointment, because the JBF nomination has only sparked more excitement for fans of The Kitchen and will certainly generate more excitement for those yet to experience an evening with Zonca and crew.