No man is an island; we are all interconnected by our humanity. That
is the philosophy of Ubuntu, a belief rooted in Zulu culture that
emphasizes people's allegiances, relationships, community, sharing, and
generosity. Ubuntu, then, is an apt name for the Michelin-starred
restaurant, which aims to connect patrons with the bounty of the earth
through produce that is sustainably and biodynamically grown. Located in
downtown Napa, Ubuntu is a restaurant, yoga studio, and store, all in
one building. The dining space is quite modern and rustic with exposed
brick, wood, steel, and conduit and features a wine bar with an
expansive wine list and an open kitchen. I had the absolute pleasure of
dining at Ubuntu on my day trip to Napa two weekends ago. What sets the
restaurant apart is its all vegetable menu. All dishes are vegetarian or
nearly vegan, but what some might consider a culinary limitation
becomes limitless in the hands of executive chef Aaron London.
The saying is true that you eat with your eyes first. At Ubuntu
everything looks like it is created by an artist. As you can see by the
photographs, chef London presents food in a unique and very eye-catching
way. The stunning dishes don't just stop at looks, they taste wonderful
too. Many dishes, such as the salads, are just combinations of
different vegetables prepared simply, but with amazing flavors that
speak beyond their simplicity. It definitely has something to with the
fact that all the produce used by the restaurant is sourced locally,
much of it from the restaurant's own garden, about 10 miles outside
downtown Napa. The care that goes into the garden and the cooking
definitely shows on the plates.
My group of friends and I are very open to vegetarian concepts (with one
vegetarian and one former vegetarian among us), but with so many ho-hum
vegetarian restaurants in the world of fine dining, our bar of
expectation is almost always set at moderate at best. What we
experienced at Ubuntu blew us away. I slightly knew what to expect from
what I've heard of and read, but experiencing it oneself is another
thing entirely. I was very impressed. Just from reading the menu, you
come to realize you are in for an unparalleled dining experience. The
dishes are aimed at tantalizing the mind first, then all the senses.
We all started off our late lunch with shots of lovely green soup made
of green garlic and fava leaves. It was garnished with a pickled radish.
The soup tasted like a sip of the garden, a perfect amuse bouche to
whet the appetite. Following that were our cold dishes. First, a steam
bun stuffed with burrata cheese, the outside of which was coated in a
sunchoke crumble. Also on the plate were crispy sunchoke tostones, baby
lettuces, and mashua, which I wasn't familiar with until the server
explained that it's a root vegetable that happens to be grown in the
restaurant gardens. I've had sunchokes many times before, but this
tostones preparation was the most tasty I've had. Next we had what my
group termed the "little city" on a plate. It was a simple salad plated
in a very contemporary way. This dish was composed of Chiogga beets (the
candy-striped variety) in two preparations: cooked and dehydrated into
crisps. The "salad of sorts" featured a rectangular base of smoked blue
cheese and "bacon" avocado, basically a charred cube of avocado. The
focaccia dish consisted of a wonderfully textured bread with
apricot-almond agrodolce sauce, a salad of chard and watermelon
radishes, and truffled pecorino cheese.
We moved onto the warm dishes, which included a sumptuous fresh extruded
pasta dressed with artichokes, caramelized grapefruit, and Midnight
Moon cheese. The flavors were well-rounded, sweet, salty, and creamy.
And what followed was a very flavorful Catalan-style chickpea stew with
romesco sauce (a Spanish sauce like aioli), fried chickpea clusters, and
a poached egg in the center. The stew had a great balance between sweet
and savory and reminded me of Moroccan flavors. Both dishes were good
enough to mop up with bread and had such great flavor that I almost
forgot they were vegetarian. For someone who is a hearty meat-eater,
that is saying something.
I couldn't resist ordering all the desserts on the menu. What made the
dessert dishes so appealing was that many featured savory components
and/or vegetables. First we had a chocolate pudding with brown sugar
crumble, tarragon-citrus granita, and satsuma segments. The dessert was
refreshing and the sweetest of the bunch. I never would have thought to
pair pudding with granita, but it worked entirely well. Next came the
toffee-date cake with macadamia crumble and celeriac chips. The texture
and look of the cake reminded me of the British sticky toffee pudding,
which I imagine is what the pastry chef Carl Swanson was going for. The
flavor, however, was much less sweet than the classic dessert. But I
liked the dessert even more for that fact. The celeriac chips tasted
surprisingly good, almost with a hint of natural caramelization.
Next
was what became my favorite dessert, which was also the most intriguing
on the menu. It was the fennel pollen cake with fennel sorbet. The
sweetness of the dessert was barely there, but the fennel ice cream came
across as rich and creamy and the cake was light in texture and very
aromatic. It hinged on savory, but was not salty as one might expect
savory to be. What surrounded the cake were little balls of Fuji apples
cooked in caramel, hazelnut crumbs, and dots of orange sauce. All the
components made one glorious dessert. The cookies dessert, called
"Carl's cookies 'n milk" on the menu, were a nice whimsical touch. (It's
funny because I expected something "out there," so that the homey
presentation—of a dish of cookies and a glass of milk—came off as a
surprise.) The white chocolate cookies with lavender were tender and hot
out of the oven. They were paired with a glass of milk from Straus
Family Creamery, a dairy farm that you can find mentioned on restaurant
menus across the Bay area. The desserts in their entirety were a sweet
but not saccharine ending to a great meal.
We had a very relaxing over two-hour late-lunch at Ubuntu that day. By
the time we were ready to go, the restaurant had already cleared out and
we were the last to leave before the staff would start preparing for
the dinner rush. At the open kitchen we caught the chef just as he was
prepping blood oranges and thanked him for a wonderful meal. Just the
fact that you can get that close to the chef underlines the restaurant's
philosophy about the closeness of humanity and the importance of
getting closer to our food source. What better way to do that than
seeing the chef cooking or the farmer farming. Being able to communicate
with our food source is key to keeping a reciprocal conversation that
benefits both sides.
Not surprisingly, the work of chef Aaron London has gotten him noticed
in the food world. His sun has been steadily rising. From staging in
restaurant kitchens across the world to returning to his native northern
California to work at Ubuntu, London has done a lot for someone in his
late twenties. Just two days after my exceptional dining experience, he
was nominated for a James Beard Award for rising star chef. He'd
definitely get my vote.
Ubuntu Restaurant
1140 Main Street
Napa, CA 94559-2639
707-251-5656
Joseph Erdos is a New York–based writer and editor, butabove all a gastronomer and oenophile. He shares his passion for foodon his blog, Gastronomer's Guide , which features unique recipes and restaurant reviews among many other musings on the all-encompassing topic of food.