What’s old is new again, right? This must explain why one of the biggest trends right now in restaurant openings is one of the most primitive forms of cooking: the wood-fired grill.
I guess in an age of culinary over-stimulation, chefs want to get back to basics, which is why wood-burning ovens are having a moment.
New restaurants built around wood-fire cooking include Stapleton’s Italian ; Union Station’s ; Troy Guard’s forthcoming Highland eatery, ; The Kitchen group’s Cherry Creek restaurant, ; and Citizen Rail, which opens later this summer in the Union Station neighborhood.
Outside of the microcosm of Denver, half of the James Beard Best New Restaurant finalists in 2016 . So why are chefs so stoked about wood-burning ovens?
“Our goal is to add flavor at every corner,” Citizen Rail’s Chef Christian Graves said of wood-fired appeal. “Wood offers that ability through controlled cooking and wood flavor.”
Because the only thing better than one wood-fired grill is two, Graves will be doubling down on the trend and using two different varieties of wood to power his ovens to achieve two different flavors. One grill will feature mesquite and hickory for heavier tastes, while another will be fired with oak and fruit woods for more delicate flavors.
Cattivella’s Chef Elise Wiggins is just as fired up about fire.
“I think wood-fired grills and ovens are an extension of doing everything that is old-world in practice,” Wiggins said. “Once the age of electric equipment came out, people lost the art of knowing how to really cook with a live fire. In my opinion, you are a better cook if you can feel the temperature of what you are cooking.”
Just like produce has gone old-school with the farm-to-table explosion of recent years, it was about time that good old-fashioned cooking went, well, old-fashioned.
“I think it (wood) adds soul to the food,” Graves said. “It’s why I started cooking.”
