Armed with a lengthy culinary background and a popular roadhouse setting on the rugged North Coast cliffs, chef Tim Edmonds is winning praise from local foodies and visitors alike. His freshly conceived menu at the Davenport Roadhouse showcases bright flavors in all the major food groups. But the Rocky Mountain native does have his favorite foods.
“I like cooking fish the most,” he admits. Why? “Because it’s so immediate—you have to be fast and precise.”
Edmonds is able to translate his particular fondness for fish cookery into some of the best-tasting fish entrees on the Central Coast. A recent order of steelhead salmon, for example, paired Edmonds’ expert roasting touch with his commitment to fresh, local ingredients. Skin delicately crisped, the fish arrived accompanied by fingerling potatoes and sauteed late-harvest chicories. Earlier in the summer, Edmonds was building deeply flavored vertical creations with roasted local halibut on a bed of favas and lemon spaetzle. The dish was strewn with capers and topped with slender spears of asparagus. This attractive pairing of vegetables of the season with carefully executed fresh seafood is an Edmonds signature.
Originally from Colorado, Edmonds learned a lot of his culinary tricks in Chicago, much of it working with legendary Midwestern chef Steve Chiappetti, now at the helm of Viand. “He gave me my foundation,” says Edmonds.
Having gone to college at Grinnell in Iowa, Edmonds naturally gravitated toward the Windy City and its large population of top urban eateries. From there he traveled to Boston and Connecticut, perfecting classic French technique. Back in Chicago, he worked at the Peninsula Hotel’s Shanghai Terrace, then migrated back to the East Coast in what seems to be the typical vision quest for emerging young chefs: study, cook, travel, cook some more.
After another stint in New England, Edmonds cooked in Spain for a year, then came out West. When he arrived in Santa Cruz a few years ago, he soon found a place in the Cellar Door exhibition kitchen with founding chef Charlie Parker. He made the jump to Davenport, and the Roadhouse, a little over a year ago.
Edmonds is especially pleased with the organizational changes he’s brought to the Roadhouse kitchen, and with the notable focus on fresh produce he’s introduced to the menu. “I’m a little more French in style than California cuisine,” he explains. While admitting that everything can always be improved, Edmonds is happy to have such abundant access to the fresh and the seasonal. “I stress organization in the kitchen and lots of fresh ingredients.”
As anyone who’s worked in a kitchen knows, cooking is a team sport, and backing Edmonds up on the line are three brothers who’ve been at the Roadhouse since it opened—David, Armando and Javier Trejo—as well as Rick Wilcox. Roadhouse veterans Rick Hernandez, Edgar Lopez and Raymundo Armando handle prep and dishwashing. They’ll all be in high gear for Restaurant Week, when Edmonds plans to showcase the foods he loves to cook.
“We’ll probably do a tomato salad and a quail entrée,” he says. “And probably a clam chowder. I’d like to get more recognition for our chowder. It’s not as thick as most people do it. Lots of broth and just a little cream.”
After all the time spent cooking in the Midwest and the urban atmospheres of Chicago and Boston, Edmonds says he’s quite happy living on the coast, on land right behind Pie Ranch, near Año Nuevo. “I like being in a rural area,” he says.
In fact, he’s completely sold on our food-friendly region. “I love using fresh ingredients,” he says. “The Central Coast has everything.”
Davenport Roadhouse, 31 Davenport Ave., Davenport. 831.426.8801.
