2019-10-01_Bon_Appetit_UserUpload.Net

(John Hannent) #1

PIG EAR


In the South it’s all about pork and peas.
Manning turns pig ear into paper-thin sheets,
then tops them with peas and beans of all
types (green and black chickpeas, English
peas), fiery guajillo broth (a by-product

PORCINI AND CHOCOLATE


“Super cute!” That’s how most guests respond
to Fitzroy Phelan’s whimsical dessert: an emoji-
approved mushroom-shaped chocolate cake
dusted with dried porcini and cocoa. Porcini
ice cream and bits of verdant parsley cake give
the ever-so-savory dessert a woodsy feel.

LOBSTER


“I lived in Italy for 11 years, and in Liguria
everyone eats seafood with a fava bean and
mushroom salad,” Manning says. He riffed on
that by tossing beech mushrooms and favas in
ginger vinegar and cherry blossom shoyu from

MIGNARDISES


“I tried to change the gold bar,” Fitzroy
Phelan confesses. But people kept asking for
the black-sesame-tahini-chocolate confection,
which comes alongside blueberry macarons,
pâte de fruit rolled in whiskey-smoked sugar,
and sage-caramel bonbons.

tell the circuitous 15-year epic of the
three chefs behind it. (Let’s just say
it involves a stint in Alba, Italy, and
many arduous hours in the catering
world.) Eventually they reconnected
and decided to move to Richmond,
where they launched Longoven pop-
ups in 2014. I stumbled into one at Sub
Rosa Bakery in 2016. Given what they
were able to pull off with a wood-fired
oven and two camping burners,
I was very curious about how they’d
do in an actual kitchen.
Well, spoiler alert: The brick-and-
mortar Longoven, which finally
opened last year, is mind-bogglingly
good—each dish so technically
precise, so truly dedicated to
ingredients, not to mention so, so
pretty. This is very beautiful and very
serious food served in a very beautiful
and very serious space. Yet there is
none of the “staged-at-Noma-once”
ego trip that has mucked up many
similarly ambitious projects. Instead,
there’s a refreshing graciousness and
hospitality—a sense that everyone is
actually happy you’re here. Behind it
all is the earnestness and maturity of
three people who have worked harder
than I can imagine to get to this place
and who take none of their (unlikely)
success for granted. —J.K.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY EMMA FISHMAN

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