Page 17 - The Peorian, Vol 3 Issue 2

17
thePeorian.com
H ead south out of Peoria
and take Interstate 155
and eventually you will
see a bunch of wind turbines
in the farm fields, turning and
churning and resembling a
modern-day Quixotic nightmare.
When you come to an exit that
tells you to turn right to reach
Delavan, you might be struck
by the shear starkness of your
surroundings. You hope, as the
next sign tells you, that Delavan
really is only five miles away
because it doesn’t look like there
is anything up ahead.
When finally you reach the
town and note that it has only
1,700 residents, you might start
to wonder what it is about this
little café in the heart of the town
that gets people from 30 minutes
or more away in any direction to
come on a regular basis.
Once inside Harvest Cafe, with
its warm and welcoming décor,
you will probably get impatient
to taste the food you have heard
raves about.
The menu may take a second
or third look because it has dishes
you probably are unfamiliar
with, but that is OK because you
can be assured that whatever you
order will be made and served as
fresh as it can be at the restaurant
its executive chef declares “has
made it” into the farm-to-table
culture that is starting to take
hold in central Illinois.
“The farm-to-table concept
is starting to catch on in the
Peoria, which is great. It’s about
time, but that’s also typical of
Peoria,” said John Lanning, a
Peoria native who honed his
cooking skills at some of the
top restaurants in the world,
including Noma in Copenhagen,
before returning home. “But we
aren’t just catching up here in
Delavan. Harvest Café has made
it and now the others are catching
up to us.”
Kevin Myszkowski, general
manager of the restaurant, said,
“We are concerned that the
term ‘farm-to-table’ is going
to get overused. But here, we
can not only use it, we put the
exclamation point on it.”
He added, “That’s because
we really believe in the concept
here and we have a kitchen full of
people who buy into it.”
HARVEST CAFÉ:
WORTH THE DRIVE
By Paul Gordon
Farm-To-Table: Harvest Café
Continued on page 18
Head chef Joshua Lanning, left, and general manager Kevin Myszkowski have helped take Harvest Café in Delavan to new
heights as a farm-to-table restaurant. They were hired by owner Libby Mathers because of their experience with that concept.