The Lost Kitchen In Maine Opens For Reservations

Today is the first day of spring and that would normally be a reason for joy, if not for the coronavirus currently sweeping around the world. There are still grounds for celebration, however, because it’s also the day when Chef Erin French, who owns The Lost Kitchen in rural Maine, posts instructions on her website on how to snag a reservation for the coming season.

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French opened the remote and celebrated 40-seat restaurant seven years ago and was recently nominated for her fourth James Beard Award (Best Chef: Northeast) in February. With a mostly female staff, the restaurant is open four nights a week for eight months a year with but one nightly seating. Located in the town of Freedom, population 700 or so, the restaurant is half an hour from mid coast Maine. In a normal year, the doors would open in May. This year’s date is still up in the air.

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“The first day of spring has finally arrived,” wrote French on her website this morning. “Today is a day to rejoice, a day to celebrate. It’s the day we’ve been waiting for so long to come back around. Since winter took its grip months ago, we’ve been yearning for this very moment. But this year is different. Rather than stepping out into a bright new season, we instead find ourselves hunkering down through a dark storm that has come in the form of a virus. Life has changed for all of us. Separated from friends and family in a world that’s upside down with confusion and fear, we have had to change the way we think, live, and even eat.”

That said, she still plans to open when she can. The reservation instructions are critical, since The Lost Kitchen abandoned phone reservations after 2017 when 10,000 calls arrived in a 24 hour period. So if you want to eat there in 2020, you’ll once again need to send French a postcard requesting a table. Winners are chosen at random and note that last year, 20,000-plus cards arrived.

French supports local farmers and fishermen, creating a nightly eight-to-10 course tasting menu. There could be dishes like summer squash rolls with herbed ricotta, arugula and toasted hazelnut vinaigrette, whole roasted trout with parsnips and herb hash, pork chops served with sautéed apples, potatoes and apple brandy, and deserts like lemon shortcake with berries. Her recipes, and her touching backstory, can be found in her bestselling cookbook, The Lost Kitchen: Recipes and a Good Life Found in Freedom, Maine.

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“For now,” French says on the site, “I’m craving to get a little lost and not think about the world today. What I need more than ever, and maybe you do too, is to dream about a delicious candlelit dinner with dear friends in the middle of nowhere Maine on a warm summer night sometime.”

If you’d like to eat at The Lost Kitchen in 2020, you’ll need to write your name and pertinent details like an address, phone number and email on a postcard. You can even use a blank card and write a poem, do a drawing, or create whatever you think might get her attention. Then you need to mail it between now and May 1, 2020. If you’re one of the lucky ones, you’ll be contacted and a reservation will be made.

“So we must stay patient, positive and keep looking forward,” French writes. “I’m looking forward to reconnecting with friends and family. I can’t wait to gather around the same dinner table and celebrate each other and our togetherness again. And when that day comes, I will embrace and cherish it more than ever … While our opening date still remains up in the air, the day will come, and when it does, we hope you can join us.”

Visit The Lost Kitchen website for more details on making a reservation for the 2020 dining season.

Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Kitchens