From BernBaum's, the beloved downtown Fargo bagel shop and restaurant, comes a gorgeous, down-to-earth cookbook filled with rustic, hearty, Jewish-Scandinavian recipes and culinary insight that's sure to fill bellies and warm hearts.
When an ex-pat from the Bay Area and LA food scenes comes home to the upper Midwest, she learns what is universal about food and what is particular about the food from the wheat belt. With trademark charm, chef Andrea Baumgardner shares her rustic, cook-friendly food philosophy, a tempting array of Jewish-Scandinavian recipes that embrace the joy of improvisation, and the humble roots of BernBaum's, the eclectic, inclusive Fargo bagel shop and restaurant that has become the go-to breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot for locals and tourists alike.
The recipes included emphasize fresh, seasonal ingredients and a penchant for experimentation, whether you're making the legendary Shakshuka Focaccia Nordic Lamb Meatloaf with lingonberries and labneh, classics like Latke Poutine and Chicken or Vegan Matzoh Ball Soup, or mouth-watering sweets like Amma Cindy's Pönnukökur or Rugelach with fig and chocolate hazelnut filling--crowd-pleasing recipes that home cooks will turn to again and again to bring both families and cultures together. Much like how BernBaum's has tied a community together by creating unforgettable food memories, the BernBaum's cookbook reminds us that how we eat speaks to who we are, where we come from, and who we want to be.
About the Author: Andrea Baumgardner is the Baum in BernBaum's, a bagel shop and restaurant in downtown Fargo, ND. Baumgardner's interest in food had roots in her high school job at Leeby's, an old-school bakery and delicatessen that featured gruff, knowledgeable butchers and serious farm-style bakers who turned out perfect cake donuts, pies, and lefse. While attending Macalester College, she spent a year in Spain and France, greatly expanding her palate and her pants size. A graduate of San Francisco's California Culinary Academy, Baumgardner externed at Chez Panisse before cooking on the line at Vivande and Eos in the Bay Area and at Boxer and Cobras & Matadors in Los Angeles. In 2003, she returned to Fargo as the opening executive chef of the Hotel Donaldson. She was a partner and chef of Green Market Kitchen before creating BernBaum's with her husband, Brett Bernath, in 2016. A 2015-16 Humphrey Fellow in Public Policy at the University of Minnesota, Baumgardner is committed to teaching children to cook as a form of justice. She is a 2020 semifinalist for Best Chef: Midwest from the James Beard Foundation, a believer in pickles, and counts her retired physician father as one of her prep cooks.
Sarah Strong is a traveling flâneur, photographer, cook, and mostly life-long Minnesotan who thrives on documenting the simple bits of everyday life--ideally, people cooking and eating together.
