Chef Jason French | Recommendations - Find. Eat. Drink.
Chef Jason French, Ned Ludd, Portland, Oregon, OR, Northeast Portland, Where to eat, Where to drink, Where to shop, Chef’s Recs, Recommendations, Cocktails, Wine, Beer, Markets, Shops, Restaurants, Bars, Cocktail Lounges, Food Purveyors, Books, Salt, Chocolate, Chefs, Austin, TX, Texas, Magazines, Blogs, Resources, Information
CHEF JASON HAMMEL | LULA CAFE
BARBUR WORLD FOODS
Southwest Portland
Middle Eastern
Find | Food Markets / Stores - Portland, OR
It’s Middle Eastern, Persian and Lebanese foods. I buy spices and things from them, like sumac, za'atar [Moroccan oregano], and pomegranate molasses.
Recommendations
EDELWEISS
Southeast
German Specialty Foods / Sandwiches
Eldelweiss is a great little German deli. I like to go there on the weekends and get beer and bratwurst and potato salad and a ton of little German goods. There are more people speaking German there than not.
Chef Jason French | Recommendations
Ned Ludd - Portland, OR
Photographs courtesy of Jason French & Ned Ludd
March 27, 2012
Portland
Sea Salt
Ben Jacobsen is doing sea salt that he harvests out of Oceanside. He’s doing a flake salt and it tastes awesome. He lived in London and was using Maldon and thought that there is this amazing ocean by us, why is no one doing sea salt here? He went out and started producing it. He is looking to move to the coast and start a whole production facility there.
PASTAWORKS
Hawthorne
Specialty Foods
It’s an amazing little grocery store that has been around since the early 80s. It’s just a really beautiful microcosm of hand-selected meats and cheeses and fresh produce, cookbooks and cooking equipment.
UWAJIMAYA
Beaverton
Asian Grocery
It’s a huge Asian grocery store and they have everything you can imagine. They have live tilapia, live Dungeness crab and sea cucumber. They also have a cool little sushi restaurant, a Japanese bookstore, Japanese knives, Zojirushi rice cookers and even geisha outfits!
Find | Book Stores - Portland, OR
POWELL’S BOOKS
Southeast Portland / Hawthorne
Book Store
It’s right next door to Pastaworks and they have cooking and gardening books.
Find | chocolate
XOCOLATL DE DAVID
Multiple Locations
Chocolate
Dave Briggs is our local chocolatier. He’s does great stuff. We’ve used his chocolate in our s’mores.
BIWA
Southeast Portland
Japanese
Eat | Restaurants - Portland, OR
It’s basically an izakaya and ramen place and it’s just delicious and wonderful. It’s like my late night ramen joint. It’s soothing and satisfying. Chef Gabe Rosen does amazing pickles and grilled items. They have a grilled chicken heart with a spicy Japanese mustard and it’s off the charts. They’ll have a liver with sweet soy. You get both of those and it’s a match made in heaven.
CHEESE BAR
Southeast Portland
Wine Bar / Artisan Deli
Owner Steve Jones is the winner of the National Cheesemonger competition and is amazing at sourcing. Good wine list and tons of little snacks and sandwiches and they change every couple of weeks. His cheese selection is one of the best in town. He has a heavy emphasis on local cheeses, but also gets great stuff from Neal’s Yard out of London.
DEPARTURE RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE
525 SW Morrison Street, Portland, Oregon 97204
T: 503.802.5370 (make a reservation)
Southwest Portland / Downtown
Modern Asian
I really like Departure, it’s hotel dinning, but it’s really good. It’s like the least Portland feeling place. It’s a non-Portland Portland experience. It’s in the top of a hotel and the chef is Chef Gregory Gourdet, who worked with Jean Georges in New York. It’s not about the local, seasonal, per se, it’s Asian cuisine. You feel like you’re in LA. or a much bigger city than Portland.
DOC
Downtown / North East
Italian
It’s a wonderful little Italian place. The pastas are phenomenal and the wine list is crazy. Austin Bridges, the GM and sommelier, is the king of weird and wonderful. You can go let them take care of you. They also do a prixe fixe small multi-course meal.
EVOE
Southeast Portland / Hawthorne / Richmond
Cafe
That is where I’d go for lunch. It’s right next door to Pastaworks. Kevin Gibson is the chef and it’s kind of like a lunch counter and he cooks in front of you.
KEN’S ARTISAN PIZZA
Southeast Portland / Buckman / Kerns
Italian / Wood-Fired Pizza
Order the pizzas. The cool thing is that they don’t have 8 million pizzas, they’ll have like four to choose from. I don’t do traditional ones, they’ll have like charred brussels sprouts or charred leeks or squash and goat cheese. It’s not Spago-style California pizza, it’s real straight-forward traditional pizza with local seasonal additions.
LE PIGEON
Lower Burnside
French
Gabriel Rucker and any of his offal dishes are really good, like the Beef Cheek Bourguignon. He does amazingly gutsy French food.
LOVELY’S 50/50
North Portland
Italian / Wood- Fired Pizza
The pizza has decent craft, a little chew to it, slightly yeasty, but not too crazy yeasty and simple, delicious toppings. You go in and get a really simple salad, which will usually be a composed salad of local fields greens from a farm just four blocks away from the restaurant. They do the vegetables in the wood-fired oven and add them as a component to the salad. They also have killer ice cream.
NAVARRE
Northeast Portland / Kerns
Mediterranean / Small Plates
It’s full of really traditional French style cooking, pates, terrines, rillettes and wonderful little salads. It’s a perfect place to go snack and drink. John Taboada does these monthly menus where he’ll be inspired by Lombardy and he’ll have a whole menu of foods from Lombardy. He’ll also offer a regular menu and he sources a lot from farms that are within like 20 miles outside of the city.
TASTEBUD
Southeast Portland
Italian / Hearth Baked Pizza
Originally, Mark Doxtader [chef] had a remote wood-fired brick oven that he would take to the farmers market every week. Then he started the restaurant and does great Montreal-style bagels and little pizzas.
THISTLE
McMinnville
New American
The chef is Eric Bechard and I think he does really great work and he is super committed and I really dig his values.
CENTRAL
Southwest Portland / Old Town / Chinatown
Bar
Drink | Bars - Portland, OR
Central is kind of a little speakeasy bar downtown. It’s a super cute vibe and sometimes it’s a little hipster heavy, but the drinks are really spot on.
KIR WINE BAR
Lower Burnside / Northeast Portland / Central Eastside / Kerns
Wine Bar
It’s a dinky little bar with a great view of the city. In the summer, they have seating outside and it’s the best place to go. The owner, Amalie, has a wonderful rose and champagne list and a host of the weird and wonderful in the wine world. The food she offers is simple and straightforward and almost Mediterranean, Richard Olney-style cooking, like mussels and little charcuterie plates, salads, rice dishes or clams. It’s where we go to kick off the night.
BAR FERD’NAND
Capitol Hill / Wine Bar
1531 Melrose Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122
T: 206.623.5882
THE CORSON BUILDING
Georgetown / American
5609 Corson Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98108
T: 206.762.3330
SITKA AND SPRUCE
Capitol Hill / American
1531 Melrose Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122
T: 206.324.0662
Multiple Locations
American
Chef Recommendations | Seattle, WA
I like his whole aesthetic, the way his menu reads, the way his space is laid out, his sense of honestly feeding people , not just trying to be a restauranty chef. He is just the genuine article for me. He even has a farm that he lives on out in Vashon Island, outside of Seattle.
Hyde Park / Highland / Hancock
New American
Chef Recommendations | Austin, TX
There is a thing about being a chef and then there is a thing about being a chef/owner. It’s a different mentality. With Ned Elliott, it’s like we already knew each other when we met.
Logan Square
New American
Chef Recommendations | Chicago, IL
Each of these guys are super competent chefs in their own right and they are all doing their own thing stylistically. I call it the three-legged pony: where food, service and ambiance all meet.
CHEF CHRIS PANDEL | THE BRISTOL
Bucktown / Wicker Park
New American
BELLY SHACK
Logan Square / Asian
1912 N. Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647
T: 773.252.1414
URBAN BELLY
Avondale / Asian Fusion
3053 N. California , Chicago, IL
T: 773.583.0500
Multiple Locations
Asian
CHEF SAM HAYWARD | FORE STREET
Downtown
New American
Chef Recommendations | Portland, ME
I worked with Sam Hayward at Fore Street in Portland, Maine, in the mid-90s, just when they opened, and he was really instrumental for me because they had a grill, wood-fired oven and rotisserie.
Food Magazine / Online
Find | Resources - Magazines
They are awesome. I love good writing and not doing fucking magazine style puff pieces. They have a definitive sense of style and are definitive about what they like about food and I also love that it is Canadian.
ART OF EATING
Food Magazine
It’s a quintessential American food and wine magazine. There is a purity to the voice and it’s not changed over the years.
SWALLOW MAGAZINE
Food Magazine / Online
Aesthetically inspiring.
Who
Jason French is the chef and owner of Ned Ludd in Portland, Oregon.
Why
Chef French cooks rustic, regional, seasonal food exclusively using a wood-fired oven, a two-burner hot plate, a steam table and a little hot box alto-shaam.
Recommended By
- Mark Bitterman (The Meadow in Portland, OR and New York, NY)
- Ned & Jodi Elliott (Foreign and Domestic in Austin, TX)