In the Heart of Central Illinois
By Lisa Futterman
Photos by Jeffrey Noble

Ah, June. June is the month when the sun's rays reach further than any other. Plants love June, their time to drink in the light that sustains them. June Restaurant is all about plants, edible ones, of course. Chef/Owner Josh Adams, 29, serves vegetables that taste like vegetables, preserves that actually preserve the taste of a berry's summer moment, and pickles that capture the essence of warmer seasons - farm to table cooking served from a contemporary open kitchen in the heart of central Illinois' farm belt.

It's unusual to come across a young chef who is influenced equally by the pastoral purity and the contemporary kitchen science, but he's here in Peoria Heights, where he opened June in January 2009. He speaks of low temperature cooking like a religion, and the vacuum-sealed water bath technique known as sous-vide, dominates Adams' style. "Molecular gastronomy and farm to table may seem like an odd couple at first," says Adams, "but the two go hand-in-hand. When I have an heirloom baby carrot, the best way to preserve this perfect carrot is under vacuum. Traditionally, so much flavor and essence are lost through evaporation, but if I cook this carrot with just salt and carrot juice in a sealed environment, nothing is lost."

Diners at June get more on the plate than just one perfect carrot. His signature appetizer (the only constant on an ever-changing menu) expands on the current explosion of "breakfast for dinner" themed dishes. Adams stacks a slow-cooked farm egg, brioche, and house-made guanciale (cured Berkshire pork jowl) with shiitake mushrooms that have been rubbed with coffee beans and smoked, and tops it all with his take on hollandaise sauce. To him, this dish exemplifies his style-food that is not completely deconstructed and denatured, but food he "wants to eat." In the same vein, he serves his pork belly with local heirloom beans "baked" in a pressure cooker, with all the individual and traditional elements of a North Carolina style yellow barbecue sauce.

Adams chose his native Peoria as the spot for his concept in part to provide an outlet for the small farms in central Illinois. June's menu lists an all-star roster of local farmers that provide the sustainable produce that Adams serves, often grown at his request. "Josh is the only restaurant chef/owner in the area that has worked so diligently to meet and get to know the growers," says Anne Patterson owner of Living Earth Farm and director of the newly founded growers collaborative Good Earth Food Alliance. Adams sits down in winter with the group to communicate his fruit and vegetable wish list for the coming season. "Josh is on the cutting edge, where growers need to be," says Patterson. From sun  to micro-greens, "we strive to make his vegetables exactly the way he wants them." Those sun chokes recently appeared pureed with fresh cream in a sauce for house-made pasta, and in a soup with apples poached in bacon fat, chestnuts, and ginger. When asked how she likes seeing her harvest on June's menu, she positively gushes. "Josh makes the most fabulous anise hyssop ice cream."

Adams was Hartz Produce's first restaurant customer, a tall order for a five year old, ten acre farm. "He asked for golden beets, candy stripe beets, thumbelina carrots," says farmer Lyndon Hartz, "and he's looking for a specific size and shape." Hartz sampled his beets in a salad that combines roasted and pickled beets on one plate. How did it taste? "Josh did a very good job. The beets really taste different than when they come out of the field." Hartz's sustainable growing practices allow that kind of field to mouth approach-though he's not certified organic, all of his fertilizer, pest, and disease controls are, and Adams features his harvest prominently on the menu. Hartz's solar heated hoop houses provide hardier vegetables like potatoes and greens through the colder months.

With the summer's harvest put up and pickled, winter becomes a time to complete projects before the next growing season. Adams already makes his own breads and ice creams - experimenting with house-cured and smoked speck, house-churned butter, and house milled flour are items on this winter's punch list. "My in-laws let me use their smoke house, and we burn local fruit hardwoods because they taste natural and clean. We smoke everything from bacon to sardines." Farm eggs, pressure canners, and butter churns cohabit amiably in a kitchen with hydrocolloids, micro-mint and immersion circulators-at June, Adams has created a home for cooking science and cooking cra, all in the heart of Illinois farm country. And in the bleak mid-winter, when the snow blows across the flatland, June brings the taste of summer back to the plate.

June Restaurant
4450 N PROSPECT Road,
Peoria Heights, IL 61616
877-682-5863 www.junerestaurant.com

Lisa Futterman ventures out into the countryside for any good cause, especially when it involves telling stories of epicurean delights. Chef and self-proclaimed cheese-monger, she delights in the combination of art and science...from the farm to the kitchen.