==Luke Zahm, ACTIVIST / CHEF / STORYTELLER ==

“Everyone eats. There's so much beauty in realizing that humaneness and that oneness.” This is the ethos of Luke Zahm. The James Beard-nominated chef, host of the hit PBS show Wisconsin Foodie, and owner of the widely acclaimed Driftless Café in Viroqua, Wisconsin, believes food is a powerful force for connection. Here, he opens up about breaking down colonial mindsets around food, and his drive to learn, unite, and share the histories behind the ingredients he's using to create a new Midwestern food movement.

The Great Discontent. Interview by Robin Scheines Photography by various artists

=='Wisconsin Foodie' and 'Driftless Cafe's' Luke Zahm talks Emmy win with Daybreak ==

(WXOW) -- A local chef and restaurant owner is being recognized for his work in and out of the kitchen. Independently produced PBS television show Wisconsin Foodie took home Their 3rd Emmy Award at the 64th Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards. 

The program "Siren Shrubs and Whitefeather Organics" took home the award in the Category of Lifestyle and Program. The episode follows Zahm on a farm, while making pizza with fresh, local ingredients. 

Luke Zahm of 'Wisconsin Foodie' and owner of the Driftless Café in Viroqua says the recognition, means to him, that people are seeing Wisconsin for all that it offers.

by Carly Swisher, WXOW

==Driftless CafÉ Celebrates the Food Wealth and Rural Identity of Viroqua, Wisconsin ==

Small Viroqua, Wisconsin, pop. 4,362, hardly feels like the kind of place that foments revolution. Situated in the rural southwest area of the state, it is the county seat and largest community in Vernon County. The whole area has only three stoplights.

But the Driftless geologic region here stands out. Viroqua sits in a rare pocket of the Midwest—called the Driftless area—that remained unglaciated in the last ice ages. Its rolling hills and forests are conducive to small family farms which still dot the hillsides. With one of the highest concentrations of organic farms in the country (over 200 and counting), and the national headquarters of Organic Valley cooperative, the region is the epicenter of the organic food and farming movement.

by The Daily Yonder

==Local chef nominated for prestigious culinary award ==

Mary Kastman of Driftless Cafe in Viroqua is up for Best Chef: Midwest from the James Beard Foundation. Chefs are nominated by their fellow peers. 

Kastman is up against several other chefs from the region including Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. She is the only chef recognized from the Coulee Region this year. 

Driftless Café Owner Luke Zahm says Kastman is really able to lift up local farmers and producers with her work in the kitchen.

She specializes in eastern Mediterranean flavors and spices which highlights plenty of vegetable usage.

by News 19 | WXOW

==The driftless cafÉ ==

Viroqua, Wisconsin. As the world closed the grim chapter that was 2020, Executive chef, Mary Kastman and the team at the Driftless Café prepared an eight course New Year’s Eve dinner themed, “Resilience”. In a year that devastated the restaurant industry, Mary says she’s learned about relying on the kindness of strangers. She told me a story of a farmer comping their entire greens order one week because he knew the restaurant was struggling through the shutdown. It brought her to tears. To type it brings me to tears as well. This is the food community I know and love, entangled and thus supportive and resilient.

The ties between the Driftless Café and our farm, Keewaydin, have woven us tightly together. The cafe has been sourcing produce from us since they opened and I’ve personally hucked hundreds of boxes to their backdoor. In the fall of 2019, when the farm was in one of it’s leanest seasons, the cafe hired my husband, Rufus, as a bartender and server. The extra income helped us get through a hard winter. Summer of 2020, when we were all going stir crazy from staying home, Mary organized a socially distanced farm field trip for her staff. She stressed the importance of their team knowing where the ingredients come from, appreciating the hard work that goes into them, and understanding the story of the people and places they bring into their kitchen. We walked through gardens and greenhouses with cooks and waitresses and told our story. They intend to share these narratives with folks who experience our produce in their entrees. These connections matter. These are the ties of resilience in the Driftless food community.

Mary Kastman, a Chicago native, moved to the Driftless for a slower pace, a different quality of life, and a more sustainable work culture. She’d attended college in Madison and worked at a high end restaurant in Boston but needed a change. “We were done with Boston. The traffic breaks you down”. As she said this, it dawned on me that I couldn’t remember the last time I really had to wait impatiently in traffic… a peace of mind I’d taken for granted. Mary and her husband, Eric, decided to skip the gridlock traffic jams which were slowly chipping away at their sanity, and drive themselves to Viroqua. They’d never been here, but didn’t want to go back to Madison or Chicago. They were drawn to the farm scene, the Waldorf school, and Wonderstate Coffee. They could see themselves here.

by Joy Miller

==The driftless cafe ==

A conversation with Luke Zahm. It’s late morning when we roll into Viroqua, Wisconsin, population 4,362. With buildings lining the road into town, it’s the very picture of Main Street, America. Hollywood couldn’t have written it any better.

An elegant, turn-of-the-century former hotel bearing the name FORTNEY sits at the corner of Main and West Court Street. Across the way is a stately, neo-classical revival style bank built in 1908. They're a Romeo and Juliet of sorts, separated by a span of asphalt and concrete. As the clouds begin to break and sunlight streams into downtown, it’s not hard to imagine what these buildings have seen in their lifetimes. If their walls could talk, one can be certain they would have stories to tell.

A short stroll up the block from The Fortney, Google Maps alerts us that we have arrived at The Driftless Café. We’re here to meet the owner, Luke Zahm.

by Cheeselandia Gazzete

== Four Star Restaurants in Wisconsin's Small Towns ==

Vernon County happens to have the highest concentration of organic farms anywhere in Wisconsin - over 200 to be more specific. That being said, it comes as no surprise that Viroqua would make a perfect location for an outstanding farm-to-table restaurant. Dinner menus are created on a day-to-day basis, so the freshest local ingredients can be incorporated accordingly.

In 2017, Executive Chef Luke Zahm’s masterful cooking earned him a nomination for “Best Chef Midwest” from the James Beard Foundation, making Driftless Café the first restaurant between Madison and Minneapolis to earn such an honorable recognition

by Travel Wisconsin

== Cooking Field to Table with Luke Zahm | Wild Wisconsin 2019 ==

Venison steaks and venison stew are staples to hunters, but if you're looking for something truly original, look no further. Luke Zahm, the host of Wisconsin Foodie, joined us to cook up Venison Osso Buco.

by WIDNRTV

== Love letter to summer | ridgeland harvest Farm Dinner | Wisconsin Foodie ==

On this episode James Beard-nominated chef Luke Zahm visits with Mat and Cate Eddy of Ridgeland Harvest and helps them pick produce for a farm dinner featuring Hillsboro Brewing.

by Wisconsin Public Television

==CELEBRATING RURAL WISCONSIN LIFE THROUGH FOOD==

Luke Zahm, owner and chef of Driftless Cafe and television host of Wisconsin Foodie, welcomed 2019 Wisconsin Idea Seminar participants to his restaurant last May. A UW-Madison ‘03 grad and La Farge local, Luke was able to share perspective on food and how his identity as a chef is deeply rooted in and shaped by the contoured lands of the Driftless Area. In this interview, he discusses his experiences growing up in Vernon County, the importance of community supported agriculture, and the influence of the University of Wisconsin, among other things.

by bprochnow | Wisconsin Idea Seminar

==Best Pastas in the Country==

Morel Pasta at Driftless Cafe (Viroqua, Wisconsin). In late spring, many Wisconsin families head out to the wooded hills and river-filled valleys in the southwestern corner of the state in search of morel mushrooms, one of the most-elusive and -coveted of 'shrooms in the United States. Those who don't want to want to muddy themselves in the woods, head to local farm stands and grocery stores to stock up. Or they just go to Driftless Cafe in Viroqua. At the local-foods-obsessed restaurant, the chefs celebrate the bount of morel season with an assortment of dishes including a perfect morel-laden pasta that is certainly worth planning a trip around.

by Sara Ventiera | Food Network

=== The new host of the 'Wisconsin Foodie' show is a chef from Viroqua ===

The longtime host of the "Wisconsin Foodie" TV show is stepping down, and a chef from Viroqua is taking his place starting with the 2020 season.

For 11 years, Kyle Cherek was the familiar face of the show, which is focused on Wisconsin chefs and food producers. The new host, Luke Zahm, is the chef and co-owner of Driftless Cafe, an announcement from the show on Monday said, and was himself the subject of "Wisconsin Foodie" segments.

Zahm took over Driftless Cafe with his wife, Ruthie, in 2013 and was a semifinalist in the best chef: Midwest category of the James Beard Awards in 2017.

By  Carol Deptolla | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

=== Viroqua chef eager to take over as host of 'Wisconsin Foodie' ===

Luke Zahm has told stories through his food for years, but he never thought his career in the kitchen would lead to one in front of a television camera.

The chef and co-owner of the Driftless Cafe in Viroqua will host the upcoming season of “Wisconsin Foodie,” a two-time Emmy Award-winning show on Wisconsin Public Television that showcases the state’s culinary complexity.

“The café menu has always been about the people who are producing it, and I found that I really connect with that,” he said. “Those stories are what fuel my creative passion for cooking.”

The opportunity will give him a chance to tell the stories of chefs from all over Wisconsin, which is a dream come true, he said.

By  Elizabeth Beyer | La Crosse Tribune

=== discover Wisconsin ===

What happens when you challenge three Wisconsin chefs to create three different dishes with the same Variety of Cheese? Magic! In this delicious episode of Discover Wisconsin, we visited the Lakely Restaurant in Eau Claire and tasked Chef Nathan Berg with The Kammerude Gouda Challenge using Comstock Creamery’s signature cheese.
Then we headed to Viroqua to issue Chef Luke Zahm at the Driftless Cafe the Blue Cheese challenge, having him use Sid Cook’s ‘favorite cheese’, Glacier Penta Creme Blue Cheese.

By  Discover Wisconsin | READ MORE

=== TRUTH, LOVE & Clean Cutlery ===

We’ve been selected to feature in Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery, a new guide to the world’s truly exemplary, ethical, organic and sustainable restaurants and food experiences, created by 57 leading food writers from 45 countries.

Look here for the blog and social media accounts: Instagram & Facebook.

Find more information on website at Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery

== best small-town restaurant in every state ==

Wisconsin | Driftless Cafe, Viroqua
Population: 4,362
There are restaurants that are farm-to-table, and then there are restaurants that don't know what's on the dinner menu until all the deliveries from nearby farms are in at around 4pm. Driftless is the latter. It makes it easier that Wisconsin has the highest concentration of organic farms in the nation; the ubiquitous Organic Valley brand has its HQ 15 miles away, and 200 farms are in the area. 

By  Thrillist Features for Thrillist | READ MORE

=== the midwest's 38 essential restaurants ===

Driftless Cafe

WHAT: A reverent homage to the land through inventive farm-to-table menus and masterful flavors. WHY: The Driftless Café, owned by Ruthie Zahm and her chef husband Luke, is a small town cafe in Viroqua, Wisconsin, that feels as if buoyant hipsters snuck in and staged an ongoing pop-up dining concept. Situated in the Driftless region (where there is a higher concentration of organic farms than anywhere in the state), the cafe is a magnet for locals and visitors alike who appreciate rustic cuisine and sustainable ingredients grown nearby. Chef Zahm’s menu is all heart, strained through a nouvelle cuisine-farmboy aesthetic. — K.C.

By  Bill Addison for Eater | READ MORE

== twenty-five years later, "the town that beat walmart" is back on the map ==

Luke Zahm left Vernon County, a farming region in southwestern Wisconsin, as soon as he could. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, the area was depressed—dairy farming, which sustained much of the local economy, was in decline, and manufacturing jobs were leaving.

By  Danielle Renwick for The New Food Economy | READ MORE

=== a thriving food culture is making viroqua the place to be ===

Craig and Connie Minowa of the band Cloud Cult had been living in Minneapolis and were looking to settle in a small, progressive town with a thriving food culture — a place to get “back to the land.”

They found Viroqua.

By  Samara Kalk Derby for WSJ | READ MORE

=== three top restaurants for the hungry on wisconsin's western edge ===

A 40-minute drive from La Crosse to Viroqua yields priceless benefits. First, there’s the dramatically carved landscape, a breathtaking roller coaster of hills, valleys and vistas that locals probably learn to take for granted, but here’s hoping they don’t.

By  Rick Nelson for Star Tribune | READ MORE

== Small town chef & James Beard honoree Luke Zahm carries torch for local food ==

This year's James Beard semifinals were filled with pleasant surprises. Wisconsin made a great showing, with four nominations from Milwaukee and an additional four from across the state.

Even more impressive is that one of the semi-finalists was Luke Zahm, chef and owner of Driftless Cafe in Viroqua, a town of just over 4,000 people.

Since the average population of Midwestern cities with James Beard nominated chefs is 220,000, it's common to see honorees from cities like Madison, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. But it's far more unusual for a small-town chef to hit the radar of the JBF team. Fortunately for Zahm, there were eyes on his work.

By  Lori Fredrich for ON MILWAUKEE | READ MORE

=== WISCONSIN FOODIE ===

Forage, Fish, Eat. Join outdoor guide Keith Warnke to explore the edible outdoors of Muscoda. Start by harvesting roadside asparagus, then head to the hills to hunt for morels, and finally jump into the streams and try fly fishing for trout. Driftless Café chef Luke Zahm brings the bounty together.

via WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION

=== James Beard nominee returned to his roots with Driftless Cafe ===

Fork. Spoon. Life. Luke Zahm. Luke Zahm’s first jobs were in restaurants. While growing up in a small town in western Wisconsin, he worked as a car hop and spent time as a “certified sandwich artist” before moving away to pursue music.

After working in Chicago, he made his way to kitchens in Madison. Working at Lombardino’s and making trips to the Dane County Farmers Market both helped him appreciate his Wisconsin roots.

Turns out he had to leave to find his way home.

Since 2013, Zahm and his wife, Ruthie, who grew up in Viroqua, have operated Driftless Café at 118 Court St. in Viroqua. 

His menu is ever changing, but his commitment to the community stays constant. His mission is to shine the national spotlight on the area’s role in organics, farming and cooperatives — and it seems to be working.

by Kristine M. Kierze for the JOURNAL SENTINEL | READ MORE

=== Chef Luke Zahm of Driftless Cafe ===

Chef Luke Zahm has been called a sort of “Prodigal Chef.” He grew up in the Driftless Region of Southwest Wisconsin, moved around gaining important and transformative cooking experience, and finally decided to move back to the area, settling his family in the small town of Viroqua, Wisconsin (pop. 4,362).

By ROOTSTOCK RADIO | READ MORE

=== Driftless Café ===

For most restaurants the magic happens in the kitchen, but for Driftless Café the alchemy really originates beyond the back door. At this small Viroqua restaurant, the back of the house is truly the back of the house, where one can find the new pit smoker, a basement chock-full of summer preserves, and a delivery location for local farmers, foragers and vendors from the region. So much of the magic of this place begins before the ingredients even hit the kitchen.

By Vanessa Herald for EDIBLE MADISON | READ MORE

=== WISCONSIN FOODIE ===

Roelli Cheese | Driftless cafe. We are at Roelli Cheese House in Shullsburg, WI, home of the award winning Dunbarton Blue. Chris Roelli takes us through his process of making a batch of the Dunbarton Blue. He also shows us his cheese caves where we get to have a taste test of an experimental cheese! Then we head to Driftless Café in Viroqua, WI where Luke Zahn uses Roelli cheese to make two incredible dishes!

via WISCONSINFOODIE

=== RESTAURANT REVIEW: DRIFTLESS CAFÉ ===

Great restaurants usually begin with a chef, and so it is with Viroqua’s Driftless Café. Chef Luke Zahm, a La Farge native, earned his stripes on the job from the ground up, working at restaurants in Madison, Verona and La Crosse. Eventually, he realized that all the great chefs were sourcing their fresh foods from the Driftless Region … from his people. “That was the light bulb for me,” he says. “That’s when I knew it was happening at home, right in our backyard. Vernon County has the second-highest concentration of organic farms in the United States.”

by Clay Riness for L.I.N.K. MAGAZINE | READ MORE

=== kickstarter ===

We are a locally-focused, farm-to-table restaurant in rural WI. Be a part of helping our Farmers, our Community and our Region grow!

My name is Luke Zahm and I'm the Chef and Owner of the Driftless Café.

With the help of my wife Ruthie and 30 employees, we own and operate our 44 seat restaurant. As Wisconsin natives, the Driftless Region is where we call home. After working in kitchens for over a decade, I decided that if I wanted to cook with the best ingredients possible I would need to move back to the Driftless – back to the epicenter of the organic food and farming movement.

In the field with Ridgeland Harvest

We purchased the Café in 2013 with the idea that we could create a restaurant that was about more than just food – we wanted to showcase the amazing farmers and food artisans that call this place home. We wanted to support our friends and neighbors to create a stronger financial community. We wanted our food to serve as a bridge in our community and as a vehicle for growth into the future.

by Luke Zahm for Kickstarter | READ MORE

=== Luke Zahm, Driftless Cafe ===

"I grew up in La Farge and had a paper route in the 80's. I remember delivering the Sunday paper, and on the front headline there'd be weekly stories about dairy farmers committing suicide. The dairy farming industry had bottomed out, and these farmers were losing their century farms..

Originally, every single little outskirt community had their own creamery. 

by Jet Waller&Megan Monday for LOVE WISCONSIN | READ MORE

=== FARM FRESH ===

Driftless Cafe in Viroqua draws customers from miles away. VIROQUA — The Driftless Cafe, a farm-to-table restaurant that Luke and Ruthie Zahm bought in 2013 and expanded last year, is drawing customers from miles away.

“Some of them come from a long ways away,” including people who live in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis, said Luke, who manages the restaurant.

by Steve Cahalan for the LACROSSE TRIBUNE | READ MORE