Local restaurants use cherries to up flavor on menu

YAKIMA, Wash. -- If the aisles of school supplies starting to show up in stores have you down, don't worry -- Yakima Valley restaurants and bakeries have just the thing to help you savor the summer months.

Cherries.

With the harvest in full swing, area farmers markets and fruit sellers are well-stocked with Bings and Rainiers, and area chefs are finding creative, flavorful ways to bring this staple summer fruit into the dining room.

While cherry pies, tarts, ice creams and cobblers may be longtime favorites, Derrin Davis is using the sweet fruits to bring big taste to main dishes at Zesta Cucina Restaurant and Bar, at 5110 Tieton Drive in Yakima.

The restaurant's executive chef for the past four months, Davis said he is planning on having new specials featuring local cherries beginning next week. Expect to see a rotating menu with cherries in sauces and marmalades on a variety of meat, in drinks and -- of course -- desserts.

"Currently, we're doing a pork rack dish with dried tart cherries," he said. "And then we're also going to be using fresh cherries in some of our cocktails ... then possibly something with salmon and scallops as well."

Zesta Cucina uses a lot of fresh, local produce, so the menu changes often. Fish is sent FedEx from the coast, hitting the kitchen less than 24 hours after being caught, Davis said.

"We really don't design the menu until those items and those flavors come in," he said. "The product that we bring in is such good quality that you really don't have to do much to it."

Davis said he likes working with fruits in main dishes, especially versatile cherries, which complement the savory elements of many meats. He encourages local cooks to break away from desserts and try something new with their cherries.

"Incorporate that sweetness into a savory dish," he said. "It is a bit more difficult to balance those out and create something great."

Other area restaurants that will be featuring local cherry dishes include Cafe Melange, which is planning a chicken with cherry port sauce, a recipe that owner Alice Mathews said has been with the restaurant for several years, as well as some desserts. It is at 7 N. Front St.

But it is hard to ignore the sweet side. Local bakeries Essencia and Truly Scrumptious are incorporating this year's cherry crop into their desserts.

Essencia Artisan Bakery pastry chef and co-owner Jean Scheid has developed a fresh cherry-orange scone and cherry tarts at the bakery, at 4 N. Third St. Essencia also is featuring Klicker strawberries from Walla Walla in a variety of desserts, smoothies and lemonades.

Scheid said Essencia's customers look forward to the variety of the changing seasons.

"Our regulars that come in every day jump on what's new and fresh," she said. "They know that we're always going to be rolling out new things, local items. That's the appeal of our bakery, that we really work with the local farmers."

Truly Scrumptious Cupcakery Bakery in Track 29 also has been shopping locally -- owner Lana Wharton said she's been buying cherries from the farmers market and is incorporating them into the shop's cupcakes and other treats.

"We're doing a lot of new things with the cherries," Wharton said. "I love cherries. They are so pretty just to even decorate with, on top of the cupcakes."

But it's what is inside that counts.

Many of the cakes are stuffed with sweet cherry filling or iced with cherry frosting. Wharton also is planning a treat similar to strawberry shortcake, only with cherries.

Wharton creates her recipes with her two teenage children.

"We just sit and kind of create things," she said. "We just start trying things, using our recipes that we already have and just mixing them up with the fruits."

The variety is popular with her customers, she said, as is the local aspect.

"When we buy from local farmers, we support them, and they love that. So then they come in and then they buy it."

Wharton is planning other distinctive treats as the summer produce continues, including using watermelon and other fruit juices in the shop's products.

"It'll be fun to experiment with all of our different flavors," she said.

* Savannah Tranchell can be reached at 509-577-7752 or stranchell@yakimaherald.com.,