Ricotta Beignets

"This unlikely duo first met when Brown hired Pham as his sous-chef at a restaurant in Provo, Utah. Their disparate upbringings—Brown on a ranch in Arizona, Pham in the Bay Area—have led to their signature style of using a mix of locally foraged greens and other edibles with high-end ingredients such as spot prawns, diver scallops, or elk tenderloin. The result is sophisticated, elegant fare with a whimsical, homespun touch. Oh, and they love cheese. Culture: Utah is producing some really great cheese. What are some of your favorites? Viet Pham: I love Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery. We use Strawberry Peak, an alpine style mixed with Jersey milk, as well as Delano Peak (sheep’s blue) and Timpanogos Peak (Brie-style sheep’s blue). Bowman Brown: I also like Rockhill Creamery’s Dark Canyon, which is a semihard Edam made from Brown Swiss milk. We use Beehive Cheese Co.’s Promontory Apple Walnut Smoked Cheddar . . . and Helena (raw cow) and Dulcinea (raw sheep) from Lark’s Meadow, a sheep’s milk dairy from Rexburg, Idaho. We like to use different European cheeses, too. Culture: Obviously, given the name of the restaurant, foraged foods are a part of your menu. Can you give some examples? Viet Pham: We both forage from spring to late fall. We use things like wild watercress, elderflowers, onion flowers, purslane. Culture: How would you use cheese with these?Bowman Brown:We’ll serve wild greens, herbs, or flowers with a fresh cheese. In the colder months we’ll pair rich cheeses with wild elderberry jam or with something acidic, such as wild rose hip jelly and pickled apples...."