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Meet the Chefs: An Interview with Erin and Mateo Mackbee, the Duo Behind the Inaugural Story Feast
Meet the Chefs: Erin and Mateo Mackbee | Krewe & Flour & Flower | Story Feast
An interview with Chefs Erin and Mateo Mackbee, the James Beard-recognized duo behind Krewe and Flour & Flower Bakery, and the extraordinary meal at our inaugural Story Feast gathering.
Chefs Erin and Mateo Mackbee of Krewe Restaurant and Flour & Flower Bakery at the Story Feast celebration
When I set out to find chefs for our first Story Feast dinner at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota, I wasn't looking for someone who could simply cook beautiful food. I was looking for partners who understood what we were trying to create, a gathering where food, place, and community converge into something greater than the sum of its parts.
I found that in Erin and Mateo Mackbee. And was heartened that Brother Aelred Senna from St. John’s couldn’t stop raving about them. And neither could any of my friends who live in the area.
The husband-and-wife team behind Krewe Restaurant and Flour & Flower Bakery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, not only brought their remarkable culinary talent to St. John's Abbey, but their philosophy: that food is a vehicle for connection, for healing, for community. Along the way, among so many other accolades, Chef Mateo has been nominated for a James Beard Award and Flour & Flower was listed by the NY Times as one of the 22 Best Bakeries in America.
I sat down with them before our inaugural gathering to learn more about their journey.
Can you share the journey that led you to open Krewe and Flour & Flower? What inspired you to put down roots in St. Joseph?
Mateo: It all started when we met in 2014. I had been searching for land to grow food, my vision was to teach kids how food grows, then let them follow it back to a restaurant in the cities where they could prepare it. Save the scraps and start the whole process over again.
I met a pastor in a bar, we both had shaved bald heads and knew similar people through our travels. I had been a DJ in a hip-hop group for years in St. Paul and Indianapolis. I was affectionately known as D-Big Sam in those circles, and there are people who still can't call me Mateo because they know me from that part of my life.
We struck up a friendship, and over probably four years of meeting and talking, he shared his vision for his little church on the prairie, this holistic spiritual space in the tiniest Lutheran church in the middle of nowhere. He invited us to central Minnesota, saying he had farmers whose kids didn't want to farm anymore, and maybe they'd have an acre or two for us to try.
We ended up meeting the owners of a local brewery who asked us to cook for them. Three days after we fed them that night, they slapped down this whole remodeling project, they scratched it up that night because they were like, "No, it's not going to work to have you in a separate building. We need it all combined because the food just knocked it out of the park."
What is the origin story of Krewe and Flour & Flower?
Erin: A professor from St. John's brought his friend out to eat at the brewery. His friend owns the building that Krewe is in now and he'd been searching for a New Orleans-style chef for years. He asked if we wanted to open a restaurant specifically focused on New Orleans cuisine. We'd only been open three months and Mateo was like, "Well, hell yeah!" We just moved out to central Minnesota, we've only been open for three months, how in the world are we going to be able to do this? But we went to tour the space.
Mateo: At that time, the owner had no purpose for the building that Flour & Flower is in, he was going to turn it into a big gallery. But immediately I was like, "What's the next steps?" He invited us to New Orleans for recon and R&D, and on the plane ride back we were like, "Let's figure out how to do this." How can you say no to a situation like that?
Erin: Then Mateo asked if we could turn the second building into a bakery, and the owner was like, "Why not?" So we just added another business into the mix. The structure was built but it was still a dirt floor in the restaurant and completely wide open, it took almost a year to get it all built out.
“We look outward, not necessarily inward. We're using food as a vehicle to do good. There's a footprint and legacy being laid, and we're hoping to pull other people into that momentum.” Mateo Mackbee
St. Joseph has really become known as a culinary destination. What makes this little town so special?
Mateo: We were lucky to arrive when there were already people establishing roots, Bad Habit Brewing was expanding, Milk & Honey Ciders (a sponsor of the inaugural Story Feast dinner) was about to launch. We landed at perfect timing to boost what was already moving. I think we inspired more folks to follow their dreams, and we all became a support system for each other.
Erin: There's a food desert out there, from New London to Spicer to Willmar, there's only Chili's and Applebee’s. No independent restaurants. People were craving handmade, from-scratch food made with a lot of care. The weekend we opened, probably 600 people came through in one day. Our POS system broke, we had to take handwritten orders, we were on a two-hour wait. It didn't calm down for months because people could taste the love through our food.
“That moment will forever be instilled in why I get up at midnight some days, why we work 20-hour days. That one connection where you made someone's life a smidgen better on their lowest day, they knew they could come to us.” - Erin Mackbee
Story Feast from above (left photo credit: Tay Elhindi, right photo credit: Bailey Bassen
Community seems central to everything you do. Can you talk about that philosophy?
Erin: People aren't just looking for good food and high quality ingredients, they're seeking affection, connection, and support. They want to know they're not alone. When George Floyd was murdered, we organized donations for Minneapolis churches. The amount of people who came out to donate was insane. That was the moment people realized we're not here just to make money, we're here for a deeper purpose.
Opening during COVID, the bakery opened a week or two before we did, and our structure is all to-go so it was easy to maintain stability. We had lines wrapping around the building Wednesday through Sunday. People respected that we had face masks and only allowed two people in the building at a time.
Mateo: We've built our restaurants as community gathering spaces first. Whatever happens financially allows us to continue those gatherings. We look outward, not necessarily inward. We're using food as a vehicle to do good. There's a footprint and legacy being laid, and we're hoping to pull other people into that momentum.
“The difference is he ignited the passion inside of me, and that's the reason why I show up and cook every day, to try to get somebody's fire to burn a little bit brighter.” - Mateo Mackbee
Every dish seemed to legitimately make people smile, and sometimes even laugh out loud. It was pure joy.
What foundational things shape who you are as chefs?
Erin: For me, it's food memories. I hear Mateo talk about his family recipes that have been passed on for generations, and I can't relate to that because we weren't a family of recipes. My mom would have magazine clippings, my grandma has a whole recipe book of just clippings from different things. So there's no true recipe that defines our family.
For me, it's food memories like my grandma who lived in Omaha. We would visit her towards the end of July when peaches would be so ripe, and she would make us peach pie for breakfast. That for me is my way of having peach pie, only when I can get those beautiful Colorado peaches or local peaches. One bite puts me right back in her kitchen.
We respect the seasons, we're not serving fresh blueberry pie in January. We're intentional about our food, making sure we recognize not only history but where our food is headed.
Mateo: Food memories are always with me wherever I go, but it's also youth empowerment. I want to be a shining light for someone who loves food but doesn't know how to get into cooking. We open up our space for people to come in and get a taste of what that's like.
My basics culinary professor ended up showing up in the restaurant recently, I haven't seen him in 20 years. I just started crying. This man is so amazing. He cooked at Le Bernardin, went to the White House to meet Michelle Obama, started No Kid Hungry in the state of Minnesota. He's starting a post-secondary program at Eden Prairie for younger kids. At 60 years old, passion just pours out of him.
Erin: It was so cool to see Mateo as a student when his professor walked in. As soon as he came in, I was in the bakery, and Mateo was glossy-eyed. I got to sit down with them and watch him listen to his chef. In culinary school, you have one chef that sticks out to you. To see that side of him, he's always a chef to me, but to see him as a student sitting next to his professor, that was probably top five moments of my life.
Mateo: The difference is he ignited the passion inside of me, and that's the reason why I show up and cook every day, to try to get somebody's fire to burn a little bit brighter. At 52 years old, I'm still here before you come and I'm here after you leave. This is hard work, but there's a lot you can benefit from it.
“We're intentional about our food, making sure we recognize not only history but where our food is headed.” - Erin Mackbee
Chefs in their element! photo credit: Caitlin Abrams
Can you share a meaningful moment with guests that's kept you going?
Erin: We have a regular in the bakery, a young woman. We did some pastries for her baby shower in December, and her baby was due two days before Valentine's Day. She had a very traumatic miscarriage the day that the baby was due. The Sunday after, a family member came in to get stuff for the family, so I didn't see her right away, but I gave her a little bouquet of flowers.
The Friday after Valentine's Day, she came in and there was a line of people. We saw each other through the window and she skipped the line. I met her halfway into the bakery, and I've never clung onto someone or had someone cling onto me as hard as she did. We don't really know each other, I just know her first name from ordering, but we had this connection through food.
She sobbed for a minute. It was one of those moments where people around us kept moving because they knew this had to happen. That moment will forever be instilled in why I get up at midnight some days, why we work 20-hour days. That one connection where you made someone's life a smidgen better on their lowest day, they knew they could come to us. Never underestimate the power of flour and flower. Humans need carbs to get through it. And hugs. And beauty.
Mateo: For me, working with groups of students in different places, they end up coming in to eat or we go there and I cook with them, and you can see their progress. One of them just reached out asking if she could do a stage with us. It's a young lady we've been working with for two years. Those are the things that mean the most to me, going from "I don't think I can" to "maybe I think I can do this" mentality. If they go from that to focusing more because they want to be successful, that's everything.
You've worked with Brother Aelred from St. John’s and done events at the abbey before. What makes it such a special place for Story Feast?
Erin: I'm not religious at heart, I view it in a different way. So I always get a little apprehensive when I'm around folks that live faith every day. But the love that Brother Aelred and Sister Thomasette and all these nuns and brothers bring to us is without condition. I've never been treated so well in my life than we have been in this community.
Every time I see Brother Aelred, we spend 20 minutes talking about something, and it always makes my day so much brighter. It's been so much fun working with the nuns too. Everybody is so kind and checks in with you first, then moves on to what they need. In an industry where everybody only cares about what's coming next, when is that getting fired, I don't care how you're doing, it's been so refreshing to be immersed in all of it.
Mateo: My relationship to religion has always been about relationships. The relationships we've built are the cornerstone of everything. I can't say how many times people walk by the kitchen wanting to say hi, give you a pat on the head, a hug, a thank you. It pushes you right back to why we're here and what we're supposed to be doing.
When people leave and go to other events and spaces, they're like, "This is amazing. You guys are crazy. What are you doing out there?" When I saw the name and I was like, "That's us." Eleven years together, cooking together from two months after meeting, we ARE the story feast. Being part of this isn't serendipitous. It's faith. It was written before we got here. I always attribute all of that to the Holy Spirit. That's my spirituality, very Holy Spirit driven. She's all about the details, and she's making all this happen and bringing it all together.
Learn more about Chef Mateo’s restaurant Krewe →
Learn more about Chef Erin’s bakery Flour & Flower →
Read "From Krewe to the Abbey: The Mackbees' Harvest Homecoming" in Minnesota Monthly →
My newsletter
Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
Subscribe to What's Good Here →
Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →
Photographer Spotlight: Bailey Bassen at St. John’s Abbey
Bailey Bassen, Photographer | Story Feast at St. John's Abbey
Bailey Bassen reached out with a generous offer to photograph our inaugural gathering and delivered images that took our breath away. Meet the eye behind the lens.
Minnesota was at its autumn best on the day of our event at St. John’s Abbey.
Most of the images on this website exist because Bailey Bassen reached out with a generous offer: Would we be interested in having her photograph the event?
We'd never worked together. We'd never even met. But something about her portfolio, and her willingness to take a chance on a brand-new gathering, made us say yes immediately.
It was one of the best decisions we made.
A Leap of Faith
Photographing a Story Feast gathering is not a simple assignment. Our events unfold across hours, in multiple locations, with dozens of moving parts. At St. John's Abbey, that meant capturing:
Three simultaneous tours spread across the monastery grounds
A cocktail hour with 180 guests
A multi-course dinner by candlelight in a historic dining hall
The chefs, the partners, the details, the atmosphere
Interviews I conducted with key collaborators
I wasn't sure how to prepare someone for all of that. So I wrote Bailey a very detailed shot list, every moment, every partner, every angle I hoped we'd capture, and trusted that it would be enough.
Then the day arrived, and we barely crossed paths. I was managing the event. She was somewhere else entirely, doing her work. I caught glimpses of her moving quickly through the crowd, camera raised, but we didn't have time to check in.
I had no idea if we'd gotten what we needed.
And Then the Photos Arrived
When Bailey delivered her files, I understood.
Every moment was there. The tours: all three of them, happening simultaneously in different corners of the abbey were captured beautifully. The food, the table settings, the candlelight. The guests laughing, the chefs plating, the pottery glowing in the candlelight. The quiet moments and the joyful ones.
I still don't know how she did it. I imagine her sprinting from the organ workshop to the pottery studio to the church to The Great Hall and back again, catching every shot on the list and dozens I hadn't thought to ask for.
She didn't just document the day. She deeply understood it.
A Joy to Work With
Beyond her stunning work, Bailey was an absolute joy, professional, easygoing, and fully committed to capturing something special. She showed up ready, asked the right questions, and then disappeared into the work with quiet confidence.
If you're planning an event in Minnesota and need a photographer who can handle complexity, move fast, and deliver images very quickly that make you catch your breath, Bailey is your person.
Nearly every image on this site is Bailey's, unless otherwise noted. We're so grateful!
My newsletter
Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
Subscribe to What's Good Here →
Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →
Tour Spotlight: Organ Building & Woodworking at St. John's Abbey
Organ Building & Woodworking Tour at St. John's Abbey for Story Feast
Before dinner, guests toured Abbey Woodworking and the new organ building workshop, where a thousand-year Benedictine tradition is alive and thriving. A look inside one of our Story Feast tours.
An organ blueprint at St. John’s Abbey
A behind-the-scenes tour at our inaugural Story Feast gathering
Every Story Feast gathering includes more than a meal and a cocktail hour. We invite guests to explore the places where they dine, to understand what makes them extraordinary. At St. John's Abbey, that meant offering three optional tours before the cocktail hour. Every single one filled to capacity.
This is what we love about Story Feast guests: you come curious!
A Thousand Years of Benedictine Craft
The tour of Abbey Woodworking and the new organ building workshop wasn't just a behind-the-scenes look at a facility. It was a window into a tradition that reaches back more than a millennium.
Benedictine monks have been building pipe organs since at least the ninth century. As they spread across Europe, they carried with them not only prayer and scripture, but practical arts: bronze-casting, glass-making, wood-carving, and organ building. The monastery was a place of learning and making, where skills were passed from master to apprentice, and craft was considered a form of devotion.
Ora et Labora, pray and work, is the Benedictine motto. At St. John's, the two have never been separate.
The Workshop
Abbey Woodworking has operated at St. John's since the monastery's founding in 1856. The monks harvest lumber from their own 3,000 acres of forest, mill it on site, and build furniture that lasts for generations. Pieces made over 90 years ago are still in daily use.
In 2023, a brand new 30,000-square-foot woodshop opened, and with it, something remarkable: Saint John's Abbey Organ Builders, a world-class organ building workshop led by Austrian-born master builder Martin Pasi.
Pasi is among a small group of builders worldwide who create mechanical-action pipe organs entirely by hand, using methods unchanged for centuries. Every pipe is cast from molten lead. Every key is carved from cow bone. Every component is made in-house, one organ at a time.
He came to St. John's in 2019 to install an expansion of the Abbey church's organ, adding nearly 3,000 new pipes to the original 1961 instrument. During those seven months, he fell in love with the place. When he heard the monks were planning a new woodshop, he proposed something bold: merge his life's work with theirs.
Now, Pasi and his team build organs in Collegeville, training the next generation of builders in a craft that might otherwise disappear.
The woodworking shop at St. John’s Abbey
What Guests Experienced
On the evening of our gathering, guests walked through the new facility with members of the team. They saw raw lumber stacked for drying, tools arranged with monastic precision, and pipes in various stages of completion. They heard stories about the organs Pasi has built, for cathedrals in Omaha, Houston, and Cincinnati, and about the abbey's long history of making things by hand.
They also heard something harder to articulate: the quiet hum of a place where work is done slowly, carefully, and with intention.
Visit St. John’s Abbey Organ Builders →
Looking Ahead: 2026–2027 Season
For our upcoming season, Story Feast tours will be even more expansive. You'll have the option to spend a few days, or just one, or even just an hour, (or none at all if you’re strictly there for the feast!) immersing yourself in a place. Visiting off-site locations that tell the story of a location. Meeting the makers. Understanding the sense of place and identity that makes each location extraordinary.
Because a great meal isn't just about what's on the plate. It's about where you are, who made it, and what that place means.
My newsletter
Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
Subscribe to What's Good Here →
Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →
Partner Spotlight: Milk & Honey Cider At St. John’s Abbey
Milk & Honey Ciders at Story Feast’s Inaugural Event
We picked up kegs, Pommeau, and tulip glasses… and stayed for a cider tasting by the bonfire. A spotlight on Milk & Honey Ciders, our partner at St. John's Abbey.
A cider tasting at Milk & Honey Cider, photo: Jody Eddy
Some partnerships begin with an email. This one began with a bonfire.
A few days before our gathering at St. John's Abbey, we drove out to Milk & Honey Ciders, which is just down the road from the abbey, to pick up their contribution to the evening: kegs of their Estate Cider, bottles of their Pommeau, and, at their insistence, the proper tulip glasses to serve it in. They care about how their cider is experienced right down to the shape of the glass.
What I didn't expect was to stay for a tasting by the bonfire.
The Cidery
Milk & Honey sits in the rolling hills of Stearns County, just north of St. Joseph, Minnesota. The taproom overlooks their orchard, rows and rows of heirloom and traditional cider apple trees stretching toward open fields. It's the kind of place where you're invited to walk the grounds, watch the pressing operation, and settle in with a flight while the afternoon disappears.
Founded by Peter Gillitzer and partners, Milk & Honey focuses on dry, tannic, highly aromatic ciders made with minimal intervention. They source heirloom varieties from across the country, apples with names like Calville Blanc d'Hiver, Arkansas Black, and Kingston Black, and blend across multiple years of production. The result is cider that tastes like wine: complex, layered, meant to be savored.
Their motto: Let the apples shine.
That Afternoon
We arrived to pick up the kegs and ended up by the bonfire, tasting few of their crisp, refreshing ciders as the sun dropped behind the orchard. We talked about cider, about community, about what it means to make something by hand in a world that rewards speed.
The next day, they'd be pressing apples in the production room, fruit already harvested, the whole space fragrant with the aroma of bright, fresh apples. I wished I could stay for that. Next time.
Milk & Honey Cider, photo: Jody Eddy
What We Served
At St. John's Abbey, guests enjoyed Milk & Honey's Estate Cider throughout the evening. It’s dry, aromatic, and a perfect counterpoint to the richness of the meal. After dinner, we poured their Pommeau: a blend of apple brandy and fresh-pressed juice aged two years in barrels. Warm, spiritous, with notes of caramel, oak, and dried fruit. Served neat, in those tulip glasses, exactly as intended.
Visit Milk & Honey
The taproom is open Thursday through Sunday, year-round. Bring your own food, order a flight, and settle in. Each season offers something different: cozy winters by the fire, fall harvest energy, summer evenings on the patio. It's worth the drive.
My newsletter
Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
Subscribe to What's Good Here →
Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →
Partner Spotlight: Northstar Kombucha at St. John’s Abbey
Northstar Kombucha at Story Feast’s Inaugural Event
Northstar Kombucha partnered with Story Feast at our inaugural gathering at St. John's Abbey. Small-batch, organic kombucha brewed in Minnesota.
A bottle of Northstar Kombucha was sent home with every guest in their Story Feast goody bag.
One of the joys of hosting Story Feast gatherings is connecting guests with the makers behind what they're eating and drinking. At St. John's Abbey, that included Northstar Kombucha, a small-batch kombucha company based locally in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Throughout the evening, guests enjoyed Northstar's Raspberry Hibiscus kombucha, bright, refreshing, and a perfect complement to the rich courses coming out of the kitchen. And when they headed home, each guest left with a goody bag with one of the Northstar flavors: Grapefruit Basil, Lavender Ginger, Raspberry Hibiscus, White Peach, Strawberry Rose, Cherry Elderberry, Honey Ginger, and Blueberry Maple.
A Building Full of Makers
A few days before the event, I drove to pick up the kegs and goody bag bottles myself, and love where Northstar calls home.
They're based in a shared maker space that houses a small community of independent producers, each one crafting something by hand. It's the kind of building where you walk in for kombucha and leave with a deeper appreciation for the people doing the slow, careful work of building something real. This is what Minnesota's food and beverage scene looks like at its best: collaborative, community-rooted, and absolutely extraordinary.
About Northstar Kombucha
Northstar Kombucha is brewed in small batches using organic ingredients and live cultures. Their flavors are creative but balanced, the kind of kombucha you actually want to drink, not just tolerate for the health benefits. Full disclosure, it’s one of my all-time favorite kombucha brands so when they said yes to partnering with us for our inaugural event, I was over the moon!
You can find Northstar at co-ops and specialty grocers across Minnesota, or order directly from their website.
Northstar Kombucha’s ginger hibiscus kombucha being served at our Story Feast event at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota.
A Note on the Founder
We always invite our partners to join us at gatherings and we love when they can share their story directly with guests. One of Northstar's founders, Dan Fischer, couldn't make it to St. John's that night. When I invited him he explained that he was on dad duty with his kids. And honestly? That's exactly the kind of person we want to partner with!
My newsletter
Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
Subscribe to What's Good Here →
Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →
See the Menu: A Harvest Feast at St. John's Abbey
Story Feast Menu
The menu from our inaugural Story Feast gathering at St. John's Abbey, Minnesota: a multi-course harvest feast by James Beard semifinalist Mateo Mackbee and Erin Mackbee of Krewe and Flour & Flower Bakery.
Vespers cocktail creation during the Story Feast cocktail hour at our St. John’s Abbey gathering.
For our first-ever Story Feast, we gathered 180 guests in the historic dining hall at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, the same room that has sheltered Benedictine monks for generations.
The meal was created by Mateo and Erin Mackbee, the husband-and-wife team behind Krewe Restaurant and Flour & Flower Bakery in nearby St. Joseph, Minnesota. Mateo is a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Midwest. Erin's Flour & Flower was named one of the best bakeries in America by The New York Times in 2024.
But their impact goes far beyond awards. Since opening in 2020, Mateo and Erin have become anchors of the St. Joseph community: confronting social justice issues, championing local producers and other culinary establishments in the region, and proving that a small-town restaurant can change the culture around it and inspire community members to create a support system rooted in empathy, kindness, and of course, incredible food! Their food honors both ancestry and a circular economy that sustains itself and thrives.
Their presence at our table made this gathering unforgettable and we were so honored that they created this extraordinary, carefully planned meal and joined us at the Story Feast table!
As Minnesota Monthly wrote: "The dinner served as a meditation on community, craft, and care."
Read the full Minnesota Monthly article about our event and to learn more about Chefs Erin and Mateo
Read Jody Eddy’s interview with Chefs Erin and Mateo
The St. John’s Abbey Story Feast Menu
A Multi-Course Family-Style Feast Inspired by Minnesota Traditions & Seasons
Shared Bites
Walleye Rillettes on Rye Crisps
Wild Rice Arancini with Cranberry Compote
Pickled Garden Accents
Salads & Bread
Seasonal Harvest Salad
Roasted Beet Salad with Horseradish Cream
Rustic Breads & Compound Butters
Main Platters
Braised Short Ribs with Juniper Jus
Maple-Glazed Roast Chicken
Foraged Mushroom & Barley Casserole
Sides
Charred Carrots with Maple & Hazelnuts
Seasonal Grain Pilaf
Corn Grits with Smoked Chili Oil
Desserts
Honeycrisp Apple Galette with Cardamom Cream
Church Basement Sweet Bar Sampler
My newsletter
Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.
Subscribe to What's Good Here →
Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →
Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →