Lost Kitchen Restaurant Made Chef's Small Hometown A Dining Destination : The Salt : NPR

Lost Kitchen Restaurant Made Chef's Small Hometown A Dining Destination : The Salt : NPR:



"One of America's most coveted dining experiences is a 40-seat restaurant in a converted grist-mill in the rural village of Freedom, Maine.



Chef Erin French, who is self-taught, opened the Lost Kitchen in her hometown of Freedom without much of a plan. She loved the space, and at first thought she would make English muffins and offer brunch, not convinced that the village of just over 700 people could become a dinner destination.



"When I first decided that I wanted to do this, everyone thought I was completely crazy," French says. "Why would anyone come all this way to have dinner?""



Well, come they have — in droves. French's food, with its focus on local, fresh, unpretentious cooking, has created a legion of fans. Each year, the restaurant opens reservations on April 1. But this year, things got out of control.



"The phones rang to a point where our security system went down and we had over 10,000 phone calls stream in in the matter of a few hours, French says. "The entire restaurant was booked."



Booked for the whole year. Calls came in from as far away as New Zealand, along with offers to open another restaurant in Las Vegas. But French first learned to cook in her dad's diner and is committed to keeping things simple.



"The food at Lost Kitchen is not Earth-shattering or ground-breaking in any way, and it's not fancy — we don't sous vide anything, we don't make foams or fancy purees, it's just simple food," she says. "I don't want anyone to feel intimidated when they look at this and I never want to plate a dish that you have to look at it and say, 'What is it?' "

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