Umami Cafe is culinary culmination for colorful local chef - Dakota News Now

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) — With unique flavor bursting out of every bite of chicken marsala or lemon garlic shrimp pasta — or a bevy of breakfast dishes, old fashioned meat-and-potato entrees with a kick, or soups, salads, pastas, desserts — the name says it all at Umami Cafe and Catering.

”It was kind of a risk to name it that because those who know the word in the culinary world — it’s the culmination of flavors and profiles, and you want to make sure you hit that perfect balance,” Umami owner and chef Jessica Blodgett said.

“That’s what every chef strives for. At least, the higher echelon chefs.”

Webster’s defines umami as “the taste sensation that is produced by several amino acids and nucleotides and has a rich or meaty flavor characteristic of cheese, cooked meat, mushrooms, soy, and ripe tomatoes.” One foodie website describes umami as “pleasant savory taste.”

Blodgett’s own short depiction is “the taste of deliciousness,” something she achieved on Monday morning with her pork chorizo breakfast burrito and chicken fettucine pesto that she concocted for Dakota News Now’s “Monday Munchies.”

Those in the Sioux Falls culinary community would have a difficult time denying that Blodgett has achieved “higher echelon” status in the last dozen or so years, going from a “30-year-old woman with three small children that nobody would hire” to laboring in some of the most well-respected restaurants in the city, to owning an eatery that is receiving rave reviews — at least, from this reporter.

In less than a year, Umami has taken flight in its first-floor space in the Signature Flight Support building on the grounds of the private airport next to the Sioux Falls Regional Airport. The venue is open to the general public, and Blodgett serves a wide range of taste bud-awakening dishes, each reflecting the colorful and spicy personality of the chef.

“She’s definitely unique,” son and sous chef DJ Morales said, laughing. “You know, I wouldn’t have my mother any other way because she’s very passionate. If she feels a certain way about something, she’ll let you know, and you know where she stands, always.”

Blodgett’s passion for the kitchen happened by neither nature nor nurture. Instead, by necessity.

The Vermont native moved all over the country as the daughter of a church pastor — from Vermont to Virginia, from New Hampshire to New Jersey, and from North Dakota to South Dakota, landing in Sioux Falls in 1992 as a teenager because her parents were told it was a nice place to live and raise a family. Save for a college stint in Guatemala, she has lived in Sioux Falls ever since.

But the culinary bug was not in her blood. It bit her almost by accident. Blodgett’s mother “hated cooking,” and for her first decade out of college, Blodgett worked as a collections agent, sales representative at banks, and as a translator. Whatever job she worked, she would come home tired at the end of the day and whip up the fastest thing she could in 30 minutes or less.

“I didn’t start out life being a good cook,” Blodgett said. “Really, not good at all. But, when you have three hungry babies, you have to make do, and you have to learn. And, they’re picky. So, you have to be creative about it.”

“Because you know, they’re hungry. They’re waiting. So that just really taught me to put things together and try new things and work around their needs, too, because they have special requirements. So, that is where I really started to become good at making food.”

It wasn’t until a friend asked Blodgett to make the food for her wedding that it occurred to Blodgett that she could make a living cooking.

“Once I did their wedding, then more people wanted me to do their weddings, and it snowballed into kind of just, ‘Hey, you could actually make this a career.’”

Blodgett’s success didn’t happen overnight. She applied for jobs at all kinds of restaurants, but nobody would hire her.

“So, I said, ‘Alright, fine,’ and I bought a food truck.”

And so, “Bite Me: Mobile Bites” was born. Blodgett’s restaurant-on-wheels served what would become one of her staples — cheesecake in a waffle bowl. She drove around serving hungry patrons all around town before selling the food truck two years later.

“I still don’t know, ten years later, how I did that and succeeded at that, because I didn’t know what I was doing,” Blodgett said. “It was all guts and passion and not really a lot of knowledge, and zero experience, but it was a successful venture. We had a really fun two summers.”

After that, Blodgett had developed enough connections and a respected reputation to be hired in local restaurants over the next several years — The Barrel House, Old Soul Cafe, McNally’s Irish Pub, Tavern 180, and Acoustic. She also learned how to cook and serve “in bulk” at massive events for thousands of people at the Sioux Falls Convention Center, Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, and Sioux Falls Stadium, better known as “The Birdcage.”

Her ability to figure out how to make flavorful food for her three young finicky eaters would continue to define her philosophy, as did the guidance of one of the chefs she cooked under. Most chefs make a menu and stick to it militantly, Blodgett said.

But once, a customer asked for something that was not on the menu. Blodgett wanted to say “no.” But her chef asked her if she could make it. She said “yes.” His response — why say no when you can say yes?

That started Blodgett on her path to cooking to cater to customers. She stumbled upon her first ownership of a restaurant last year, when the tenant of the eatery in the Signature building was looking to sell and asked Blodgett if she knew of anyone who might be interested.

“I said, ‘I would be willing to if you let me be interested,’” Blodgett said with a laugh. “And she’s like, ‘I was hoping you would say that.’”

When Umami opened to the public on Nov. 1 of last year, Blodgett started with a solid menu. That didn’t last long.

”We don’t have a menu anymore,” Blodgett said. We put up suggestions every day, every week. But then, people come in and, low and behold, every time, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to ask for what they want, and if I can do it, I do it. So, that’s what kind of food we do. Whatever you want, whatever is in my ability to do is what we do.”

But since Umami opened almost a year ago in the Signature Flight Support building, customers have come to discover what her signature dishes are.

”The breakfast burrito is super, super popular,” Blodgett said. “We also make all of our pasta sauces from scratch to order. So, our chicken marsala is our number one seller. We do a lot of soups that people really, really enjoy. I do a chicken dumpling that I can’t even keep in the house. I can’t. I make it, it’s gone. Same with cheesecake. I can’t keep up with that, either.”

Umami is the first restaurant Blodgett has owned, but it isn’t her biggest undertaking. Two years ago, she became the executive chef for the Sioux Falls Canaries. Prior to that, she was part of a third-party concessions vendor at the baseball team’s games. In 2022, the team decided to shift gears and make all its food in-house, with Blodgett in charge.

Over the course of two seasons, she has cooked and led a staff of dozens for 100 games and well over an average of 1,000 people per night.

She refined the flavor of “ballpark classics” that she thought needed a new kick, without rocking any boats — hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwursts, chicken fingers, curly fries, and pulled pork sandwiches. But she made her true mark at The Birdcage with additions like street corn, chicken bacon ranch wraps, veggie wraps, and her trademark cheesecake waffle cones — strawberry, cookie dough, and Oreo — to go along with pop-up “specials” like shredded beef quesadillas.

And she made it personal. Her mission was to make people make plans to eat their supper at the games — not at home or somewhere else before or after them — and for folks to notice how ballpark food could be just as savored as eating out at any popular or critically acclaimed sit-down restaurant in town.

“Jess has done a tremendous job the past two seasons as we transitioned our concessions in-house,” Canaries president Brian Jamros said. “Her passion is incredible, and that certainly was evident in her work with us.”

”The Canaries experience has been an amazing experience,” Blodgett said. “Has it changed me? 100 percent. It’s taught me things that I’ll take forever.”

On Wednesday, the Birds will host the Kansas City Monarchs in the first round of the American Association playoffs. It may or may not be their last game at home in 2023, depending on the outcome of the best-of-three series.

But whenever the season ends, “Chef Jess” is flying away from The Birdcage to devote all of her professional time to Umami.

“Ultimately, we are in a great place moving forward as she turns her attention to her own cafe, and we certainly wish her the best moving forward,” Jamros said.

”I love it very much,” Blodgett said of her time with the baseball club. “But, having this cafe is my baby, and it’s very time consuming, as well. So, it’s just kind of come to that point where there just wasn’t time to take care of both babies, and I had to give one up.”

Blodgett is looking forward to setting more concrete hours of operation at Umami and will have more opportunity to bring her catering to events. Like her food truck and her time at The Birdcage, she is starting to see customers who are becoming regulars.

“We have a really great time,” Blodgett said. “It’s literally everything you could ever ask for and then some.”

Copyright 2023 KSFY. All rights reserved.

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