Chef Dave Ellis

The burger I would’ve made at the end of “The Menu”

Here I have a classic burger with a beet hummus, roasted red cabbage, Brussels sprouts, purple kale, sweet potato, pickled red onions, goat cheese, tomato, and arugula.

This monstrous creation was inspired by those incredibly large Bloody Mary’s that look like they could feed a small family. This behemoth was not for the weak of heart and was called The Strawberry Explosion. It consisted of a double stack of pancakes made from a strawberry batter covered in a strawberry frosting, then topped with cake balls, strawberry pocky sticks, strawberry ice cream, a cheesecake frosting, and a strawberry compote.
By the time this was on its way out of the kitchen I couldn’t help but feeling like Dr. Frankenstein watching my monster come to life.

These are two of my favorite seasonal special cinnamon rolls I made for the month of October. They both involved a new technique that I discovered thanks to my curious mind and the love of mixing sweet and savory flavors. I thought to myself, “I bet someone has candied pumpkin before.” It turns out candied pumpkin is a tradition that is multiple centuries old.

Candied pumpkin, or Calabaza en Tacha is a traditional Mexican recipe that dates back centuries to pre-Hispanic times when natives of the northwestern state of Michoacán would cook the squash in a fire pit oven with honey. Now a days you can typically find this dish during Día de los Mu***os, a holiday meant to remember, honor, and celebrate departed family members that have passed.

After finding out the long and celebrated tradition of candied pumpkin I knew I had to honor that while also being true to my style.
I started off by breaking down my locally grown sugar pumpkin like I would any squash and then cooking it in a brown sugar simple syrup with some of my favorite spices that consist of cinnamon sticks, star anise, allspice berries, clove, nutmeg, coriander, mace, and peppercorn. Once the pumpkin reached its desired texture I strained it out and set aside some of the remaining liquid to be reduced into a syrup.

This first cinnamon roll I paired the candied pumpkin with a pumpkin crème anglaise, pumpkin spice syrup, and a pumpkin frosting.
The second roll I ran featuring this technique I decided the cover the candied pumpkin in chocolate and paired it with a frosting and glaze I made with pumpkin butter that I got from as well as freeze dried milk duds from Silver Harvest, a local vendor I met through the

Adventure awaits at every farmers market I find myself at. Last month while stopping by the I was able to get my knife sharpened and repaired while I shopped the local vendors and obtained some seasonal produce including cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, ghost peppers, and Carolina reaper peppers. I also stopped by and purchased a beautiful custom made cutting board that’ll serve as a perfect background for future pictures.

I absolutely love chorizo and everything it brings to a dish. I’ll never forget my first time experiencing chorizo and I feel obligated to share it with anyone that hasn’t.
This dish is an old favorite and my style in a nutshell. I believe in using new exciting flavors presented in a familiar way to make them more approachable. I call this Chorizo Benedict. I play on a traditional classic but using different ingredients that consist of chorizo, avocado, salsa verde, a soft poached egg, and pickled onions.

I love cooking with lavender and recently I was gifted some delicious lavender cherry granola from and it inspired this beautiful market roll.
To accomplish the flavors and textures I was aiming for I went with a lemon lavender crème anglaise, a lavender blueberry syrup, cherry lavender granola, fresh blueberries, and calendula petals for color.
Crème anglaise is French for “English cream” and is a custard like sauce. I started off by steeping some fresh lavender flower from in heavy cream. Once strained I then slowly added the hot cream to a sugar and egg yoke mixture while constantly whisking. This technique is referred to tempering your eggs. It’s important to whisk constantly and vigorously to gradually raise the temperature of the eggs with out cooking them and making scrambled eggs.
Once all the ingredients are combined I returned the mixture to the pan on a low heat while continuing to whisk. This will allow the sauce to thicken to the desired consistency without cooking the eggs. To avoid cooked eggs it would be best to use a double boiler.
When I was happy with the texture of the sauce I added the zest of several lemons and then put the sauce into an ice bath to drop the temp as soon as possible. I love using this recipe because it’s versatile and simple to change up the flavor to fit whatever recipe being made.
When making the syrup I used fresh blueberries and grapes from Wesenberg Produce, all grown here in Michigan. I made the fruit into a delicious compote and then steeped it with more fresh lavender flower and strained once finished.
This roll has been the most popular and my favorite market roll special to date.