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A Q&A with chef Lane Regan about seasonal cooking in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
If there is a chef who has blown open the American understanding of Midwestern cuisine, it is Lane Regan. At Elizabeth, the Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant they founded and ran until the pandemic that drew Noma comparisons, they composed tasting menus with a kaleidoscope of farmed and foraged regional ingredients: Young milkweed pods, which have a jalapeño popper–like vibe when fried; hen of the woods mushrooms, which were steeped for tea; wild rice, puffed for a savory crispy rice treat that also featured a sliver of cured bear leg.
Lane bought a cabin and 150 acres of land surrounded by the Upper Peninsula’s Hiawatha National Forest in 2018 to create what would become the Milkweed Inn. The B&B welcomes 10 guests a weekend from May to October for an escape whose culinary delights are capped off by a 15-course tasting menu Saturday night. Since setting up camp there, Lane’s cooking — always rural-inspired and heavy on wild things — has taken a Michigander turn. They write in their second book, Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir (available on Thriftbooks and on Amazon): “The meals I serve are a story of the land. You get to taste what the Upper Peninsula — the Midwest — tastes like.”
You can nearly taste those meals as you read Fieldwork, which came out in 2023. You can also feel how memory, trauma, and recipes alike are passed down, and how, above all else, the seasons are in charge of what’s for dinner on the 40-mile strip of land between Lakes Michigan and Superior. For a window into their U.P. cuisine and its seasonal rhythms, we caught up with the chef by email as they were preparing for winter.
The following Q&A has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Caroline Saunders: Two of the many foods you wrote about in Fieldwork that made me want to eat my way through the Upper Peninsula were the truck-stop fried chicken thighs and mojos, or breaded and seasoned potato wedges, that you get nearly every Monday. That made me hungry to know what else about U.P. food culture you love. For you, what are a couple other iconic foods of the region?
Lane Regan: Well, of course, pasties. And pierogi, which I’ve always made and have always been popular. When guests come to Milkweed who have been along for my journey all these years, they are always delighted to have them. As for other defining U.P. foods, I think of the farmers — whatever they are growing here is special, because we have such a short growing season and so much sand in our soil. They work hard and grow some of the best-tasting vegetables I’ve had.
CS: Your style of cooking has been described as having a deep connection to the surrounding landscape — whether that’s to nearby farms, as you just mentioned, or to your garden, the lakes, and the woods that stretch out around Milkweed Inn. Can you share a favorite dish from the wild landscape of the U.P.?
LR: One of my favorite dishes starts with collecting lobster mushrooms and making a miso from it. It ages one year; then the following year, I collect the lobsters again and sear them in the miso, along with a dandelion-flower vinegar, and garnish the dish with wild blueberries that I’ve made into a molasses. I like to make a lot of misos, preserves, and other sauces with the wild ingredients.
CS: Let’s talk about how seasonality affects your cooking. This story will come out in January, when snow blankets the forest around you; but you and I are emailing in late October, when the temperatures are just starting to dip into the 30s at night. As fall deepens, how is your cooking changing?
LR: Our menus are determined by a few CSA’s from the farmers — most recently we’ve moved into fall and winter squashes. There is a lot more infusing we do this time of year — things that last all year but aren’t necessarily something that is easy to eat by itself. I’ve been out foraging for wintergreen today; I’ll make an ice cream with that. We also do cedar marshmallows and dried wild mushroom powders infused into dumplings and noodles.
CS: I know from our emails that this year will be the first time you’re staying at your cabin through the winter. You also told me you want to eventually have guests stay during the winters — that you’re hoping to “create a little winter wonderland.” When you get to that point, how do you imagine your menus will change in deep winter?
LR: Lots of preserves and ferments, more rustic. From spring through fall, my menus are very pescatarian- and vegetarian-friendly. I anticipate that being here in the winter will make it a little more protein focused. I’ve been canning tomatoes and plan to make a fantastic tomato soup.
CS: As you look ahead to spring, what are you most looking forward to cooking?
LR: When I think of spring, I think of bounty. The shoots of many things are edible and are some of my favorite greens to cook with — just to name a few, milkweed, ostrich fern, fiddleheads, strawberry flowers, dandelion, cattail, and beech leaves.
