Saturday, May 17, 7:00 p.m.
Members $85, guests $110

Terroir, or the connection between food and the soil that produces it, may be a concept popularized by the French, but at Goodfellows, the regional cuisine cooked up by Kevin Cullen is distinctly American.

From the line-caught fish and local game that comprise the carefully chosen menu, to the all-American wine list, a meal at Goodfellows is the culmination of Cullen’s collaboration with local farmers and producers. Together, they create dishes that Cynthia Glover of The New York Times called “intriguing” and “poetic,” and that City Pages critic Dara Moskowitz deemed “artful, inventive, adventurous, and tasty as all get-out.”

Cullen knows a thing or two about this region and its food. Minnesota born and bred, the chef started his career working at some of the finest restaurants in Minneapolis before moving to Texas to become executive sous-chef at Houston’s Carlyle Restaurant. He made a name for himself in the Lone Star State, becoming the executive chef at the Victoria Plaza Club in Victoria, and sous-chef at the celebrated Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas. It wasn’t long before Texas restaurateurs Stephan Pyles and John Dayton tapped him to become the sous-chef at their newly opened restaurant, Goodfellows, back in Cullen’s home state. He became executive chef in 1992, and has since won fame and fortune for the restaurant, which has been named the top Twin Cities restaurant spot in the Zagat guide, and has been inducted into the Nation’s Restaurant News Dining Hall of Fame. The eatery has seen more than its share of AAA Four-Diamond awards, as well as a DiRoNA Award and Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for each year Cullen has been at the helm.

The challenges brought by the changing seasons inspire Cullen, and he rises to the occasion with dishes like Lake Winnipeg walleye with barbecued frogs’ legs and blue corn soufflé, hot smoked Wisconsin brook trout with Asian pear and horseradish, and truffle-glazed Wisconsin veal chop with vegetable gratin.

Happily, you don’t have to travel halfway across the country to sample such delicacies. The Beard House, once home to the Dean of American Cooking himself, provides the ideal setting for these regional American specialties.