Ramble: A Taste of the Seasons
By Stacy Moser | Photos by JUSTIN BORJA
Chef Jacob Hilbert makes himself comfortable in an armchair at the front of his new restaurant, Ramble, where there’s a clear view across the room into his kitchen. He seems relaxed and graciously agrees to chat—even though dinner service is set to begin in less than an hour. He can see the cooks busily chopping, stirring and sautéing at their stations, and they occasionally cross the dining room to ask the chef to taste their preparations.
Hilbert has previously tasted success as the executive chef and owner of The Hollow in Georgetown, a popular eatery that he closed in March 2018 in order to move his business nearer to his home in Temple. “I’d been driving from Temple to Georgetown for five years,” he says, shaking his head. “One day my wife, Lynda, and I stopped here and thought it was such a cool place. We just like Salado. There’s something about it. We saw that this restaurant was available and, from a business-model standpoint, it was a completely ridiculous idea to remodel it and open up here. But sometimes you just have to go with your gut. So we threw caution to the wind,” he explains. “And, thus far, the response has been pretty phenomenal.”
This newest venture for the entrepreneurial chef is set in a charming little house where he and his team have created a rustic setting and ambience as a showcase for his farm-to-table cuisine. The property sits on three partially wooded acres, allowing Hilbert enough space to establish numerous garden beds filled with herbs, fruit and vegetables and he has converted an old cotton gin into an outdoor event space. Another addition to the property is a family-friendly Farmhouse Grill next door to the main building, where more casual fare is served.
When the conversation turns to his cooking style, Hilbert admits that he is a bit obsessed with homegrown ingredients that hale from Central Texas. He is fascinated with the notion of terroir, the characteristic flavor imparted to an ingredient by the environment in which it lives and grows. Ramble’s organic garden is a source of pride for him and his staff, and passersby often stop to admire its bounty. Even in cold winter months, the chef knows he will be able to harvest many herbs and vegetables, and he already has shelves filled with jars of dried herbs or preserved produce for later use.
Hilbert becomes introspective when he discusses how he honors local, fresh ingredients in his dishes. “I think we need to recognize that not just the ingredients, but the people are also part of the terroir. That’s something that a lot of chefs forget. The people who live around you are as much a part of the environment as the sorrel that grows outside, or the acorns in the trees or the watercress that grows in the creek. I want my food to reflect the people here, their preferences, their choices, what they’ve become accustomed to—their own food memories.”
He says he doesn’t want play it too safe, though. “On one end of the scale, you could be cooking chicken-fried steak all day,” he says. “And I love chicken-fried steak, but there are a thousand other places people can go for that. I’m trying to take the ingredients that grow around here that people are accustomed to and interpret them a bit differently. The idea is to express the ingredient in a new, interesting way. There’s something really wonderful about seeing a plate of food and recognizing what the components are, but realizing you’ve never seen it served that way. That’s my challenge.”
He shrugs his shoulders as he recalls the start of his career as an ambitious young chef 20 years ago in North Carolina. “I had this attraction to the world of hyper-modern cookery. I wanted to be the guy making duck bubbles and lamb foam,” he chuckles.
“But then I had what I call a ‘Peach Epiphany,’” he says. “We’d gotten some South Carolina peaches in and I decided I was going to make peach caviar with it. Take it apart and use hydrocolloids and blah, blah, blah. And I took a bite of that delicious peach and thought, ‘What the hell am I doing? Why am I going to do that to this peach? What did it ever do to me?’
“Creative people sometimes think if there isn’t something technically impressive about their work, people won’t recognize it as being good.” He says that it’s taken determination to avoid the temptation to dazzle diners with over-the-top techniques. He focuses on keeping his dishes clean, comforting and unpretentious, concentrating on combinations of flavors that elevate even the simplest ingredients. “It isn’t easy, because you feel this innate desire to show people all the amazing stuff you can do. Sometimes a good winter squash is just best roasted, you know? We don’t have to make a pudding out of it.”
Already, Ramble’s food is turning heads in Salado. And loyal diners make the trek from miles away to enjoy Hilbert’s cuisine inside the cozy dining room or outside on the flagstone-lined patio.
“This is such a great opportunity,” he says. “We’re doing our best to bring the genuine Texas taste and experience to the plate.”
Ramble | 109 Royal St., Salado | RambleRestaurant.com
Interpreting Hanukkah’s Cuisine
Chef Hilbert’s mother is Jewish and his stepfather is Christian—so both Christmas and Hanukkah were celebrated when he was growing up. “Typically, we’d get together and have a big dinner for Hanukkah with my whole family,” he says. “So I’m offering a Hanukkah-inspired dinner menu at Ramble in December for Jews who live in the area and also for those who just might be interested in seeing what it’s all about.” Chef Hilbert serves his version of Lamb Tagine with Couscous for a special Hanukkah dinner event at Ramble.
