Fruition's Dish With a Following: The Pasta Carbonara

The pasta Carbonara at Fruition has been a hot dish for eight years now. When chef Alex Seidel first put it on the menu in 2007, he couldn't have guessed that it would gain such a following. "Like many ideas, the dish came from the ingredients. I really enjoy pasta - making it and eating it. I mean, who doesn't like bacon, eggs, and pasta?"

The process of building this Carbonara starts at Fruition Farm in Larkspur where you'll find the pigs who give the pork belly, the herbs grown in the greenhouse, and the sheep milk for the ricotta that goes in the pasta and the pecora that flavors the broth. Once in Denver, the pork belly brines overnight and the cavatelli pasta is hand-made. Both items finally make it into a creamy broth with peas and sous vide egg perches on top. Black pepper, another sprinkle of cheese, and leafy watercress finish it off.

It's one of only two items on the menu that appear every season—the other being the potato-wrapped oysters Rockefeller. "Honestly, I don't know what would happen if we took if off the menu. There are definitely people who come in specifically to eat it," Seidel shared smiling.