Artist Spotlight: Tennessee Truffle

Just over six weeks ago Nat Russell and partner Rob Doney started working on the slender brick-walled and concrete-floored restaurant located at 125 W. 1st St in Sanford. Live blues recordings emanate soulfully from the kitchen along with an industrious hum and homey aromas. The space has been retrofitted to feature blackboard tables and a whitewashed trims that effuse rustic charm while shelves are lined with homemade preserves and a fresh berry pie winks enticingly from the countertop.
Tennessee Truffle began as a pop-up restaurant, that planned to stick around town for only a month. Their lease was up last Friday and because of the overwhelming success they earned during this trial run, the crew has decided to extend their lease (and their menu before long) and will set roots down here in Sanford.
A native of Memphis, TN, Russell found himself fresh-faced and 22-years-old, just out of the military when he picked up a job doing prep work in a Japanese/French fusion kitchen there and realized that food would become both his passion and career.
The highlights of his resume include training at the Culinary Institute of America after which he and his wife bounced around the country doing seasonal kitchen work with hearty passes around Old Faithful, the Florida Keys, Memphis and NYC before settling down for five years at Winter Park’s Luma then another five year spate as chef de cuisine at Cafe de France right up the road.
The grinding hours gave Russell pause when fortune would have it that his best friend Rob Doney (whom he met while working the line in the Keys) was living back in the Orlando-area, too.
“I should have stayed with my daughter, Ella,” he said during an interview last Friday. “That’s the main reason, she’s 6 and I never saw her. She’s going into first grade and I don't know where the time went,” he confessed his truest motive for getting off Park Ave. “Plus, I needed to branch out on my own and do something different.”
The two and their wives (also best friends) hatched up a scheme involving southern cooking at its most elemental. Biscuits were central to their concept with an emphasis on collard greens, grits and classic southern comfort foods.
Russell’s biscuits are special, indeed. “I start making them every single night right after the shift ends,” said Nat. “It’s all from scratch. I use vegetable lard and frozen butter.” He shaves it down using a cheese grater over a sheet of parchment paper so that it can be added it to the flour in parts to keep the temperature cool and the dough from becoming over-worked.
“When the whole thing started we were thinking about a biscuit bar, that’s why everything is on biscuits. I always wanted to have place for sandwiches and biscuits because no matter what type of food I’m cooking when I’m working —whether it’s French, Jamaican, Italian— at the end of the night I go home and eat a simple sandwich. With my roots in Memphis, I wanted to do something southern and there’s nothing more southern than collards and grits and the biscuits are a really great vehicle to your mouth,” he laughed.
Nat’s devotion to fresh, delicious ingredients is apparent in the quality of food “It’s the only way to go because it’s the only way I can feel good about what I’m doing.” said Russell.
After signing a six-week lease on the empty storefront and spending two weeks doing demolition and renovation they were ready to open for one month. “I was afraid of going all in because I’m broke already and I don't want to go bankrupt,” he said with whole-hearted honesty. Years’ worth of kitchen equipment tucked away into their Lake Jessup garage found new life at the 1st Street eatery.
 “Because I've been doing French for so long, I wanted to get back to my roots and do southern and just cook simple food the right way,” said Nat explaining how their initial concept of a biscuit bar evolved into the current breakfast and lunch spot.
Right now they’re open from 7:30 a.m. til 2 p.m., but future plans include expanding the menu and hours to include dinners before too long.

Jessica Pirani can be reached at JessieBerger@yahoo.com.