MEET: In the woods with EXEC. CHEF ELLIOTT VOGEL
Executive Chef + Certified Forager Elliott Vogel of The Delaware Restaurant | Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
Executive Chef Elliott Vogel talks foraging, creativity + choosing a simple life.
Interview : Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing + Stephen Struss/The Dishing
Shoot locationS: Undisclosed upstate + The Delaware Restaurant, Albany, N.Y.
Tastemaker: Executive Chef Elliott Vogel
Role: Executive Chef + certified forager| IG @chef_elliott1
Where: The Delaware | IG: @thedelawarealbany
Hometown: Albany, N.Y.
Current city: Albany, N.Y.
Personal style: Equipped and ready for work. I even forage in a chef outfit.
Listening to: Anything that’s calm so I can focus on cooking. If the music is angry it gets in the food. I like old school 1930s jazz and blues and classic rock up to the 1980’s. It changed after that.
Favorite classic cocktail or non-alc drink: Lemonade
Coffee or tea – and what’s your order: Coffee with cream and sugar.
Biggest professional industry influence(s): I’m always learning. I’d say Chef Courtney Withey from SCCC was a big influence on me right out of high school.
Industry trend that should end: Speaking without humility.
The Dishing talks with tastemakers in the hospitality industry + trailblazers at the intersection of food, culture + art. In this tastemaker interview, we talk with Chef Elliott Vogel, a veteran chef, certified forager, mentor + occasional content creator.
Chef, thanks for talking with The Dishing! When I called to talk you were already in the woods at 8 a.m. I know that foraging is a huge part of your identity as a chef. Where do you generally go in the Hudson Valley/Capital Region?
So, 1 hour drive away is generally the furthest I go. I pay attention to rain, temperature, time and humidity and so spring, summer and fall months yield the best results for me. Generally spots within 100 meters of a water source. I do it so I can pick the freshest, healthy wild mushrooms. If you order them they are 9 days old and picked for weight rather than the aroma you get with foraging for fresh mushrooms.
What do you forage for by season?
Early spring is a fun rush every year. Fiddleheads, ramps and then morel mushrooms all come up within a two week period. It’s always a goal to have all three on menu and paired with either local lamb or Hudson Valley duck. These are the most trying ingredients to obtain each year. Most of winter I’m thinking about spring. And then late spring into early summer we have golden oysters mushrooms and chaga. Summertime is magical…. lobster mushrooms, hedgehog, black trumpet, chanterelles, yellow foot chanterelles, mulberries, raspberries, blackberries, smooth chanterelles, beefsteak mushrooms, chicken of the woods. And by fall or early winter you get the real meaty and nearly invisible hen of the woods. I’m a certified forager but there are many edible mushrooms I don’t forage for simply because of the marketability of the item, perishability rate or possibility of misidentification. Especially anything in the bolete family…. there are too many lookalikes and unless you are sure, it’s best to play it safe.
Chef, you’re super well known in the Capital Region. You joined Mazzone Hospitality straight from SCCC working at many of their restaurants from 677 to Tala Bistro, Aperitivo BIstro, Fasig Tipton and Saratoga National, before joining Daley’s on Yates in Schenectady. From there you went to Mezza Notte in Guilderland, Savoy Taproom and resurrected Jack’s Oyster House in Albany and finally back to Daley’s on Yates before a summer at Siro’s and opening Daley’s sibling, The Delaware, in Albany. Have you ever wanted to move out of the area to try something else? What made you stay?
I did 3 years of traveling and cooking around the country earlier in my life. I went down south. Took my father’s bicycle and cycled from Poughkeepsie to Jackson, Mississippi — some days 60 or 100 miles! It took a while. [laughs] I was mostly camping in the woods, couple of motels. I worked for Nick’s Food and Drink, a fine dining restaurant in the Jackson area for about a year and a half. From there I sold the bike and got a car. Traveled to Portland. Oregon, and worked at Blue Hour, a fine dining farm-to-table restaurant, for a little over a year. Then onto Northern Texas, about 40 or 50 miles south of Oklahoma, where I did a culinary continuing ed course but the culinary scene was pretty dead - so I worked in a warehouse pressing and shaping metal. All I thought about was food all day. [Laughs]
I came back and started at the Albany Country Club and applied to the CIA. I had a small scholarship but I didn’t have nearly enough money but all my teachers pulled together with recommendations and when I owed about $70,000 I thought I was going to be thrown out. I had to get 15 references and keep an A- in all my classes and they let me graduate. I love living locally though. My wife Grace and I have our entire family in the Capital District. I love being close to them.
You were born and raised in the area attending Shaker, Bethlehem and Schuylerville high schools. What were some of your childhood memories, whether that’s home cooking or dining out?
You know, Eggs in a Basket really got me thinking at an early age. My mother and father would cook often, but that dish always had me in awe. Turns out it is one of my wife’s favorites too for breakfast or dinner. Simple inexpensive ingredients treated with thought and foresight for the end goal of sharing time and enjoyment. This was the other reason I started cooking: Making people smile through food whether it’s simple or complex.
You are, as I said, very well known in the area and for a while you were getting some notoriety for your enthusiastic Instagram descriptions of the restaurant specials or foraged ingredients. (I always thought they had something of a David Attenborough air to their detail and enthusiasm.) But you found the comments harsh and ultimately stopped. Can you talk a little about that?
Well, the planning and multiple takes to create only a 1 to 2 minute video took a significant amount of time and it became exhausting to keep up with. But the criticism was about everything - the dish, my voice, what I said. Not everyone, just some. People are a little rough and others would jump on the bandwagon with criticism of whatever I was saying so I just switched to playing rock music. But really, at the end of the day I’d rather create a food experience than try my best at being an online salesman for the idea.
I know Daley’s On Yates recently closed, but you are married, and the executive chef of a busy kitchen with a slim staff, as well as the creative mind behind your frequent wine dinners. How do you maintain a work/life balance?
Foraging has certainly helped physically and mentally for me in maintaining an even keel in this profession because being in nature. Truth is out there in the woods. Peace out there. It’ll keep you honest and very humble. Creativity in coming up with a new menu or new dishes is a shared responsibility to many parties…..self, staff, investors, clientele, mentors and my family. So many factors. Everyone has to be happy with the change. The way you were trained by mentors and what they approve, what your staff your feel, how your front of staff can sell it and then the owners how they can advertise. So as long as I have time for my family, friends and foraging, I am happy. Creating and serving makes me happy too.
I’m sure being out in nature is an antidote to the high pressure kitchen. How many times a week do you go foraging or scouting? And when did you first get interested in foraging?
I go anywhere from 1 to 5 days a week depending on the weather conditions for 1 to 8 hour trips. I have always found nature to be a grounding place since Boy Scouts. Turns out it provides more than just peace. The more you observe the woods and learn the patterns it follows the better a person and chef you will be.
You are a certified forager. What do you love about having such a locally-sourced menu?
When you source and harvest your own food it changes you. Your respect for nature increases as does the goods it provides. Ingredients sourced locally or in the wild are noticeably better in quality, aroma, freshness, nutrition, and taste. Food miles, storage facilities, chemical "enhancements" and countless more factors will certainly lead our food system into the opposite of a “restorative” entity. Consumerism is part of all of us to some degree or another I just don’t think these practices should hold such a domineering percentage in our food system. Shop seasonally, shop daily, shop sustainably, and please stop putting pineapple on pizza in N.Y.
PBS Wild Foods very recently accompanied you on a 16-hour day of foraging and cooking. Can you tell us about that experience and the day?
It was a long day but all for a great cause: education, entertainment and, of course, for the bettering of our food system as a whole. There are so many wonderful things I have yet to find useful in the forest. I am so grateful to the Wild Foods team and glad to have been able to share that experience.
Since your time at Jack’s Oyster House, Daley’s On Yates, and now The Delaware, you have been consistent in using game on creative menus. Why do you so often use it and where do you draw inspiration for your menus?
Game meats are one of the last set of proteins that have not been chemically and genetically altered for mass consumption, weight and extended storage. Small batch cookery vs football stadium food. Game meat is less popular on restaurant menus mainly because of errors concerning two factors: Sourcing and cookery. Over the years obtaining these rare products has become a statement for me to the clientele I serve. Sharing with them they way food used to be prepared: Responsibly and thoughtfully .
I enjoy sharing with people the subtle beauties of game meats and feel very happy knowing it is the healthiest form of proteins derived from land animals to date. These proteins will sing for you unlike any commercial chicken breast or corn-fed beef product. The nutritional benefits of game can’t be argued.
Can you think of a dish that you’re most proud of to date – and what’s something that you haven’t yet made yet but you’d love to figure out? .
Consommé variations I make several times a year. It is always a measure for myself to outdo the last version. This soup for me is the greatest test of patience, aroma and taste. In general when the kitchen team, myself, front of house, investors and clientele all love a dish, I am then happiest for its appearance and appreciation on the menu. So many dishes to claim a favorite spot. As for a something new, that is consistently changing. We are always developing and testing new ideas.
What are some of your favorite flavors or spices? If you were traveling, which 3 would you bring?
I am a huge fan of savory dishes. Sticking to the basics for classic flavor pairing per region/cuisine, but if I were only able to choose three, I would have to go with parsley , garlic and thyme.
You and sommelier Jonathan Stewart frequently collaborate on wine pairing dinners. When you were at Siro’s and really pushing the boat out with some exceptionally creative prix fixe dinners your ambition was for Jack’s Oyster House to ultimately receive James Beard recognition. Of course, Jack’s closed, but do you feel there is still a niche demand for that sort of upscale dining in this area?
I think there’s a fear of upscale these days. There are very similar restaurants all over the place and the menus are so similar no matter the season. But margins are just so small right now for the restaurant industry. The investment and details for fine dining are more demanding and so there’s less of a market. That’s partly why we do these elevated wine dinners with new dishes that we’ve never been done before — its a performance. People dress up for the dinners and sit with us for 2 hours. It’s a really nice experience and Jonathan Stewart (wine distributor and consultant) is not only an amazing colleague but incredibly talented in what he does and is always a professional. Fine dining often comes down to the details. I believe there is still a solid community of people that truly appreciate these types of experiences so I hope to see more openings than closing in the future.
The pandemic obviously hit the restaurants and hospitality industry hard and the last 5 years have shown very different dining trends in terms of costs, foot traffic and customer habits from less drinking to a huge uptick in GLP-1 use. What do you see as the future for the restaurant industry?
Currently guests are dining more cost conscious and certainly drinking less. Both of these factors are helping the guest get closer to their financial and health goals. I think the current trend is making healthy power enriched food that tastes as good as the unhealthy option and is in the same price range. Unfortunately there is so much uncertainty with the economy right now I'm not sure any of us know what that will look like for the hospitality industry in the coming years but for me, as you know, I believe chefs will always cook from the heart as long as they wear, protect and honor the jacket.
Can you tell us 3 favorite spots for breakfast, lunch or dinner anywhere in the Capital Region or Hudson Valley?
Honestly, I do not go out much. I’ve spent so much time in restaurants over the years, on my days off I prefer a simple meal with my wife. Believe it or not, food is never the focus for our dates. But, I can say breakfast or lunch at On The Hill Cafe, Watervliet — honest food done nicely. Peaches Cafe in Stuyvesant or Madison Cafe in Albany where you can get a coffee and waffle - something simple. I don’t go out to dinner much and few places are open on Monday. Umana Yana in Albany is really great. I recently had their lamb lollipops and cassava puffs. They have bright African art all over the walls and they really do a great job.
Imagine your ideal day or night out. If you could go anywhere in the world with no limits on costs or reservations, where would you go? How would your day or night unfold?
A cabin in the woods with my wife and our animals. No plans or agenda, just peaceful. My wife Grace works at Central Vet Hospital so we have had a lot of rescue animals over the years — probably 15…. 2 ducks, 5 dogs, 5 cats. [laughs]
You have accomplished a lot in your career. Do you have any key ambitions? Where do see yourself in 5 years?
I always have a lot of ideas but they’re all about food so I guess we’ll have to see in 5 years which ones come true!
What’s coming up on the radar? Any more dinners or seasonal events?
We’re having a 5-course Murder Mystery wine tasting theme this month at The Delaware which is going to be pretty interactive with the questions and the names of the dishes kind of based on Clue. A game of trivia of sorts. We usually host a themed wine dinners about once a month.
Chef, thanks for talking to us and taking us out in the woods. We’re really looking forward to the PBS Wild Foods show airing in April 2026.