Making the moo-ve
More online: Corn, green bean and tomato salad
Jessica and Richard Yoshimura moved from Los Angeles to Bakersfield in 2008 to pursue a shared dream: to provide quality food in a family-friendly atmosphere. The result is Moo Creamery.
Without hesitation, Richard and Jessica Yoshimura relocated from Los Angeles to open their own restaurant in Bakersfield in 2008. Although Jessica had grown up in the Kern County community, she and Richard had graduated from UCLA and worked for years in the urban culinary scene.
"I looked at the food culture here as an opportunity, and I could really make an impact," said Richard Yoshimura, who is a French-trained pastry chef. "This is where food is grown; this is the Central Valley. We feed the world."
The couple made it their goal to feature local fare in a family-friendly environment that fosters community connections.
The result is Moo Creamery, where virtually everything is made from scratch on a menu that highlights the area's bounty and the owners' culinary sensibilities. The name "Moo" pays homage to a mainstay menu of homemade ice cream and burgers, yet also promotes the variety of offerings with the slogan, "a flavor for every mood."
"In bigger cities, the farm-to-table concept is trendy, but here it's not just trendy, it's reality," Yoshimura said. "We pride ourselves on the freshness of our ingredients."
The Moo Creamery menu includes sandwiches, burgers, milkshakes, salads, soups, homemade ice cream and bakery treats. All are made from farm-fresh ingredients.
From the fields
That freshness starts on the farm, and Moo Creamery's website is quick to thank "some amazing farmers" who support their efforts. One of those is Brian Kirschenmann of Kirschenmann Farms, whose family has raised potatoes in Kern County and other parts of California for more than 100 years.
"The amount of produce grown in Bakersfield is amazing. I love to take care of my community as much as I can," Kirschenmann said.
When he first met the Yoshimuras at Moo Creamery, he told them he loved their food—except the french fries.
Yoshimura said, "I told Brian, 'I know, and I'm trying to get a specific type of potato,' and Brian said, 'Well, I just happen to grow that kind of potato.'"
Kirschenmann has been providing Moo Creamery with potatoes ever since.
"The challenge that farms have in supplying restaurants is distribution—how do I get my product from my farm to their store? So they come to the farm and pick it up," Kirschenmann said. "You don't get more local than Moo Creamery."
The Yoshimuras rely on other area growers as well, among them Gless Ranch for citrus; Billings Farms for almonds; Yurosek Farms for pistachios; Tesch Farms and Cal-Organics for produce; Autonomy Farms and Ideal Meat Co. for meat; Farmer John Eggs; and Challenge Dairy. They gather additional items from farmers markets that feature small farms from Kern and Ventura counties.
Jessica Yoshimura said supporting the local economy and farmers is important to their business philosophy.
"Also, educating the general public on what produce should really taste like," she added. "For example, we only have tomatoes when I can find them locally."
The Moo Creamery team has concocted hundreds of ice cream flavors—from Jalapeño Cream Cheese to Cereal Milk. Richard Yoshimura serves ice cream cones to Kris Nichols and daughters Olivia, left, and Madeline.
Menu twists
The seasonal ingredients and sources of origin are noted on the menu, which gives customers a sense of the types of food offered at Moo Creamery. Salads, soups, burgers, sandwiches and desserts are available, as you might expect from what Yoshimura describes as a "modern diner with a fresh approach."
A closer look reveals complexities in flavor and food combinations. Moo Creamery's Atomic Bacon Cheeseburger, for example, is served with honey-cured bacon, pickled jalapeños and pepper relish, and the PB&B Burger is indeed what it hints at: a burger topped with bacon jam and homemade peanut butter.
There are many other noteworthy items, such as Pumpkin Baked French Toast made with homemade brioche, alongside a number of deli salads, side dishes, daily specials, beverages including several craft beers on tap, soda fountain desserts, bakery items and Mexican- and Asian-influenced dishes.
"Our menu just kind of developed and evolved into being a bit more eclectic," Richard Yoshimura said. "To someone who just walks in, they might think, 'What is this?'"
But customers who know Moo Creamery, he said, recognize that each item is prepared with a specific purpose: to have a balance of flavor, texture and taste.
"Everything we do is deliberate, tested and thought out. There are all kinds of activities going on in your mouth when you take a bite of food, and we want to make sure that experience is pleasurable on many fronts," Yoshimura explained.
Jessica Yoshimura, above, and husband Richard seek to foster community connections at their Central Valley restaurant. It starts with the local ingredients that form the foundation of their menu and extends into a dining room that's nearly always packed.
'True community'
Beyond the menu are original creations that take advantage of farmers' seasonal crops. The Yoshimuras make their own almond milk from local almonds, bottle cold-pressed juices under the name "Thrive" and make their own ice cream.
They've concocted hundreds of ice cream flavors, such as the standout Jalapeño Cream Cheese Ice Cream, which was featured in a "Got Milk?" campaign in 2015. Also last year, the unique flavor combinations garnered the attention of celebrity chef Guy Fieri, who featured Moo Creamery on his TV show, "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."
"Food Network coming helped increase our business and it did give us great exposure," Richard Yoshimura said. "But at the same time, I'm humbled by it. I'd rather us be defined by a level of consistency, and we try to keep that bar real high, as high as we can."
He described their approach as "gourmet with a casual experience" and described Bakersfield as a hard-working town that he appreciates being a part of.
"Here, I can really cultivate relationships and make connections with people, and it's meaningful and substantial," he said. "The people of Bakersfield, it's a true community. I've never experienced something like this in my life."
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