Oct. 26, 2022

She revamped the ballpark menu for the Sioux Falls Canaries this summer, and now this longtime chef has found something to keep her busy this winter.

Jess Blodgett has taken over the kitchen at Signature Flight Support, which is north of the terminal at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport, and is calling it Umami Cafe & Catering.

She serves flight crews and passengers who use the business and private aviation services Signature provides, and the cafe at 3501 N. Aviation Ave. is open to the public for breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Her grand opening is Nov. 1, and with that she’ll start staying open until 2 p.m.

Blodgett also provides catering for businesses and individuals, including events such as weddings.

“The reason I’m calling this Umami is because umami is that fifth sense. People call it savory. Other people say it’s the taste of delicious, which is super corny, but I’m corny, so it fits me. But basically, it’s that flavor that you just, you can’t put your nose on. It’s just really good. It’s that ultimate layer of flavor. And that’s what I try to do with all my food.

“And so that’s what I’m doing. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. I’m not trying to be super fancy. I’m not about all that. I’m just into good, hearty food. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can still be pretty, but I’m not all about the foams and all that stuff. I just want it to be hearty and fulfilling, and I want people to just feel happy after they eat because that’s why I eat, so I want people to be happy.”

She’s starting with a simple menu that will build as the business grows.

For breakfast, she offers a strawberries and cream crepe; a sandwich on a choice of bread with sausage or bacon, a fried egg and cheese; a burrito with chorizo, eggs, peppers, onion, cilantro, avocado, sour cream and salsa; avocado toast;, caramel apple French toast; and a lox bagel.

For lunch, the menu has garlic lemon shrimp or chicken tossed in angel hair pasta, chicken marsala, a grilled chicken club, banh mi wrap, BLT melt and a classic burger. A Buddha Bowl has a quinoa-brown rice blend topped with grilled portobella mushrooms, peppers and onions, with fresh tomato, avocado, black beans and spicy sweet pepitas. It’s drizzled with a black tea sauce, and diners can ask for feta cheese. to be added. There’s also an autumn salad with the option of adding chicken or shrimp.

She’s baking focaccia for some of her sandwiches.

Because each item is made to order, customers can choose from either menu throughout the day, Blodgett said.

She envisions adding hot beef sandwiches when the weather turns cold and making pasta noodles from scratch.

“Being smaller, it’s easier to do those kinds of things because you don’t have to make 200 portions of something. … So you’re not stuck making pasta for eight hours.”

Blodgett appeared on the Sioux Falls food scene a decade ago with her food truck, Bite Me Mobile Bistro, which she operated for two seasons. After that, she worked in restaurants in Sioux Falls and Vermont before becoming the Canaries’ director of food and beverage.

After working 60 hours a week during baseball season, she “wanted something that I could just comfortably take what I wanted and just make enough to keep cooking and make people happy, but not go over the top, so that way I can still do baseball next year too.”

Blodgett found out that the previous operator, Thyme Cafe & Catering, was leaving the space and decided to take it over. Several chefs have operated the cafe in recent years, including Lance White of Chef Lance’s on Phillips and Dan Myers, general manager at Crawford’s Bar & Grill.

Diners at Umami can sit at the tables in Signature’s lounge and watch as the private jets and commercial planes arrive and take off from Joe Foss Field.

“I just really want to have it be that fun little place that people go that it’s not a lot of people, but you can watch the planes and stuff,” Blodgett said. “We’ve only got 20, 30 seats, so it’s pretty small, but that doesn’t mean whatever I do put out can’t be really good.”

At Umami, the food will be all about simple flavors, something Blodgett learned from family members who are Italian.

“Italians are very, very simple in the way that they cook because usually they cook stuff straight out of their own garden, just ‘this is what I got today.’ And I’ve learned through experiences with that side of my family like, this stuff’s delicious and it’s only like five ingredients, so we don’t need to overcomplicate it.

“That’s kind of my philosophy now: Don’t overcomplicate things. Straightforward and delicious.”