The 'clean flavors' of Clover Cafe

Apr. 26—As you drive in and around the twisting roads of the Yuba County foothills, the last thing you may expect is one of the most high-quality, casual restaurants to be found in the region.

Having only been open for a few months, Clover Cafe is a unique and special place just waiting to be discovered by the masses.

The owner and head chef of the cafe, Lynne Sanders, has a story just as layered and organic as the food she serves.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania near Johnstown, Sanders left for Europe and arrived in Paris in her early 20s. She said she was inspired by Ernest Hemingway and wanted to experience other cultures.

"It was really inspiring for me at that time," Sanders said.

After spending time in Paris, Sanders returned to the United States and earned her psychology degree from the University of Massachusetts in Boston. After receiving her degree, she returned to Paris.

"I was kind of working for an American law firm in the evening, trying to figure out what I was going to do," Sanders said. "I had always just played around making bread and stuff and I just happened to say to somebody, 'Anybody know anything about the Cordon Bleu?' And some girl was there, 'Oh, I just read that they're looking for translators.'"

Sanders said at that time she was fairly fluent in French and decided she would visit Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

"So I went along and they were doing this demo of puff pastry. ... Those chefs, none of them spoke English. So, I went into this demo of puff pastry and I had tried to teach myself puff pastry like three times from a book," Sanders said. "It was so clear to me you couldn't teach yourself from a book. I just went out and I said, 'I don't want to do the translation, I want to do the course.' So, I signed into the first course. I had already been in France for a while, so I knew French cuisine and the depth of it."

After taking some classes, Sanders' passion for cooking was reinforced.

"I just loved it. They taught you from the beginning, like how to roast a chicken. It was also instinctively natural for me, I just got it so fast," Sanders said. "They were really good, it was a fantastic course and none of the other students really spoke French. So, I had a really good connection with the chefs there and I was really able to dig into it."

Sanders said she continued to take more courses at Le Cordon Bleu. Eventually, she was connected with renowned chef Alain Ducasse and trained for a short time at a Paris restaurant in which Ducasse was an advisor.

Sanders said after meeting Ducasse, she went to Monte Carlo to work for him at a Michelin three-star restaurant.

"I went down there and did a three-month stage (training under a chef that is pronounced like staj) with them. I stayed in the hotel. It was really torture, really the hardest thing," Sanders said. "We would work from 7 in the morning until 2 in the morning cleaning down the whole place, like insane. I was staying in the hotel, I could hardly walk. ... We were working underground as well."

She said the environment at the hotel and restaurant in Monte Carlo was intense due to the immense amount of competition that occurs among cooks and chefs in Michelin three-star restaurants.

"There's so much competition. There's powerful testosterone flying around," Sanders said. "There were 50 guys cooking for 30 clients in a huge kitchen underground. So, you never saw the light. You never saw any daylight, you were there all day long."

After her experience in Monte Carlo, Sanders eventually became a private chef. She said her first gig was cooking for Kermit Lynch, an American wine importer and author.

"I cooked on a boat. On a 1920s two-mast schooner for him and his wife and his two little kids. It was so much fun," Sanders said.

After having spent more time in and around Europe, Sanders came to Yuba County to work with a catering company before leaving again for overseas.

"A friend of mine said, 'Why don't you go to London? London is really hot right now for restaurants,'" Sanders said.

For those that pay close attention to food trends, London for a long time was not considered to be a hotbed of quality restaurants and eateries.

"When I was living in Paris in the early 90s and I was going to visit friends in London, there was nothing to eat," Sanders said.

After meeting a man in Paris who owned a restaurant in London, she left for England. While she didn't take the job that was initially offered, she was still doing private catering and felt she was ready for something different.

"I was a private chef for Andrew Lloyd Webber for a while," Sanders said. "... I did different kinds of things, but it does get tiring. ... I was ready to get out of that."

Eventually, a Chinese takeaway restaurant was looking to sell, so Sanders leased the space and set up her own restaurant in London, called Bistro Aix. She still owns the classic French restaurant, but it is run mostly by her team there.

After buying a house in the Oregon House area, Sanders started visiting the region more.

"I wanted to do something I felt kind of meaningful with my energy. I wasn't ready to retire. I'm not one to just hang around," Sanders said.

She said once she decided to spend nearly all her time in the Yuba County foothills, she began to turn a three-bedroom home she purchased in 2020 into the Clover Cafe.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanders transformed the house, gutting it and making it her own.

"I just started little by little, tearing it apart," Sanders said. "We took a crowbar and busted down the walls. There was some carpeting and stuff, we basically gutted the whole thing."

After spending thousands of dollars over two years, Clover Cafe opened its doors on Feb. 19.

Sanders said her vision for the cafe was to create a central meeting place and fill a need for those living in the foothills.

"It's hard for me to be in an area where you can't even go out and get a cup of coffee or have a place to hang out in the evening," Sanders said. "I just thought it (the area) just needed it, needed everything."

She said establishing the look of the restaurant was an organic process.

"I want it to be a little more funky," Sanders said.

For those who come to the cafe, Sanders said she would like visitors to feel connected with nature.

"For me, I've been living in the city for 30 years," Sanders said. "I just love the nature and the planting and the possibility of making gardens and orchards. I've got about 10 fruit trees planted."

That connection with nature is what inspired Sanders in the creation of the menu of Clover Cafe. She said she envisioned being connected with local farmers and the food they produce. While some ingredients may come from outside sources, Sanders said whatever is in season locally dictates what's on the menu.

While she does have her experience and education in French cuisine, Sanders said creating dishes for Clover Cafe allow her to have a certain sense of freedom and expression.

"I like to play around, actually. This is my play around period," she said.

Along with Sanders handling the role of head chef, another chef at Clover Cafe is Devon Younger.

"He actually has a lot of experience in vegan and natural food cafes where he worked in Texas and New Orleans," Sanders said. "So, he's got that kind of basics. He loves food and he loves clean flavors."

Those clean flavors are evident in the dishes found on the Clover Cafe menu. You can taste the freshness in each bite. But where Sanders' skills as a chef really shine are in items that you may not normally have a desire to eat — everything from a delicious kale salad to to a borscht with oxtail and locally-sourced beets.

Clover Cafe is located at 13623 Rices Crossing Rd. in Oregon House and is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. For more on the restaurant, visit https://clover.cafe.