From China, without wheat -- soy pasta

CONCORD -- To keep a restaurant bustling in the big city, restaurateur Dan Kaufman knows he has to be on the cutting edge of culinary trends. Last week, after sampling organic whole soybean pasta brought to him by Robert Bergwall of Concord, Kaufman was so impressed that he asked his executive chef to incorporate it into the Thursday-night specials.

So, chef Jerome Watkins prepared the golden angel-hair pasta with roasted yellow peppers and topped it with a saffron pepper sauce. Patrons of the South Kitchen and Wine Bar on Dorchester Street enjoyed the $17.95 special so much Kaufman planned to offer it again.

''We tried it and we absolutely fell in love with it," Kaufman said of the certified organic wheat- and gluten-free pasta products distributed by Bergwall's latest health-food venture, Nutrition Kitchen. ''His pastas are just unbelievable from the taste standpoint to the quality."

Diners are fussy these days, Kaufman said, and many are looking for nutritious, healthy, sometimes even macrobiotic meals they can enjoy without sacrificing the ambience of dining out. The whole soybean pastas, he said, enabled South Kitchen to provide its guests with that experience.

The angel-hair pasta did some serious traveling before Watkins turned it into a culinary delight last week. The product came to Bergwall's attention in 2002 by Penny Zhu, a friend who grew up in the Daqing region of northeast China, where the pasta is made. High-quality health food products, particularly soy-based ones, are of interest to Bergwall, who cofounded Nasoya Foods in 1977.

''I thought this would be unique on the market," Bergwall said from his home office in Concord. ''It has no eggs, 23 grams of protein, and 11 grams of natural dietary fiber." He also was impressed with the taste, and how well the angel hair maintained an al dente texture in both simple and extravagant recipes. And he was impressed that the noodles were made of certified organic, protein-rich, and gluten-free soybeans.

''I loved the idea of something very novel and healthy," Bergwall said.

Having sold Nasoya Foods to a Chinese company in 1990, Bergwall was up for a new venture. And this one took him to soybean fields in Daqing, in Heilongjiang Province, about 1,000 miles northeast of Beijing.

The farming practices in the flatlands of the province offer a glimpse into the past. Genetically modified crops are forbidden.

The husband- and wife-owned farm that grows the green, gold, and black soybeans has used oxen to plow the fields for more than 40 generations. Today, the soil still is tilled mainly by ox-led teams, though Bergwall said you may see a tractor ''here or there."

''Their farm is USDA-certified 100 percent organic, and their plant only makes pasta, so there is no chance of contamination," Bergwall said. ''This is the only place that knows how to make it."

But before jumping into the venture, Bergwall observed the workers' treatment and conditions. ''They are paid two times the going rate of local pay and they have benefits," he said.

Bergwall and Jan Remak, a friend and marketing specialist, traveled to China in June 2002 to check on the pasta, the process, and the people behind it. The two men founded Nutrition Kitchen and now have international sales in Australia, Canada, and Japan.

This past January, Bergwall and Remak formed a joint venture with the Chinese manufacturer, Daqing Nutrition Kitchen Organic Food Co. ''This vertically integrates us with our manufacturing and allows us to directly control all aspects of quality and working conditions there," Bergwall said.

Though Bergwall's work in the tofu industry led to many business dealings in Japan, he had to start from scratch in China.

The Chinese, he said, ''are very relationship-based. You cannot go to China and expect to do business without a relationship or intending to build one. . . . They need to know who you are and they need time to get to know you."

The primary characteristic the Chinese look for is honor, Bergwall said, and, ''Do you walk your talk?" Handshakes close deals. ''Documents are written, but no one ever looks at them," he said. ''They're just thrown in a drawer."

Zhu accompanied Bergwall to China and helped him network and negotiate. Forming a partnership with a Chinese company also means doing business with the Chinese government, Bergwall learned. ''Even if you're dealing with a private company, it involves various officials."

Closer to his Concord home, Bergwall has cold-called many grocers, food brokers, restaurateurs, and food publications, hoping to expose the product to the public. Stop & Shop is testing the pasta in stores in Swampscott, Worcester, and Somerset, N.J. It is on the shelves at Roche Bros., Sudbury Farms, and Wild Oats.

The company offers angel-hair pasta in three varieties -- green, golden, and black -- with a suggested retail price of $2.99 a box. Bergwall declined to provide sales figures for his company.

The editors of the Vegetarian Journal featured Nutrition Kitchen's noodles in the May 2005 issue. ''We picked it because it was unique," said managing editor Debra Wasserman, ''meaning that it was a pasta made out of organic soybeans; also that it came in three different colors, which means that it adds a visual, interesting twist to a dish."

The staff at Living Without magazine, an Illinois-based publication that focuses on foods for special diets, prepared the noodles in a variety of dishes and served them to a focus group made up of people without food allergies, just to see if they would choose an alternative pasta even though they don't have to, said the magazine's president and publisher, Peggy A. Wagener. All agreed they would, leading to a nice write-up in the spring 2005 issue.

''I myself tried the pasta," said Wagener, adding the pasta was simple to prepare, another bonus for the test group. ''The reason we chose it is because so many gluten-free pastas are based on rice and we wanted our readers to know that there are other grains. With a gluten-free diet, we want people to get the nutrition they need.

''It had a really nice, hearty taste, and it worked well in a variety of sauces. I think it was very tasty."

More information on Nutrition Kitchen may be obtained by visiting its website, www.nutrikitchen.com. Maureen Costello can be reached at Costello@globe.com