Fresh-from-the-garden pumpkin is the quintessential centerpiece of fall activities, as important to cooks as it is to trick-or-treaters at Halloween.

Leading up to Thanksgiving, freshly harvested pumpkins can be found at area farmers markets, roadside stands and supermarkets in abundance.

Pumpkin can be spotted as well on restaurant menus throughout the country, and Napa Valley restaurateur Greg Johnson is but one wine country chef who incorporates the seasonal gourd into his menu offerings.

Johnson — who with his wife and business partner, Teresa, just relocated their popular Browns Valley restaurant, Zinsvalley, to downtown Napa — is getting into the fall mood by featuring pumpkin in everything from soup to dessert.

At the moment, Johnson is serving roasted green Cinderella pumpkin soup made with Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale, pumpkin and chanterelle bread pudding (as a side to a grilled bone-in New York steak) and, for dessert, a toothsome pumpkin crème brûlée.

Large, round and orange (save for the green ones grown by the Johnsons), the pumpkin is a member of the gourd family, which also includes muskmelon, watermelon and squash. Its orange flesh has a mild, sweet flavor and the seeds — husked and roasted — are delicately nutty, and commonly known as pepitas.

Pumpkin may be prepared in almost any way suitable for winter squash. It’s touted as a good source of vitamin A.

While you can buy canned pumpkin puree, it is often thicker and lacks the fresh taste of homemade puree. Making your own is a relatively easy task for most home cooks.

You can cook any pumpkin, although certain varieties are raised specifically for eating. These pie, or “sugar,” pumpkins are smaller and sweeter than the pumpkins commonly used for jack-o’-lanterns. They’re the same ones that canning companies pack and send to grocery shelves.

One of the easiest methods of preparing pumpkin puree is baking. To bake, leave rind on but cut the pumpkin in half. Remove seeds and strings. Place halves on baking sheet, rind side up. Place a small amount of water in pan. Bake in 350° F oven for 45 minutes. Let cool until you can handle it, then scrape out meat and mash it. If you find the pumpkin is still a little mushy, cook slightly to evaporate excess moisture.

A familiar path

Born in Santa Barbara and raised in Legyard, Conn. (now home of the nation’s largest casino, Foxwoods), Johnson said his road to cooking and operating a restaurant took a familiar path.

“My first job was washing dishes in an Italian restaurant in Groton, Conn.,” renowned as an important submarine base, he said the other day during a break between lunch and dinner.

“I got turned on to restaurant life there,” he continued. “I loved Italian food and the cooks saw that I was interested, so they allowed me to start prepping and eventually do some cooking.”

Even so, Johnson didn’t think he’d wind up in a restaurant kitchen the rest of his life. Instead, he enrolled at the University of Arizona as a pre-law student. Two years in Tucson and he knew he was barking up the wrong tree.

Without hesitating, Johnson returned to the East Coast where he enrolled in a two-year culinary program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I.

By the time he completed the Johnson & Wales program, Johnson’s family had relocated to Durham, N.C. They told him about a restaurant in Durham that was getting raves and urged him to inquire about a position at the Magnolia Grill. After catering for the summer in Rhode Island, Johnson was invited by restaurateurs Karen and Ben Barker to join the Magnolia Grill’s culinary team. “It is a restaurant that continues to be ranked as one of the best in the country,” Johnson advised, “and has been given several James Beard (Foundation) awards.”

In 1993, Johnson decided to relocate to California. He was hired as sous chef at Mustards Grill in Yountville. “I spent two years at Mustards — in fact, it was there that I met my wife, Teresa.”

Next, Johnson worked in a sous chef’s role with Donna Scala, executive chef and partner at Bistro Don Giovanni. He also spent a couple of years with Andy Sutton at Auberge du Soleil. While putting together plans to open his own restaurant, Johnson worked with the culinary team at Chardonnay Golf Club.

Come 2000, the Johnsons launched Zinsvalley, located in the Browns Valley Shopping Center, a restaurant that celebrates both American cookery and a particular grape they favor, zinfandel.

“We felt it was a great neighborhood joint and that our neighbors in Browns Valley really liked having us there,” Johnson said when asked about the reason for relocating to downtown Napa. “But even after nine and a half years, there are still some people who didn’t know we were there. We felt by moving we could have better exposure and that our loyal customers would follow us — and they have.

“(With the move) I’ve made a commitment to the city of Napa as a local businessman, just like (restaurateurs) Greg Cole, Michael Gyetvan and Nickie and Pete Zeller have. It’s the locals who make Napa hum, not chains. When people think about Napa — locals and visitors alike — we want them to think about us.”

‘Inspired American cuisine’

Chef Greg Johnson categorizes his menu as one that offers “inspired, innovative American cuisine. What that is, I believe, is reflecting that we cook with local ingredients, for the most part, and trying to be as seasonal as we can.

“When you are living in France or Italy and chefs are cooking their regional dishes, the locals don’t refer to it as French food, or Italian food — it’s the food of their region.

“I like to use local produce, to support the farmers of northern California. If I’m allowed one indulgence, it’s the grass-fed beef that I buy from Uruguay and the American Kobe beef from Idaho.”

The new downtown Zinsvalley is located in Murray Plaza, on the north side of the new Kohl’s department store. It features both outdoor (20 seats) and indoor (60 seats) dining, as well as a lounge that serves food and drink throughout the day.

Former home to n.v. restaurant, Zinsvalley has been given a complete redo by Teresa Johnson, from the complementary brick red and apple green walls to the polished sheen of the wooden floors. The white shutters in the lounge add to its cozy ambiance — heightened by a fireplace and the giant mirror that hangs above it, reflecting the mood of the customers enjoying their favorite wines and cocktails seated on comfy couches and at cocktail tables scattered throughout the contemporary space.

The larger kitchen space allows Johnson more menu options, with steak, fish and fowl featured just about every day.

Ranging in price from $8 to $14, appetizers, or shareables as the menu calls them, include peel-and-eat shrimp cocktail with smokin’ hot cocktail sauce, “some kind of springrolls,” wild mushroom bruschetta with truffled white bean puree, and a variety of pizzas.

Main dishes include the always popular coconut yellow curry ($14, a vegan option that includes bok choy, yams plus sweet and sour red cabbage), to which chicken or shrimp can be added for an additional three bucks, as well as grilled vegetable lasagne ($15). Offered at $24 is the restaurant’s classic steak frites, while another customer favorite — hoisin grilled pork chop with wasabi mashed potatoes — remains on the menu at $22.

Several pastas are offered daily at $16 as is a free-range grass-fed chuck burger and fries at $14. The most popular side dish is the kitchen’s macaroni and goat cheese ($5).

At lunch, Zinsvalley features a “fast lunch deal” at $11 — a cup of soup, half a Reuben sandwich with a choice of salad or thyme fries and a soda. The other day, the lunch special ($15) was spaghetti with Sicilian sausage and sauce fra diavolo. Regulars are torn between the chicken parmesan sandwich ($12) and the pan-seared coho salmon club with bacon, avocado and chipotle mayonnaise ($15).

On Tuesdays, the burger is offered all day long at half price in the lounge, while Thursdays are martini days in the lounge at $6 a pop.

The Johnsons will celebrate Zinsvalley’s 10th anniversary next May. The new location is open from 11 a.m. to midnight daily, with the full menu offered until 9:30 p.m. weekdays and until 10 p.m. on weekends. A limited menu is available for late-night dining in the lounge.

Zinsvalley spotlights zinfandel wines, with the Johnsons offering some three dozen selections at present, including one zinfandel on tap. At the moment, the featured winery is Green and Red from Chiles Valley.

The restaurant is located at 1106 First St., Napa. For reservations, call 224-0695.