Since 1971, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc., has created high-quality, successful restaurants. The company operates more than 80 establishments throughout the country. Wildfire (voted most-popular Chicago restaurant 2008 through 2010 by Zagat) has seven locations. The McLean, Va., venue is also bustling and can serve 1,000 customers per day. Having spent most of his career with the Lettuce Entertain You family, this kind of intense “kitchen heat” doesn’t intimidate Executive Chef Eddie Ishaq. He says, “Let’s go!”
By Lynn Schwartz
Wildfire is handsome and pays tribute to the open flame. The long, elevated fireplace above the open kitchen is dramatic. Wood-fired ovens and spit roasters add not only ambiance, but also flavor to meats, seafood, poultry and hand-stretched pizza. The dark wood and large black-and-white photographs depicting dapper diners recall the spirit of a 1940s supper club. And the contemporary Tysons Galleria mall location requires the restaurant to appeal to a variety of palates—employees in surrounding office buildings, mall shoppers and those residing in the neighborhood. A reasonably priced menu is designed for repeat dining.
Cindy Hutson helped start the Caribbean wave that began its sweep of the nation nearly 20 years ago. But then as now, she was about so much more. Today, she’s proving it.
By Brent T. Frei
Cindy Hutson, who was born in New Jersey, thinks she might have been Jamaican in a past life.
She says that tongue in cheek. (Her ex-husband is Jamaican.) But for someone not from the islands, Hutson stumbled upon stardom virtually overnight as one of a small cadre of chefs in South Florida in the 1990s who showcased the region’s bounty on menus. In Hutson’s case, her approach had a decidedly Jamaican bent.
“All I did was really common, local food that you would find in Jamaica,” Hutson says. “But I did it a little differently. I didn’t Americanize it—I fine-tuned it on the plate so that it would work in a fine-dining restaurant.”
Bill Rodgers, executive chef, Keens Steakhouse, New York City
By Lynn Schwartz
Keens Steakhouse in New York City is renowned for superb hand-picked and dry-aged steaks and the legendary mutton chop, a 26-ounce saddle of lamb, that TheNew York Times promises will “provide as much pleasure as a carnivore could want.” But on Thanksgiving, it’s the turkey, a special guest on the Keens’ menu, that takes center stage. For Executive Chef Bill Rodgers, Thanksgiving means serving up a bountiful feast, which includes preparing 50 (20-pound) turkeys and more than 3,000 side dishes. And like any guest star, the turkey must be excellent, worthy of both the holiday and the restaurant’s stellar reputation.
Justin Moore, at 30, is already in the great position of drawing on his past while investing in a bright future thanks to the success of Vin 909 in Annapolis.
By Lynn Schwartz
Vin 909 Winecafé works hard to make guests feel at home. In fact, the café makes its home in a 1930s Sears Roebuck mail-order catalog house. It’s the perfect spot for a cozy gathering place in Annapolis, Md., a quaint town on the Chesapeake Bay. Guests linger by the fireplace or patio garden with a glass of wine or craft beer. The libations are selected to pair with a local and seasonal, small-dish menu, which guests are encouraged to share. But sometimes the customer needs a bit of nudging to experience the joys of a convivial, communal meal.
Open a mere six months, Vin 909 is just a baby. Partner and executive chef, Justin Moore, is young, too. The commitment and responsibilities of opening a restaurant are not for the inexperienced or faint of heart; however, Moore knew exactly what he was jumping into. A Connecticut native, Moore, now 30, ventured West after high school to attend the Academy of Art in San Francisco. And as we know, life can take unexpected turns for those who are open to it. Moore was, and while living in one of the great foodie meccas, his French girlfriend who had a passion for food “broadened his culinary horizons.” The result: He switched schools, enrolling in California Culinary Academy.
By Lynn Schwartz
With more than 30 years in the business, Chef Philip DeMaiolo of New York’s Pier Sixty and The Lighthouse thrives under the pressure of making each event memorable.
“There is a single opportunity to create a memory,” says Philip DeMaiolo, the executive chef of Pier Sixty and The Lighthouse, two upscale catering venues in New York City. This might be a statement about any meal in any restaurant, but DeMaiolo is referring to the wedding meal. And the fare must not only be memorable, but perfect. The food, presentation and service need to exceed all expectations of the bride and groom, their families and their guests.
By John Paul Khoury, CCC, www.preferredmeats.com, www.preferredmeatsblog.com
Now at Tyler Florence’s Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco, Thiemann thrives on energy and is having fun.
From a kid playing drums in a Sacramento band to just over a decade later being Tyler Florence’s chef de cuisine at the Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco, Mike Thiemann’s journey has been a series of choices that he felt driven to make. He took time out of his schedule to explain:
What drew you to the industry and why become a chef?
Well, it was 1995 and I was a just a kid playing drums in a band when I got a job at Greta’s Café in Sacramento. What a great job, I learned so much under Greta. I started washing dishes and then ended up in the deli, then baking, making soups, etc.
This is where I learned to sweat off mirepoix, and making soup from scratch, building flavors. It was great, like school really, I mean this is how anyone really learns. I was there for five years, until 2000 when the place was sold to Chipotle’s.
By Lynn Schwartz
Daniel Holzman of The Meatball Shop in Manhattan doesn't miss the pressure of fine dining. That's partly because he's smiling all the way to the bank.
Daniel Holzman makes meatballs. Lots of them—beef, spicy pork, chicken, vegetable and a daily special ball, which one can customize with sauce—tomato, spicy meat, mushroom gravy, Parmesan cream or pesto. Holzman, executive chef, and Michael Chernow, general manager, own The Meatball Shop, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The two born and bred New Yorkers have set out to give the customer a ballistic food adventure in their "fuss free kinda joint." A limited, meatball-focused menu offers up simple, sustainable eats with no strings attached (like an expensive bill) until 4 a.m. With an impressive upscale culinary background, Holzman had plenty of options, and the meatball business is no accident. It's a calculated choice. A choice designed to incorporate a satisfying lifestyle, good-quality food, customer value and fun.
By John Paul Khoury, CCC, www.preferredmeats.com, www.preferredmeatsblog.com
An interview with Jackie Lau, corporate chef of Roy’s Restaurant Group.
Jackie Lau began as a pastry chef at Roy’s Restaurant in Honolulu, her first job out of culinary school. She quickly mastered Hawaiian fusion cuisine and became chef de cuisine; later, Roy Yamaguchi sent Lau to open his restaurants in Japan and Guam. Lau has participated in many prestigious culinary events including the Aspen Food and Wine Festival, The James Beard House and The World Gourmet Summit. She has had the opportunity to cook with some of the best chefs in the world, including Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck. Lau was featured on the TV series “Great Chefs of the World.” Here is her story:
What drew you to the industry and why become a chef?
Well, I‘ve actually always wanted to be a chef; in fact, I told my folks when I was 4 years old that I wanted to be a chef! I am from a Mexican/German background and was raised on excellent food, especially Mexican fare. I grew up on a farm in California’s central valley outside of Merced. We raised a lot of our own food, always had people over, everyone in my family loved to cook—food and hospitality was really an integral part of my everyday life from early on. This farm lifestyle also really prepared me for the restaurant business in that it was a lot of work, so you get used to working hard, but also raising your own food gets you used to a certain elevated quality of product, which translates well into the restaurant industry, especially when you are focused on quality fine dining.
By Lynn Schwartz
Thanks to Whole Foods Market, Scott Crawford is able to utilize all of his skills while practicing what he believes in.
Scott Crawford works for a company that has a strong commitment to sustainable agriculture. The company searches for the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and naturally preserved foods. They believe that food in its purest state is the best tasting and most nutritious. Based on this commitment, one might assume that Crawford works for a small, high-end restaurant, but actually, this is the philosophy of Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market. And Crawford is the prepared-foods coordinator of the mid-Atlantic Region. The company’s dedication to food, people and planet, unique for the grocery industry, is what gave Crawford the courage to change his culinary direction and join an organization with 54,000 team members (their term for employees) and more than 300 stores.
By Brent T. Frei
At Universal Studios in California, Eric Kopelow operates as if park guests are there for the food, not the fantasy.
Eric A. Kopelow is no stranger to cooking for a crowd. As executive chef and vice president of food operations for NBC/Universal Studios Hollywood in Southern California, he oversees 120 cooks and bakers and meal preparation for more than 25,000 park visitors and up to 4,000 employees daily.
When he was 12, like millions of Americans at the time, Kopelow would watch, rapt, as a black-and-white Julia Child souffléd her way into his home via public television. He grew up, enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America, and graduated with his AOS degree in 1980.
Since then, Kopelow has served as corporate chef of United Airlines and manned kitchens at Trump Castle Hotel Casino in Atlantic City and the Hilton Washington in Washington, D.C. He’s hosted two dinners at the James Beard House in New York. In 2000, he returned to his alma mater to have his handprints cast in cement to join those of Graham Kerr, Martin Yan and other culinary luminaries as part of the CIA’s Great Chefs series. Kopelow was the 73rd chef to be so honored, and today his handprints reside in the Danny Kaye Theater along with those of the doyenne of cooking who set him on his journey, Julia Child.