Through their four
books, authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have offered a unique
chef’s-eye view of the contemporary American culinary world. Their first
book, Becoming a Chef, is a realistic look at what it takes to become
a chef and the routes that various well-known chefs have traveled; it won
the 1996 James Beard Book Award for Best Writing on Food. (A technologically
up-to-date second edition of Becoming a Chef is already in the
works.) Culinary Artistry and Dining Out dealt with the
working creativity of chefs and food criticism, respectively. Their fourth
and latest effort, Chef’s Night Out (to be published by John Wiley &
Sons in March), is both a paean to the important role that dining out plays
in a culinary education and a city-by-city directory of the restaurants
where chefs most like to eat.
“Everyone always asks chefs the same question,” says Page, “ ‘Where do
you like to eat?’ We wanted to gather the answers in one place.”
Dornenburg and Page stress the educational aspects of eating out, for
culinary students, home cooks and even for chefs who are already at the top
of their profession. “The more we spoke with chefs, the more we heard that
eating out is as important to their education as going to cooking school,”
says Page. “Eating the best version of something, whether it be pizza or
oysters, is an education for the palate.” Chefs also credited dining out
with teaching them to see their own restaurants from the customer’s
perspective.
Even chefs with elaborate styles look for inspiration in a wide range of
restaurants, often eschewing the haute in favor of the offbeat.
Dornenburg explains, “Chefs do eat at four-star restaurants, but they
usually visit the big guns, such as Restaurant Daniel, only once a year or
so, to see what people at the top are doing.” The chefs’ choices bear out
Dornenburg’s observation. While Paul Bertolli of San Francisco’s Oliveto
names Chez Panisse as an inspiration (as does nearly every chef
interviewed), he also recommends a taco truck in Oakland, and George Germon
and Johanne Killeen, chef-owners of Providence’s Al Forno, enjoy lunching at
Mike’s Kitchen in the VFW hall in Cranston, Rhode Island. “Uglesich
Restaurant in New Orleans is supposed to be a total dive,” says Page, “but
it’s famous for its oysters and seafood. Everyone, from Chef Todd English
[Figs and Olives] to Chef Charlie Trotter [Charlie Trotter’s] to Chef Anne
Rosenzweig [The Lobster Club] drools over it.”
Many of the chefs interviewed for Chef’s Night Out recall seminal
restaurant experiences at very early stages in their lives. A 12-year-old
Rick Bayless saved up his own money (“The notion of eating in a really fine
restaurant was beyond the scope of my immediately family.”) and took the bus
to downtown Oklahoma City to eat vichyssoise and flank steak in a meal he
describes as “a benchmark.” For Cindy Pawlcyn of San Francisco’s Real
Restaurants, it was a soft-shell crab sautéed table side when she was 16
that provided the light-bulb moment. And at 17, Allen Susser of Miami
restaurant Chef Allen’s was inspired by a meal at La Grenouille in New York
to move to France and work in a restaurant kitchen.
Dornenburg and Page admit to being taken aback by the number of chefs who
cop to eating fast food. Picholine’s Chef Terrance Brennan indulges in the
occasional Big Mac, and Chef Patrick O’Connell of the Inn at Little
Washington eats chicken breasts from Burger King and baked potatoes from
Wendy’s (although he does so apologetically, noting that “When you live in
such an odd place [like Washington, Virginia], you’ve got to make do.”)
Still, Dornenburg hopes this book will serve as an antidote to the
last-resort stop at a drive-through. “On the road, if there’s a family-owned
restaurant nearby, that’s always our choice. We’ll even change our schedule
to visit a pizza parlor owned by a family rather than a chain. Lots of
people don’t know about those places though. Now they can use Chef’s
Night Out to find out about them.”
Chef’s Night Out works as a guide for just about anyone traveling in
the United States, but Page and Dornenburg specifically address culinary
students. Not only are they encouraged to read the opening chapters on the
importance of tasting food, but some of the proceeds from the book will go
towards Page and Dornenburg’s dinership program: a series of mini-grants
designed to enable culinary students to eat at well-known restaurants. After
their meals, participants write brief essays in order to share their
experiences with other students and instructors. Peter Kump’s graduate Renee
Schuler was one of the first dinership recipients, and her essay appears in
the book. She describes the details of her meal at Le Bernardin, from
savoring the richness of lobster bisque with truffles to learning that two
ingredients simply presented, in this case yellowtail tuna and leeks in
vinaigrette, can have an explosive effect.
“The dinership program was inspired in part by Julia Child,” says Page. “She
often tells a story about when she was living in Paris and her parents’
friends would come to visit. They’d go out to Michelin three-star
restaurants, and then they’d call her and say, ‘Take us to the little places
where you like to go.’ When Child tells the story, she always says, ‘Think
how wonderful it would have been for me to go to some of those three-star
restaurants.’ We’re trying to generate sympathy for the plight of the
aspiring chef, who doesn’t make a lot of money and works hard and can’t have
the experiences that other people take for granted.”