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Chef John Foster: Seasons press on and so do chefs; the most creative are trained as craftsmen and artists


The sun turns over again and the seasons press on. It’s summer, officially on the 21st of June, but it felt like it on and off since April.

The garden sensed it long ago, and some vegetables have just disappeared for the year, waiting until the weather, and the time is right again.

Chefs move on as well, sometimes beating the bushes this time of year for the first of the summer vegetables to hit the markets.

The student garden at Sullivan is brimming with potential with the first of the squash blossoms finding a place on student’s plates just this past week. To say I’m anxious is an understatement, and that anxiety encompasses several facets of my kitchen. I have to have enough product to fill the plates with food, and the variety has to be there to thrill their palate and mine.

It’s a difficult tightrope to walk at times like this, the urge is to buy nationally what might be close to seasonal locally. Don’t give in, as a consumer or a chef. This is when research and experience kick in when you might actually find a fresh new way to serve a menu standard. At The Sage Rabbit, we served an herb roasted pork in the spring, lots of seasonal herbs, green garlic, and a seasonal vegetable. It only sold a middling amount of plates. When we looked at what was available to us the choices were slim, but we changed up the cooking method, went south of the border, and added local cornmeal to the mix and viola, carnitas with greens and a crisp corn cake. I’m happy to say its selling quite briskly.

Adaptation is key year round, but especially important coming in and out of the seasons. Although the spring may be short, the choices tend to be reliable, same with the summer season which stretches much farther into the year. Fall can be a toss up with the first frosts being the traditional end, but the chance of continued buying is always good. The chefs must extend themselves as well, mixing cooking methods and adding layers of interest to a menu that may not change ingredients for months. There is no shortage of dishes to keep cook and customer engaged and stretching the skills of your cooks can be good for their future development.

If you are studious and stretch yourself the added benefit can come with boosted sales and the ability to use what is learned in one season, in the next as well. This type of “building “ takes place constantly in scratch kitchens. The home cook may not do this as much, but changing things up at home breaks up the monotony of mealtime.

I’ve never been keen on keeping the same menus very long. Early in my career, I was fortunate to work with some inquisitive cooks, several that played off each other very well creating an energy that was palpable in the kitchen. This allowed us to be very creative with lots of ingredients. It’s true that drawing from these diverse kitchen styles can enhance your menus, and increase the adaptability of the restaurant. The only variable left is the skill level, can you actually pull it off?

This is the point in the column when I put in a plug for culinary schools and a culinary education. I teach at Sullivan University, and I believe in the importance of a formal education.

The industry in this country has never adapted well to the European stage system of training. To do that well requires lots of skill work and tons of repetition, something that we rarely seem to have time for. Instead, our industry has found ways to minimize the skill portion of the kitchen to pour most of our energy into service. Modern production has streamlined knife cuts, compressed cooking times, and stabilized the holding of food at a proper, safe temperature, effectively eliminating a la minute cooking. The home cook has benefitted as well. Instead of scratch cooking starting with the cutting of a mirepoix, we can purchase that from the store. Time being more precious to us has downplayed the importance of a solid skill set developed over years of practice.

It’s hard to adapt to this new framework. The skill sets are not well developed, removing the spontaneous nature of cooking and replacing it with the strict consistency found in a majority of modern kitchens. There is a purpose for this, as it makes each meal more consistent. Customers come to expect that from their meals. By cooking this way, with an eye on consistency, the uncertainty of the meal should be erased. But to do that effectively there must be a corresponding human element either skilled enough or willing to use mass production to achieve that goal; two approaches, hopefully, the same result. Money that can be well spent on both sides though could leave something of a creative vacuum in the middle.

Not all schools teach in this way, and a few restaurants might eschew mass production for more personalized cooking. But it takes a few chefs of every generation to highlight the advantages of a scratch kitchen, and those chefs seek out the best, skilled workers to help them work towards a common goal. In those kitchens the work is difficult and long hours are common. The return is creativity, adaptability and a perpetual renewal of the model of chef as craftsman and artist. Menus change, skills are developed, dishes are created and ultimately the guest benefits.

John Foster is an executive chef who heads the culinary program at Sullivan University’s Lexington campus. A New York native, Foster has been active in the Lexington culinary scene and a promoter of local and seasonal foods for more than 20 years. The French Culinary Institute-trained chef has been the executive chef of his former restaurant, Harvest, and now his Chevy Chase eatery, The Sage Rabbit.

To read more from Chef John Foster, including his recipes, click here.


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One Comment

  1. Charles Benton says:

    My family took me to the “Sage Rabbit” today. The salad I had was so good, I took some home with me. I never in my 77 years did that before. The Oyster Poorboy sandwich I had was delicious. We are blessed
    to have Chef John Foster leading the way at our university.

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