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Cook Off!By: Tracy JonesTop local chefs create their favorite entrees and dish about the results. |
What do you get when a group of leading chefs come together to dish on each other’s food? A recipe for a good time—and a culinary education for all. At Fort Myers’ Crü, the restaurant’s Reuben Sliva; Wade Lowe of Roy’s in Bonita Springs; and Jack Serfass, assisted by Matt Serfass, of Naples Tomato cooked up some of their restaurants’ signature seafood dishes before sitting down together for foodie talk about each other’s fare. Joining the party was a chef with some sage advice: 20-year Gulfshore restaurant veteran Danny Mellman, chef/proprietor of Bonita Bistro, who had cooked up a hearty dish for our consideration prior to our group cook-off. With good chardonnay on hand and a rare chance to sit down for a meal, our chefs found themselves inspired to culinary—and conversational—heights.
Wade Lowe
Executive chef/partner, Roy’s, Bonita Springs
Seared day-boat scallops with edamame mash and lobster-truffle kabayaki.
What He Believes
"For me, the ideal presentation is a balance of smoothness and a bit of texture; we try to make it move around in the mouth."Table Talk
Wade: Scallops and shrimp are some of the most difficult foods for restaurants to prepare. Some people want them well done—they expect them to be chewy. Or they even want them charbroiled on the outside. Actually a scallop should be soft, with some translucency.
Jack: This is what edamame puree should taste and feel like in your mouth. What I like about this is you put the whole [soy] bean in the lobster sauce.
Reuben: I wouldn’t expect it to be so silky. (He points out that the dish is a classic example of deconstruction—the flow of the dish is such that it will remain appetizing as it’s eaten.)You flow right here. You have the edamame in one state ending in the lobster sauce and then you have your scallop here. The edamame is the buckler.
Jack: We call that a bridge, but yes.
Wade: Each person will eat each of the components in a different ratio, and it becomes their dish. At the other end of the spectrum, it’s very tempting to do tall, architectural dishes that look stunning. But I realize that after the guest takes that first bite, the whole structure changes. If, two minutes after it arrives at the table it looks like a mess, I haven’t done my job. I want it to remain appetizing throughout the meal.
Danny: (Swirls fork wildly in the air as if he’s mashing all his food together.) As opposed to people who eat like this. (Everyone laughs.)
Reuben Sliva
Chef, Crü, Fort Myers
Blue nose bass served over truffled cauliflower soup with
heirloom Romanesco broccoli, heirloom purple cauliflower and sweet pea
puree.
What He Believes "Cooking is like any relationship—you get out of it what you put
in."
Table Talk
Wade: Clearly, fish was the
focus of the dish, but I enjoyed the cauliflower soup that he had at the bottom
so much I almost made it the main focus when I ate it.
Jack: I thought the color on
Reuben’s [dish] was phenomenal. (He confesses to being impressed with the
height.) Our food is more of a simple presentation.
Danny: But if you get 19 or 20
orders for those on a Friday night, you’re screwed.
Reuben: (laughing) I did it for
a special one time on a Friday night, and I’ll never do it again.
Wade: There are only five
ingredients in this whole dish—really, it’s all about simplicity.
Jack: Besides the intense
amount of work each constructed dish requires, the food-savvy guest may look at
a high construction and think, "That’s a lot of hands all over my
food."
Jack Serfass
Executive chef/co-owner, Naples Tomato, assisted by pasta chef Matt Serfass
Everglades farm-raised tilapia roasted on an alder wood plank
with a tomato, truffle and balsamic vinaigrette sauce, served with broccoli rabe and potatoes with caramelized onions.
What He Believes "Take something ordinary and make it special."
Table Talk
Reuben:
I love that presentation on the wood. I’ve cooked food on wood forever, but I never thought of serving on it. (All sniff appreciatively at the alder.)Jack: You don’t even have to put anything on the plank.
Wade: This is definitely a winner. I’d have thought the wood smoke would have overpowered the delicate taste of the tilapia, but it was perfect.
Reuben: I think tilapia’s a very underrated fish.
Jack: Tilapia’s such a blank canvas—
Reuben: —it does absorb the flavors very well.
Danny: It really keeps its texture. [This dish] is almost hot dog-like—and I mean that in a good way.
Wade: [The tomatoes] are an explosion of flavor. (Looks again at the wood.) How did you find [the planks]?
Jack: About five hours on the Internet.
Wade: I would recommend this to anyone; it’s a fabulous dish. If I were going to re-create it at home for myself, my personal preference is spicy.
Danny: People say, "You can’t make it too hot for me." Oh, yeah, I can.
Danny Mellman
Chef/proprietor, Danny Mellman Catering and Bonita Bistro & Bar, Bonita Springs
Jerk-seared duck breast and comfit of leg with roasted pineapple stew and roasted winter squash and pepper salad.
What He Believes
All about customer service, Mellman says if a client asks him to ditch the béarnaise sauce and throw fries next to a fancy steak, "I’m running out the door to buy some ketchup."Table Talk
The other chefs didn’t taste the duck, which requires hours of cooking time, at our chefs table session, but they did have some pertinent comments.
Jack: It’s more of an effort, but the longer-cooking dishes are kind of like comfort food.Danny: The leg, that’s cooked separately from the breast. We cook it very slowly in duck fat for about six hours.
Reuben: Not many people order whole duck. That’s why most places just serve the duck breast. The mallard, that’s what we use, it’s roughly the size of a whole chicken.
Danny: We always have duck, but this is kind of a seasonal dish.
Reuben: I’m a very seasonal cooker. Coming into the Christmas season, I would make a dry rub for it. I think allspice, a little brown sugar, olive oil. Maybe a touch of orange juice.
Danny: It’s kind of a mixture of dry and wet spices. Ginger, scallion, cilantro, dry onion. Then we use sweet—I think of pie—spices, like cinnamon stick, nutmeg, whole allspice, star anise and a little salt and orange peel.
Summing Up
"
The great thing about creative cooking is all four of us could have been given the exact same ingredients, and you would have seen four completely different finished dishes," Wade said.The brotherhood of chefs nodded as one. But, teased Jack, surveying the devoured dishes, don’t be surprised if each of the restaurants introduces a new signature dish: "Scallops on an alder-wood plank with a cauliflower base."
