Chefology, continued from Previous Page


What else has been different with the restaurant, vs. your private chef and catering business?


A lot of people open restaurants after working in restaurants for 20 years, and they have a sous chef who goes with them. I didn’t have that kind of team. I was getting chefs who thought it didn’t matter what kind of ingredients you used – it only mattered how you made the food taste. And that is just so not my philosophy. That was hard for me – but they’re all gone!


Now I have an awesome team. An amazing team. Two of them came here for their externships from culinary school, and have been here ever since. They started as line cooks and now they’re sous chefs.


You list your three sous chefs on the menu. That’s a bit unusual.


They work really, really hard, and I come from the school that if you don’t let other people be creative – if you’re just a control freak – you’re never going to have happy workers. So these guys do a lot of the specials, they run the line. I don’t feel that it’s fair to say I do everything when I don’t. I put their names on the menu, and they’re stoked!


How is it being a woman in the restaurant business?


I think it’s a real boys’ club, but the women who are re- ally good are really well-respected. I don’t put up with any bulls**t in my kitchen, either.


Do you make an effort to hire other women?


I don’t tend to hire someone based on their sex. All chefs are nuts, it doesn’t matter if they’re male or female. You have to be a little nuts to be in this business!


Where do you get inspiration?


I have thousands of cookbooks. I have a huge vintage col- lection of early American, Hollywood and California cook- books, dating back to the turn of the last century. I love Helen Evan Brown – she wrote The West Coast Cookbook. I have a lot of Asian ones, like David Thomson’s Thai cook- books. I have a lot of pastry books. I also love John Besh’s book, My New Orleans. That’s an unbelievable book!


If you could travel anywhere for inspiration, where would you go?


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I’m dying to go to Vietnam. I really want to go to Sar- dinia. I’ve always wanted to go to Bali. So many great places! You can’t master a cuisine without working in a country. I lived in India for three months, and studied Indian cooking. I cooked so long with Indians, in India, that I really understand the cuisine. I really hate it when someone just throws some curry powder on a


Diners can enjoy an organic cocktail or healthy meal at AKASHA’s bar.


piece of fish and calls it “Punjabi Tandoori Fish Tikka” – ‘cause it’s not!


What’s your favorite kitchen tool?


I just bought these new Japanese knives that I love – Togiharu. I also just bought a Chitarra, the Italian pasta cutter that looks like guitar strings. You make the pasta dough and then you put the sheet of dough on top of it and press the noodles down.


What ingredient is a must for Akasha’s pantry?


I’m really into good sea salt. But I do not like kosher salt. I don’t understand why chefs use kosher salt. It’s a horrible ingredient! That’s been my biggest fight with any chef that’s ever been here! I hate it!


OK, kosher salt is pure evil! What sea salts do you like, then?


I use a lot of different kinds. There’s a great one a friend of mine brings in from France; another one a friend brings in from Mexico that I don’t think you can buy commercially; there’s one from Bali that I like. I keep 10 or 15 kinds of sea salt around!


But why sea salt?


If you take a really good piece of fish and sprinkle it with really good sea salt, the flavor is unbelievable. Do the same with kosher salt or table salt, and it’s just not the same!


What’s your “last meal?”


I know exactly what I would eat. Don’t laugh! I grew up in Florida, and my dad took us to Joe’s Stone Crabs every Saturday night. That would be the meal: stone crabs, Lyonnaise potatoes, cole slaw, fried green toma- toes, creamed spinach. I also love fried chicken, and they have good fried chicken at Joe’s. So if it was my last meal, I’d probably have fried chicken, too!


Culinary Trends | Mid Winter 2011


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