THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609120182
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 183 lines
IN VIRTUALLY any Outer Banks restaurant - pick a kitchen, any kitchen - the scene is much the same: Chefs, sous chefs and other kitchen personnel synchronized in perfect timing.
Combining the chemistry of ingredients, flame, culinary expertise, and a bit of showmanship and magic, night after night, they turn out their best for tourists and locals alike.
``It's like an athletic event,'' says Ken Pearl, co-chef and owner at Colington Cafe. ``It's you against the ticket. And it's a very physical job. The wait staff wants their food. And you want to get out a consistent plate of food as quick as you can.
``You can't let them see you sweat.''
The tussle against the ticket is something most diners will never see. Instead, the carefully prepared cuisine is presented before their yearning eyes and growling stomachs. The orchestration is one of the most oft-repeated refrains on the Outer Banks.
``It's very physical,'' says Sam McGann, co-owner and executive chef at the Blue Point in Duck and Ocean Boulevard in Kitty Hawk. ``It's 12- to 16-hour days every day. Everybody has a job and a place to do that job. And it all has to be timed just right. You're up and down hundreds of times a day. It's an extremely frenzied pace in the kitchen.''
McGann, a former lacrosse standout at Lynchburg College, compares his kitchen staff to a team.
``If you played team sports, you have a better understanding about what goes on in the kitchen,'' McGann says.
``Everyone has a job. And everyone's job is important. I use the coach and quarterback analogy. As the executive chef, I see myself as the coach.''
For the last half-century, the restaurant business has boomed on this North Carolina barrier island - attracting some of the most talented cooks in America, a sort of dining Dream Team.
What has drawn these kitchen magicians away from the culinary capitals like New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.?
``I think there's been an evolution over time,'' McGann says. ``I've been here eight years. And in the last three there's been a real change in dining perceptions. A lot of it goes back to places like Restaurant By George and people like Mike Kelly and Doug Tutwiler and Ken and Carlen Pearl. A lot of people grew up in the restaurant business. And now they own their own restaurants.''
Another draw is the quality of life on the Outer Banks.
``I think it has a lot to do with where people want to live,'' Pearl says. ``This is a great community. There are people who like the pressure of a big city business. But not the people here.''
McGann brings a number of the best culinary school students to the Outer Banks each summer for externships. Getting them here is easy. ``We have five kids here this summer,'' he says. ``They like the opportunity of being on the beach. They work 50-60 hours a week. And then they can go to the beach. A lot of them come from up North. And they really enjoy the chance to come here.''
Ironically, not all of the chefs at high-end restaurants attended culinary schools like the Culinary Institute of America in New York or Johnson and Wales in Norfolk. All, however, earned their stovetop stripes in the steaming kitchens of other restaurants.
Donny King, the 24-year-old chef at 1587 Restaurant in Manteo, began working in restaurants eight years ago. ``I didn't go to culinary school,'' he says. ``I worked at 501 City Grill in Virginia Beach. The chef there was Cory Beisel. I call him my mentor. And I learned a lot about regional American cuisine. But mostly, I learned from working 60-80 hours a week in restaurants.
``Next month, I'll have my first vacation in eight years.''
Pearl's kitchen college came from an unusual source. His wife Carlen was his teacher. The couple run the kitchen at their popular Colington establishment.
``It's a funny thing,'' Pearl says. ``I had always been an out-front person in the restaurant business. But when we were in our old location, Carlen had gall bladder surgery - and I had to lean to cook. She taught me what she knew. Fortunately then, we only had 20 seats.''
The changes in the restaurant industry are the result of a variety of factors: The rise in the number of upscale developments, particularly on the northern Outer Banks, as well as a maturing baby-boomer population.
``There's been a big change here,'' McGann says. ``There used to be mostly seafood houses along the beach. Now, there are different types of dining establishments, beginning on the northern beaches. When Duck developed, you saw people coming here from Richmond, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. That changed the vacation population here.
``What development brought was more of a family vacation spot for the affluent. I think these things go hand-in-hand with the fact that as dining habits changed, the restaurant business changed.''
Cary Vanischak, head chef at Windmill Point Restaurant in Nags Head, left the Outer Banks in 1979 to go to the Culinary Institute of America. He stayed away for eight years, working in New York, Houston, Boston and Nantucket. He returned to the beach in 1989.
``I went off to school and I couldn't come back because there wasn't a place for me to work,'' Vanischak said. ``But in 1985, things started to take off here. I think the restaurants discovered a sautee pan. Until then, the restaurants served either fried or broiled food. It was great. But in 1985, they started doing something different.''
Vanischak also credits the Outer Banks' tourism industry for solid marketing of its beautiful beaches.
``I think the Tourist Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce have done a good job of selling this area around the country. As people from all over the East Coast come here, the restaurants have had to change.''
Now, from Ocracoke to Corolla, there is indeed a wide array of restaurants offering cuisine from Thai to Chinese to North Carolina barbecue to the latest fads in American and regional cuisine. A combination of old favorites like macaroni and cheese or creamed potatoes - ``comfort food'' some call it - mixes well with cutting edge main dishes. This concoction of style and substance sits well with local cooks.
``We don't serve anything we haven't tried in our own kitchen,'' Pearl says. ``Anything we serve we eat in our own home. My wife has a good sense of what people like. If we go a little bit too extreme, our customers let us know about it.''
Like many restaurateurs, McGann says he tries to strike a balance at his two Outer Banks eateries.
``We try to combine traditional favorites in our vegetables and starches with an interesting entree. But whatever we do has to look good as well as taste good. People eat with their eyes. If it doesn't look good to them, they won't eat it.''
Many chefs like to experiment with foods. Vanischak says there are no hard and fast guidelines governing gourmet combinations.
``There is a lot of freestyle cooking going on,'' Vanischak says. ``There aren't any rules anymore like red wine goes with beef. People are experimenting with a lot of different combinations.''
Those varieties demand a wide variety of goods - meats, seafoods, cheeses, vegetables, special oils and spices. Those items are readily available on the Outer Banks.
``We don't have any problems at all,'' Pearl says. ``My wife and I go to France every year and they don't have the variety of products that we have here. We get the freshest fish, scallops, and Currituck County vegetables. And fish like salmon we can get delivered to our door. We order in fresh every day.''
McGann agrees, saying, ``You can get anything you want delivered to your door if you're willing to pay for it. Our purveyors are doing a great job here.''
Some local suppliers, like Colington crabber Murray Bridges, are even gaining national attention among chefs.
``Murray's softshells are really popular all over the country,'' says McGann. ``But that's North Carolina crabmeat in general.''
Ruth Toth can give special credence to the availability of goods. Along with husband Bob, she owns Cafe Atlantic on isolated Ocracoke Island.
``It's a lot easier than it used to be,'' Toth says of getting her goods. ``Because of all the restaurants down here now, the suppliers don't mind sending two shipments a week. I've worked in restaurants here for 20 years, and believe me, it's better now.''
Chefs have to be a combination personnel manager, commodities broker, cook, choreographer and counselor. And as for advice, they offer one morsel: ``Take experience any day over dollars,'' McGann says.
``So many kids come out of culinary school and go for the big money. But there's no substitute for experience. A lot of people when they get out of school think that since they've got bills to pay, they have to go for the money,'' says McGann.
``I had a friend who went to culinary school before he even worked in a restaurant,'' Pearl says. ``He had cooked at home and thought he wanted to be a chef. But he got out of school and now he works in a warehouse. He hasn't cooked in 10 years. You need to find out if this is what you really want to do. It's hard work.''
But the biggest challenge for some cooks is Mother Nature. ``Especially in a season when we've had two evacuations, three hurricanes and one near-miss with Edouard. Right now, I'd have to say hurricanes are the toughest,'' Toth said.
But with all their mastery in the kitchen, the dishes chefs eat at home aren't so different from the average Joe or Jane.
``I eat Oodles of Noodles and peanut butter and jelly,'' King says with a smile after preparing such delectable entrees as ``Bourbon Street marinated pork loin medallions with whole-grain mustard and ancho chile remoulade and andouille sausage-mashed potatoes'' for his patrons' dinners.
``I work 60 to 80 hours a week. I'm never home.''
But even if they scarf down pasta or sandwiches on their off hours, they practice their art with a singular goal: ``We just want to make people happy,'' McGann says.
``If they come in after a tough day and we bring them pleasure, then we've done our job.'' MEMO: Related article on page 7. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
Ruth and Bob Toth, pictured on the cover
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Chef Cary Vanischak, left to right, who attended the Culinary
Institute of America, oversees the work of sous chefs Ron Sumrell
and Scott Ramm.
Photo
Donny King, chef at 1587 Restaurant in Manteo, didn't go to culinary
school. He says, ``. . . mostly, I learned from working 60-80 hours
a week in restaurants.'' by CNB