by A. LaBan
"Chef," a term that literally means "the chief" in French, is a commonly misused word in English, because not every cook is a chef. It takes years of training and experience to become an executive chef, the supreme restaurant being who is responsible for the operations of the entire kitchen.
According to the National Restaurant Association, "To be an executive chef in a fine dining restaurant, you need to graduate from high school and then obtain a culinary arts degree. The job also requires a minimum of five years as a sous chef, plus three years in another food preparation position."
Though some restaurants have a chef de cuisine, who serves as president to the executive chef's CEO, most restaurants rely on a sous chef (French for "the under chief") as the second-in-command in the kitchen and the person who takes responsibility for operations if the executive chef is absent. Sous chefs may be promoted after having supervised as chef de partie or line cook, a number of positions they've probably held previously in their cooking career, including the poissonier (the fish cook—all fish and shellfish items and their sauces), the rotisseur (the person responsible for roasted items), saucier (person responsible for sauteed items and many different sauces). And on the way up to more exalted positions, the aspiring chef may also have done time as the garde manager (in charge of salads and dressings), grillardin (grill cook), potager (soup and often stock cook), entremetier (vegetable cook) and the friturier (deep-fry cook). Typically, a career is started as a commis, the common cooks who comprise the bulk of the kitchen staff.
Sound like a long and winding road? Not for some. Take 23-year-old Rick Gresh, the executive chef at Green Dolphin Street, who was promoted last June after serving as chef de cuisine for a year. Classically trained at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Gresh spent time in the kitchens of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City and, upon graduating from the CIA, joined Trío in Evanston. After a stint at the Celebrity Café in the Hotel Nikko and as the consulting chef de cuisine at Tsunami in 1997, Gresh landed as sous chef at Green Dolphin Street in July 1998.
At Green Dolphin, Gresh takes advantage of diverse ingredients and flavors to produce "multicultural" dishes, including starters of tuna tartare with wasabi caviar and Thai chili coconut sauce, and entrées of grilled applewood-smoked beef tenderloin with potato-mushroom pavé and port wine reduction. His youth surprises customers and co-workers, but age becomes a non-issue once they taste his cooking. Gresh is often asked how he got to where he is so quickly, and his standard reply is, "Dedication, lots of hard work, and working for good people." He adds, "People often tell me I seem older than I am—at least twenty-seven."
Gresh is not the first Chicago chef to make it big young. In 1998, after serving as chef de cuisine at Carlos' in Highland Park, French-born Eric Aubriot opened the highly-regarded Aubriot at the tender age of 26—the restaurant and its namesake quickly drew accolades from critics and patrons. Last year, John Manion launched his Nuevo Latino hit Más at 29, after heading up the kitchen at the now-defunct Savannah.
Twenty-eight-year-old chef-partner Dennis Wasko, who trained at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (CHIC), teamed up with fellow CHIC graduate Laura Frankel first to operate a kosher catering business, and then to open Chicago's only upscale kosher restaurant, Shallots. Raised Roman Catholic, Wasko says he works well with the restaurant's mashgiach, Shallots' Rabbinic-approved, on-premises supervisor.
Wasko has confidence in his skills but admits he's been surprised by his early success. "I always knew I would wind up cooking in a fine dining restaurant, though I didn't expect it to happen so soon," he says. "But the opportunity arose when Laura proposed we open Shallots together following our graduation from CHIC, and it's been a learn-as-you-go experience ever since."
Like Green Dolphin's Gresh, Wasko believes maturity combined with hard work has been the secret to his success. "My mother says I was born forty. I act older than my age, so people are always surprised to find out I'm only twenty-eight, but I set my goals high, never compromise and always give one-hundred-and-ten percent, so age has not been a factor for me."
Green Dolphin Street, 2200 North Ashland, (773)395-0066
Aubriot, 1962 North Halsted, (773)281-4211
Más, 1670 West Division, (773)276-8700
Shallots, 2324 North Clark, (773)755-5205
copyright 1999 New City Communications, Inc.