October | 2017 | mattdadblogs

Tonight I ventured back into the place I got my start. Where this cookery adventure took off. Where I started to really love cooking. The restaurant is called Todd Jurich’s Bistro. I was a young chef full of piss and vinegar. What that means I think was I was full of energy and zest. Ready to be a Rock Star before I was ready. These were some of my most formative years of cooking. Where under the tutelage of an amazing chef I grew. My curiosity led me to cooking with goose liver and Morels. To touching Ramps for the first time. And opening boxes that smelled heavenly I suppose, not realizing that what I was about to handle one of Mother natures or Gods most perfect food creations. That of the Truffle. To touch the smoothness of and crunch of a creme brulee. The pungency of fish sauce and the magic of Parmigiano Reggiano bakes in an oven until it becomes a delicate cheese Crisp. The Blood orange chipotle glazed Muscovy Duck Breast, skin scored and seared crisp. Medium Rare and resting on a bed of smashed plantains. Yes I remember it all. Words like Ponzu, caviar, escargot, pad-Thai and Siracha before it was cool. Yes it was here. Not here but this restaurant is where cooking got me. So as I sit here alone at this bar as the dining room over flows with foodies and the well to do.

I am grateful. Did I mention three of my favorite chefs are in the building. One, Todd Jurich taught the other two. Todd, a creative genius he was cutting edge before cutting edge was a thing.

He was doing things and teaching things that only a young chef could dream to see and we were seeing it. We were living it, breathing it. Sweating together, stressing together all under the watchful eye of the demanding Chef Todd as we called him. I can still remember the legal size tablets of paper that had the daily specials written on it. Written in pencil. Always written in pencil. With handwriting of an artist. Because that is what he was what he is an Artist.

Yellow Legal Paper Daily Specials circa 1997

As I look at the menu of chefs I used to work with. Pete Evans, who we shared countless hours in the heat of service, a quiet giant that had skills beyond his years, and Sam Mcgann who came before me and Harper Bradshaw who must have come after me. this is Todd’s menu it’s his style. Which makes sense because he taught us all. The fancy, eclectic, exotic foods I spoke of earlier, are all over this menu. I bet if I looked in the kitchen somewhere on the wall I would find a sheet of dog eared yellow paper. That gave direction to this menu. I think that is what I searched for when I came here twenty years ago. It was a couple years into my learning at Bistro 210, the name of the Restaurant back in the day. It’s was named after the street it was located on. 210 York Street in Downtown Norfolk. That young man the second chef of the three favorites that I spoke of who was also full of Piss and Vinegar. He wasn’t much younger than me but his cooking experience was Green. A perfect cooking term used to describe something not ripe not ready. But that green fellow taught me a lesson that I really appreciate. The lesson was you HAVE to chase your dreams. Let me explain. It’s all part of this story. He was young, a great personality, but a person with grand plans that others didn’t believe. He told me and all that would stop long enough to listen that he was gonna go to Chicago and cook for one of the best chefs in the country and the world. That chef that he planned to meet and work for was Charlie Trotter. I had this felllows cook books. He was big time. So some didn’t believe him. But I saw something. I saw raw passion. The passion that I see in myself now. Only he had something else. He had different priorities and that made all the difference. Don’t get me wrong, we are not the same. But we are in different ways. Let me explain again. I wanted children more than I wanted anything else. I was married and I knew what I wanted. I was a Chef but what I wanted even more was to be a dad. So that is what I did. He wanted to go to Chicago and cook with Trotter. That is what he did. He became a Rock Star Chef. The best, by working his ass off getting there. Back to the summer he entered the back door of the bistro. His passion and love for cooking made me his fan. His fan even before he was famous. I had his back because in a high stress, volatile, dangerous working environment, that is what I did. As the Sous Chef I looked after my crew. I was taught by Todd and i did my best to teach those under me. Graham, Elliot at the time, happened to be one of those. So now twenty years later I sit at this bar drinking a local beer, and I write. Here is what I know about Graham, he’s entertaining, he a family man, he’s driven and he still has that passion. All the qualities I admire in a chef. Now I want to introduce you to my third chef. He’s not cooking tonight. He put that dream on hold all those years ago. When priorities became priority.

When cooking wasn’t worth being away from his kids, being away from his family his home. Cause he also wanted to be a Rock Star like Todd and Graham. He just wanted to do it in a different way. His passion was the same, energy same, drive same, desire same. Just different priorities. So what I have found in successful people is this. They have a purpose and a passion that they work there butts off reaching. And if the stars align, and a little luck is on their side, a few breaks here and there they succeed at reaching that. He did it four times. He succeeded four times. Now I have realized that priorities can change or adjust, or become more than one priority. That is what is happening to the third of my favorite chefs that are here tonight. He gave up cooking to raise children. Well he didn’t give up cooking he put that priority on hold. Focusing his passion and drive and desire on something else. Then something happened. He awoke. Realizing that it was time.

The drive was too intense it had grown too big, the gift was out growing the body and it had to release. He was a Rock Star. Just a Rock Star Dad. Not chef. But it is like riding a bicycle, when you get back on you just start pedaling. Moving forward again. I know all this about that third favorite chef because that third Chef is me. Mattdad and all my experiences and growth have led me to this. It’s time to take what I crave. That is sharing this passion for cooking. A love for Cooking that started twenty years ago with these chefs in this restaurant, doing what we all love.

And if I could pick the career of any of them. I would pick that of the Dad, a dad of four amazing kids, that saw me at all holidays, each evening, they saw me on Fridays and Saturday’s we celebrated New Year’s Eve together. They saw a dad that loves his wife, his biggest fan, they also saw a man that never gave up on a dream. A dream that is coming more and more alive each day. Graham said “Stay the course”.

One step at a time, you never know where life will take you…it took me back to this Bistro where I watched Rock Star Chefs and me as a Rock Star of a different flavor. I’m the Mattdad and I am grateful I get to raise kids, be a husband and Cook……Three more favorite things. So when life throws you a curve, curve with it, you never know what’s next……stay the course.