by Alan Gaudette
I grew up in Westfield, New Jersey, and learned the basics of good cooking from my mother in her kitchen. My mother was a very good cook, much more interested in nutrition than style. Over snowy winters, I learned how to make about 7 different kinds of Christmas cookies at Mom's side. I also watched her make the great deserts that she used as bribes to get my younger sister and me to finish our plates of food every dinner time.
As an 18 year old with only those basic kitchen skills, I became the Second Chef in one of the best restaurants on Cape Ann, MA. If I had not lived the experience, I am not sure I would believe it. Since I have found that truth is often stranger than fiction, this is the truth of the story, strange as it may sound.
To allow me to graduate from Westfield High School, my father moved ahead of the rest of his family to Gloucester, Massachusetts where he engineered the purchase of LePages Glue Company by Johnson and Johnson Co. After graduation, the rest of the family moved to Gloucester where, through a labyrinth of coincidences, I landed a job my first summer as the Second Chef of The Gloucester House Restaurant.
Becoming a Chef
My father had found a small, but excellent, restaurant in Magnolia, MA. It was run by a man named Emile Hakiem and his wife. Two very hard working people, they were doing it for the love of meeting the customers. He had been the Egyptian Government's representative at the opening of King Tut's tomb in 1923. Because he was very wealthy, the government knew he did not have to steal anything. Emile showed me newspaper clippings of him being interviewed about the tomb experience, and there were two bell jars of mummified cats over the bar in the restaurant. I sat at the bar and listened to him for hours about the tomb. He was one of the most interesting persons I have ever met.
As it turned out, Mr Hakiem owned about 80 % of the land and buildings in Magnolia. The Hakiem's daughter had recently married Joe, the maitre d' of The Gloucester House Restaurant. Emile was lamenting the marriage because he was sure Joe just wanted his money. I was lamenting being out of work. From our combined laments, Emile contacted his friends, the owners of The Gloucester House, and proposed me to them as the new Second Chef. He then asked me to keep an eye on Joe. At least once a week Emile would ask me about Joe.
Either Joe was very good at hiding whatever he was doing, or whatever he was doing was not near the restaurant.
The First Chef could have worked anywhere in NYC, except that he was an alcoholic. He would be absent about once a week. Though my skills were very basic, the whole responsibility for a 200 + seat summer seafood restaurant fell on me. We served two meals a day, lunch and dinner.
Learning the Tricks of the Trade
The First Chef taught me the fine art of food preparation. I was getting very good instruction on the finer points of food preparation from a master. I enjoyed the work, but not the hours - in at 8:00 AM and out by 10:00 PM when thing went well. Fortunately I only worked 4 days a week. After learning how to select the "fish of the day," Peter, the First Chef, had me come to work at 8:00 AM to go to the boats and buy the fish. The docks were right alongside the restaurant. The lobster boats also docked near by, and buying the lobster soon became my job too. Clams were another menu staple and Peter taught me a trick that I have not forgotten. Take freshly dug clams and store them over night in seawater with some baking soda. They will be cleaned out with no after taste by the next morning.
Peter kept a steady stream of tricks coming at me. A couple of examples: the finer the spices are ground the faster the flavor gets to the food; never use wheat flour to batter fried fish -corn flour has its own oil that will be released during the frying, and the cooking oil will not be absorbed. With a little experience, the batter can be made thinner too. To this day, in my pantry I have a separate coffee grinder exclusively for my spices and corn flour.
Have you ever wondered how a restaurant serves everyone at a table three separate steak orders -well done, medium, and rare- at the same time? The waiter will ask for preferences, someone in the kitchen will take one for well done out of the refrigerator to get to room temperature; a little later he'll take another out for the medium. To be cooked rare, the steak will go from the refrigerator straight to the grill. All the steaks cook at the same temperature for the same amount of time.
I worked in that kitchen two summers the second one by invitation, so I must have been doing something right. For several of the specialty meals, people would come from far away. For me it was a "summer job" for the summers of '59 and '60.
Life Away from the Kitchen
While I enjoyed the taste of being the "Second Chef" and learned a lot about the art of cooking, my family moved back to Westfield in 1962. I was going to Clark University in Worcester, MA by then and I was back to having more fun than being studious. I was in an automobile wreck while returning to Worcester from a football game in Boston in 1962. I lost quite a bit of time and the grades suffered even more. Clark University thought it would be in my best interest to take a year off.
The man in the top hat with stars and red and white stripes pointed his finger at me and said "I want you." I was in the Army Reserves when in 1964, Vietnam became an item in the daily news. I was a Senior Instructor, Light Weapons, Infantry until I opted out in 1970 while I was serving as the Security NCO for the 78th Division Training. Simultaneously, I was working full time and going to Rutgers University at night, graduating on the Deans List in 1972 with a BS in Management. I never did get back to professional cooking.
At the Spice Company
After getting married in 1964, my wife and I moved into an apartment in Clark, NJ. I got home, after work at the largest spice grinding company under one roof in the world, 30 minutes before my wife did. I would have our dinner virtually ready when she arrived. She made me stop cooking dinner after she gained 15 pounds. She said my cooking was too good.
Working at the at the spice grinding company could be compared to a finishing school. It reinforced some of the things I learned at the Gloucester House. For example, the Korintie cinnamon was ground as fine as face powder for the Burry Biscuit company; the white pepper was really black pepper with the black shell removed, so finely ground for Campbell's soups that it almost invisible in the soup. Griffith laboratories produced flavor "oils" for commercial use, as the flavor of spices is in the oil they contain. By the way, storing your opened containers of spices in the refrigerator slows the evaporation of the oil and therefore the loss of flavor.
While totally unintended, the time I spent at the spice grinding company did contribute to my understanding of spices and the influence they have on the difference between good cooking and great cuisine. I was originally hired as the assistant to the Plant Engineer. My first assigned task was to install a preventative maintenance system for the whole plant. I spent many hours in each department. That done I was moved to the first line management training program. I worked (hands on) in every department in the plant. I learned how to process everything from the Korintie cinnamon, nutmeg, white, and flaked red pepper among many others.
Life Today
Today I am living in Surprise - no, not in a startled state, but in Surprise, Arizona and working in Fountain Valley, California.
After grilling some salmon for local guests, shortly after moving to Surprise in 1997, I was asked if I would be interested in opening a restaurant here in Surprise, AZ. I apparently had not lost what I had learned many years before. They were willing to put up the money, however, I did not take the bait. The hours are terrible. I am content to cook for family and friends and get to enjoy the meals too. I am constantly on the look out for new combinations to please the pallet.
I do the holiday meals for family and friends. I even did a full soup to nuts Thanksgiving dinner, turkey and all the trimmings, for 12 coworkers in Kuwait in 2004. I have about three dozen personally developed recipes that I still do on occasion.
I have been working as a free lance Contract Administrator since 2002. One contract, for which I am the Alternative Dispute Resolution Moderator, has been involved in litigation for four and a half years. I specialize in procurement contracts for US Government contracts by Government Agencies and Prime Government Contractors. I just finished an assignment for the Orange County Sanitation District in California.
My chosen profession, Purchasing and Contract Administration, has afforded me an opportunity to travel extensively. I have been to all 48 continental United States and most of the major cities therein. I have traveled Western Europe and most recently, 2004, Kuwait and Iraq. I was in France to negotiate a Purchasing/Sales contract with a French firm that manufactures carbon brake materials used on aircraft brakes. I was working for BF Goodrich at the time. I was responsible for quite a bit of business with a foundry near Faversham, England when I worked for Teledyne in Muskegon, MI. Oliver Jessel, the foundry's owner, was a cousin of George Jessel and his grand father founded the Shell Oil Company. They are all interesting branches which inevitably led me to some of the finest restaurants wherever I stopped for the night. I have traded some of my personally developed recipes for the likes of the best lobster bisque and double lamb chops I have been served.
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