Mommy dearest: Local chefs dish on their mother's epicurean influences

by Heather Bouzan, 02-25-2008

EVERY TIME we sit down to a divine home-cooked meal at our mother’s house, we get to thinking: what influences have mothers had on their professional-chef offspring? So we got personal with eight of Boston’s finest cooks, who shared memories of family meals, childhood culinary lessons, and what it’s like to serve dinner to the women who are, in many cases, their toughest critics. An added bonus: they even agreed to share recipes passed down from their family kitchens.

Josh Ziskin, owner/executive chef of La Morra (48 Boylston Street, Brookline, 617.739.0007)
Childhood cooking lessons weren’t what inspired Josh Ziskin. It was simply all of his mother’s home-cooked meals (aside from indulgent Thursday-night trips to McDonald’s, that is). “Looking back on it recently, I’ve realized that [my mother’s dinners] were pretty good stuff,” he recalls. “She had her main dishes, like roast chicken. She always had rice, always had a vegetable — sort of a square meal, you know?” Ziskin never made it into the kitchen himself until college, when he’d call his mother with questions. “I had a bunch of roommates, and we rented a house, and I’d do basically all the cooking,” he says. “I’d call her for her [recipes].” These days, Ziskin’s parents are frequent diners at La Morra — though Mama Ziskin’s presence is felt whether she’s there or not. “I definitely hear her in the background, like, ‘Do you have to add that much butter to that?’ or ‘Does it need that much oil?’ or ‘Can you do without the bacon or pancetta in that dish?’ ”

Chicken with Red Wine and Tarragon
1 whole roasting chicken
1 can cheddar-cheese soup
Equal amount red wine
2 tablespoons dried tarragon
Salt and pepper

Mix soup, red wine, tarragon, salt, and pepper. Cover chicken with mixture. Roast at 350 degrees for one hour or until done. Serves 4.

Gabriel Bremer, chef/owner of Salts (798 Main Street, Cambridge, 617.876.8444)
For Gabriel Bremer, who was raised in a small family outside of Cleveland, “Food was always part of the family and growing up.” Family dinners were a big deal during his childhood — “[We weren’t] the family that would make a quick meal and eat in front of the TV” — and on weekends, he and his mother would bake together. “We would pick a couple recipes and try some new breads, some muffins, things like that.” His mother didn’t necessarily teach him cooking techniques, but she did instill in him a love of food and family. “I think with the techniques we use [at Salts], she wouldn’t know where to begin,” he says. “It was more of the involvement in having food and the family be kind of one.” If anything, Bremer’s current style draws on the preferences of his grandparents: braised cabbage, sauerkraut, and lots and lots of pork. But it was his mother’s support of his culinary endeavors — even if she “turned around and threw it out when I wasn’t looking” — that had the most significant impact on his career.

Heirloom Squash Soup
with Cider Cream
For the soup:
4 cup peeled, seeded squash
cut into two-inch pieces
1 leek, sliced
1 Granny Smith apple, quartered
4 Medjool dates, pitted
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon whole allspice
1/4 teaspoon whole coriander
2 tablespoons butter
8 cups chicken or vegetable stock

In a four-quart saucepan over low heat, add butter, squash, leek, apple, and dates. Cook for two minutes, being careful not to burn the squash. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Place the spices in a small piece of cheesecloth and tie closed with a string. Add the spice pouch and stock to the squash mixture and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the squash is very tender. Remove the spice pouch and purée the soup in a blender until smooth.

For the cider cream:
1 cup apple cider reduced
down to 2 tablespoons
1 cup heavy cream

In a small saucepan, slowly reduce the apple cider. In a mixer fitted with a whisk, whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Gently fold the cider reduction into the whipped cream and season with salt and white pepper to taste. To serve, top the soup with a dollop of cider cream and a little fresh grated nutmeg (optional). Serves 4.

Peter Beresford, chef at 224 Boston Street Restaurant (224 Boston Street, Dorches-ter, 617.265.1217)
Peter Beresford’s mother was always ahead of the crowd. “When other mothers were plugging in that fondue pot, she was reducing balsamic vinegar and cooking with lentils,” he says. Naturally, then, “My mom definitely taught me to fly by the seat of my pants in the kitchen. She taught me to try new things and to go against what the conventional style of the minute is.” In addition to the bonding time dinner provided, nutrition was also key, and Beresford’s mom had her family on a macrobiotic diet. “As a kid, honestly there were times I was like, ‘Oh, this is so crappy. Can’t we just go to McDonald’s like every other family?’ ” he remembers. “But now I use a lot more vegetables and things like that than I think I normally would have in my cooking, had I not had that sort of background.” When it comes down to it, the inventiveness of his mother’s strict diet proved a major inspiration to chef Beresford. “Sometimes her stuff was so oddball, I was like, ‘Wow, Mom, nobody in the world is going to eat this.’ But she never stuck to the rigidity of how a dish should be or how a recipe should be.” Lesson learned.

Lentil Loaf
1/2 cup barley
1 cup green lentils, rinsed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium Spanish onion, minced
1 rib celery, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
1 cup wheat cracker crumbs
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups water
2 cups low sodium chicken or
beef broth

Sauté garlic, onion, and celery in medium stock pot with olive oil. When vegetables begin to sweat, add barley and lentils. Stir frequently for about one minute. Add liquid and sea salt. Bring to a boil for one minute, then reduce heat to low and simmer. Add carrot. After simmering for approximately 40 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed, add egg and cracker crumbs. Bake for 35 minutes in lightly oiled 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan. Allow to rest for 15 minutes, then turn out on serving platter. (This recipe can be doubled or tripled with no additional ingredient adjustment. Eggs can be deleted, but the finished product will be looser in consistency.) Serves 6.

Carla and Christine Pallotta, cook/owners of Nebo (90 North Washington Street, Boston, 617.723.NEBO)
When they were growing up, Christine and Carla Pallotta were barely allowed within swatting distance of their traditional Italian mother while she was prepping meals. “There were no [cooking] lessons; there was, ‘Get out of my kitchen,’ ” says Christine. As the girls grew older, they were allowed small tasks — sealing homemade ravioli, making pizzelle cookies — but everything had to be done their mother’s way. So when they abandoned a salon business to open Nebo, based solely on their mother’s recipes and their family’s social style of eating, the Pallotta women had their work cut out for them. “We actually didn’t have any recipes when we came to the restaurant, because she doesn’t measure anything,” explains Carla. “So when we decided to do this restaurant, a couple of months before, we literally stuck her in the kitchen here and had to stop her hands as she was doing things and move the stuff from her hand, put it in a measuring cup, measure it out, write it down. It was a long process, believe me.” When it comes to style, the Pallottas haven’t changed a thing. “We’re very adamant about having [the cooking] done the way we do it, the way my mother did it,” Carla stresses. “I feel like, if something’s been working that long, it’s already perfected. Why change it?”

Minestra with Fried Polenta
2 pepperoni, preferably
Santa Margherita
4 pounds end of prosciutto di Parma
2 racks of baby-back pork ribs
2 heads escarole
2 cups white beans (cannelloni)

Brown ribs and put aside. In a large saucepan, place prosciutto end, pepperoni cut into quarters, and ribs. Cover completely with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 hours. Meanwhile, place beans in cold water and bring to a boil. Drain beans and rinse with water. Add beans to stew. Chop escarole into thirds. Continue cooking for 30 minutes.

For polenta:
1/4 pound coarse cornmeal
3/4 pound fine cornmeal
1/2 cup canola oil
Kosher salt
Water

Bring three quarts of salted water to a boil. Slowly add in cornmeal, stirring continuously. Lower heat and simmer. Continue stirring until the consistency of mashed potatoes. Pour oil into a medium-size frying pan. Heat oil. Pour polenta into pan. Smooth into cake form. Cook over medium heat until bottom is crisp. Place a large dish over top of pan and flip polenta over. Slide polenta back into pan and continue to cook until other side is crispy. Slice polenta into eight pieces and serve with minestra on top. Serves 6.

Geoff Gardner, chef/creative director at Sel de la Terre (255 State Street, Boston, 617.720.1300)
“The kinds of things that my mother would cook would be comfort food, but homemade comfort food,” says Geoff Gardner. “Roasts like pot roast, or stews like beef stew, or chicken fricassee or chicken cacciatore. Pretty simple, but also oftentimes things that would be just cooking away, low and slow all day long and sort of filling the house with the wonderful aroma of food.” Gardner’s mother’s meals brimmed with “real food made with real ingredients” that helped to shape his feelings about what makes a good meal. “It was just nice beef and onions and celery and carrots with some spices and stewed up, and it was just good, wholesome comfort food,” he says. The slow-cooking style that he remembers from his youth has had a lasting appeal for him, and it’s evident in the professional techniques he uses today. “I learned to love eating long, long before the cooking part of it,” he says. “I kind of fell into that later in life, almost out of necessity in my teens, looking for work. But I think the seeds were planted early on with a love of food and eating.”

White Bean Soup with Clams,
Pancetta, and Fines Herbes
2 cups dried navy beans, soaked
overnight in water (use extra water
since beans will expand)
1 cup diced pancetta
1 medium white onion, peeled
and diced
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 medium-size carrot, peeled
and diced
1 stalk celery, washed and diced
2 quarts chicken stock
3 tablespoons chopped mixed fines
herbes (chervil, chives, parsley,
tarragon)
2 cups tomatoes, peeled, seeded,
and chopped
24 Littleneck clams, washed to
remove any sand
Salt and pepper

Put pancetta in medium-size souppot over medium heat. Gently render for 7 or 8 minutes. Add onion, garlic, carrots, and celery and gently sauté in the rendered pancetta for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove navy beans from their soaking water and add to the pot. Discard the water. Immediately add chicken stock and simmer gently, uncovered, for 1.5 to 2 hours, or until beans are tender. Add tomatoes and season to taste with salt and pepper. All of this can be done one day in advance and refrigerated. When ready to serve, return to a simmer, add clams and fines herbes and cover. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes until clams open. Serve immediately. This recipe assumes 3 clams per serving. Feel free to add more if you would like. (Note: Many prepared chicken stocks can be quite salty, so taste the soup before adding any additional salt.) Serves 6 to 8.

Joanne Chang, chef/co-owner of Myers+Chang (1145 Washington Street, Boston, 617.542.5200) and pastry chef/owner of Flour Bakery (1595 Washington Street, Bos-ton, 617.267.4300; 12 Farnsworth Street, Boston, 617.338.4333)
Part of the reason Joanne Chang opened her latest venture, Myers+Chang, was that the takeout Chinese she was eating bore little resemblance to her mother’s cooking. “We grew up eating Chinese food, and that’s all we ever ate,” she explains. “I think I was about 13 or 14 when I realized that not everyone eats Chinese food every night.” One of the most important components of her mother’s cooking, which has translated to the restaurant, is the use of fresh vegetables. “I don’t know if that’s a Mom thing or a Taiwanese thing, but she’s always, all the time since I was growing up, cooking us lots of vegetables,” Chang says. “We have a lot of vegetables on the menu, and we don’t have a lot of fried things; we try to keep things really tasty and really fresh and really healthy.” In fact, many items on the Myers+Chang menu — Mama Chang’s Pork and Chive Dumplings, Spicy Silky Tofu, Mung Bean Cake — are direct descendants of dishes Chang’s mother cooks at home, and the elder Chang has spent time in the restaurant’s kitchen, teaching the cooks her methods. As for Flour, Chang’s mother doesn’t bake — so your guess is as good as ours.

Mom’s Hot and Sour Soup
4 cups chicken stock
2 ounces pork loin, julienned
1/3 cup bamboo shoots, julienned
1/3 cup wood ear mushrooms, soaked
and sliced
1/4 cup lily buds, soaked and chopped
1 block firm tofu
3 pieces scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
2 teaspoons fresh ginger,
finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 egg

Heat chicken stock and add pork, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and lily buds. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Add tofu, chopped scallion, soy, salt, vinegar, sugar, sambal, pepper, ginger, and sesame oil. Simmer for a few minutes until flavors meld. Taste and adjust seasoning. Whisk in egg right before serving and divide into 4 bowls. Sprinkle with a little sesame oil, fresh ground pepper, and some chopped scallions for garnish. Serves 4.

Carlos Rodriguez, executive chef at Orinoco (477 Shawmut Avenue, Boston, 617.369.7075)
Growing up in Venezuela, Carlos Rodriguez’s weekday meals were prepared by his family’s housekeepers. But what stands out for him are the Sunday dinners he’d help his mother, Trina Michelangeli, assemble. “We took a theme every time,” he recalls. “We’d do a really, really complicated Chinese dish. Sometimes we did Indian, sometimes we did Venezuelan. [We were] always looking for international recipes.” The most important lesson his mother imparted, Rodriguez says, is to have a passion for cooking. “Most of the things that I learned, I learned right in the industry. But I think she gave me the passion to do it.” And, he says, she’s most definitely his number-one fan. These days, when she’s given a traditionally Venezuelan recipe (Rodriguez uses some, like the Asado Negro, at Orinoco), it’s mother who calls son for ideas. “She’ll call me and say, ‘Baby, can you give me this recipe for this rice that you made, I don’t know, 20 years ago?’ ” he laughs. But when it comes down to it, she’ll also be the first to give it to him straight. “I know if I give her a [bad] dish — and I know I’m her son and she loves me to death — she will tell me the dish is not good,” Rodriguez says. “So if I go too trendy, she will tell me, ‘Too many flavors. Go back, keep it simple, let the ingredients come out from themselves.’ ”

Escabeche de Mariscos, a/k/a
Rompe Colchon (mattress breaker)
1/2 cup each of mussels, clams,
conch (all without shells), and
baby octopus
21 to 25 deveined shrimp
1 red onion
1 bunch cilantro
1 cup lime juice
1 red bell pepper
1/4 cup white vinegar
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Worcestershire sauce, as desired
Ketchup, as desired

Cook all shellfish for 1/2 hour over medium heat. Julienne onion, pick the cilantro leaves, and cut peppers in small squares. Cool down the shellfish, mix all ingredients in a glass jar, and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Enjoy at a party or at the beach with Saltine crackers. Serves 6.

Nadsa de Monteiro, executive chef at the Elephant Walk (900 Beacon Street, Boston, 617.247.1500; 2067 Mass Ave, Cambridge, 617.492.6900; and 663 Main Street, Waltham, 781.899.2244)
Nadsa de Monteiro and her mother are practically opposing forces — but that doesn’t mean they can’t run a restaurant (or three) together. During Nadsa’s childhood in Cambodia, her mother enjoyed preparing food even though the family employed cooks — which meant Nadsa never had to learn. “When I was growing up, I didn’t get into cooking — I was just really good at eating,” she says. In fact, she didn’t spend time in the kitchen until her family moved to France after the fall of their native country. While away at school in Paris, she’d crave Cambodian food and call her mother for recipes. Eventually, the family relocated to the United States and opened the first Elephant Walk, but Nadsa didn’t end up in the kitchen until their chef failed to show up one evening. “I lasted the night, and I realized that I had a natural knack for it.” She began working side by side with her mother — which wasn’t always easy. “There’s always the tension of mother and daughter. We’re so different from each other, character-wise,” Nadsa says. “But overall, when it came to food, we worked well together.” Currently, Nadsa handles the day-to-day operations of the business, while her mother has transitioned into more of a consulting role. The two still butt heads — Nadsa’s willing to experiment, while her mother’s style is more traditional — but as Nadsa admits, “There’s integrity in every cuisine, and you have to respect the integrity in order to take it somewhere else.”

Poulet Pochani
For the chicken breast:
4 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled
and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken
breast, cut on the diagonal into
1/4-inch-thick pieces

Blend the chopped ginger with the water until smooth; add a little more water if necessary to blend. Extract the ginger juice and discard the rest. Marinate the chicken with the juice and set aside while you make the paste.

For the paste:
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 tablespoon galangal, peeled and
coarsely chopped
3 dried New Mexico chilies, soaked,
seeded, and deveined
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 large shallots, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons shrimp paste
1/2 cup water

Blend all the above ingredients in a blender until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes.

To assemble:
3 tablespoons soybean or other
vegetable oil
Paste (see above)
2 cups coconut milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Marinated sliced chicken
breast (see above)
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed,
quickly blanched, and cut in half
1 1/2 teaspoons hot chili flakes

Preparation:
Heat oil in large sauté pan or small wok over medium-high heat. Add paste and stir to render for about 20 seconds. Add coconut milk, salt, sugar, and fish sauce and stir to cook for 2 minutes. Add sliced chicken and stir to mix well and cook for 2 minutes longer. Add the green beans and hot chili flakes and cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Serve with steamed jasmine rice. Serves 4. @

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