Chefs are a mighty lot.  They often begin life in the kitchen as dishwashers and endure numerous kitchen jobs long before ever even touching food.  They also frequently undergo rigorous training.  But sometimes, one's future is shaped more by a single off-hand remark than by any amount of training or experience.  That's the case for Chef Alan Kantor of MacCallum House Restaurant in Mendocino, CA.  While attending the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Kantor strived to excel and, as he says "did really well" in classes except when he "didn't hit it off with the Chef instructor".  At one point during his training, a French Chef at culinary school told him "you are not really a chef unless you know how to do everything … somebody who can manage people, schedule, make sauce, pastry, butcher - that's a Chef.  A Chef knows how to do all".  Chef Kantor "took that to heart" and has crafted his cuisine and his restaurant around this concept to the extent that he makes everything in-house rather than using prepared ingredients.  We asked Chef Kantor if he really truly makes everything in-house?  His response was "we buy some vinegar, one mustard, olive oil but everything else is made here - puff pastry, ice creams, pastas, bread - really nothing we don't make".  As he says, making everything in-house "controls quality" including ensuring "no chemicals" are in the food he serves.

More than a Chef - also a teacher

Chef Kantor understands the importance of culinary training and takes pride in teaching others his trade.  In fact, he calls himself "a teacher" who is "constantly correcting people" and getting them to do what he wants.  Teaching in a working kitchen may seem a perilous task but Chef Kantor has found it to be highly rewarding with two of his former students going on to follow his footsteps and attend the CIA.  His own first job after culinary training began with a single-day "try-out" where he was told to "dice and slice vegetables all day and had to make soup and a couple of other things - they just tried me out for a day".  These days Chef Kantor starts people off on a trial basis that can range from a few days to several months saying "people learn at different paces.  I've had people pick it up in one or two days but then other people bloom after six months and all a sudden become some of your best employees".  Of course some simply don't make it. 

Training trials and tribulations

What are the most common problems with new kitchen staff?  Nerves and dropping things top the list according to Chef Kantor,  "It's an amazing dance - you have to be very coordinated to cook in a restaurant" adding "I describe it as conducting a ten-ring circus".  He remembers one aspiring chef who spent "two days making a sauce" only to drop it on the floor.  His most memorable training experience, however, occurred during a busy evening when Chef Kantor was working the sauté station, as he frequently does, a trainee was working the grill station, and another person was in the pantry area.  The dinner rush was on and orders kept coming in pushing them more and more.  Chef Kantor laughs as he says "the trainee was trying to help but kept burning things and messing things up".  Finally Chef Kantor "realized that this was detrimental, it wasn't helping me any more".  What did he do?  He says "I did something really mean! I made the trainee stand in the corner. I said to her 'Please just stand in the corner - I've got to get this food out of here!'".  Chef Kantor admits that in the heat of the moment the request was not quite so pleasant adding "I felt bad, it was really hard on me too but I realized plates were not going out, things were just getting destroyed".  And what happened to the trainee?  Ultimately, Chef Kantor says "the trainee was tough, hung in there, and got really good!". 

Consistency is critical

Chef Kantor takes pride in his cuisine and the food served at MacCallum House.  In fact he takes great strides to ensure all his food is consistent and meets his high standards everyday, independent of who is in the kitchen.  Chef Kantor says that when he was a kid  he believed "restaurants were supposed to be pretty standard, especially French cuisine" but he quickly learned that was not how things "really were" in that "different Chefs had different ways of doing things".  He explains that at one early job in his career "the Chef would tell me to do one thing but then the Sous Chef would come along and tell me a different way".   The conflicting signals were not only difficult for Chef Kantor but they also affected the food.  As a result, Chef Kantor has devised a system for MacCallum House Restaurant to ensure that once a recipe is created all guests enjoy the same dish.  As he says "once we create a recipe, we write it all down and all the cooks have to follow that exact same way of making it".  Of course the food still evolves, as he says "if a cook finds a different way of doing something then they have to approach me, we test it, and if we like that better then everyone has to change to that way".  In other words, as Chef Kantor says "everybody has to create the same dish the same way".  Under this philosophy Chef Kantor ensures that customers always get the same food and won't say "oh I only come in this day because I like the way such and such cook makes it". 

Quality ingredients - known sources

Consistent food, according to Chef Kantor, also requires an intimate knowledge of the underlying ingredients and their sources.  Chef Kantor achieves this through relationships with local purveyors.  He is proud of his purveyors and even helps promote them with a list of his purveyors on the MacCallum House website.  Of course, Chef Kantor admits promoting these purveyors is a bit self-serving saying "that if I help promote these people and share their product then I'll get to use them too!".  Chef Kantor is passionate about these purveyors.  He eagerly describes his purveyors, noting many important details about each, demonstrating the depth of his relationship with and knowledge of them.  He begins talking about Thanksgiving Coffee Company who provides fair trade coffee from a farmer in Nicaragua.  Chef Kantor actually names the farmer who he met once during a sustainable conference they had.  Elk Creamery, which Chef Kantor says "had the first organic goat dairy in California, second in the US", provides many of his cheeses, although Chef Kantor makes his own fresh mozzarella everyday.  He also mentions the great local wines of the Anderson Valley region.  Chef Kantor is particularly exuberant about Jim Miller, a farmer located in Chico California who provides heirloom tomatoes, peaches, arugula and other vegetables that have been central to Chef Kantor's cuisine for more than 10 years.   

Speaking of the peaches and arugula from Jim Miller, Chef Kantor describes a warm peach salad (recipe below) that is currently on his menu. He says it is "a warm wilted salad; I sauté some shallots and Niman Ranch bacon, then I add peaches and arugula with a little bit of balsamic vinegar and serve it with a little wedge of the Elk Creamery Black Gold cheese".  As with everything we talked about, Chef Kantor's energy and enthusiasm for all of his food is evident.  Chefs are indeed a mighty lot and Chef Kantor is no exception, demonstrating that perhaps the only thing mightier than Chef Kantor wielding his knife to create a culinary masterpiece is his underlying passion for his food.

Warm Peach Salad

From Chef Alan Kantor, MacCallum House Restaurant

Serves 4

• 8 slices of Niman Ranch Applewood smoked bacon
• 4 tablespoons pine nuts
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped shallots
• 2 tree-ripened peaches, 1" dice
• 4 handfuls of arugula
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 4 wedges, 1/4" thick, Elk Creamery Black Gold Cheese
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Slice bacon into 1/2" pieces and sauté in pan, rendering the fat out until the bacon is crispy. Put in strainer to drain fat and lay bacon pieces on paper towels. 

Spread pine nuts 1 layer thick on sheet pan and bake at 350º for 8 minutes or until lightly golden.

Sweat the shallots in olive oil until soft; add diced peaches.  Stir until warmed through, about 1 minute; add arugula and toss to coat with the oil.  Add balsamic vinegar and slightly wilt the arugula.  Season with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Place salad on plate, garnish with wedge of Humboldt Fog chevre and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.