Q&A With Executive Chef
Melissa Perello of The Fifth Floor in San Francisco
Rising star... Dynamo... Loaded with talent... that's how reviewers
describe 28-year-old Melissa Perello who took over the toque at
The Fifth Floor, one of San Francisco's top French restaurants,
in November 2004. However, the soft-spoken chef has made a career
of being a culinary prodigy, having boned out a rack of lamb at
age 12, started cooking professionally at 14 and catapulted to her
first executive chef position at 24. A 1996 graduate of the Culinary
Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, she was named one of Food
& Wine magazine's Best New Chefs in 2004 and has also received two
James Beard Award nominations.
CMEPlanner: Every review about your cooking tells about
how young you are. Do you get tired of that?
Perello: It's something I can't escape. Any time I go into the
dining room, customers look at me and say, "How old are you--12?"
CMEPlanner: Did you always want to be a chef?
Perello: Cooking
interested me from the time I was very young. My mom is a pretty
good chef--she was always making stuff out of Gourmet or
Bon Appetit. Growing up, I used to spend summers with my
grandparents in Texas and my grandmother cooked great, homey Southern
food such as barbecued brisket and chicken-fried steak. I also obsessed
about cooking shows on TV such as Nathalie Dupree and Julia Child.
My first cookbook was The Fun of Cooking by Jill Krementz--I
must have made every dish out of that book. It had a great recipe
for bread shaped like teddy bears.
CMEPlanner: Once you started cooking in a real-life restaurant
kitchen, was it different from what they taught you at CIA?
Perello:
There's a lot more pressure and faster pace--you've always got someone
breathing down your neck. And you're battling with co-workers for
pans, and trying to make sure that someone's not turning up the
heat under your pot on the stove while you're not looking.
CMEPlanner: Some reviewers
describe your cooking as "French-inspired Californian." How do you
feel about that?
Perello:
I hate labels--I don't like to categorize my food or confine it
to a certain "box." Sometimes I'll use a Middle Eastern spice, or
something might be very Japanese in presentation. If anything, my
cooking is ingredient-inspired. I like to find the best products--especially
vegetables like fava beans, morel mushrooms, asparagus--and make
them shine. I don't like to over-manipulate things--I prefer simplicity
and "minimalisticness," to coin a word. Something changes on the
menu every day to highlight what's freshest. I constantly think
of flavor profiles--combinations and contrasts of sweetness, tartness,
and texture.
CMEPlanner: Do you think there's a unique San Francisco cooking style?
Perello:
Definitely. It's all about finding the best possible ingredients
and working personally with farmers and growers. I love it here.
I can't think of living anywhere else.
CMEPlanner: Tell us about some of your favorite suppliers
Perello: I
love English peas--I get them from Louis Iacopi in Half Moon Bay.
I serve Napa Valley grass-fed beef--it's very small production.
And there's a woman up north who'll drive two hours to bring us
four-dozen duck eggs and just charge us $20.
CMEPlanner: What's the best compliment you've received, either from a
food critic or one of your diners?
Perello: Any
time I get an honest, good reflection from someone, that's the best
praise to me. At the restaurant, we want guests to enjoy their meals--that's
what we're here for. We want people to put their dining experience
in our hands--and let us do what we do best.
SIGNATURE DISH
Chestnut-crusted ris de veau:
(sweetbreads) accompanied by langoustine and roasted chestnuts.
The Fifth Floor
Hotel Palomar
12 Fourth Street
(415) 348-1555
www.fifthfloor.citysearch.com
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