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CHEF OF THE WEEK
Ä Continued from Page 11
like, “I want to do that.” He took me under
his wing and I stayed for 10 years. He taught
me the ropes.
Did you go to culinary school?
John: No. I did the traditional apprenticeship,
worked my way up the line. I did two
restaurants with Robert. His second was
the Rose Tree Inn in Media, PA. From there
I moved to the Gerneral Wayne Inn and
Maureen in Florida. Then every winter I
would go somewhere else.
That must have been a cool lifestyle.
John: It was cool but not my choice.
I’ve always been a year-round guy. I have
bills.
Eric, why did you became a chef?
Eric: I don’t know why. No, pretty much
the same way as John. Washing dishes in
this little French bistro in Haddonfield, NJ
called the Argyle Rooster. The chef, Gerard
Gehin had just come over from the Bellevue
Strafford in Philadelphia. I saw those guys
working and said, “That’s pretty cool. They
get to leave before everyone else does.” But
at 13, you only see one side of it and I didn’t
realize that they came in eight hours before
everyone else.
Is it a major difference here in the
off months? John: June, July, and August
are a major difference. Eric: We’ve been
here long enough that people come who are
down in the winter know we are year round.
The first year it was really slow. John: We
have an established local crowd who come
in the winter and won’t come in the summer.
Favorite junk food? Eric: Buffalo
chicken cheesesteak, but I don’t eat snacks.
John: C-View wings.
Did you just say you don’t eat
snacks? Eric: What do we do? Maybe potato
chips and dip? John: Maybe twizzlers
but Mike and Ike are my all time favorite.
Those two guys got it going on.
Do you cook at home? Eric: I don’t
care if my wife Kimberly makes me a peanut
butter and jelly sandwich. It’s not a big deal,
I’d rather have her cook. John: Maybe if I
get roped into it, I’ll cook for my friends at
a barbecue. That’s what I do for a living, I
don’t want to do it at home.
John, what would you order if
you came here for dinner? Eric: Buffalo
chicken sandwich. John: I’d ask them
to make me a cheesesteak. Eric: My ordering
is like, “Can you take this dish and put
this on it and that on it?”
Doesn’t that kind of ordering annoy
chefs? Eric: We hate it in the back but
if it’s taking parts from entrees we already
have, it’s fine. As long as we’re not making
red sauce when we don’t’ have any tomatoes
cut. John: If we have it on hand, it’s ok.
Guys, what would you really order?
Eric: I’d have the filet and put it with a
lobster tail. Then it’s surf and turf. We serve
South African tails. They’re taken out, sautéed
with sherry and butter and tossed back
in with lump crabmeat and baked back in
the shell. Then they’re finished with a sweet
citrus butter sauce. It’s one of our most popular
dishes. John: I’d have the tomato mozzarella,
the spicy salad and the tuna loin. It’s
peppered seared, number one ahi tuna over
basmati rice with a diakon cucumber salad
and finished with a lime-tamarind and wasabi
glaze.
Who came up with that one? John:
It’s actually one of my dishes but I love tuna,
I love Asian food. That’s my influence. I’m
the Asian French guy and Eric’s the Italian,
Hawaiian, Caribbean guy. We both have our
thing.
Interview by Stefanie Godfrey
“Too much of a good thing is wonderful.” MAE WEST
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