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Chefs' Holiday Traditions

By Carole Kotkin

When it comes to the pleasures of the table, most people would agree that during the holidays there is simply no place like home. It's a time of year when families revisit all manner of rituals, including culinary traditions that have been passed down for generations. Diets are abandoned, and fanciful fusion food and spa cuisine give way to evocative butter- and cream-laden dishes that push deeply imbedded palate memories.

Even though I am a food professional, there will be no baby vegetables or overly elaborate culinary creations on my holiday table. Holiday dinners for my family are the very essence of comfort cooking. They're the meals that pull us home for the comforting and familiar scents and flavors of treasured family recipes. Chefs are no different. It doesn't matter how accomplished or sophisticated they've become, most return to their roots during Christmas and Hanukkah to prepare the memory-stirring home fare on which they were raised.

There are always pleasant surprises in store when restaurant chefs cook at home, particularly when drawing from a melting pot of ethnic influences that is so symbolic of the American tapestry.

When Michelle Bernstein, executive chef at the acclaimed Azul restaurant in the 5-star Mandarin-Oriental Hotel in Miami, celebrates Hanukkah at home with her parents and sister, the observance honors the diversity of her family tree. Her mother is a fourth-generation Argentine Jew from a family that emigrated from Eastern Europe, while her American father's ancestors had settled in the first Jewish ghettos of Italy. As a result, Miami-born Bernstein, who is also the host of "Melting Pot Cuisine" on the Food Network, grew up eating cholent (pot roast with beans and barley), stuffed cabbage and brisket with tzimmes (carrots and sweet potato stew) and dumplings, along with Italian-influenced tomato sauce and creamy polenta. "My mother and grandmother always kept the European Jewish traditions, but added Argentine-Italian flavors," Bernstein recalls. "The foods we cook are a living legacy that link us to our past. My mother, who in turn was taught by her mother and grandmother, always made Holiday dinners. Most of our family is still in Argentina and a few are spread around the Midwest. Recently, I have taken the labor away from my mother and I prepare the holiday meals." The menu she'll cook for her close-knit family is a rich mix of dishes reflecting Bernstein's unique heritage. "We light the menorah and eat latkes (potato pancakes). Sometimes there's lasagna, spinach pie or cheese arepas, plus the traditional Jewish staples. I feel fortunate because I have both backgrounds," Bernstein says. "The dishes of the Italian Jews still influence modern chefs," she says. Award-winning chef and cookbook author Joyce Goldstein explores this topic in her book Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen. 

Trained in classical French cuisine and known professionally for her deeply flavored fusion foods - dishes such as her delectable "Bahamian cracked conch two ways" pan-fried with citrus sauce or marinated with habanero. Her  Hanukkah menu builds on what she calls "tradition with a twist." For example, Bernstein's  noodle pudding is given a tart and savory flavor by substituting goat cheese for the customary cottage cheese .Bernstein's life has taken some twists as well. She was a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company in New York until an injury forced her into early retirement. She quickly refocused and set off in pursuit of her second love, cooking. After earning a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales University, she polished her skills at Jean Louis at the Watergate in Washington, D.C., and Alison on Dominick and Le Bernadin in New York. She returned to Miami in 1997, and after stints at Red Fish Grill, Tantra and The Strand, she was lured to Azul last year. Tom Seistma, restaurant reviewer for The Washington Post reported in September of this year that, "The most exciting cooking in Miami at this moment comes from Michelle Bernstein and the Dining Room at Azul."  Her rendition of her grandmother's enduring stuffed cabbage, while not on the menu at Azul, may well outlive Bernstein's fancier restaurant fare.

For Marcus Samuelsson, executive chef at Aquavit in New York and Minneapolis, Christmas Eve burns brightest in his memories. Born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, he began to cook as a young child in his grandmother Helga's kitchen.

"By the time I was six, my grandmother was teaching me how to cook, "he recalls. "She had been a professional cook herself, and I'd spend hours with her learning how to make traditional Swedish food, cookies and fresh bread."

Leaving home at 16 to attend culinary school in Switzerland, his journey up the culinary ladder was steady, and included an internship at Aquavit followed by a one-year tenure with Georges Blanc (chef of the eponymous Michelin three-star restaurant in Vonnas, France). In 1994, he returned to New York to become the executive chef at Aquavit. Chef Samuelsson was awarded Best Rising Star Chef by the James Beard Foundation in 1999 and the 2001 Ivy Award. The New York Times bestowed three stars upon Aquavit and called Samuelsson a "fearless and artistic chef."

Samuelsson's cooking says as much about his personal history as it does about the holidays many of us share. "I'm really three personalities," he says. "If I don't open my mouth, I'm 100-percent Ethiopian. As soon as I open my mouth, I'm Swedish. And I live in America." The dishes that emerge from his kitchen at Aquavit may be Scandinavian by design, but the food is strongly original. Ingredients one would think incongruous - gravlax with pickled fennel, avocado and mustard espresso sauce; Kobe beef ravioli with Japanese mushrooms; hearts of palm salad and truffle tea broth gravlax become complementary in his hands. And the presentations are elaborate. A dish such as house-smoked salmon with poached quail egg, goat cheese parfait and osetra caviar is served on an ice-block. "We see ourselves like a production company putting together a concept and fantasy, dish by dish," Samuelsson says. "By contrast, when I cook at home for the holidays, I like things traditional and down-to-earth. "When I was a kid in Sweden, we didn't grow up on foie gras." Rather his childhood memories are filled with the traditional scents and flavors of Christmas. "Every home in Sweden smelled the same - cinnamon, clove, cardamom - all the spices that go into Glogg [a warm, spiced red wine drink] and his grandmother's gingersnap cookies." Referring to Sweden's food as "based on a poor man's culture," Samuelsson still pickles, preserves and cures fish for Christmas the way his grandmother taught him. "I make foods in December that are not seen for another twelve months - ham, herring, red cabbage, turkey, goose and basic homey potato gratin with anchovies."

With his family dispersed around the world, Samuelsson celebrates with friends and Aquavit employees in his Manhattan apartment. "Most New York apartments are just too small to accommodate a lot of people; it becomes a sort of come-and-go-affair, the easier the better, with people bringing foods from their culture," he says. Samuelsson serves a traditional Glogg throughout the holidays and ends each meal with aquavit, (a Scandinavian liquor flavored with caraway seed, thought by Scandinavians to provide eternal life).

"Although I was born and raised in California, I like the slow, easy pace of life here in Charleston, South Carolina, the birthplace of the South," says Bob Waggoner, executive chef of the Charleston Grill, the only restaurant in the state of  South Carolina to receive Mobil's Four-Star Award. The South has long been a land of culinary abundance, a vast agricultural bazaar enriched by seafood from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, elaborate traditions of baking and pork butchery, and culinary accents from rural black, Native American, English, Spanish, German, and French traditions. The South today is a lively and adventurous region, where innovative ideas are welcome in the kitchen. Despite his non-Southern background, Wagonner's food has a real Old Southern richness to it. He sautés Smoky Mountain golden trout with Low Country crawfish tails, for example, and seared lamb sweetbreads over truffled grits, and local young zucchini blossoms stuffed with Maine lobster.

Waggoner received his formal training with Michael Roberts at Trumps in Los Angeles from 1981 to 1983. In 1984 he went to France for what was supposed to be a one-year footloose adventure, but he became captivated by French cooking that was then considered to be the best in the world and remained for eleven years studying with a constellation of Michelin-starred chefs - Jacques Lameloise, Charles Barrier, Pierre Gagnaire, Gerard Boyer and Mark Meneau. After working in leading hotels and restaurants] in Canada, Miami and Nashville, he joined the Charleston Grill, located in the Charleston Place Hotel, in 1998. "Combining my cooking experience from abroad with the flavors of the South, I enjoy serving dishes that incorporate Low Country favorites with classical French techniques," he notes.

During the holiday season, the South shows its gastronomic riches particularly proudly. For the Waggoners, Christmas is a time to bring extended families together to eat great food--old-style Southern and contemporary, both often skillfully mixed together on the same platter. Holiday dinners combine down-home comfort with vibrant Gallic touches. "When we get together with neighbors and friends during the holidays, my wife, Christine and I will cook together. We'll roast a goose, some quail or a leg of lamb. Christine is French, so on Christmas Eve, we'll begin with her roasted turban squash and salmon followed by her family's traditional roasted pheasant with chanterelles.  In Christine's interpretation, the all-American roasted squash becomes a bowl that is filled with a heaping mound of corn, bacon and onions and then topped with a thin slice of salmon; her classic French stuffing for the pheasant is seasoned with Armagnac, ham, and chicken livers, but Christine adds pecans for a southern twist. Chef Waggoner says,  "While I love Charleston's subtropical climate, winter brings some of my favorite foods - oysters, citrus fruit, greens and country ham. We'll have some Low Country dishes like grits with roasted garlic; sweet potatoes; collard greens; fried green tomatoes and corn bread." On Christmas Day, the Waggoners entertain a crowd of family and friends. "Everyone brings something so no one gets hit too hard on the preparation, and we'll carve a ham or two," he says. The ham is the real thing, from Virginia, slowly cured with salt and smoke and aged for a full ten months. Christine glazes the ham with sherry vinegar and wildflower honey. In addition to the ham, there's poultry - a whole, deep-fried turkey or pan-fried quail with gravy. Waggoner pours California Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot with this eclectic Southern spread, and encourages his guests to experiment with the wine pairings. "With the turban squash and salmon I would serve Jed Steel's 1997 Catfish Vineyard, Clear Lake Zinfandel and with the roasted pheasant and chanterelles, I would serve Pinot Noir 1997 from Jim Chendennon's Au Bon Climat winery. Jim is a great friend and we have chardonnay, pinot noir, and merlot from him as our private label house wines," he says. 

California wine reigns supreme at Terra, too, the celebrated Napa Valley restaurant founded by chefs Lissa Doumani and Hiro Sone.  Doumani, a Napa Valley native of Lebanese ancestry, met the Japanese-born Sone in Los Angeles in 1983 while both were working at Spago where the French-trained Sone (who studied with legendary chefs Paul Bocuse and Joel Robuchon) was executive chef and Doumani pastry chef. They married in 1988 and opened their award-winning restaurant in  a century-old fieldstone foundry in St. Helena that same year. The eclectic cuisine at Terra is robust and richly flavorful, manifesting a savory regard for the homey cooking of Southern France and Northern Italy albeit with a Japanese sensibility, as evidenced by artfully presented dishes such as the sumptuous bone marrow risotto with braised veal shanks.

They share their inspired cooking with readers in their first cookbook, Terra: Cooking from the Heart of Napa Valley, a critically acclaimed labor of love. When it's time to celebrate the holidays, the couple invites Doumani's family, (her father, Carl, is the proprietor of Quixote Winery and former owner of Stags' Leap Winery), as well as their circle of chef and winery friends to their home on Christmas Eve. Sone has turned what was formerly a very simple dinner of cheese fondue with fresh fruit and lots of wine into a sort of no-holds-barred bravura holiday feast with Japanese accents and a touch of sophistication. Each year, a different theme is chosen. Last year, it was India. Sone assembled a repast of traditional Indian curries and asked the guests to come clothed in Indian attire (he was dressed as Gandhi and the women wore saris).

The year before was decidedly Lebanese; a whole lamb was stuffed with raw rice and pine nuts, Lebanese-style, and roasted in Terra's oven at 250 degrees for seven hours. "It was so tender the meat would fall off the bone at the nudge of a fork," Sone says. "I design a menu so there is a sensible yin and yang: The almost effortless lamb compensated for the more demanding and time-consuming side dishes. I'm no different from anybody else - I hate feeling like a caterer, not the host." Japanese-inspired holiday menus appear every so often and give Sone the chance to revisit his past. Dishes such as his home-smoked salmon garnished with vodka-laced crème fraiche and caviar, and Sonoma-raised Miyagis oysters (which originally come from Sone's hometown in Japan) in a sauce of soy, sake and lemon juice are among his favorites.

On the menu this year is a trip to Mexico with the whole family where Sone and Doumani plan to experiment with their own blend of Mexican cuisine.

As one might expect, their home wine cellar boasts a trove of exceptional bottlings. The task of wine pairing often falls to Carl Doumani, who favors old vintages from his cellar, along with lots of Champagne to make the holiday meal memorable. For dessert, Doumani often prepares a pomegranate granita with walnut-filled, Lebanese-style cookies followed by a chocolate bread pudding with sun-dried cherries topped with crème fraiche "It's just great with left-over Cabernet," she says.

Mexican-born Martin Rios, executive chef of The Old House Restaurant in the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, since 1997, JPG4 enjoys taking part in the annual Christmas event on gallery-lined Canyon Road. "The whole street becomes blue-white with light from the farolitos - little bags filled with sand and lit with a small candle - and pine bonfires," he relates. Together with his family, Rios revels in the good cheer spread by area merchants. "We stop at each display and are often served bizcochitos (anise-flavored cookies), Mexican hot chocolate and mistela (warm herbed whiskey punch with raisins and almonds)."

Rios moved to the forefront of American cuisine when he began using French techniques to reinvent native New Mexican cooking at The Old House, the only restaurant in the state of New Mexico to receive the 2001 Mobil Four-Star Award. He loves nothing better than adapting the New Mexican larder to dishes like herb-painted sea scallops with crisped potato, sweet peppers, tender leeks and roasted corn; and red chile-glazed veal chop with red wine, onions, wild mushrooms, jack cheese potato and port-mulato chile sauce.  Rios, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and apprenticed in France with Georges Blanc, says it was his mother who was his greatest teacher, instilling in him the passion for cooking that burns in him today. "She is simply a great cook. I love the classical Mexican food she learned from my grandmother, the flavors she cooks with and the different chiles she uses," he enthuses. "When I was growing up, there were eight children to feed. She made soups every day, stews and posole, and she knows ten to twelve different moles."

For the Catholic Rios, the month of December is a cross-cultural experience because his wife, Jennifer, is Jewish. "There are always bagels and tortillas side by side in the freezer, and at this time of the year we do Jennifer's grandmother's noodle kugel, latkes and pot roast for Hanukkah. On Christmas, I make a baked butternut squash soup with spiced seared shrimp and chestnut puree; a tian of marinated Maine lobster salad with avocados, artichokes, baby corn, roasted peppers and lemon zest with Champagne vinaigrette followed by my mother's almond mole." Made from tomatoes, red peppers, carrots, raisins, guajillo and morita chiles, chicken broth and roasted corn tortillas, Rios says the mole "is wonderful over roast turkey." Wines are served family-style. "I encourage everyone to drink what they like and not be afraid to try something different," Rios says. "I will usually have California wines - Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc or Fume Blanc." Holidays are an affirmation of family life, and for these chefs also a melding of cultures. Chefs agree that feeding family and friends around their own table is pleasure for them, not work.

With a mix of culinary creations from the past to the present, these recipes carry a clear message-eat, drink and be merry.

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