| |
In recent months
two Peter Kump’s career program graduates, Claudia
Fleming and Joseph Wrede, have
won prestigious food world awards.
On May 8, Claudia Fleming, pastry chef at New York’s Gramercy
Tavern, won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef,
marking the second time in three years that a Peter Kump’s
graduate has won this national award. (Stephen Durfee of Napa
Valley’s French Laundry won in 1998.) This year Fleming
was also named by Pastry Art & Design as one of “Ten
Best Pastry Chefs in America.” Tim Moriarty, the magazine’s
Features Editor, says, “We selected Claudia Fleming because
she’s a consummate craftsman and artist with pastry, and
because for her flavor is foremost. She has resisted the trend
towards elaborate presentation and chosen to pare down and distill
flavor. She was also in the vanguard in offering dessert tasting
plates, and she gives diners great value.”
Fleming, who oversees a staff of 10, has a reputation for dreaming
up inventive combinations such as Coconut Tapioca with Passionfruit
Sorbet and Cilantro Syrup and her famed Buttermilk Panna Cotta
with Strawberry Rose Gelée and Strawberry Sorbet. She
has worked at Gramercy Tavern—nominated second favorite
New York City restaurant by survey respondents in this year’s
Zagat guide, topped only by owner Danny Meyer’s first restaurant,
Union Square Cafe—since it opened in 1994 and creates dessert
menus for both the prix fixe restaurant and the lower-priced
tavern. “I can’t imagine working anywhere else,”
says Fleming. “It’s very challenging. Everyone’s
very supportive, yet I have complete autonomy.” Random
House will publish her first book, The Last Course: The Desserts
of Gramercy Tavern, next fall.
A couple months after Fleming’s victory at the James Beard
Awards, the July issue of Food & Wine magazine named Joseph
Wrede, a 1993 Peter Kump’s graduate in the Culinary Arts
and chef/owner of the five-year-old Taos, New Mexico restaurant
Joseph’s Table, as one of “America’s Ten Best
New Chefs.” Joseph’s Table is housed in a 100-year-old
adobe building about three miles outside of town. Wrede bought
the business—previously a Chinese restaurant—for a
mere $8,000. The restaurant seats 70 people in the winter and
expands by means of a patio to seat 90 in the summer.
Wrede, who studied sociology and English literature at Regis
College before coming to Peter Kump’s, feels this recognition
is a sign of the way things are improving for chefs in smaller
cities. “Maybe six or seven years ago we couldn’t
compete because we didn’t have access to the same products,
and without that kind of equality it’s hard to shine. Now
we still have to be a little more organized in Taos, but we
get great local, organic produce. And on one level Taos is an
American variation on Provence with wonderful lamb and wild
mushrooms.”
Wrede relies heavily on local organic farming for his menu.
In fact, Food & Wine cited Wrede, who is a big fan
of Richard Olney’s work, for his efforts to “use local
organic foods in surprising, sensual ways.” Says Wrede,
with tongue in cheek, “In some ways I see myself as a glorified
mortician. I take something when it’s still as fresh as
possible, arrange it and send it out.”
That kind of original comment is typical of Wrede’s take
on the culinary arts. Pete Wells, Associate Features Editor
at Food & Wine and the author of the article naming
Wrede as one of the country’s best new chefs, says Wrede
has a special way of talking and thinking about food. “He
thinks like an artist,” Wells reports. “He sees food
as a medium for communicating with his customers, and he wants
to do strange and unexpected things to their palates. He’s
got a real grasp of the seduction and sensuality of food.”
But John Peelen, CCP, who taught Wrede French Culinary Techniques
1-5 at Peter Kump’s, remembers him as a student who combined
his artistic side with an intense work ethic. “When I saw
Joe’s face looking back at me from the cover of Food
& Wine,” says Peelen, “I wasn’t really
surprised. I remember that he was extremely hard-working. He
was living at the Y on 92nd Street, working at night and attending
Peter Kump’s during the day. There were times when he’d
come in looking absolutely exhausted, but he’d still do
excellent work at the stove. And he was a great guy who was
fun to have in class. It may sound corny, but it’s the
hope of every teacher to have a student achieve something like
this.”
Wrede, who worked at Denver restaurants such as Aubergine before
moving to Taos remembers not only Peelen, but his whole experience
at Peter Kump’s positively. “The apprentice thing
just didn’t happen for me, so school was perfect for me.
Douglas Rodriguez [Chicama] and Michael Romano [Union Square
Cafe] came in, and those guys to me were like rock and roll
stars are for a teenager. But I realized, too, that this business
takes commitment and hard work. You don’t have to be a
good person to be a good chef, but you do in order to run a
restaurant and have good people working for you. You’ll
always be the most passionate about the product, and it’s
an honor to have people engrossed in your passion. Anyway, you
have to gravitate towards happiness in this business. You work
too hard not to.” |
