Tastemaker: Rocco Whalen

More from assistant editor Ivan J. Sheehan’s interview with chef/owner Rocco Whalen of Fahrenheit. For the rest of the interview, pick up the July issue of Northern Ohio Live.

On getting started in the business with Wolfgang Puck:

I got hired rather quickly. I worked my way up pretty strategically. It wasn’t like I was the guy who knew everything, I was young, I was 19, but I’d watch these guys just come in and fail, like sous chefs who had trouble running the kitchen. Next thing you know, they’re like: “Why not give this kid a shot? He’s here everyday, he’s doing what we ask him to do, he’s young; financially, we can get a break on him, we can pay him half what we are going to pay these other guys.” Wolfgang hires successful chefs. He surrounds himself with the very best culinarians. I kind of just fell right into that and was privileged. My tenure was five years. I worked in Phoenix for two with him. I transferred to LA; I worked at one of his lower end outlets – not lower end, but no Spago – in Orange County for a year. Then I went to Spago Beverly Hills for a year. Then I worked at Granita in Malibu for about six months. After Los Angeles, I transferred to Vegas. I worked at Spago’s Caesar’s Palace for a year, which is the probably the most memorable 12 months of my life.

IJS: What made [working in Vegas] so memorable?

RW: It’s Vegas, you know? Big, big, big, big numbers, you never know who’s going to walk in, the amount of food and production that we did – we had a cooler just for caviar. Someone’s having a good time at the tables, they’re rolling the dice, and they’re hitting it hard, and they win a bunch of money, that’s what we want. You walk into a caviar cooler that’s got $600,000 worth of caviar in it: that’s the real deal. And you’re selling it, too. Good experiences; experiences that really humble me here. My expectations in Cleveland are high, but I’ve seen a lot of different things, and a lot of different, bigger markets.

IJS: Would you say Wolfgang was the most important influence?

RW: For culinary purposes: absolutely. My mother is the girl of my dreams. My mother’s not here with us anymore, if I had the chance to tell her that one more time, I absolutely would. But, [Puck] was everything I wanted him to be, and then some. When you walk into a room with Wolfgang Puck, it’s like you’re walking into a room with George Clooney, on the culinary level. Emeril, Bobby Flay, I really don’t think they touch Wolf. I chat with him once a year. When I’m in LA, I do go to Spago two or three times, because as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best restaurant in the United States. What he does, on his level, in an $18 million restaurant right off Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills is something that I want everyone to experience.

IJS: Do you have a favorite season to cook in?

RW: I take the seasons a little bit more strategically than some chefs do. Typically there’s four seasons in the year; we change the menu every six weeks. I think there are seasons within the seasons. Fall’s a great a season, summer’s a great season, winter’s a great season … we’re at end the end of May/early June. I’m still hanging on to morel mushrooms, fiddle neck ferns, king salmon, but we’re going to launch right into figs, sweet corn, and then we are going to roll into heirloom tomatoes. So, I don’t want to necessarily say that I have a favorite season; I have favorite items. Heirloom tomato time is my favorite time of year. I’ve got a farmer that she works specifically with my restaurants – her name is Karen, she’s out in Ridge Bridge Farms out in Avon – she grows just for me, and I take 60 to 70 pounds every week, from the end of July to pretty much September. We do an heirloom tomato salad every year that people can’t get enough of.

IJS: You mentioned your appreciation of Asian cuisine, and the influences are evident on your menu. What about at home?

RW: I am very Asian influenced, so soba noodles are always in my cupboard, and things like that. You’re going to be hard pressed not to find chili paste, rice wine vinegar, sesame seeds … in my cupboards, because it’s quick, it’s flavorful, it’s light, it’s easy. I think we should all model ourselves around Asian or Oriental cuisine because I think it’s the most heart-conscious cuisine. I’m not talking about Kung pao chicken or something like that. I’m talking about Vietnamese summer rolls. You can’t find fresher, you can’t find as flavorful, you can’t find as heart conscious: that’s simple. They have rice noodles, they have basil, they have mint, they have some shrimp, and you have summer rolls.

On guilty pleasures:

My real guilty pleasure is teaching someone, or a guy, how to take care of his lady, cook her that meal, just one every now and than. Just go outside the box … show what you do and how you care for someone through food. We all have to eat, and that’s where the passion comes in. If there’s a guilty pleasure, it’s entertaining the ladies a little bit.

IJS: Music is an important part of a restaurant’s atmosphere. Are you a music lover?

RW: Music is a huge part of my life. I have maybe the largest CD collection ever. I go from one end of the spectrum to the next … my mother always had music on in the kitchen, it was the focal point of the kitchen. Kitchen’s an ease thing. We’ve all burnt bacon; we’ve all burnt toast. Just relax. You’re going to make mistakes. You should always have a little music going; music is a huge part of any kitchen.

On being the boss:

I don’t want to be impartial, but I think there’s only a handful of really, really talented chefs in this town, whether or not I am one of them. There are a lot of guys who … fall into the corporate trap, or they go work in standardized things. There’s nothing standardized about what I do except for the recipes I have. As far as a chef/owner is concerned, I’m not just the chef, I’m the psychiatrist, the shrink, the bellman, the bar back, the busboy, the gynecologist, the bank: I’m 20 different things to a very loyal and committed staff of mine. You have to treat people the way you want to be treated.

IJS: Favorite restaurants? You mentioned Flying Fig?

RW: Karen is a gem of a woman, a rock star chef as far as I’m concerned. I’ll go to … Nighttown. I want to give [owner Brendan Ring] a shout out because I think he does a great job. He knows his market, knows his demographic, and just does an outstanding job of serving 400 to 700 people on a Friday night. I like the vibe, too. It’s not so much the food necessarily as the place. Sometimes I don’t want to be Rocco from Fahrenheit, I just want to walk into the Fig, sit at the bar, have a happy hour dink, have Karen’s pupu platter, or braised short ribs off the small plates menu. I’m a local guy. I live in the neighborhood; I work in the neighborhood. I try to have a strong grasp on Tremont, Ohio City, Duck Island, Slavic Village. I get around not often enough, but when I do go out, there are three of four places on my list. When I want to treat myself, I’ll go see Michael at Lola. One of my dearest friends, and I think he does a really great job. I’ll go over to Baricelli and dive into the cheese case, and not come out for two hours. With that, Paul Minnillo is a dear friend as well. I wouldn’t be in this position without him. He’s pretty much at the forefront of what happened in Cleveland about 20-25 years ago when he started taking chances, and it gives me the opportunity to take chances today. I don’t know of a better cheese guy around, whether it’s Cleveland or the country. He’s got such a passion for cheese; I wish I could just parlay that passion into one, two, three or four things in the kitchen. I’d probably be doing some book deals or something.

Fahrenheit
2417 Professor Avenue, Cleveland
216-781-8858
www.fahrenheittremont.com

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