Northern Ohio Live : November 2007 : In The Kitchen

recipe file
Shellfish Cassoulet with Butter Beans
Serves Four Entrées

Ingredients
• 2 dozen whole freshwater prawns
• 1 dozen razor clams
• 1 dozen littleneck clams
• 3 cups tomato cassoulet base (recipe follows)
• ¼ cup dry white wine (viogner)
• 1 cup breadcrumbs (fresh, cubed, toasted)
• 1 tablespoon thyme (fresh, picked)
• 1 tablespoon good quality finishing extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Clean all clams. If razor or littleneck clams are not fresh or available, then purchase whatever shellfish is the freshest (mussels, cockles, crayfish, rock shrimp, etc.). In a large pot, bring two salted gallons of water to a low simmer. Blanch the prawns for two minutes and allow them to cool in the refrigerator; then remove the meat from the shells. In a large sauté pan add all the clams to the ¼ cup of white wine. Cover and steam the clams over high heat until they all open (approximately 10 minutes), discarding any that do not. Add the cassoulet base to the sauté pan and reduce heat to low. Stir in the lobster meat, being careful not to break or disrupt any of the seafood. Taste the cassoulet now to check the seasoning. Top with ½ tbsp fresh thyme and the breadcrumbs and broil until golden brown. Finish with the extra virgin olive oil.

Shellfish Cassoulet Base

Ingredients
• 2 ounces Ohio butter (hartzler, Amish, etc.)
• 2 white Ohio onions, diced
• 2 leeks, diced
• 1 head of fennel, diced
• 1 head of celery, diced
• 1 pound cuttlefish, diced
• 12 ounces high-quality whole peeled canned tomatoes (San Marzano)
• 1 cup dry white wine (viogner)
• 1 cup butter beans (soaked, cooked, stored in extra virgin olive oil, or high-quality store-bought beans)
• 1 bunch thyme, tied with twine
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
In a heavy-bottomed sauce pot heat two ounces of butter over medium-low heat. Add all the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, cover and sweat over low heat for at least 10 minutes. Add the cuttlefish, white wine and thyme; cook uncovered until half the wine is reduced. Add the butter beans and tomatoes and simmer uncovered for about one hour. This portion of the recipe can be done in advance.

– recipe courtesy of Jonathon Sawyer, chef/owner of Bar Cento in Cleveland

Tastemaker: Jonathon Sawyer, chef/owner, Bar Cento,
1948 West 25th Street, Cleveland; 216-274-1010

JS: I was born in Chicago, and I lived there until I was like six. I was raised in Cleveland – in Strongsville.

JS: Yeah, literally, on my 13th birthday, he got me a job at the Mad Cactus in Strongsville as a dishwasher. Sure enough, a couple weeks later I was a prep cook, and then a couple weeks later, he went on to college, and then I started cooking from then on. I never left the kitchen.

JS: I didn’t know that this was always what I wanted to do. I always had fun … I always knew it fit my personality. And then there came a point when I was working for a chef in Dayton, just a little bistro down there, kind of got inspired by him, and I dropped out of college, and I went to culinary school. From then on out, it was like, “Yeah, this is what I want to do the rest of my life.”

IJS: You feel your education [at Pennsylvania Culinary Institute] prepared you for the kitchen, or was it more your experience?

JS: I think it’s like any college: It gets you a piece of paper, and if you are dedicated and motivated, it will get you even further … In terms of, does any school make one person a better cook than another? Absolutely not. It’s all the personal drive.

JS: I actually moved to New York without any connection to anything or anyone. I just had somewhere to live for free for a couple months.

JS: Well, my wife and I were living out there, and we found out we were going to have our son. So I asked Charlie and Dante [Boccuzzi, executive chef/owner of Dante] – Dante was the chef at Aureole, I was the chef at Kitchen 22, both [restaurants are owned] by Charlie. I knew Dante was from Cleveland, so [I asked him], who do you know in Cleveland? And he said, “I went to culinary school with this guy Mike Symon.” I said that’s great, let’s talk to Mike Symon. I flew home, did an interview with Mike, we hit it off, obviously immediately. I think we talked for however long it takes to smoke two packs of cigarettes.

JS: Shortly afterwards, my wife moved back [to Cleveland] to get ready for the kid, and I stayed with Charlie through the New Year, and then moved back. I worked at Lola for a month or two. It closed down. We did renovations. We built the curing room with our own hands. And then we opened up Lolita. Not too long after that, we get the call from New York [asking] would [I] move back to New York? Mike and I talked about it for a while, my family and I talked about it, and we decided we’d do it again – why not? So, then we moved back to New York, opened up Parea, I was there for a full year and a half, almost two years because the set-up was quite lengthy. And then, we found out we were having our daughter, and we were back again.

IJS: Do you feel there was any one chef who was your greatest mentor, or do you hold them in equal esteem?

JS: I think Mike definitely had the most positive effect on me. He taught me things that I never really thought were important … things like meeting customers, always having a positive attitude – all the intangibles that you don’t learn, whether it be numbers or finesse, in the kitchen … When we did Parea [Symon’s restaurant in New York City], he said, “You’re here full-time. I’m only here to help.” Those two openings made me grow up and mature a lot more than I ever thought I would be at this age. I talk to him now more, honestly, than I did when I worked for him. We talk four or five times per week … We’re still just really good friends.

IJS: Do you feel that being back in Cleveland, you are more a big fish in a little pond, as opposed to a little fish in a big pond in New York City?

JS: I think both of them present great opportunities. I really just like being back, because there are so many people that I made relationships with at Lolita, and they’ve grown so much. A perfect example is this certified Ohio lamb, pork and beef. Something I had discussed with [Cleveland-based meat supplier] Blue Ribbon and a bunch of guys a long time ago … and sure enough, as soon as I called them when I came back, the program was up and running. We can get anything we want, and it comes from our own terroir. A lot of that stuff is really good, and I think it’s developing a lot faster than anyone anticipated. We got freshwater prawns from Elyria – unbelievable.

IJS: While restaurants like Classics and Lockkeepers have closed, there are a lot of young chefs – such as you, Rocco Whalen at Fahrenheit, Eric Williams at Momocho, Matthew Mathlage at Light Bistro – with a definite flair for local stuff and a fresh approach to everything. Do you feel that’s a natural progression of things here, or a changing of the guard?

JS: The way I’ve always viewed it, is I think that the biggest problem that chefs and chefs of notoriety in Cleveland had is that they’ve always priced themselves out of their local markets … So, you look at your Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and [wonder], “where is everybody? I may as well just open on the weekends.” I’ve always wanted my food to be extremely affordable every single day of the week.

IJS: What would you hope to come of this new approach? Do you think this could cause a strong national-to-local shift in restaurant loyalty?

JS: That would be nice if we could have a [corporate-to-individual] shift. But, not even that; just getting people to pay attention more to what they eat, and eating … good food that’s good for them.

JS: I definitely think it’s realistic. Is it immediate and tangible? I don’t think so … I think the ultimate goal should just be to educate everyone.

JS: Lola, absolutely. Lolita, absolutely. Crop Bistro, definitely. Dante, he’s going to do killer food down there [in the former Lockkeepers space].

JS: I don’t ever not have parmesan or eggs or olive oil, and tons of produce. Protein we just tend to buy as we eat it. I don’t really keep fish or steak or chicken in house.

JS: I didn’t like raw octopus when I had it. I had raw octopus at a little yakitori in New York, and I wasn’t that crazy about it. It was not sliced like sashimi, it was pounded with mallet rocks, like pulverized. It was extremely viscous … like peanut butter is supposed to stick to your mouth, not octopus.

JS: With like 10 more kids, and a couple more dogs on a farm. The farm thing is something we’ve always, always wanted to do.

JS: Absolutely. She’s involved with every aspect of my life. I mean she’s my personal assistant, my best friend, my financial adviser – she does everything that I can’t do.