13 Chefs Under 31

A baker's dozen of the hottest young cooks on Cincinnati's culinary cutting edge

BY LISA J. MAUCH AND FELIX WINTERNITZ

Does young equal yummy?

We poked into the area's trendiest kitchens, called around the cooking schools and talked to any number of restaurateurs and culinary creators - all in search of the hottest young chefs in Greater Cincinnati.

So why would you want to eat a dish prepared by a young chef? Because young chefs aren't wed to stifling tradition or boring kitchen conformity. In some cases, they're fresh out of culinary arts school and armed with the latest spices and creative menu ideas. In other cases, they're busy importing the hippest eating trends from either coast or blending classic family recipes with some kind of new twist.

Some of these chefs got into the business as children; a few fell into the craft by accident; and others are products of culinary arts schools. Some work at tiny cafes, while others toil at the city's more established fine dining spots.

All have one thing in common - a desire to create new, innovative dishes.

CityBeat discovers a baker's dozen of their favorite menu items and finds out what inspired them to become chefs.

Anna Gherardi, 16
J's Fresh Seafood Restaurant

The youngest of our hot chefs by far, Anna Gherardi comes by her emerging career honestly. She learned her love of fine dining fare from dad Jimmy Gherardi, proprietor of J's Fresh Seafood Restaurant. Indeed, she notes her dad had her cutting garlic practically as a toddler.

"I used to come up here to the J's kitchen when I was 5 or 6 years old to chop things," she says. "I've always been interested in cooking. I am definitely serious about this."

Indeed, Gherardi left high school two years early to attend the Cincinnati Culinary Institute, and she graduates next year. When she's not in cooking class, she's still cooking. "Most of the time I work at J's, though I do a lot of the charity food tastings too," she says, adding that she also does consulting work for Pepsi and other local franchises.

Jason Hauke, 22
BrewWorks

"In the beginning I watched my mom and asked questions," says Jason Hauke about his roots in cooking.

When he was 14 and needed a part-time job, he worked in restaurants at various jobs - dish washing, hosting, cash register - which fed an interest in cooking. He's been in the business ever since. His responsibilities as sous chef at BrewWorks include scheduling, ordering, expediting food preparation and sanitation. Since the restaurant is in the midst of changing its menu, Hauke hasn't had a chance to create dishes lately, but two past favorites are the Buffalo Chicken Pizza and the Beer-Marinated Fajita.

When asked about the trend of young chefs now in restaurants, Hauke says one reason might be that "they keep an open mind about dishes and the different ways to present them. The younger crowd (customer-wise) is out there, so they (young chefs) know what appeals to them."

Don Marsh, 24
Mullane's Parkside Cafe

A sous chef at Mullane's for the past eight months, Don Marsh never had formal training to be a chef. Rather, he received his experience from working at restaurants and from other chefs.

"I just enjoyed it as a hobby," he says when asked how he got into cooking as a career. "I then got offered a job and became more serious about it."

Working as a cook for the past seven years, Marsh's first job was at the Eastgate Health Care Center as a dietary aide - a creative experience, he says, because of the patients' special diet needs. He enjoys the fact that the staff is smaller at Mullane's and there's more of an opportunity for "creative freedom" with the menu. "Most of the creativity (in restaurants) lies around younger chefs," he says.

The hardest part of his job is coming up with vegetarian and vegan dishes, he says. Some of his own creations include the Greek Spaghetti and the Italian Tomato Pesto.

Jason Bieber, 25
Arboreta

Currently executive sous chef at Arboreta, Jason Bieber began his professional career three years ago. His love of food, however, came much earlier.

"I started off when I was 12 years old," he says, remembering growing up in Madeira and hanging around the kitchen at Camargo Bakery during his summer breaks, washing pans, working in the kitchen and seeing what the food industry was all about. He went to the Great Oaks Vocational School's culinary arts program his junior and senior years in high school and then attended the Pennsylvania Culinary Arts school in Pittsburgh, where he earned an associate's degree.

Bieber also spent a good deal of time hanging out at Barnes & Noble and reading cookbooks. Everything from desserts to Cajun cooking, depending on what his mood was that day. His favorite book is Becoming a Chef by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. "It really makes you feel good about what you do," he says.

Bieber says has no particular favorite food or style but enjoys being creative. He finds the culinary world exciting, past-paced and challenging, and he likes the comraderie in the business. "A chef is only as good as the cooks he surrounds himself with," he says.

Kurt Stehlin, 25
Rock Bottom Brewery

Kurt Stehlin's interest in cooking started as a child when he would help his mom as she was baking or cooking. "I've enjoyed cooking all my life," he says.

By the time he was 18, Stehlin had moved to Clifton, was starting classes at UC and needed a job. His cousin worked for Adrica's in Mount Adams, where he got a job prepping in the kitchen part-time. He worked his way up to assistant manager, which is when he pretty much knew that cooking was what he was going to do with his life. He went on to work for Main Street Brewery and Teller's in Hyde Park before coming to Rock Bottom Brewery when it opened a year ago.

One responsibility Stehlin faces as sous chef is coming up with the daily specials and catches. "My specialty is seafood," he says. "I like cooking fish." But coming up with dishes like Grilled Halibut is a group effort. "We all put our heads together," he says about creating new menu items. "Cincinnati has a different style of eating - home cooking. We figure out what would be best for the clientele."

Stehlin has seen the cooking field grow in popularity among young people and thinks the reason why so many restaurants like younger chefs is that "we're easier to mold to the corporate lifestyle. We're not set in our ways."

Erin Merrell, 26
Nicola's

Pastry chef Erin Merrell says she learned everything she knows about cooking desserts from her mother. "Too many places try too many complicated recipes," she says. "A really great dessert needs to be simple, uncontrived, or you'll screw it up."

Merrell says she emphasizes "the classics" on the Nicola's dessert menu. She suggests patrons try the tiramisu, the cr¸me brulee, the Diablo flourless chocolate cake and even the apple pie. "Apple pie - now that's a classic ending to a meal."

Darrick Stiers, 26
The Comet

When asked how his interest in cooking began, Darrick Stiers cites his family. "My grandfather owned a chain of restaurants in Covington and in Tampa, Florida," he says. He grew up with a father and grandfather who cooked, and he and his cousins would help out in the kitchen. He also learned a lot from the chef at Ulysses, where he worked for two years.

At The Comet for the past two years, Stiers is responsible for preparing both kinds of beans, black and pinto; seasoning the chicken and beef; and making the three salsas - two tomato-based ones and a pepper-based one. He also tastes everything the other cooks prepare to make sure it's up to par.

Bill Hawkins, 28
Main Street Brewery

Bill Hawkins started cooking in restaurants to pay his way through UC, where he was a history major. After earning his degree, though, he decided to stay in the restaurant business. "It was something I got into, was good at and I kept at it," he says. "I never planned on being a chef, but it's something that gets under your skin. You feed off the stress and the pressure."

Hawkins has trained under nine different chefs in Cincinnati and Kentucky. As a sous chef at Main Street, his responsibilities include the daily handling of the kitchen, production levels and quality control of the food. He also helps create daily chicken specials and nightly pasta specials; one of his more popular creations is the Shrimp Herb Linguini.

When asked why he thought there are more young chefs in restaurants today, Hawkins says food is moving away from the classics to the modern trend of lighter food. "Perhaps younger (chefs) have their finger on that," he says.

Eric Schaeffer, 28
The Diner on Sycamore

Working his way up through a variety of restaurants, including Jeckle's in Hyde Park, Eric Schaeffer has been into cooking since the age of 3. He says his parents raised him to think of food as a celebration and not just as a meal. "They're just phenomenal. It's amazing in my family. If a meal didn't take three or four hours to make, it wasn't worth anything."

Responsibilities as executive chef for The Diner include everything from firing and hiring to scheduling, cooking techniques, organization and long-term goals. He's also in charge of many daily or weekend specials, and his favorite creations include the Piedmont, the Creole-Roasted Chicken and the Cedar Point Walleye.

"There's a big trend in young chefs because of all the fusion cooking going on," Schaeffer says, explaining fusion as taking classic dishes from one region and lacing them with a style or flavor from another region.

Dave Avalos, 30
Pigalls Cafe

The executive chef at Pigalls, Dave Avalos is also working with Jimmy Gherardi in a cooking school they've just opened, the Global Culinary Center, where Avalos is director of education and vice president. The classroom is above Pigalls, and they integrate students with the staff of both Pigalls and J's.

A Los Angeles native, Avalos was 8 when he started working in the kitchen of his family's restaurant in Seal Beach, Calif. "Between that and my grandmother, who was a phenomenal cook, I fell in love with cooking. From that point on there was no question (about his career)." He attended the San Bernardino Culinary School and went on to take courses at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park in New York.

Alvaros specializes in Latin dishes "because it's my heritage" and is very involved in creating different menu items and working on specials. When asked why he thinks a restaurant might hire a younger chef, he says, "They're looking for the energy a young person has."

Shoshannah Friedman, 30
York Street International Cafe

"It's been a lifetime of training," says Shoshannah Friedman about her cooking background. She was trained in a variety of restaurants and says her influence comes from "growing up in a family that loves food, like I do. I come from a family of wonderful, strong women who are also good cooks."

As soon as she was old enough to stand on a chair and help her mother by stirring the soup or rolling out dough, Friedman was working in the kitchen. A lot of the recipes she uses are her great-grandmother's handwritten ones. Her specialties at the restaurant are soups, sauces and especially desserts. "I have a great passion for sweets," she concedes.

She has a good memory for remembering how to make something, which is fortunate since most of her soup recipes aren't written down but, rather, are in her head.

Shawn Gaskins, 30
Martino's on Vine

Shawn Gaskins, a veteran of such Cincinnati nightspots as Viva Barcelonas, Liberty's on Main and Tommy's, actually began her food training in the military. She doesn't have a chef title at Martino's - "we don't do that here" - but is responsible for much of what the average patron samples. "We make all our own pastas," she says. "And our sauces are homemade. In fact, 99 percent of the things served here are made on site."

Gaskins is particularly proud of her Gnocchi, a ricotta cheese and flour dumpling pairing. "We just opened up the second floor, and for the summer we're serving three specials a day," she says. "Come on over."

Twentysomething Staff
Palbino's Wood Roasted Pizzeria

With the exception of a 37-year-old bartender, the entire staff at Palbino's - from 29-year-old owner Tony Palombino to 16-year-old busboys - is under the age of 30. Palombino likes to surround himself with people in his age group, he says, because when they see someone young like himself succeed in business, it helps motivate them to succeed.

The atmosphere at the pizzeria is "fun and festive," says Palombino. Everyone being a part of the younger set offers "definite advantages" such as a more intense staff energy level and an enjoyable work atmosphere. The only negative about having a young staff, he says, is that "they want to enjoy life a little more."

Palombino learned everything he knows from his father, a master chef from Italy. He started working in his dad's kitchen at the age of 7 washing dishes and worked his way up from there. He's personally responsible for the restaurant's menu and is most proud of his Pizza Pollotate.

Palombino recently opened a new restaurant in Louisville called Thatsa Wrapp, a self-service eatery where customers feast on multi-cultural ingredients in flavored tortillas. He plans to open a Thatsa Wrapp in Clifton in mid-July. ©

CityBeat, Issue 3, Vol. 31; June 19-25, 1997