p24-33_Profiles_sp05.qxd
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business was closed for six months and most of the staff was laid off. But Smith, ever the jack-of-all-trades, found a way to stay on the job. “During the changeover I helped hang drywall and paint,” he said. “We gutted the whole building. I think there was $750,000 in renovations. I also spent time learning a lot of new styles and techniques: Italian, Asian, South American. Coming from a traditional Italian restaurant was a big change.” After 15 years, literally half of his life, spent working in the same building, Smith said he feels like he’s attended a great culinary school: “I have worked with some great chefs. I learned a lot from them all. Cooking is something you learn by doing. You don’t know how to peel potatoes until you’ve had to cut 50 potatoes.” Smith was named executive chef at Napa River Grill in 2003. The restaurant has an upscale, intimate feel that bespeaks quality. “We are off the beaten path,” Smith said. “If we were on Bardstown Road or Frankfort Avenue, we’d get twice the business. I like it the way it is. If you come here, this is where you wanted to eat. You don’t come here because some place down the street is full. This is a destination location.” Smith implements his cooking philosophy by trying to get customers to experience familiar dishes in new ways. “The thing about being a chef is judging people’s limits and getting them to go just outside of their box,” Smith said. “I’m not limited to any style.” One of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, for example, is Smith’s fennel- and coriander-crusted sea bass. Served over lobster dumplings, it looks almost like a soup with fish on top. “Sea bass is not your normal fish dish, but people in this city love it, ” Smith said. “Our dish is just something different that has proven to be really popular.” Smith said he changes eight to ten menu items every season. Most of the decisions on what to add or take off the bill of fare are based on the availability of seasonal vegetables and the cost to the restaurant … and its diners. “We don’t want to gouge customers,” Smith said. “We don’t want them to visit one day and have an entrée at a certain price, and then get charged a lot more for
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something else the next time they visit.We try to be consistent. A lot of things besides recipes go into this.” Smith is not the kind of executive chef who sits in his office all day. He estimates that he works 65 to 70 hours a week, much of that time spent cooking on the line. He usually gets to the restaurant around 8 a.m. to help with daily
Napa River Grill’s fennel-crusted sea bass with lobster dumplings, shiitake mushrooms, rice noodles, red peppers and leeks in a tomato-saffron consommé.
prep work. “I’m right there,” he said. “I don’t just carry around a clipboard. I think it helps morale for the other cooks to see me working.” www.foodanddiningmagazine.com Spring 2005 25