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SEVEN MEALS We asked the University’s food guru, Bon Appetit manager Kirk Mustain, to think about meals and memories, and… Food has been my professional life, my social life, my family life. I come from a big family (ten kids), and dinner especially was front and center; dinner was at six, and you did not miss dinner, period. So, first great meal: my dad’s chicken tacos. Still my favorite thing to eat. He would start by boiling a couple of chickens and pulling all the meat off, and then fry a fresh corn tortilla around the chicken to make a shell. Serve with fresh guacamole. I make them for my kids this same way, and now my daughter Grace (Class of 2014) makes them the same way and nothing reminds me of home as much as dad’s chicken tacos. My dad also taught me that a great meal is better when shared with more people; my dad was legendary among my friends for saying “you’re staying for dinner, right?” Yes, my friends loved my dad. Me too. Second: Katz’s deli in New York City — you know, where Meg Ryan and Bill Crystal have lunch in When
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Harry Met Sally. Pastrami on rye with mustard, pickles, and a Doctor Brown’s Cream Soda. One of the few places on earth where they still handcut the brisket. You walk up to the counter to order and the first thing the cutter does is put a chunk of pastrami on a plate for you to eat with your fingers. It’s greasy, peppery, and beyond good. Third: Charlie Trotters’ in Chicago. Charlie Trotter was Thomas Keller before Thomas Keller. This guy was so far ahead of his time that all celebrity chefs owe him a drink. I ate there one night with four other chefs, one being my good friend and the University’s head chef James Green. We ordered the eight-course. I do not even remember what we ate as much as I do the whole tone of the evening; the food and presentation was impeccable, the service was perfect, and we stayed until closing time talking about how happy we were that the experience was even better than the anticipation. The maître d’ overheard our conversations and gave us a tour of the kitchens and wine cellars; you would’ve thought we were all kids in Disneyland for the first time. James and I used this experience as the basis for our Chef’s Table dinners in Bauccio Commons to this day. Fourth: Christmas Eve Dinner at the University’s Salzburg campus. Portland 6
While visiting my daughter, who was on the Salzburg Program, I volunteered to cook dinner. University events director Bill Reed and I went through the Metro — the Austrian equivalent of Costco, like two kids in a candy store, planning a baked ham dinner for students and their families — 90 guests in all. As we were in the kitchen prepping, some of the parents came in to help — what kindness! Fifth: The Lotus, Minneapolis, Minnesota,1983. This was the first time I ever had Vietnamese food. I had eaten “Chinese food,” in the American style — chop suey ,chow mein. But this — this was real. Salad rolls with fresh lettuce and mint, pho with rice noodles and sliced beef in a broth that topped with fresh herbs and sprouts and a dash of chili paste to give it a kick. Bahn xao, a crispy mung-bean crepe with shrimp and basil and mint. I was amazed. I ate dinner there every day for the next two weeks until I had tried everything on the menu twice. I couldn’t get over how fresh everything was, how it was presented with such simple grace. Those meals shaped the way I would look at food for the next three decades. Sixth: In and Out Burger. I grew up in southern California. There was an In and Out about a mile from my house. It had two drive-through windows and one walk-up window and a line down the block from the minute they opened until the minute they closed at one in the morning. The taste and smell of those burgers still, to this day, takes me immediately back to the house, and to warm sunny days at the beach. Seventh: The Velvet Turtle. My first time ever in a “fancy” restaurant. Lamb chops and vichyssoise. As I remember I didn’t love the meal, but I took away a real sense that dinner is theater, that presentation was an important part of the experience. Years later I discovered that Fedele Bauccio ’64 was in charge of that chain of restaurants, as well as a few others; Fedele, of course, then started Bon Appetit, which is now one of the biggest and best food providers in the world [see page XX]. Funny how things work out. n Note: Kirk and James Green’s next Chef’s Table (ten courses, with terrific wines) is Friday, February 1, starting at six p.m. in Bauccio Commons, $75 per person; call the alumni office for seats, 503.943.7328.