Got the Chops
Local female chefs with sharp resumes
"I know it doesn’t make sense, and I don’t don’t understand it. But it is consistently the case: Women are better cooks.”
That was the word from celebrity chef Mario Batali in Heat, journalist Bill Buford’s 2006 memoir about working in the kitchen at Batali’s New York City restaurant Babbo.
Despite Batali’s assessment, the culinary world’s rock stars are mostly men. Yet, talented women pepper Wilmington restaurant kitchens. They have long been the subtle seasoning, but each year, their flavor becomes more pronounced.
TORI LAYMAN and ERIN WILEY
Pembroke’s
At one of Wilmington’s newest and most-watched restaurants, pastry chef Tori Layman (left) manages all the baking; sous chef Erin Wiley supervises cooks and cooking. The pair get equal billing alongside the executive chef and chef de cuisine’s names on Pembroke’s contemporary Southern menu.
Both appreciate honest dishes that display edge, whether it be Layman’s chevre cheesecake with pecan pie topping or Wiley’s boiled peanut hummus with benne crackers.
Layman has passion for breads and is responsible for Pembroke’s signature sweet potato biscuits. She defines her style as progressing.
“I change with the times,” she says.
The Long Island, New York native entered cooking via friends staffing restaurant kitchens. They encouraged Layman to join them. Delis and bars led her to a top Long Island caterer and then the city’s highly rated Butterfields contemporary American restaurant.
Wiley favors French technique and ethnic flavors, say braised lamb shank with pine nut and mint gremolata.
“I definitely like to make the house smell good,” Wiley says.
Growing up in Long Beach, California, her foodie family dined on myriad ethnic cuisines. Wiley cooked alongside her culinarily curious mom and relished cheese and meat nosh fests her grandmother called “German picnics.” After culinary school, she worked at acclaimed San Francisco restaurants and clocked time at the famed, South American ski resort Portillo in Chile.
In a male-dominated kitchen, the women lean on each other, but not so often.
“You’re just kind of one of the boys, and hopefully they respect you,” Wiley says.
Earning respect in the “symphony and orchestration” of a restaurant kitchen, whether you’re a man or a woman, means playing your part, Layman says.
“You have to have a whole lot of moves in your fingertips at one time,” she says.
KRISTEN WILLIAMS
Hot Pink Cake Stand, Monkey Junction
Kristin Williams left a high-profile, New York City position under celebrity chef Tom Colicchio for Wilmington’s relaxed, seaside setting. She managed Colicchio’s Wichcraft, a sandwich shop where stacks feature farm-fresh ingredients and from-scratch elements. Previously, the New Jersey native spent four months living in a tent on a New Jersey farm, where she tended hens and vegetables. Willams also worked as a baker.
Williams’ work and family experiences spice Hot Pink’s savory menu, dubbed #delicious and available only at the Monkey Junction location. She shops daily for fresh produce. Her Estonian heritage emerges in dilly potato soup and housemade pickles. Her love of Indian dishes appears in coconut lentil soup with red curry.
“I’m adaptable and adventurous,” she says.
Joyous food memories inspire Williams’ recipes.
“When you eat good food, you know exactly what you are eating and everything will make sense,” she says.
CHELSEA TULL
Osteria Cicchetti
Wilmington native Chelsea Tull started her career on J. Michael’s Philly Deli’s busy grill. Tull asked for a server position and ended up a good cook.
She headed to New York, where time at Dia Art Museum earned her accolades in The New York Times. She carried “so much ego” to more prominent kitchens.
“I made a fool of myself at some of the best restaurants in New York,” Tull says, laughing. “I didn’t know enough to know how much I didn’t know.”
“But it was good,” Tull adds. “I learned my lesson” and a lot more about cooking.
After seven years in the city, Tull returned to Wilmington, where she gained valuable experience at Brasserie du Soleil and the late Marc’s on Market.
One-on-one time with chefs at those restaurants helped Tull sharpen her “progressive classical” style. A Tull-defining dish is short ribs braised in chimichurri-inspired seasonings of parsley, cilantro, and preserved lemons and served with chorizo aioli.
As much as she loves cooking, Tull adores cheese.
In New York, she worked at respected Murray’s Cheese. For a time, she was cheesemonger at Wilmington’s Taste the Olive Café. There, she introduced the city to mimolette, a firm, aged cheese on which tiny mites burrow into the rind. Producers claim that burrowing aerates the cheese, boosting its sweet earthiness. Tull got it to Wilmingtonians just in time. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has nearly banned the cheese.
Tull’s proud of the accomplishment. She says she hopes it fuels her goal of demonstrating women’s importance on the American food scene.
“I look forward to the day when I can tell somebody that I work in a restaurant,” she says, “and they don’t ask me, ‘How are the tips.’”
To view more of photographer Mark Steelman’s work, go to www.marksteelmanphoto.com.
