Palette Palate

CAM Café chef Jessica Cabo riffs off art exhibits

With CAM Café chef JESSICA CABO, it’s personal. From the ingredients she uses to the driving force behind her craft, it not only comes from the heart but she is the heart of this museum café.

As the pulse of the restaurant, nestled within the walls of Wilmington’s Cameron Art Museum, Cabo incorporates the museum’s exhibits and art on display with the menus and dishes that she creates. Her passion for creative cooking seemingly stems from the experience it can create.

“When people can get comfort, get nourished, or keep coming back because the mac and cheese is as good as their mom’s,” she says, is what motivates her to do the work she appears to love.

Ask her about the benefits or challenges of an eatery located within a museum, and you won’t hear about increased revenue or much at all about dollars and cents. She’ll more likely tell you that it’s a reward and lends an appreciation for being a part of something greater.

“It kind of helps keep you grounded. This restaurant is part of something much larger,” Cabo says. “It’s a community.”

Whether patrons come in to dine or to grab a coffee and stroll the exhibits, walk the outdoor art park, or watch the ducks from the pond lay their eggs, Cabo likens the museum to a collective. Additionally, events, which encourage gathering, are held there that unite the galleries and café, further blurring the line between museum and brasserie.

From the recent Cape Fear Festival of Trees kickoff fete, Party in the Pines, to hosting performances by area musicians in the café courtyard, the art galleries are often open during the special events. This lets patrons experience all that the building and its grounds have to offer. 

When it comes to practicing her gourmet craft at CAM Café, Cabo, who grew up in New York and attended University of North Carolina Wilmington, focuses on fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Similar to the farm-to-table standard, Cabo utilizes an offshoot principle, a “chef-to-ingredient menu.” That means building a menu by taking advantage of what’s in season and readily available.

“It’s finding the freshest ingredients and finding the best sources,” Cabo says.

While heirloom tomatoes or sea scallops may be the stars of her dishes on one visit, it may be Pippin apples, clams, or butternut squash next time, once the seasons change.

Some of the local and regional suppliers that Cabo sources produce and other items from include Faison’s Cottle Farms, Black River Organic Farm, and Leland’s Shelton Herb Farm. Gluten-free fare can also be found on her blackboard.

Like a sponge, Cabo – a finalist on the first season of the cooking competition TV show Hell’s Kitchen – absorbs her artistic setting and then exhibits her own display via her menu at CAM Café.

For example, one exhibit that was reflected in her menu included Mardi Gras costumes designed by Wilmington native Alonzo V. Wilson for HBO’s series Treme, which takes place in New Orleans. 

“So I added po-boys to the menu, gumbo … to go with the exhibit,” Cabo says about the feature last year. “(The menu) often coincides with the exhibits … or they may inspire lunch specials.”

To that end, with the Nov. 15 opening of the retrospective Hiroshi Sueyoshi: Matter of Reverence, an exhibit that runs through April 12, Cabo subsequently transitioned CAM Café’s Wednesday night tapas feature. While it formerly revolved around Spanish-influenced tapas, the small dishes – referred to in the Japanese culture as izakaya-style dining – are now Japanese inspired.

“So it was a perfect opportunity for me to jump into ‘Japan,’ and change up the menu,” she says.

“When we incorporate with the exhibits it helps keep the menu not only changing seasonally but also in order to have a different (type) of cuisine.”

With her signature, platinum hair and down-to earth nature, Cabo exudes a confident, understated cool. While not trained as a chef in the traditional sense, perhaps it’s that even keel that has enabled her to thrive in even the hottest kitchen heat.

Take that while other Hell’s Kitchen contestants crumbled, Cabo succeeded among the high-pressure demands of renowned chef Gordon Ramsey on the show. Following the experience, Cabo went on to work with Top Chef’s Jamie Lauren and Brooke Williamson in Venice, California, and later became Roy Choi’s sous chef.

To taste Cabo’s fresh fare, lunch, dinner, brunch, and other dining options are available. For café hours and menus, go to www.camcafe.org. CAM Café, inside the Cameron Art Museum, is located at 3201 South 17th Street.

To view more of photographer, Erik Maasch's work, go to www.websta.me/n/emaasch