Chefs love to talk about the state-of-the-art gizmos and other prized toys they keep in their kitchens. That’s for good reason. Moody’s chef Joshua Smith’s signature charcuterie probably wouldn’t taste the same without his custom-designed Enviro-Pak, an all-in-one cooker, smoker and chiller. And Ken Oringer, who just reopened his newly expanded Uni, indeed has quite the conversation piece in his Julia Child-autographed turkey baster. But many chefs find that their favorite kitchen gear comes with family history and a sense of heritage attached. From a well-seasoned pan that was passed down through the decades to a knife that set one famous chef’s son on his own culinary journey, here are some local toques’ treasured tools from the family tree.
ERICA KEEFE, Five Horses Tavern
“As a chef, you get to know the feel of a tool in your hands. It becomes an extension of you,” Keefe says. She grew up baking with her grandmother, who used this 59-year-old French-style rolling pin she had received as a wedding gift. “We had dinner at her house every Sunday, and no matter what, there was always dessert.” Pastries became a particular passion for Keefe, and when she turned culinary pro, Grams gifted her with the pin. Now it’s used to roll out dozens of caramel-glazed cinnamon buns served during weekend brunch service at Five Horses’ South End spot. “It’s not terribly expensive. It’s not made of some special wood,” Keefe says. “But I know how it feels.” She’s married to Brian Keefe, sous-chef at Marliave, and already knows which wedding gift of theirs she’d like to pass on to future foodies: “A bright red Le Creuset Dutch oven. I keep it over my stove because it’s too pretty to put away.”
Tools of the Trade
By Scott Kearnan | Photo Credit: Nicole Popma | Feb. 12, 2016
Chefs love to talk about the state-of-the-art gizmos and other prized toys they keep in their kitchens. That’s for good reason. Moody’s chef Joshua Smith’s signature charcuterie probably wouldn’t taste the same without his custom-designed Enviro-Pak, an all-in-one cooker, smoker and chiller. And Ken Oringer, who just reopened his newly expanded Uni, indeed has quite the conversation piece in his Julia Child-autographed turkey baster. But many chefs find that their favorite kitchen gear comes with family history and a sense of heritage attached. From a well-seasoned pan that was passed down through the decades to a knife that set one famous chef’s son on his own culinary journey, here are some local toques’ treasured tools from the family tree.
ERICA KEEFE, Five Horses Tavern
“As a chef, you get to know the feel of a tool in your hands. It becomes an extension of you,” Keefe says. She grew up baking with her grandmother, who used this 59-year-old French-style rolling pin she had received as a wedding gift. “We had dinner at her house every Sunday, and no matter what, there was always dessert.” Pastries became a particular passion for Keefe, and when she turned culinary pro, Grams gifted her with the pin. Now it’s used to roll out dozens of caramel-glazed cinnamon buns served during weekend brunch service at Five Horses’ South End spot. “It’s not terribly expensive. It’s not made of some special wood,” Keefe says. “But I know how it feels.” She’s married to Brian Keefe, sous-chef at Marliave, and already knows which wedding gift of theirs she’d like to pass on to future foodies: “A bright red Le Creuset Dutch oven. I keep it over my stove because it’s too pretty to put away.”
By Scott Kearnan | Photo Credit: Nicole Popma
MICHAEL BERGIN, Fat Hen
To Bergin, every flavor is a culmination of culinary history. At Fat Hen, his intimate 30-seat eatery slated to open in early spring in the Somerville space that previously housed La Brasa’s market, this alum of New York’s A Voce and Del Posto plans to honor Italian traditions and techniques with a menu of housemade pastas and tender braised meats. Fittingly, his favorite cooking tool is an 8-inch cast-iron pan, a decades-old gift from his father-in-law. He’s used this pan to test Fat Hen recipes—say, rendering rabbit sausage used for a dish of cavatelli pasta with Calabrian chili. And each use adds another layer of complexity to the flavors this well-seasoned pan imbues. In all his years of ownership, Bergin has never washed it with anything but kosher salt and olive oil, to prevent rusting. (Though a well-intentioned dinner-party guest did once take to it with soap and water, a move that may have led to a “No wire hangers!”-style breakdown, Bergin admits with a laugh.) Says the chef, “The pan, and how I relate to it, has a history—and the love and care I have for that translates into my food.”
By Scott Kearnan | Photo Credit: Nicole Popma
MICHAEL SCELFO, Alden & Harlow
Fans of Scelfo likely often find themselves salivating over the chef’s Instagram account. He regularly posts food porn from family dinners at his Holliston house—which frequently double as recipe tastings for menu dishes. During those meals, he carries on a family tradition by using this 60-year-old cheese grater, which once belonged to his grandfather. “It’s cracked, beat up and worn, but it still works great, and it’s a simple reminder of the value of food and family,” says Scelfo, whose poppo used to make the kids take turns grating cheese at each family dinner. (Later, in his 70s, he’d take it to the basement to grate “buckets” of fromage himself.) Today Scelfo is prepping his next restaurant, Cambridge’s coastal New England-inspired Waypoint, for a late spring opening. So that grater is getting lots of use on pasta dishes that’ll likely wind up on the menu. Pops would be proud.
By Scott Kearnan | Photo Credit: Nicole Popma
ALEX PINEDA, Scampo
When your father is a butcher and your mother is the doyenne of Boston dining, there’s a good chance you’ll inherit a passion for cooking. But for Pineda, the 25-year-old executive sous-chef under mom Lydia Shire at Scampo, it was the Christmas gift he received at age 7, a 10-inch Japanese chef’s knife, that really catapulted him toward a career in the kitchen. It’s not the type of toy Santa would normally bring such a young kid, but Pineda’s home was a special one. “For as long as I can remember I’d helped my mom prep and test recipes,” Pineda says. In fact, by that age he was already standing on milk crates to fire pizzas at Shire’s late, legendary Biba. Receiving his own tool felt like a symbolic welcome to the family craft, says Pineda, who still keeps it in his knife bag for use in the Scampo kitchen and off-site gigs. He’ll use it to carve his own culinary path going forward—which includes, he says, the goal of reopening Biba by his 30th birthday.
By Scott Kearnan | Photo Credit: Nicole Popma
JORDAN MACKEY, Flank
Mackey’s just-opened Waltham steakhouse cribs from a curious page in American dining history: turn-of-the-century “beefsteak” dinners, banquets where Gilded Age guests would tear into choice chops using only their bare hands. For inspiration, he turned to a trio of culinary expert Fannie Farmer’sBoston Cooking-School cookbooks published in 1917, 1928 and 1936. Given to Mackey at his New England Culinary Institute graduation, they were passed down from his great-grandmother, a “classic flapper party girl.” She received them from a suitor, the then-head chef at the New York Yacht Club, and dozens of their worn pages bear recipes handwritten by the toque—identified now only as H.H. Chef, his scribbled signature. Mackey lifted some classic steakhouse recipes, like a house salad vinaigrette and boiled custard (creme brulee), for Flank. Ask nicely and he’ll share them with you too. “For me, there’s no such thing as a secret recipe,” Mackey says. “That’s why people write them down: so they can be passed along.”
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