Food & Drink
Seasoned Chef inspired by culinary elite
WENDY BIRD
Fall 2007 |
This dish could be the perfect metaphor for Perry himself, a home-grown boy who, after simmering in the kitchens of prominent chefs, is serving up scrumptious dishes to gastronomes in Greater Sudbury.
He has come a long way from the days he spent experimenting in his mother’s kitchen, a place where he and his four brothers and one sister were told “if you cook, you don’t have to clean.” Perry embraced this family rule and began shaking-and-baking his way past the sink full of dishes.
But soon enough the young cook became bored with the flavours mass produced by the chicken-coating company. He studied the ingredients on the box and discovered that the household pantry contained many of the same ingredients. So he developed his own recipe for an even better version of shake-n-bake, a discovery happily gobbled up by his family.
“I kept experimenting from that point on,” Perry recalled. “I never stopped.”
In the early 1990s, Perry chose to pursue his passion for cooking by taking the culinary arts program at Cambrian College, where he studied under Franz Walpert, a longtime teacher with the school.
Perry’s first job outside of school was at Chianti’s, a little South End restaurant hidden away in the lower level of a building next to the Royal Bank.
The young chef soon grew restless and, in his quest to finely hone his cooking skills, he move to Toronto, a place considered by many to be Ontario’s gastronomic hub.
“At that point I basically became married to the industry,” said Perry, 37. “When I hit Toronto, I knew this was my passion. I put my head down and pushed everything else aside.”
Perry landed a job at the famous Scaramouche working for legendary chef Keith Froggett. For three years he toiled at the restaurant that seduces diners with luxurious food and earns rave reviews from food critics.
“Froggett really inspired me,” Perry recalled. “I did my apprenticeship with him. There were days I didn’t think I was cut out to be a chef, but he wouldn’t let me quit. It finally clicked and I started to have fun.”
Even to this day, Froggett’s influence can be seen in Perry’s work. Two dishes on the LakeHouse’s menu are based on what he learned at Scaramouche: the ginger and peppercorn crusted salmon and the classic crème brulée.
Not one to sit on his culinary laurels, and yearning for a return to more northern climes, Perry left the Toronto scene to work in Collingwood at the Talisman Mountain Resort. From there he moved on to Eigensinn Farm in Singhampton, owned by chef-farmer-guru Michael Stadtländer. The unique establishment, which serves eight guests at a time in a farmhouse, is an international destination that is booked months in advance.
Stadtländer creates an eight- or nine-course dinner daily, using mostly organic ingredients sourced from the farm and from neighbours.
“I really enjoyed working for him,” Perry said. “He taught me a lot about sourcing food locally and making the most of your ingredients.”
In Perry’s kitchen at the Science North restaurant, one can find an abundance of local produce, sometimes sourced from area farms. He also buys some of his meat and fish from Tarini Brothers Meat Market on Lorne St.
“I’ve learned that the secret to good food goes back to using local ingredients,” he said. “When we buy locally, everyone benefits. The price is good and you get to be original in what you can offer your guests. I love to get out to the farms and see what they have to offer.”
After his sojourn working with Eigensinn Farm, Perry moved on to become a corporate chef with Interforest, a North American veneer and lumber company. He spent five years “flying all over,” practising his culinary skills in kitchens across the continent, feeding executive appetites.
For a single man dedicated to his work, this was the ideal job. So the next opportunity would have to be pretty sweet.
Enter the call of family, the north and the chance to run his own business.
“I worked at Interforest until my brothers Jeff, Chris and Kevin approached me with the idea of starting Perry & Perry Food Services in Sudbury,” he said.
“Starting this business with them was definitely appealing, as well as getting to move back up to my hometown. I’d always dreamed of opening a restaurant in Sudbury.”
And the time was right. When the 75-seat Science North restaurant came up for sale in early 2006, the four brothers made a successful bid on the dining establishment. They saw the restaurant as the ideal springboard for their food service business.
The firm is the exclusive caterer to Science North’s group functions, a realm of business Perry expects to see grow.
Since taking over the restaurant in April 2006, Perry has had to juggle a number of different hats — a process he has found to be stressful. It wasn’t long before he decided to bring aboard business partner and manager Stuart Tulini, a move that has freed him up to “iron out the kinks in the restaurant” and focus on cooking and training.
Perry’s kitchen boasts 11 employees, including two dishwashers. The team makes and bakes their own desserts, breads, stocks and sauces, which allows Perry to control the foundation of his dishes.
“Feeding the Sudbury appetite has been a process of trial and error,” he said with a smile.
“But hands-down our most popular dish has been the chicken penne.”
The dish is made up of tender pieces of chicken breast, sautéed and served with portabello mushrooms, roasted tomato, feta, green onions and Parmesan cheese. Customer favourites also include the peppercorn salmon and the braised lamb shank. For the latter dish, customers are encouraged to call ahead and reserve it, as the lamb takes a long time to cook.
In keeping with the trend to buy and serve local food, Perry changes his menus with the seasons. Spring dishes include asparagus, summer meals incorporate berries, while fall and winter dishes feature root vegetables.
Perry said he looks for inspiration “wherever I can find it.” He reads gourmet magazines, regularly adding to his collection of 500, and routinely pours himself over the more than 100 cookbooks he owns.
“I still draw a lot of inspiration from Keith,” Perry said of Froggett, who continues to play a key role in his life as mentor and friend.
He also draws inspiration from his mother, whom he said makes the best blueberry crumble on the planet.
Comfort food has and always will be an important part of Perry’s cooking landscape. He looks at traditional dishes — like those soul-satisfying meals found at Thanksgiving — with a particular fondness.
During his downtime from being executive chef of an upscale restaurant, he craves simpler fare like the hungry man hangover special at Eddie’s Restaurant, a local eatery that has a faithful following of customers.
“I’m not much different than other people,” he said. “I like my comfort food.”
Keeping his menus simple while jazzing them up with unique combinations of sauces and finishes are Perry’s tribute to the role that comfort food plays. People don’t want to be overwhelmed by a dish. They want to eat something they recognize, and yet something that has been prepared in a way they have never eaten it before.
Perry’s philosophy for the restaurant is to “treat people like they are family.”
Family that has good taste, of course.
Hours of operations for the restaurant are Monday - Friday 11:00 am to close and Saturday 5:00 pm to close. Closed Sundays. For reservations please call (705) 522-0376.
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