Gertie's with the Johns

When I got a job as prep/salad cook at Gertie’s Chesapeake Bay Cafe, my friend Sandy said I was lucky because it was hard to get a starting position in a good restaurant, even in 1986. Now that I have read about other professional kitchens I realize this was more true than we knew because Gerties was the right place for me.  It lacked the macho cruelty Tony Bourdain talked about at Les Halles, as well as the military precision so in vogue today at places like The French Laundry.

Gertie’s was the creation of two men we called the Johns.  John Shields was the executive chef who had learned to cook from his Grandmother, Gertie.  John Kelly took care of the books and ran the front of the house.  They had been business partners for many years, but the rumor was that they were no longer lovers. 

John Kelly charmed the customers with just the right amount of humor and attention.  When he came into the kitchen, he could be quite the horny bitch out of their earshot.

John Shields was boyish with red curls and hilarious stories about kitchens and his family.  Some were about his aunt Harriet who had been the first woman private detective in the country.  Later, when I had stopped laughing I realized many of the anecdotes had covered up a difficult childhood with a troubled mother.

John was an excellent and creative cook.  One of the best desserts I have ever tasted was his hazelnut, Grand Marnier, chocolate mousse.  He also took a pounded chicken breast, rolled it around cream cheese mixed with basil and sun dried tomatoes.  This he wrapped in filo dough and baked until it became a “love explosion”.

One of the most popular dishes at Gertie’s was our Caesar Salad.  I remember John Kelly standing in the middle of the kitchen telling the staff that it was his recipe, while John Shields and Eric Haines, the sous chef, rolled their eyes.

Gertie’s served food in the style of Baltimore.  All of the crab meat  was from blue crabs.  After I had spent a few months chopping cases of tomatoes and pounds of onions, peeling and cleaning pounds of shrimp, washing bunches of lettuce, and making salads during service, I must have proven something to John Shields because he taught me how to make crab cakes.

This was before crab cakes were a familiar sight on menus.  We used equal amounts of backfin and lump meat.  After picking over all of the expennsive crab by hand and removing small pieces of shell, l would prepare the mixture of seasonings to pour on top of the crab meat.  I would lift the meat and let it fall gently into the seasonings until it was all combined but without breaking the lumps of crabmeat. Then I sifted in a few dried breads crumbs and repeat mixing.  This process took focus, gentleness and skill.  When the proper consistency of sweet crab chunks and seasoning was reached, I weighted and formed each cake to be fried at dinner that night.

When I started working at Gertie’s I was turning 40 and had been cooking from books for 22 years.   I learned a lot working there.  How to poach an egg, how to properly boil an egg, how to grill a piece of fish, how to work until midnight on Saturday, then open the kitchen for Sunday brunch.  I also learned how a crab cake should taste.

Freezer Cassoulet

I saw two large freezer storage bags in my little freezer filled with the tail ends of Acme Upstairs bread waiting for me to need bread crumbs.  Putting crumbs on top of a cassoulet would be a winter treat and could perhaps use up a lot of leftovers.

I read Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of Southwestern France, and made confit all those years ago, but instead of making confit, rounding up the cured pork products, perhaps I can use the duck leg in the refrigerator.  There is also the container of garbanzos cooked with a little pork, spinach and a lot of garlic which lost their garlicky kick as they became leftovers.  I don’t usually like anything after its second heating so I have half cup plastic containers of a few things taking up room in my freezer.  I defrosted sausage and tomato sauce which looked a little freezer burnt, mushroom soup with my wonderful meat stock and another container of lentil soup.  Everything I used had been cooked with French and Italian seasonings so I was confident they would blend well.  My only concern was the freezer burn. 

One of Mama’s Pyrex glass casseroles, about 1.5 quart sized held the cassoulet.  I separated the duck leg and thigh and put them in first.  Then I spread around some of the garbanzos, the sausage, the lentils and the mushrooms. I reduced the mushroom broth and added it to cover the mélange. With a lid on the pot I put it into the oven heated to 275 degrees.   

Then I put some of the defrosted bread ends into the Cuisinart and began making crumbs.  After an hour or so the cassoulet was warm and bubbling around the edge. 

I took the cover off, sprinkled the crumbs on the top, raised the temperature of the oven to 325 degrees and let it cook another half an hour until the top was crisp.

Since then, I have cooked some beans (cannellini) and layered them in my small casserole with left over poultry and pork using the same technique with delicious results.

Perhaps cassoulet originated when leftovers accumulated and begged to be transformed.