Mum’s The Word
by Terryl Gavre

Most of us have fond memories of being in our mother’s kitchen. Whether we were waiting to sneak a lick of the batter from the bowl or hoping that she would let us sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over her leftover piecrust to bake “cookies,” everything just seemed to taste a bit better when it was made with a mother’s touch.

Chefs are no different than the rest of us in that they, too, have vivid memories of eating their mom’s favorite dishes. In fact, many of the flavors and dishes that appear on today’s trendiest menus are inspired either directly or indirectly by dear ol’ mom.

Edie And Carl Schroeder
“My mother is a wonderful cook,” says Carl Schroeder, executive chef of Arterra Restaurant in Del Mar. “My grandfather, Bill Elser, was chairman of the California Fish and Game Commission, so we always had a lot of meat in our freezer. Meats like beef and lamb, as well as quail, dove, and duck. We always had at least six to eight people at our dinner table, so I learned from my mom how to cook for large groups.”

Schroeder, 36, was raised in the ’70s, when dinners usually consisted of meat, potatoes, vegetables, and dessert. “My mom made this killer rump roast that was covered with Lipton’s onion soup mix and a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup. It was wrapped in foil and then baked low and slow until it just fell apart. It created its own gravy and we would have that with a potato and vegetable — "it had an incredible flavor,” he says.

One of the top selling dishes on Schroeder’s lunch menu is the New York steak salad, a salad of mixed greens, blue cheese, bacon, avocado, and tomato. Not surprisingly, Schroeder’s mom, Edie, is famous for a steak salad, too. Her version combines shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, onions, and smashed avocados with shredded flank steak tossed with lemon and olive oil.

Schroeder becomes animated when he describes his mother’s stuffed zucchini. “I really can’t remember what they were stuffed with, some sort of ground meat I think, but they were topped with catsup and breadcrumbs and then baked. They were awesome.” He also has high regard for her tamale pie, “One of those casseroles that defined the ’60s,” he says.

Another item that has made its way onto the Arterra menu in one form or another is his mother’s homemade Roquefort dressing. “It actually is a family recipe handed down from my grandfather’s side, one modestly named ‘Frankly Fabulous Dressing’ by my grandfather,” Schroeder laughs. “We had it with meals several times a week on good old iceberg lettuce — that’s all people used back then. I have adapted my family recipe for the restaurant and it’s one of those menu items that I regularly get e-mail about from people asking for the recipe.”

Edie laughs when she recalls how shocked she was to learn that her younger son wanted to go to cooking school.

“Carl was a real outdoorsy kid, he and his brother and their friends were always down in the canyon looking for fossils or something like that. He was a roughhouser and played football in college; I really don’t know where he got his love for cooking,” she says.

Bobbie and Jeff Rossman
Even though Jeff Rossman, owner and executive chef of Terra Restaurant in Hillcrest, grew up in a restaurant (his father opened and operated Pam Pam, a family restaurant in Mission Valley), his mother, Bobbie, was completely dumbfounded when she learned that her son could cook. “I remember being invited over to his house one evening for a wonderful dinner and then having him tell us that he had made the entire dinner himself. I must admit,” she says, “I didn’t believe him at first.”

Rossman confirms that his interest in cooking came late; he began to cook with his college friends at his father’s restaurant just for fun. “We used to go out to eat at restaurants and then go back and try and make the dishes ourselves,” he says.

Although it was his father who worked the restaurant, it was Bobbie who did all the cooking at home.

“She cooked an overabundance of casseroles, like all the moms did back then. I especially loved her tuna noodle casserole; it was all creamy and good. In fact, she used to make it whenever she would be going out for the evening; we would look forward to her going out just because we loved that dish so much,” he says.

“When Terra first opened, we tried to put a modern version of tuna casserole on the menu, but it was a flop. I guess we should have just stuck to my mother’s recipe,” laughs Rossman.

Although the tuna casserole is not one of them, many of his mother’s and grandmother Shirley’s dishes show up on Rossman’s menu from time to time. In the summer, he does a BBQ and Blues night at the restaurant and serves his grandmother’s brisket. “My grandma’s brisket is a big draw,” he says.

Another one of Rossman’s favorite childhood dishes, French toast with peanut butter and syrup, was the inspiration behind his buttermilk pancakes with macadamia nut butter, which he runs on his brunch menu every now and then.

What’s the one dish that chef Rossman requests whenever he goes home for dinner? “Mom’s Italian chicken. It’s simple, but so good, the flavors and textures are wonderful and, most of all, it’s so easy,” says Rossman.

Bobbie is almost embarrassed as she describes the dish, “It’s really nothing, just chicken breasts, onions, and breadcrumbs. It’s covered and baked slowly and the onions become caramelized. The kids just loved that dish, and they still do.”

Susan And Jesse Paul
“My mom was a chef and caterer, so I grew up around a lot of good food,” remembers Jesse Paul, executive chef at Star of the Sea restaurant. “She was very serious about cooking, and when she wasn’t cooking she was enrolled in classes at Orange County Community College learning more about it. In fact, she had me enrolled in cooking classes at the age of 12,” he says.

Despite the early influence and training, Paul didn’t just grow up and become a chef as one might expect. As a young boy, he remembers that he vacillated between wanting to be a fireman, an astronaut, and a veterinarian.

Susan Paul, one of the “S’s” in S&S Catering, remembers being very happy the day Paul came home and announced that he had found what he wanted to do, and that was to go to cooking school. “He spent some years doing work that wasn’t his bliss, and for a mother that hurts your heart,” she says.

“My menu can’t help but be influenced in one way or another by both my mother and my grandmother,” says Paul. “Especially on holiday menus, I always serve my grandma’s brisket and her borscht.”

He goes on to say with a laugh, “My mother and grandmother did a lot of pickling — beets, tomatoes, pickles, and fish — I’ve got sort of this pickling thing going on in my menu these days.”

His mom reminds him, “We were originally from Philly, so we used to get Jersey tomatoes — a lug of green and a lug of red — and we’d have the most beautiful pickled tomatoes.”

The chef runs a cauliflower bisque on the menu from time to time. The soup is poured around a lobster flan and topped with little pickled vegetables, a homemade Parmesan cracker, and caviar.

“I also serve my mother’s latkes on the menu with my caviar service,” he says. “I have tried to do other preparations, but the guests won’t let me serve it any other way.”

Susan’s matzo ball soup is the inspiration for a soup Paul has on the menu. “I do a version of my mother’s matzo ball soup, but it is a very scaled-down version. I do a double chicken consume with carrot flan and mini matzo balls — it’s killer.”