05/07/2007

From kitchen to office

When chefs turn in aprons for other professions

By HEATHER JOHNSON DUROCHER
Special to the Record-Eagle

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Chris Courtright prepares dinner for an upcoming birthday party for his wife Anna. Chris spent eight years in the culinary business before becoming an insurance agent.

Long hours and late nights, holidays at work rather than home, high stress: this was anything but a recipe for the good life for former working chef Chris Courtright.

"It's a hard career. It's great in many aspects, but it has huge drawbacks,” said Courtright, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who has worked for restaurants in the Traverse City area as well as on Mackinac Island and in St. Louis.

Wanting to spend more time with his wife, Anna, and their young daughter, Elizabeth, Courtright pursued another vocation with the idea that someday he'd open his own restaurant. To his astonishment, he's found his career shift to Farm Bureau insurance agent more than a means to an end. The move just might mark the end to a full-time culinary career, he said.

"I really enjoy insurance, which when I first got into it, was strange,” he said. "But not now, because I can see why. I really like that the fact that I'm tied into a farm bureau. They really promote getting involved in the community. I really like the idea that I help people.

"Right now, where it stands, I'm really happy with what I'm doing. It is quite surprising.”

Courtright figures he has the best of both worlds because he loves his day job and still dabbles in cooking through moonlighting as a chef now and again.

Shawn Stiner, former corporate chef for Schelde Enterprises, also hung up his chef jacket for a Farm Bureau insurance agent position and offers his culinary talents for charitable efforts.

"I basically retired and started a new business,” Stiner said of his decision to go into insurance after overseeing 18 restaurants and some 600 employees, a job that required long hours and extensive travel. "There's a lot of similarities, to be honest. It's all about helping people. It's all about serving people. It's much the same environment — it's just not the 100-degree kitchen.

"A lot of people come in and say, 'I know you,' and it's probably from one of the restaurants.”

Both said they know of other former chefs who, for one reason or another, have entered the insurance business.

Courtright and Stiner, also a Culinary Institute of America graduate, teamed up last year for Mt. Holiday's Inaugural Seafood Dinner. Stiner, a ski and snowboard instructor at the ski hill, spearheaded the event, which raised $11,000 for the non-profit organization.

The evening featured a handful of local chefs, including Courtright and Stiner, who volunteered to prepare a five-course gourmet meal.

"Chris stepped up and rolled up his sleeves,” said Kim Peltier, communications coordinator for Mt. Holiday. "He went out and ordered all the seafood. It was amazing. They definitely did a wonderful job for us. It was just incredible, the dishes. There were things I had never had before.”

Courtright, who specialized in seafood cuisine during his years as a full-time chef, believes the event offered diners "the best seafood they had ever had in their entire lives.”

"My idea was to make the best seafood Traverse City had ever seen and I think we accomplished that,” he said.

The dinner will be held this fall, and additional charitable events are sure to be in their futures.

Meanwhile, there is no denying that this work/life balance especially benefits their families.

Stiner, whose wife Erika also works in insurance and is a former pastry chef, credited his career change with boosting his family's quality of life.

"I got tired of not seeing my kids for long periods of time,” Stiner said. "Now I get to see my kids. That's the best part.”

The following recipes are from Chris Courtright.

The first one is one of the first he learned in a restaurant.

"It was taught to me by this crazy Italian chef named Moro,” he said. "The reason I call him crazy is the fact that one second, he was extremely fun-loving, and the next he was a screaming maniac.

"It was quite fun because the madder he got, the worse his English became, until he just started screaming curses in Italian,” he added. ”He made a huge impression on my early restaurant experience, as he took me under his wing and taught me most of what he knew.”

Frutti di Mare (Seafood Linguine)

• 12 oz. cooked linguine
• 1/2 lb. shrimp, uncooked, peeled, deveined and cut in three pieces
• 1/2 lb. bay scallops
• 1 can clams (reserve juice for later)
• 1 to 2 cloves minced garlic
• White wine (preferably Chablis or something light and fruity — not Chardonnay)
• 1/2 can (15-oz.) chicken stock
• Extra virgin olive oil

In a sauté pan, add a little olive oil and turn to medium high heat. Cook until the garlic sizzles and begins to smell very aromatic. Do not let the garlic brown.

Pull pan off of the stove and pour in approximately 1/2 c. of the Chablis. Return to stove and add chicken stock and 1/4 c. of the reserved clam juice. Bring to a simmer and reduce these liquids by half. Add shrimp pieces and cook until slightly pink. Add scallops and clams and cook for another few minutes until the scallops are just warm.

Stir in cooked linguine. Season with a little pepper and serve. There should be no need to add salt because of the sodium content within the clam and chicken stock. Serves four to five.

Courtright said the following recipe comes from "one of the finest places I ever worked, Le Bernardin in New York City.”

"I was amazed at this recipe, not because it's so simple and good, but because one of the finest seafood restaurants in the world was serving fried calamari,” he added. "I have found that most of the time the simpler the better.”

Note: It can be eaten with or without the aioli for dipping.

Fried Calamari with Lemon Basil Aioli

Calamari:

• 1 (12 oz.-1 lb.) bag frozen squid, cleaned
• 1 quart buttermilk
• 4 c. flour
• 2 t. baking soda
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1 T. salt
• 1 T. pepper
• 1 T. Old Bay Seasoning

Thaw the squid. Cut the tentacles to one uniform length. Insert your knife into the squid body and slice it open so you can lay it flat on your cutting board. Cut the squid into 1/4-inch squares.

Combine all of the cut calamari in a bowl with the buttermilk. Set aside and soak for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

In another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.

Drain the buttermilk from the calamari and place in the flour. Toss the calamari in the flour until it is well coated. Fry the calamari until just golden brown, no more than two to three minutes; do not overcook.

Notes: When you are preparing the flour make sure and taste it. Correct seasoning if necessary. This is an important step to remember. Tasting all the ingredients you are working with makes sure you haven't over- or under-seasoned your food. Once you've fried it, it's too late to adjust seasoning.

The main reason people don't like calamari is because it's "tough and chewy.” Calamari should never be tough or chewy. If it is, it's over-cooked. It should be tender, and you should be able to bite through it easily. To avoid this, test fry a few pieces before you cook your whole batch. The best temperature to fry at is 350°.

For those who don't have a fryer, you can do it on your stovetop. Just be careful to use a pot with deep sides, and don't fill the pot more that 1/2 full of oil; even preferable, fill it 1/3 of the way with oil.

Use regular canola oil for frying. Do not put the oil on high heat; medium high at absolute most.

When using the stovetop method, test the oil with a single piece. If it does not start to fry immediately, then oil is not hot enough, so wait a few minutes and try again. If it fries immediately and becomes dark quickly, the oil is too hot; in that case, turn the heat down and wait a minute or so before trying again. It is also important to fry the calamari in small batches; too much in the pot at the same time will cool the oil too much and you'll end up with a sticky unfried mess.

Aioli:

• 1 c. mayonnaise (your favorite, Courtright prefers Hellman's)
• 8-10 leaves fresh basil
• 1-2 cloves fresh minced garlic
• Juice from half lemon

Cut the basil leaves into small pieces. (Courtright recommends stacking the leaves and cutting through them one way and then the other; overcutting the basil turns it black and decreases flavor.)

Mix all the ingredients together and season to taste.