Guest Chef Series: Owen Clark of Rolf and Daughters

Chef Owen Clark of Rolf and Daughters working in The Nashville Food Project kitchens. Photo by Danielle Atkins. 

Owen Clark came to Rolf and Daughters as Chef de Cuisine a year and a half ago after a cross-country road trip led him through Music City.  The Colorado native had been working in New York City for the past several years and wanted a change.

These days, he's certainly found it. He can go two-stepping when he wants. He bought a kayak. He even started tooling leather, a hobby that’s more related to his profession than might initially appear.

“Growing up with horses on a horse ranch and being around that as a functional art form is a lot of what speaks to me about cooking,” he says.  “It has to be functional. But it also has to be exciting and delicious and appealing. And I think leather is the same thing. You’re working with your hands, so you get to zone-out and focus and make something that’s really beautiful. But if it doesn’t fit, it’s pretty useless.”

Attention to function and flavor might be part of why he rocked it as part of our Guest Chef Series at TNFP. When he visited with his girlfriend and photographer Danielle Atkins to make a meal during one of the volunteer cook shifts, he transformed donated, garden-grown and gleaned ingredients into a dish of chicken, sweet potatoes, apples and curry. He spotted the greenhouse out back and clipped parsley and leaves from a lime tree. “That’s one of things that inspired me to change up what I thought I was going to make when I looked at the ingredients available,” he said.

Owen in TNFP's greenhouse. Photo by Danielle Atkins.

With the leaves, he made a lime, garlic, balsamic and soy vinaigrette for charred broccoli.

For wilted curly kale salad he added the chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley with the stalks folded in, too, that were large enough to be “like their own vegetable.”

Using all parts of the parsley from the garden helps demonstrate Owen's commitment to not wasting food.

“Every day I’m trying to find ways to use everything,” he says. “From a business standpoint it’s like, ‘Okay, that’s money in the garbage,’ and that’s one way to look at it. But also it’s heartbreaking to see something go in the trash. The more you know about farming and what you can do with certain things, the more you see it as a wasted opportunity and wasted work. So many hours and heart and hard-ass work went into taking this from dirt to product to what could be food. Along the way if you haven’t done your best to make it something better then you’re really doing a disservice.”

Also from a professional standpoint, Owen said he has spent much of his time hidden in a kitchen and cooking for a more exclusive clientele at places like wd-50, A Voce and Blue Hill in New York as well as Rolf and Daughters.  Stepping out to cook at The Nashville Food Project gave him an opportunity to use his skills and talents for a different audience of about 70 low-income residents at John Glenn retirement home.

“It gets to a point where you want to make food for the people who need it in a way that’s still delicious and good for you,” he says. “And it’s nourishing for your soul to do that as well.  That’s what I’ve been looking to do in some facet."

“That’s one of the reasons The Nashville Food Project appealed to me the most. I want to do that and feel good about what I’m making for the people who need it.”

Owen handing off his meal to the truck delivery team. Photo by Danielle Atkins. 

Guest Chef Series: Kayla and Derek May

Pastry Chefs Derek and Kayla May began their courtship in the kitchen at The Hermitage Hotel when their shifts overlapped by one hour.

Kayla arrived at 5 a.m. to make breads and banquet sweets, and Derek arrived later to make plated desserts. Everyone on the crew had individual plastic bins to keep their tools, but Derek noticed that Kayla’s was broken. So when she came in one morning, she found the tools missing in her bin and a treasure map instead sending her to find the new one Derek had purchased for her.

“I was pretty smitten after that,” she said.

Still, she resisted a romantic relationship knowing that she would soon head to New York City to work. The two would meet before dawn at Café Coco, the 24-hour coffee shop, after he ended his shift and she headed into hers. When she left the hotel job, Derek ended up going to New York with her where they shared a room in an apartment with two other roommates. 

“If you opened the dresser you had to climb over the bed," Kayla said of their tiny space. But she added that the experience in New York proved invaluable.

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, the chefs -- both owners of Blushing Berry Chocolates and Kayla the pastry chef at Josephine -- made the perfect pair to feature in our Guest Chef Series. We were delighted to get to know them at our first RISE event in December, and they agreed to return to the kitchen for a volunteer shift. 

“They don’t usually let me make meatloaf at Josephine,” Kayla said as they both joked about cooking on the savory side rather than the sweet. “If you want me to cook stuff on the hot line, I need a lot of instruction.”

But of course they handled the meal for 75 people at John Glenn retirement home with ease. Kayla cracked eggs, one in each hand, for a mixture of donated venison from Hunters for the Hungry and blend of spices as Derek chopped bacon for a pot of green beans. Sweet potatoes softened in a pot of boiling water and would soon be whipped with molasses. “I have to add a little sugar,” she said. 

Kayla grew up in Alabama and took an interest in pastry while on a trip to Paris. When her sister and traveling companion caught a case of the flu, Kayla spent her days wandering into pastry shops marveling at the beauty and the detail behind the glass cases. Despite a family in medicine (her mother is a doctor and her sister will soon begin her residency), she promptly changed course from a scholarship to study pre-med at Auburn University to the French Culinary Institute in New York.

“She was super-supportive,” Kayla said of her mother. “I really haven’t thought about much else (but pastry) since.” 

Derek grew up in Indiana and attended Connecticut Culinary Institute and worked in Chicago before coming to Nashville. Both chefs are happy to be back in Music City after their time in New York. They’re preparing for a busy Valentine's season and scouting new locations for their Blushing Berry business. And after marrying in 2014, they’ve been putting down roots here, which thankfully means giving back by helping at The Nashville Food Project, too.

"It's always nice," Kayla said, "to help out with something you do as your career in the community."  

Pro Tips from Kayla and Derek:

- Pastries and breads freeze nicely for serving later, which helps cut down on food waste.

- Be prepared. “Panicking never helps,” Derek says. They both like to stay ahead of the game throughout the week. “If you’re not ahead, you’re probably behind,” Kayla says.

- It’s okay if every dish at home doesn't turn out perfectly. Experimentation leads to improvement. “It doesn’t always have to taste good,” Derek said. “Next time you’ll know how to do it better.”

- Learn to think on your feet and improvise in the kitchen. It’s another way to keep from wasting food.

- Knowing the purpose of ingredients helps reduce waste and makes a better cook. Knowing that eggs stabilize and add volume, for example, makes it easier to substitute with what’s on hand.

- And on keeping a trim figure as a pastry chef? “Work in a kitchen,” Kayla says, where employees stay busy. “I think that’s why I love vegetables so much. It’s what our body needs and wants at the end of a long day.”

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On the Menu:

Kayla and Derek prepared meatloaf with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans flavored with pork. To replicate their meal, try these recipes.

Good Eats Meatloaf

Molasses Whipped Sweet Potatoes

Green Beans with Bacon

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Kayla and Derek will be holding a sweetheart special during Valentine's week at Blushing Berry Chocolates. Any gentleman who visits the shop to buy a 12-piece or 24-piece chocolate box for a special someone will get two free Bourbon truffles for the purchase.

Valentine's truffle flavors available now and through the holiday include the following: 

Milk Chocolate

Dark Chocolate

Salted Caramel

Vanilla Bean

Strawberry

Raspberry

Rose

Passion Fruit

Champagne

Hazelnut

Amaretto

Bailey's Irish Cream

For more information, click here or call 615.852.8128. 

For reservations at Josephine, visit here or call 615.292.7766.