Sizzle Magazine

SUMMER 2017

building your brand

a chef's guide popsicles to foraging grow up THE INTERVIEW emily ellyn the interview

Chef Emily Ellyn Dishes on the Retro Rad Movement By Stacy Gammill &MMZO &MMZO &NJMZ &NJMZ PG PG $PVSUFTZ $PVSUFTZ

Chef Emily Ellyn is a farm-raised “Food Network Star,” “Cupcake Wars,” chef and culinary educator. A native “Cutthroat Kitchen,” and she even had of rural Ohio, this transplant Florida a cameo on the Simpsons! girl started the Retro Rad cooking Chef Emily will present at Cook. movement to inspire a new generation Craft. Create. ACF National of chefs with classics from the past. Convention & Show in Orlando, Chef Emily is a Culinary Institute of July 9-13. She’ll share her culinary America alum armed with two master’s journey, the events that inspired her degrees and she is finishing up her passion for food and address the Ph.D in Food Service Education. challenges of diversity and adversity Does she look familiar? You might in the culinary field. have seen her on Food Network’s

46 Sizzle SUMMER 17 &MMZO &MMZO &NJMZ &NJMZ PG PG $PVSUFTZ $PVSUFTZ

What is the Retro Rad When I fell in love with cooking at about movement about and why is it the same time, it was just natural to dig important to you? into my grandmother’s recipe boxes ee: Retro Rad started at a very young and see if I could recreate an old family &MMZO age. My aunt made me a poodle skirt favorite, or make it better and make it &NJMZ when I was in grade school and I wore RAD! Now I encourage everyone to do PG it until the poodle ran off! I would also the same: Dust off their pressure cookers beg my mom to draw cat-eyes on me and crockpots and embrace the old in a $PVSUFTZ with eyeliner! new, rad way. I hope to give everyone I encounter a glimpse into that safe, perfect At about 10, knowing how excited I was place in the past where they can create, by retro style, my mom bought us both a cook, escape or just be themselves! matching pair of saddle shoes and took me to a real 1950’s diner. It was so retro What is your food philosophy? rad, and I fell in love! I had a strawberry ee: My primary motivation to cook is to opposite from left: shake, cheeseburger and fried pickles. feed people through their hearts, minds Ellyn in her Retro and stomachs. Whether on TV or at a I was also allowed to feed the jukebox Rad element. with quarters. culinary event, I want to teach people to clockwise from top: cook and get them excited about cooking. 1. Thanksgiving The whole era just resonated with me. I But more than that, I want to touch and in a bite. 2. A twist on a Bloody loved how seemingly perfect life was and improve the lives of as many people as I Mary includes a how effortless homemaking seemed — can in this lifetime. I believe that television ham garnish and just like on “Leave it to Beaver.” can be a great platform for this. pickled cherries. 3. Easy cheesy shepherd's pie.

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Most of all, I want people to feel I am what I eat and understand food as comfortable and to have fun cooking. being a fundamental part of life. With Cooking should not be intimidating. We a good understanding of basic, raw all have to eat three meals a day, so why ingredients, I’m confdent in doing new not do it in a way that makes us happy and interesting things when I work on and keeps us healthy? remixing a classic or an old family recipe.

My favorite thing to remind people is to Another important part of growing up eat and taste. You can’t cook if you do on a farm is learning to work hard. You Get Chef Emily's not know how things taste! just do it from a very young age and you don’t question it because everyone you Did growing up on a farm have an know is working just as hard or harder Candied Fennel Upside impact on your career as a chef? right beside you. From this you learn a ee: Growing up on a farm infuenced my Down Cake Recipe sense of community and hospitality. You love of cooking and desire to be a chef raise your food from a small plot of land immensely! My family grew and raised and then you cook it up and preserve nearly everything we ate. We cooked the extra yield to sustain you through daily and everyone gathered around the winter. It’s like the old tale of the the dinner table to celebrate the food ant versus the grasshopper. Adopting we grew and harvested. As a result, a hardworking mindset means you are I know where things come from and above from left: always stocked with delicious food fundamentally understand how things are 1. Candied fennel and prepared to feed your family and upside-down cake made. I lived and breathed the process community at a moment’s notice. with citrus chocolate from seed to table! pudding 2. Ellyn's What advice can you give to summer sipper, On the farm as a toddler, it was my job the ﬁg newtini. chefs who are just out of culinary was to stomp the soil around baby tree opposite from left: school? saplings. I teethed on spring onions 1. Ricotta gnocchi with ee: First I would ask, are you ready fresh pea pesto. from the garden. I could kill and dress a to work hard? Work long hours with 2. Peanut butter caramel chicken by the age of 5. corn cheesecake. little money? Are you ready to work

48 Sizzle SUMMER 17 &MMZO &MMZO &NJMZ &NJMZ PG PG $PVSUFTZ $PVSUFTZ in extreme conditions where you are stay informed in the industry, but also trust the chef! burned, cut and yelled at while working as a way to promote their brand and Chef Emily’s favorite chef-driven to create amazing food? grow their business. Nothing replaces restaurants in Orlando: personal relationships and word-of- If so, you’ll experience instant - The Rusty Spoon has great mouth referrals, but you need to at least food and its amazing female gratifcation, more so than possibly any understand how it all works and ensure chef/owner Kathleen Blake is other job. Through it all you’ll experience you are represented well. It’s very likely elevating the scene with farm-to- the closest friendships ever bound by a table food with fnesse. Try the that social media will infuence your next love of the craft, sweat and tears! delightful pickled watermelon opportunity and you want it to be in the salad with charred octopus. You pursued a culinary degree, but right direction. - The Ravenous Pig, by I suggest you try it out frst before husband-and-wife dynamo You’re working on your frst team James and Julie Petrakis, committing a lifetime to it. Also, take cookbook. What has the continues to rake in the James the opportunity early in your career to experience been like and can you Beard nominations. Grab a bite explore the many avenues offered in the at their Winter Park location or at tell us a bit about the book? Cask and Larder at the airport. feld. Work in the areas of business you ee: Cooking up a book is a diffcult - Try Kevin Fonzo’s are interested in and those you would K Restaurant process. My personal challenge has in College Park for brunch. not think to pursue. You never know, been letting life (and work) keep me - For drinks and juicy burgers, you may become a corporate chef or from tackling the task, so it’s been a there’s RusTeak in College Park. restaurant owner; a food photographer or slow process. - Pay a visit to Audubon Park to food critic; or maybe even a line cook on sip and sup your way through a cruise ship or an educator! The frst book, “TV Tray Chic,” will be a East End Market or visit the collection of remixed oldie-but-goodie many small eateries in Mills 50. How should chefs leverage social recipes displayed in a fun, 1950s I really like the barbacoa at Pig media to promote their own Americana collection. There will also Floyds right now. brands? be kitschy photographs and stories - For Orlando’s home-brewed ee: ACF members understand the from the bygone era with practical tips libations, be sure to check out strength in community and social The Bear & Peacock Brewery. and tricks to keep you looking fabulous You can toast the end of any media is no exception. Chefs should when you host. experience with a glass of wine not only be using social as a way to from Quantum Leap Winery.