Continued from Part 1 – featuring
Chef Bill Walz of Risk Restaurant
Like most of us, Chef Bill is as likely
to turn to Google to find interesting recipes as he is to turn to his
sizable cookbook collection. Once a week he pulls together a multi-course international menu that demands considerable research.
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| Chef Bill at work in the small kitchen. |
If the international night features food of Brazil, for example, Chef Bill looks at Brazilian-flavored restaurants in New York to see what they're cooking, and try to bring a little of that flavor and style to Risk for the evening. He stressed that keeping true to the feel of the food, rather than sourcing the complicated and authentic ingredients, works well for mid-Michigan clientele.
“It's not so much about using
authentic ingredients as it is about capturing the essence of the
cuisine, ” said Bill. “Authentic recipes can have long, detailed
lists of ingredients. If you run into a recipe that requires several
kinds of chile peppers – where would you actually find those
different chile peppers in mid-Michigan? And you couldn't find them
in 1990, so I learned to improvise.”
Risk Restaurant embraces the
food-to-plate ethic, and uses local suppliers whenever possible. “The
hardest part about this is the time it takes to go out and source it
locally,” said Bill. “Then it takes time to ensure the items get
delivered when they're needed.” He likes Monroe Organics for
vegetables, and McConnell's and Smith Brothers for meats; all are located in the central Michigan area.
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| Bread warming in the kitchen. |
Without a doubt, Bill loves cookbooks, and prefers good quality. “I like firm pages, good photos. And I look at that before looking at the recipes.” And he's not above trying several recipes to ensure the cookbook is worthy.
“I remember bringing home cookbook
many years ago,” said Chef Bill. “I was very excited about trying
out the pastry recipes.” Unfortunately, he quickly discovered that
the measurements were completely off. “Every recipe I tried
failed.”
Cookbooks from favorite restaurants, on
the other hand, are reliable though often daunting for the average
home cook as the two styles of cooking are so different.
“In a restaurant,” says Chef Bill,
“you have mise en place – ingredients prepared ahead
of time and at your fingertips. But at home, so often you don't –
or you're not taught to have these things in order. But when you have
your ingredients in front of you, in separate bowls or containers,
you can cook several items quickly. The average home cook doesn't do
that.”
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| Spices at your fingertips, too. |
Bill's wife Cindy (an experienced chef in her own right) had mentioned to me in passing that they've always wanted to write their own cookbook. After all, with twenty years experience in the restaurant business, they have plenty of intriguing restaurant-ready recipes. Bill confessed that he had worked on some recipes while in-between the closing of one restaurant and the opening of another.
Do I sense a new cookbook being created
to add to my shelves?
If it's from Chef Bill Walz, it's a risk I'll
be happy to take. In the meantime, I'll be eating wherever Bill is
cooking.
437 South Mission Street, Mount
Pleasant, Michigan
PHONE: 989-317-0844
Wednesday-Saturday 11am-2pm for lunch,
5pm-9pm for dinner
Price Range from $10-30
Casual dining, cash only, reservations recommended
Catering available
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