ALL ABOUT FOOD: Young chef learned at his grandmother’s knee

It’s always fun to write a success story, especially when it concerns one of our former employees at A La Carte. To say we taught Mitch Gillan, the new executive chef at Laguna’s French 75, everything he knows would be just a little bit of an exaggeration. Well, maybe a big exaggeration but we always knew he had it in him.

In his crisp chef’s whites, in full command of the kitchen, he is a far cry from the rock ‘n’ rollin’ 18-year-old who worked behind our counter. But even then, he evinced the characteristics that lead to success. Despite his age, he was extremely responsible, hard working, intelligent and charismatic.

Even with his party-hearty youthfulness, one felt he was a person of substance and ambition. He quickly became our assistant manager and a catering captain. He says one important lesson he learned at A La Carte was how to deal with impatient, hungry people.

Mitch was always interested in the food, exhibiting an adventurous palate and curiosity about cooking. He was a great favorite with the staff who taught him his first lessons in kitchen Spanish.

He really wanted an apprenticeship in the kitchen, but our manager was adamant about keeping him in the front of the house. When the opportunity arose, via the brother of a friend, he left us for his first culinary experience: prep cook at the Surf and Sand.

Actually, his first culinary experience was at his grandmother’s knee, where, as the son of a struggling, single working mother, he spent a lot of time.

His grandma cooked all day, and he hung out with her from the time he was three, frequently feeling the back of her wooden spoon when he started poking around in her pots. Eventually, at age 10, she let him help out. Grandma’s versions of fried chicken and mac ‘n’ cheese still hold a special place in his stomach.

His other early food memories center around the old Villa James restaurant (now Rumari’s), where he and his mother often ate. The chef would take him back into the kitchen and feed this little kid escargots, sashimi and spumoni.

The Surf and Sand job was like learning to swim by being thrown in the pool. He worked at every station in the morning doing prep work, then in the evening as well. He was the only non-Latino in the kitchen and they teased him unmercifully, but that too was an important lesson in how a restaurant kitchen works. All that macho stuff that happens in Anthony Bourdain’s and Gordon Ramsay’s kitchens takes place everywhere.

While eating at his favorite breakfast place, the Ramos House in San Juan, he met and schmoozed with chef John Humphries, who eventually persuaded Mitch to leave his morning job and come work for him. But after two years of 18-hour days, he and his roommate decided it was time for a break from the O.C. They flipped a coin to decide whether they would go to New York, Chicago or New Orleans, and New Orleans won.

With virtually no money, he stayed in hostels and took various day jobs, chopping and peeling at places like Commander’s Palace and Brennan’s. Hearing about a new restaurant that was just opening, he lucked out and got a job at 56°, a new venture of Min Bui, voted best chef in New Orleans. It featured tasting menus of Vietnamese and French Creole fusion cuisine that changed every day.

Mitch never went to a culinary institute. The kitchens he worked in were his schools and this one was a giant leap. It included his first experience with a hardcore, screaming chef who chewed him out in Vietnamese.

One of his most memorable experiences was going to the sous chef’s home in Metairie for an authentic crawfish boil. “One of the top five meals of my life,” Mitch says.

The New Orleans adventure lasted about six months before he and his pal, missing family and friends, decided to return home. He went back to Ramos House in the daytime and did catering for Oysters in Corona del Mar at night. When the sous chef at Oysters quit, Mitch was offered the job. He couldn’t turn it down and again was working 18-hour days.

One unforgettable event was the opportunity to cook dinner at the James Beard House in New York City when Scott Brandon, the chef at Oysters, got nominated for a James Beard award. They cooked a seven-course meal for 80 of America’s most serious foodies. He also had the opportunity to eat in some of New York’s great restaurants like Craft, Babbo and Boulud.

Seeking new levels of experience, he worked at Mirabeau in Monarch Bay Plaza and then at David Wilhelm’s Chat Noir. There, he learned about volume, doing 400 to 500 covers a night with elegant presentation. After the chef left, he ran the kitchen for three months while they looked for someone to permanently fill the position.

Feeling that he was ready, Mitch accepted the job of chef de cuisine at Vine in San Clemente. This was high-end cuisine with a more rustic style: flavors over presentation. It was also his opportunity to learn about running a small business.

Unfortunately, after a slow season the chef-owner returned to the kitchen so Mitch returned to David Wilhelm’s Culinary Adventures to help open a chain of French 75s. He ran the Irvine branch for 18 months and was then offered the job in Laguna four months ago.

As executive chef at French 75, he is looking forward to applying his own vision, which he describes as “homey goodness using the finest ingredients and refined French technique; focusing somewhat on composition but letting the food speak for itself.” Some fall menu items may include a green lentil, foie gras and quail cassoulet or sea bass with warm roasted root vegetable salad.

It’s a pleasure to see this accomplished young chef come into his own and we eagerly await the pleasure of tasting his creations.

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ owned A La Carte for 20 years. They can be reached for comments or questions at themarkos755@yahoo.com.