Some developing chefs get directed to stages in restaurants abroad by the people they cook with. Working in LA, Chris Watson made his connection with a restaurant in Italy through the men he bought his truffles from. Says the chef de cuisine of the newly opened Brabo, Robert Weidmaier’s latest addition to his growing restaurant empire, “I said, Hey, guys. I want to go to Italy. And they gave me a card!” He rates the experiences in different Michelin kitchens he had there far more highly than the training he received from his course at the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University in Norfolk, VA.

“I don’t recommend culinary school. They’re terribly expensive. You could take that money and go to Europe for two, three years, stage and learn two, three times as much. This country likes to see degrees. But to take three years of life and spend the same amount of money pays off more than education.”

Staging in most European kitchens is unpaid work. Aspiring chefs line up to volunteer their services in the best places for free, so highly do they judge the training they’ll receive. “Here”, snorts Watson, “the first thing someone asks you is, how much are you going to pay me.”

His Italian adventure introduced him to the European habit of calm three- and four-hour lunches, and how proud each regions was of its products. “If you lived in Emilia Romana [in northern Italy], you ate the pigs that grew up there, drank the wines from the area.” Nowhere else mattered as much as where the diner was eating.

Understandably he's drawn towards Italian ingredients: “Caper berries, polenta, they have so much cool stuff.” The downside of returning to Washington is that he hasn’t found anywhere local to eat Italian food that satisfies his memories of what he ate in Italy. “It’s really bad. If I can go to New York [to eat it], I do.”

Following stages in three different Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy, Watson was enticed back to the US by the Four Seasons Hotel, to consult on the opening of their Italian restaurant project in Lana’i, Hawaii. Next he rejoined the Patina Restaurant Group as chef de cuisine at Zucca, their Italian eatery in Los Angeles. He’d worked for them at their flagship restaurant, Patina, before taking off to Italy. Before that, straight out of culinary school, had come two different posts in Richmond, Virginia, then three years in the Quattro Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Houston, as chef de cuisine. In 2006, wanting to be nearer his family, he returned from Hawaii to Washington as chef de cuisine for Nora Pouillon at Restaurant Nora.

Watson’s introduction to good food came directly from his Virginian family. His grandfather took him hunting and fishing. His grandmother cooked the catch and everything else with skill. Both his parents are good cooks, “My father probably a little better than my mother – because he worked less than my mother, so he enjoys it.”

What he finds he’s learning with Robert Weidmaier rounds out his knowledge of the restaurant business. “Very rarely do you work with somebody who is a great restaurant manager. A great cook is usually a terrible businessman. And a great businessman a terrible cook. Rarely do you find the best of both worlds: Robert is a great restaurateur: great cook and great businessman.” They’ll write down an idea, grade it out of 10. Menus are devised to make sure there’s no waste, incorporating elements that may be left over from creating some other dish. “We use up everything.”

Brabo’s opening menu had Weidmaier’s hand primarily upon it. But now the restaurant is under full steam, Watson says that he has been given the freedom to express himself in the spirit of its Belgian cuisine that's given a contemporary American twist. “I say, I want to use these five ingredients and Robert says, Go with it, do whatever you want to do.”

While he wants to use local products as much as possible, he recognizes he also has to factor in cost. “I’ll buy local when it’s feasible. It depends on price. When I can get local lamb, I do it." And in spring season, ramps are on the menu, as well as on sale in The Butcher’s Block Robert Weidmaier’s market next door. He’s enthusiastic about using Randall Lineback beef when he can. It’s from a farmer who’s rebreeding this oldest strain of cattle in the US. But inevitably its price is high. Comparing American diners to their European counterparts, he says till recently they’ve been apathetic about the source of the food they eat. “But in the past 10, 15 years, chefs have turned people on to farmers’ markets.” Diners may yet be trained to enjoy three- and four-hour lunches.

Brabo is located at 1600 King St, Alexandria, adjacent to Lorien Hotel & Spa. 703 894 3440. Main courses cost from $19 to $32.

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1 Comment

1. Norman Brown

   Chef Watson is fabulous! His personal care and preparaton made our trip to Alexandria to celebrate mother's day out of this world. Thank you Brabo and Chef Watson!