The closest of Dennis Marron's four sisters is seven years older than him. Which made for some fine times in the kitchen of his New Jersey shore home, says the executive chef of The Grille at Morrison House and Jackson20 next door. His mother found cooking for 5 kids wore on her a little. So the four girls and Marron spent a lot of time in the kitchen. When he was very young, it was his play space. As he grew older, he'd join them cooking to lots of rockin' music.

It sowed in him an interest in food which stayed once the girls had left home and he and his mother were alone together at the stove. Her cooking enthusiasm returned. "We did lots of cool stuff with just me and her." They made plenty of old-style dishes Irish like liver, bacon and onions, and hearty beef stews.

Still, his first exposure to professional kitchens put him right off. "My first restaurant job, I was 15, washing dishes. I swore I would never work in the business again. Until I needed more money..." He grins.

He'd wanted to be a games teacher and studied Physical Education in college. But he soon he decided he hated school and began to cut classes. Instead he snuck off to work for a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who was running a high end catering operation. his boss strongly suggested Marron take himself off to culinary school. But Marron resisted. When he went back home, the story repeated itself. "I worked for two more guys who went to the CIA who had a catering company. They suggested, too, that I should go to culinary school." And again he resisted. But slowly, slowly he found himself falling in love with cooking. "But I quickly realized I didn't want to cater." So off he went to the CIA.

He graduated and to work in kitchens in San Francisco. He'd done an internship in a restaurant in Hawaii around the time fusion cuisine was in play. ("The kitchen crew there thought he was possessed," he grins). In San Francisco, he found fusion in full throttle.

His very first job in the city had been as a bartender hauling boxes of wine and sacks of ice before quickly taking over making all the cocktails. Three months after joining, he was promoted to front of house manager. He grins. "And I was the hostess, taking reservations." It's a city whose food enthusiasts he hold in high regard for their appreciation and understanding.

His time in fusion cuisine made him see that what appealed to him was simplicity, not complexity. He moved to Washington DC to join Jeff Buben's Bistro Bis. "It helped me ground myself, get back into French bistro things. I could dig deep into that, I did more charcuterie, got into the roots of it and learned more peasant-style food, and how great simplicity is."

His move to Morrison House has given him the freedom to take classic dishes and put his own spin on them. "My own whim, fun," he calls it. At Morrison House the emphasis is fine dining. At Jackson20, a modern American tavern where Derek Simcik is chef de cuisine, the food is more casual, with dishes like Grilled Veal Meatloaf and half a roasted chicken with cornbread pudding on the menu. Marron would like that to change, to give the audience at Jackson20 greater exposure to more complex cooking.

His own approach to eating out - aside from insisting he'll eat anything that's put in front of him - is to ask the waiter to pick something for him. He hates reading menus. The problem with being a chef anywhere is that the nights he has off - Sundays, Mondays - are the nights all the other chefs are away from their stoves, too. "So sometimes I get a very excited sous chef," who'll take up the challenge of producing a meal for an executive chef and cook him up a storm. Marron likes to practise this flexibility at Morrison House. He says he'll go up to a table and ask, "What do you guys want to eat? We have this protein and this protein, and then just cook it. Kind of like a table d'hote menu."

Across the road from his two restaurants there's a farmers market every Saturday. So he keeps a certain amount of flexibility on his menus to reflect the produce he's freshly bought. Last year he took himself off to Costa Rica to learn how to make chocolate. This year, he plans a trip to Holland to travel around in search "of good public food."

Jackson20 is located at 480 King St, Alexandria, 703 842 2790. The Grille at Morrison House is located at 116 S Alfred St, Alexandria, 703 838 8000.

Photograph by Darko Zagar

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