Ricky Moore - Chef of Indebleu
(This interview took place before Michael Hartzer took over in March 2008 as executive chef of Indebleu)
Indebleu executive chef Ricky Moore grew up with Southern country cooking.
To extend his research into Indian cuisine, Ricky Moore is taking a couple of weeks off to immerse himself in spices at the hands of a master Indian chef. In India? No, in Toronto, with the renowned owner/chef of Cuisine of India, Shishir Sharma.
Established at Indebleu since November as executive chef, Moore isn’t anticipating turning the Penn Quarter restaurant into a destination for fiery rogan josh and eye-watering biryani. Instead, he describes the cuisine this way: “It’s going to be seasonal American, Indian-inspired. Not too much frou-frou.”
So mussels come curried, with a kaffir lime aioli. Scallops are cardamom-glazed. Lamb chops arrive with garlic mashed potatoes, the Indian angle found in the accompanying green lentils, mojito reduction and the fact that they’re roasted in a tandoori oven. “I’m going to be true to what India brings in terms of heat, but not in every dish,” Moore says. He emphasizes the seasonal more than the Indian slant: “I want to make sure when someone eats here, whatever the preparation, they are going to feel and know what time of year it is by the ingredients.”
Moore came to Indebleu from Agraria, the Washington Harbour restaurant owned by the family farmers that supply its produce. So he’s deeply committed to seasonality and careful sourcing. His other attachment to the land comes through the youth leadership program Green Youth Farm, for which he is an adviser. The volunteer organization encourages teens to develop business skills and self-confidence through running two organic farms in Chicago.
His Chicago ties go back to time as executive chef at the Parrot Cage Restaurant and South Water Kitchen. From there the North Carolina native came to Washington to work with Roberto Donna at Galileo, Jeffrey Buben at Vidalia, Todd Gray at Equinox and Gray Kunz at Lespinasse, now closed.
He credits his mother, Arlene McClease, with his enthusiasm for cooking. (His other influences are an interesting mixed bunch: Sidney Poitier; Norman Rockwell; James Baldwin; Fernand Point, the greatest culinary influence on modern French cuisine; Grandmaster Flash; Ayn Rand; and Alain Chapel, one of the fathers of “Nouvelle Cuisine.”)
Raised in New Bern, N.C., by a strong set of matriarchs, he describes his grandmother as a multitalented woman who taught the family to enjoy the Sunday meal. “Supper started at 12 noon and ended around 6 o’clock. There were usually 12 around the table, eating good Southern country cooking.”
Later, studying at the Culinary Institute of America, he wrote a report comparing his family’s cooking with the cooking of rural France. “I grew up with chicken in a pot with onions and herbs, a dish similar to coq au vin; one-pot dishes, good country fare.” He cites cassoulet, the slow-cooked French casserole of beans, sausages and joints of meat and fowl, as another example.
“We had kidney beans with ham inside — so similar. And we’d eat it with killer crusty bread,” the same way the French serve it, he says. Moore, his three brothers and his sister always enjoyed eating, he says, and they threw big parties.
Still, he didn’t immediately attend culinary school, instead going to college to major in graphic arts. But soon he decided he’d rather go see the world. So he left and joined the military.
For the next seven years he was stationed all over the world. “I learned to eat the way the locals did. There were a lot of common denominators with here. In Germany, they had rotisserie chicken. Same as here, on a spit; came with french fries and garlic mayonnaise.”
In Korea he discovered kimchi, brined pickled vegetables served with every meal. “For me it was so cool to know people buried cabbage in the ground with spices and let it ferment.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, he was cooking at Le Tarbouche (now closed). “I worked all that day. All of a sudden I thought, I know where this is going. I said to my wife, 'You know what? We need to take a sabbatical.’”
He had watched French chef Michel Husser, owner of Le Cerf in Alsace, a two-Michelin-star restaurant, battle “the king of Iron Chefs,” as Hiroyuki Sakai was dubbed, on the popular TV show. “I said, ‘I think I want to work there.’ So I e-mailed him and set it up.”
Thus began a six-month stay in France, working first with Husser, then in Paris at Apicius and Le Violin d’Ingres. His wife, who is an information technology specialist, didn’t need persuading to move. She’s his food companion, he says. And he had no problem with the language. “The fun part is, you go to another country and the language of the kitchen is cooking. Everybody does the same thing wherever you go. Sauté is the same everywhere. It’s all about cooking at the end of the day.”
What most impressed him about French cooking was its respect for regionality. “They don’t get caught up in trends. They say, ‘This is my version of choucroute,’ not because this other person is doing it this way. The food is un-fluffed-up.”
Moore and his wife live in Arlington with their daughter, Hunter Johanna, age 3. “She has a great palette,” he says. “She eats what we eat. There’s no such thing as child food in our house.”
They have another baby on the way, and Moore now finds himself at a stage in his career when he can focus more on his family. “I believe at this point where I am, everybody in this business has worked really hard. Now you have ability to plan, to teach your team to execute work for you. At the end of the day, the family comes first, everyone else second.”
Indebleu (202-333-2538; Indebleu.net) is located at 707 G St. NW. Main courses cost $17 to $32.
This article by Julia Watson first appeared in the Northwest, Dupont, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown Current Newspapers. Photo courtesy of Ricky Moore.