Wednesday, January 9, 2002
|
Wednesday, January 9, 2002 |
|
DECKMAN'S ELLERBEK French cuisine in an American's restaurant in Germany By SALLIE
SATTERTHWAITE
How did a Fayette County lad wind up an executive chef of his own restaurant? Specializing in French cuisine? In Hamburg, Germany? Drew Deckman might ask himself the same questions. He got his degree in philosophy, for heaven's sakes, at Rhodes College in Memphis, after several educational detours that included Georgia Southern and the Merchant Marine Academy. Never did have any formal culinary training. Nor did he speak German. Yet his chances of winning a coveted Michelin star for excellence look pretty good. Let's hear it for on the job training. Deckman's Ellerbek a 128-seat restaurant and bistro opened in the Hamburg suburb of the same name Oct. 5, 2001. The whole family was there: dad Jim, who has had a dental practice in Tyrone since 1982; mother Sandy, a flight attendant with Delta Air Lines, and sister Jill, a production manager for a large advertising agency in Seattle. Deckman's menu is extensive, his father says, and includes rabbit, quail, seafood, some traditional German dishes, a little American, some Asian, but mostly French. "Everything is really fresh," said Jim Deckman, at home again in Peachtree City. "When we were at the grand opening, we met the guy who sells him turkeys and chickens. His cost twice as much as regular chicken, but he goes out and searches for the best and freshest." So how do you get to be executive chef in your own restaurant at the age of 31, with chefs working for you, all probably better trained than you are? You start young, that's how. Undoubtedly Deckman's first teacher was his mother. From the time he was 3 or 4 years old, as soon as he could climb up on a chair to watch her preparing family meals, Drew was hooked on cooking. Sandy says that while she never especially pushed him toward a career in the kitchen he was just always interested she certainly did nothing to discourage him. Before Deckman graduated from McIntosh High School, in 1988, he was learning his way around a restaurant-sized kitchen. He was, after all, only 15 or 16 when he apprenticed in the kitchen of the Aberdeen Woods Conference Center in Peachtree City. The OJT had begun in earnest. While at Rhodes College, he began cooking at Café Max. The chef there thought Deckman was going to culinary school. Back in Atlanta, Deckman worked as sous chef at the World Trade Center for a couple of years. There he caught the eye of Henning Clausen, a German business owner in the Atlanta area. Clausen asked the young cook if he'd like to come to Germany and cook in the restaurant of his Hotel Bergström in Lüneburg, not far from Hamburg. The fact that he spoke not a word of German did not daunt Deckman, who quickly picked up what he calls kitchen Deutsche. It didn't hurt that he also found a German wife. Deckman met Heike when she was working briefly as a server in the Hotel Bergström restaurant. She had been in a formal program in hotel administration, waiting to go to a new job in Geneva. He caught up with her later and spent a year and a half learning French cuisine and language at Auberge du Lion d'Or, an inn that boasts a one-star rating in the prestigious Michelin Guide. (See sidebar.) The Deckmans moved on, in 1998, to Chez Bocuse at Collonge au Mont d'Or, in France. Legendary chef Paul Bocuse won his third Michelin star in 1965 and became the virtual leader of a new generation of chefs. His restaurant very much the gold standard in traditional French dining still appears in Le Guide Rouge as the longest-standing continuous three-star establishment in the ratings' history. In 1999, Deckman's OJT continued at two-star Restaurant Jacques Maximin in Vence, not far from the Riviera in France. In what his dad describes as "a pivotal time," Drew moved to Vitus in Reinstorf, Germany. He was executive chef there less than a year when Vitus received its Michelin star. A Hamburg businessman who dined at Vitus saw an opportunity. He owned a building in which a previous restaurant had closed, and approached Deckman: "Would you come up and cook for me?" He invited the young American not only to help turn the property into a fine dining space, but to become its executive chef, supervising a kitchen with five chefs. Moreover, he could name it whatever he wanted. "Deckman's Ellerbek" was born. Drew Deckman will be 32 this month. His peripatetic education behind him, the years of apprenticeship have paid off. The biggest challenge now, his father says, is finding qualified staff. Some came with him from his previous locations. He moved his wife and sons Samuel, 4, and Philip, 1 into a house in nearby Relingen, but doesn't get to spend much time there himself. "He works long hours," Jim Deckman says, beginning in the morning when fresh ingredients arrive, opening the restaurant for lunch, and staying late for dinner guests. Germans like to linger over good meals. And they linger long at Deckman's Ellerbek. The restaurant's Web site is www.deckmans.com.
|
||