Meeting Some of Warren's Top Chefs

Editor's note: Warren resident Frank DeVico has been following his son, Teddy, 15, as Teddy learns about gourmet cooking and fine restaurants. Teddy launched his own blog at teenchefteddy.blogspot.com, and he and Frank will be sharing their experiences in this column.

Readers with questions about cooking, restaurants and new flavors for Frank and Teddy to explore are welcome to email them to john.patten@patch.com, then check back every Friday for the DeVico's Culinary Quest.

Below, Teddy shares how his interest in gourmet cooking began—and how he became an intern at Warren's Uproot Restaurant.

About a year ago when I was really starting to get into food, I was always complaining of how there were zero good restaurants in my neighborhood. I had to travel a very long way to reach an establishment that served great food.

Then, in November 2009, when the Uproot Restaurant opened, it all changed. When I heard that there was going to be a fine dining restaurant opening in my town I was very excited.

Some people in the community thought the restaurant was weird because they were serving bone marrow, foie gras, and sweetbreads. I heard complaints that the portions were too small and that it’s too expensive, but that was from people who hadn’t even eaten at the restaurant.

However, once people decided to actually try out the restaurant, their views of Uproot quickly changed. My neighbor said, “The pork dish absolutely blew me away. It was the best pork I ever had.”

I was eager to both dine at Uproot—and to work there. I wanted to get experience working in a restaurant environment that served very high quality food. I sent them an email expressing my passion for food and how I would like to be an intern there.

After an interview with the executive chef Anthony Bucco I was allowed to work there once a week for four hours.

“Working in a restaurant is a very tough job, but it is also very rewarding,” Executive Chef Bucco warned me.

The first day was March 1, 2010. I arrived extremely nervous and excited, and expected to be just watching—but I was completely wrong. I was making tuiles for one of the desserts. The tuile batter would go into a mold, and then to the oven until they turned golden brown and then I removed the tuiles and molded them on a rolling pin very swiftly. If I was too slow, the tuiles would harden before I would have been able to shape them.

Next, I was peeling salt-baked beets. Then after working on prep work, I got to watch service in action while chatting with some of the cooks and the sous chef Mark Farro.

They were very impressed when I knew why gelatin was being added to a huckleberry soda (the gelatin was being used as a clarifying element).

“I wish I started at your age,” Farro told me. “I would have been able to learn so much from working at great restaurants for free.”

I was finally in my element, with people that shared the same passion I did. So far I have accumulated about 90 hours of working at Uproot.

Now, a typical day for me at Uproot consists of peeling asparagus, shucking favas and peas, cutting mirepoix, brunoise carrots, and peeling grapes. The chefs at Uproot certainly have more training than me—they’ve worked with such chefs as Daniel Boulud, Daniel Humm, Terrance Brennan and Drew Nieporent—so I do feel out of my league, but that is how you learn.