Another Side of James Beard Award-Winning Chef, Anne Kearney
Photo Credit: https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu"Do not step on people's dreams."
Words from a woman who bought her first restaurant at 27 years-old and hasn't stopped since: Chef Anne Kearney.
And a polite reminder that if you work hard enough for what you want, you can accomplish anything... regardless of what other people say.
Tampa Bay knows Chef Kearney for her newly established Euro-American restaurant, Oak & Ola, located inside of Armature Works. After spending an hour and a half together, I now know Anne for her tasteful ability to tell bottomless stories and our shared love for bacon (more on that later).
The restaurant is peaceful at 10 AM. And by peaceful, I mean the sun peeks its head through every window, drenching the entire dining room in baby-soft light. A staff member calls out for wild honey while stocking the bar, his voice muffled by the sound of veal being pounded in the kitchen. I'm holding a cup of black coffee, sitting across from a James Beard Award-Winning female chef.
I quickly decide this is my favorite kind of morning.
Oak & Ola marks a new moment in Anne's career. For the first time in 22 years, she's working with partners. But John and Trudy Cooper aren't just colleagues, they're longtime friends who are practically family.
"I have the support of 4 partners {John and Trudy Cooper, Chris Arreola, Andy Ganger} that I know, trust and believe in." Anne's getting into interview mode as she steals a sip from her insulated Outback Steakhouse mug. "The best part is that we all have 30 plus years of experience in this industry."
While all parties certainly have their strengths, it's Chef Kearney who brings food to the table. Horseradish Dressed Blue Crab is a longtime staple of Anne's and my new go-to dish on the menu. The crab is tossed in a tangy "Ma-yo," a half mayo, half yogurt dressing, then served on a bed of roasted garnet beets with pickled red onion. It's almost too stunning to eat, but you know that never stops me.
Another favorite is the Mussels Bourride. PEI mussels served in a golden bath of salted shellfish broth, finished with provencal vegetables, herbs and saffron aïoli. Sopping the broth up with a piece of freshly baked bread is an added bonus.
As we're sitting in Anne's present, I'm prompting questions about her past. She gets comfortable with her legs kicked up on the nearest seat, eyeglasses hanging around her neck; then tells me about the first time she cooked Chicken Cordon Bleu. She was only 15 years-old.
At the time, she was more focused on Betty Crocker cookbooks than chasing boys around her Catholic High School. The day she made the Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe, her mom proudly told every person in the neighborhood. Soon after, neighbors were ordering the dish from Anne and the raving reviews were endless. That's when she realized she wanted to attend culinary school and become a chef.
"Culinary school taught me what I needed to know; my teachers built a foundation and laid out the essentials I needed. After the program ended one of the teaching chefs left to become a working chef again and he asked 5 students to come with him. I was one of the five," Anne smiles, reliving the memory.
Through that experience, every single thing Anne was taught in school was reiterated in the real world. In fact, her education never stopped. It only flourished during her time working alongside Chef John Neal at Peristyle, a French oasis with Southern heartbeat, located in New Orleans. Following the sudden death of her mentor, Anne would later purchase Peristyle with a promise to keep the culinary magic alive.
The phone steals our attention mid-conversation, and one notification alert turns into a sidebar about our mutual refusal to upgrade our iPhone 7's. We start laughing about telemarketer calls we get tricked into answering. I'll spare you the specifics.
Next, we chat about her time cooking with Emeril... before BAM was ever a thing.
"With Emeril, I learned how to juggle the needs of the guests and the needs of the chef at the same time. 10 people sat at the bar and all of the entrees were made by two chefs. I went through two to three paper chef hats a night. Emeril would bring a fresh hat over, put it on my head and the guests would applaud," Anne laughs.
Just listening to her talk makes me feel like I was there.
The first time Anne was nominated for a James Beard Award was for Rising Star. The same year, Emeril was up for Best Chef of the Year for the country. They were both proudly representing New Orleans.
Since then, Anne has been nominated three additional times, bringing home her first win in 2002. It's been 17 years since she won a James Beard Award and she's still building her career; not with the goal of getting recognition but with the focus of continuing to be better. We talk through the intricate process of voting, region awards and the rules for nomination. We sidebar about fancy awards dinners, what it's like to shake hands with Alice Waters and how it feels to roll into events alongside Emeril and his entourage.
"The year I won, I didn't think to myself that I was going to win, but I didn't think that I shouldn't win either. When you win, you walk around with this big medallion around your neck," I'm living vicariously through every word Anne says at this point. "And Thomas Keller sent a congratulatory letter to you if you won. I always thought to myself: how wonderfully professional."
On advice to females chefs: Anne says, "stay the course and be true to yourself. Don't compromise your body to pick up a 50-pound box of bones, but show up a few minutes early. Educate yourself. Know the kitchen you're working in. If the chef gives you an opportunity to come up with a dish, think about it. If you're cooking French food, research indigenous French ingredients and incorporate them into the dish. Think about the flavors of a classic recipe like Coq au Vin and how to experiment with technique."
My favorite piece of advice:
"Think about how to fit into the fold of where you are."
Chef Anne runs a no-waste kitchen. Over-whipped cream turns into butter and broken beurre blancs become whole again, on the fly. During our interview, I learned that you can take a piece of ice, swirl it in a bowl and then slowly mount in the broken beurre blanc to bring it back.
One thing is clear: under Anne's leadership, knowledge of food costing, inventory and how every part of the kitchen impacts each other, is a must for the team.
"I love that young people are investing their time and spirit with me, they're getting better every day and I'm so happy to be a part of that," she gleams, before spilling the details about Oak & Ola's new brunch service, beginning April 28th.
She begins to list the new menu, like a memorized grocery list that feels like a secret. One item we collectively obsess over: fire-roasted bacon chunks tossed in apple cider gastrique. Ten pieces will be served in a little cast iron dish. We joke about eating them all ourselves, but since we're not total and complete animals, we'll share them with the table.
While I'm ecstatic for brunch, it'll be hard to tear me away from the Gulf Fish Amandine with haricot vert. A locally sourced catch with crispy skin served with a generous accompaniment of almond beurre noisette. It has just the right amount of butter to gently coat your mouth in preparation for another bite... and I love it.
For more updates and food stories from Chef Anne, follow her and Oak & Ola on Instagram. I can't wait to see you there soon!
Forever eating,
Melissa