|
"Everybody thought I was a genius," McDavid says, touching a
hand to the baseball cap he wears instead of a toque. "But it wasn't
that I was a genius. It was that I had the best food in the world to serve.
So that's what we try to do in all my places." The "places"
in McDavid's life are in Philadelphia, including the Down Home Diner,
opened in 1987; Jack's Firehouse, opened in 1989; and the Down Home Grill,
opened in 1993. Though each eatery plays a different theme within American
cuisine, each shows the steady hand of the man who knocked the smocks
off Georges Perrier and a roomful of French chefs.
At first, it
wasn't about cooking at all. McDavid was working his way through the University
of Virginia in accounting. The big plan included law school. Somehow,
though, he found himself handling the books for a sandwich shop, then
handling the kitchen, too. When nearby Monticello needed a chef, the owners
decided it needed McDavid. The rest is history, including cooking for
Camp David peacemakers Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin.
Once he decided
on a career as a chef, McDavid sought and found education in some of the
strangest places. From a Greek short-order cook, he learned how to sauté.
From Chiang Kai-shek's former chef Charlie Yu, he learned about knives
and presentation. From Marriott's top chef Dietmar Salat, he picked up
the rudiments of French technique, while from Jean Pierre Goyenvalle of
Washington, D.C.'s Lion d'Or he took discipline.
Finally, he
opened Jack's Firehouse. Philadelphia's were drawn by such presentations
as black-eyed pea and hog jowl soup, crawdads and macaroni with spicy
tomato sauce, and Indian Ridge buffalo with moonshine sauce and pickled
turnips. McDavid has closed the Down Home Grill and is now concentrating
his energies on the Firehouse and the Diner, and on his Grillin' and Chillin'
show on the Food Network. McDavid has also been named one of America's
best chefs by Food & Wine magazine.
|
