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Restaurant Celebrates a Glorious 25th Anniversary
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Tallahassee Democrat (FL) A Matter of Taste
Author: Ashby Stiff DEMOCRAT FOOD CRITIC
A restaurant that makes it through three years in business beats heavy odds.
One that lasts 25 years is a wonder.
Food Glorious Food joins the world of the wondrous when it celebrates its 25th anniversary, Dec. 9-15, with a week's reprise of some of its old favorite dishes.
The long and lively Food Glorious Food tale began when developer June Diehl was converting a former church, at Thomasville and Bradford roads, into an up-market shopping cluster. She wanted to include restaurants in the mix of specialty boutiques and studios.
As fortune would have it, two of her acquaintances, foodies both, were toying with the idea of expanding their culinary hobbies into a commercial venture.
Susan Turner was a former schoolteacher who had learned cooking from her grandmother in Chicago. She was keenly interested in the gourmet food-to-go concept of New York's Silver Palate, a foremost exponent of the New American cuisine that would be the rage of a decade.
Ruth Chase might well have leaned to classical Gallic cooking, having grown up with it in her mother's kitchen in the ancient dependency of a French chateau. But she, too, was sold on the idea of creative takeaway
foods.
A few telephone calls, a few discussions, and Turner and Chase found themselves business partners and tenants of a former Sunday school room and an adjacent courtyard at the soon-to-be Betton Place.
On the Friday after Thanksgiving 1982 ? after months of hard work and heavy lifting ? the winning mini-pastiche of cafe, deli, charcuterie, patisserie and caterer debuted. They called it Food Glorious Food.
"Oh my, that was a wonderful day," exclaims physician's wife Marcia Thornberry. "It was so different, so unique, so deliciously gourmet. It brought metropolitan to Tallahassee."
The little room boasted chilled display cases, black-and-white floor tiles, a few tables and a ceiling densely hung with straw baskets of every shape and size. It was a pleasant marriage of the iconic Silver Palate and a French country kitchen. Outside, the sunny courtyard blossomed with umbrella tables and bright red chairs.
The eye-appealing food cabinet displays ran to the warm, mahogany browns and tomato reds of Chicken Marengo and Aztec Chicken; to the Adriatic golds and greens of pastitso, moussaka and spanikopita; and the near-ebon layers of ever-perfect Perfect Chocolate Cake, a best-selling dessert to this day.
"I'll never know how we cooked and catered for parties of 300 in a kitchen that tiny," Turner reminisces, "But we made it."
Therapist Jane Marks, the wife of Mayor John Marks, knows. "Susan has grit," she says. "She works hours and hours, and everything she does is done to perfection with passion and great style. Food Glorious Food reflects her fantastic sense of style."
The years passed and the restaurant prospered, attracting patrons as famed as Red Barber, Alan Arkin and Jane Fonda, as well as Florida first ladies of the names Collins, Askew, Graham and Bush.
Too, scores of student staffers, earning expense money for college, made their mark in Turner's memory. Among them, two continued their food careers to become award-winning chef-authors.
Art Smith, long the personal chef to Oprah Winfrey and now owner of Chicago's new Table52 restaurant, recently has written three cookbooks, including the best-selling companion set, "Back to the Table" and "Back to
the Family."
Scott Peacock, in collaboration with his mentor, the late, famous Southern food authority Chef Edna Lewis, penned "The Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations from Two Southern Chefs."
In 1986, after four successful years, the Turner-Chase partnership fell on rocky times and was dissolved. Turner prevailed and continued to operate the restaurant through years of changes and improvements, including the doubling in size of the popular outdoor dining court.
Around the millennium, wearied from going it alone, Turner decided to sell the business. A buyer was found and the longtime restaurateur retired to a life of newfound leisure as a Betton Hills matron.
But not for long. The sale proved an unfortunate one that eventually landed the business back in Turner's lap. She closed the restaurant for repairs and refurbishing while she contemplated what to do.
In 2002, fate again swooped in, this time with execu-chef (and graduate criminologist) Kevin Stout in hand. His kitchens had scored top critical ratings at Andrew's Second Act and Kool Beanz. He not only wanted a crack at ownership, but he would come with a talented team, including longtime front-of-the-house manager Paul Maraist.
A partnership was formed. Chef Stout would handle the day-to-day food operations, Maraist would oversee the front and service, Turner would be in the background, contributing ideas, advice and frequent cooking to the cause.
It was a winner. In no time the once utilitarian room emerged as a smart, 45-seat bistro, one that would be comfortably at home in St. Bart's or Sausalito. The menu bloomed anew with Chilled Thai Coconut Soup, with Crispy Tempura Shrimp and Sake, and Cuban Roasted Pork with black beans and a cheddar-scallion sour cream corn cake with salsa fresca. And an enlightened wine carte.
The result was overly appealing. Soon the space became far too small to accommodate the daily lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch patronage that had morphed into crowds. Yet again fortune smiled and the ground floor under the restaurant became vacant. Food Glorious Food was off on yet another expansion.
In the days that followed, the partnership lost Paul Maraist. But last fall's grand opening feted a new downstairs extension boasting a cutting-edge kitchen, a bar, and art-walled dining rooms. Total seating now accommodated 300 guests. The staff now numbered 60.
The little cafe-deli that could, had.
In the waning fall daylight, at a table in their quiet Betton Place courtyard, Susan Turner and Chef Kevin Stout relaxed and looked back.
"How was it all?" we asked her.
"Twenty-five years of hard work, but pure, absolute joy."
Susan Turner shares two favorite recipes
Here are two Food Glorious Food old favorites with comments from Susan Turner.
"From Day 1, we served this French ham and cheese pie. For brunch, lunch, dinner, hors d'oeuvres, customers gobbled it up. It's still tasty after all these years." – S.T.
Ham Puff
3 lbs. thinly sliced lean baked ham
1 1/2 lbs. shredded Swiss cheese
2 large puff pastry sheets
Whole grain Dijon mustard (approximately 1 cup)
2 Tbsps. egg yolk
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place one sheet puff pastry lighted rolled with a rolling pin and place in a springform pan.
Divide ham and cheese in half. Alternate ham and cheese with mustard. (Ham, mustard, cheese, mustard, ham, mustard, cheese.) Top with puff-pastry sheet.
Beat egg yolks with 1 tablespoon water and brush mixture on top of puff pastry. Place in oven and bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 30 more minutes, or until pastry is golden and flaky.
Cut a vent in pastry to make sure the pastry is done on the inside and not doughy. Let cool 10 minutes, then serve in wedges.
"This salad was on the menu from the first day and remained a favorite. A salad all about the crisp crunch of apples, walnuts and celery contrasted with shredded chicken breasts and softened raisins. Good any time of year. Apples in this salad must be crisp and my all-time favorites are Fuji apples. Granny Smiths work well, too, it a bit tarter. A mixture of golden and dark raisins is more interesting than using just one type." – S.T.
Chicken Waldorf Salad
3 lbs. shredded roasted or poached chicken breast meat.
6 Fuji applies, cut into 1-inch chunks, sprinkled with lemon juice to keep them from turning brown
1 bunch celery, cut into 1-inch diagonals
1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 cup mixed raisins, macerated in 1/2 cup warm rum, water or apple juice
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Dressing:
1 1/2 cups Light Hellman's mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup grated fresh ginger
Juice and rind of 2 fresh lemons
Salt and pepper to taste
Mix together salad ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together salad-dressing ingredients in a small bowl.
Toss salad with half of the dressing. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then add more dressing to taste. Do not overdress or the chicken will become mushy.
Copyright (c) 2007 Tallahassee Democrat
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