Stolking asparagus

Art Culinaire, Spring, 2003

SCOTT BRYAN

veritas - new york, new york

Asparagus as aphrodisiac "Poor Madame de Pompadour nearly faded away by restricting her diet to asparagus tips with egg yolks, in addition to celery leaves, truffles and vanilla -- all to no avail -- not realizing that although love begins in the mind, passion requires a healthy body." Geraldine Holt The Gourmet Garden.

As it stands, European trained chefs favor thicker-stalked, white asparagus, while American chefs prefer both the purple and green varieties with stalk sizes that are categorized as angel hair, baby, pencil, standard, and jumbo. But, according to Jones, there is no rhyme or reason that dictates why one type of asparagus is considered more popular than another: "Some chefs prefer asparagus that's very slender; some like the stalks to be as thick as your thumb. There's really no definitive pattern to their choices. We do find, however, that European trained chefs tend to shun green asparagus in general. They pretty much consider green asparagus to be hog food. Of course, in America, green asparagus is all we ever ate for years, and most of us think that it's pretty delicious. In the end, it's really just a matter of personal taste of the chefs, or maybe their choices are contingent on where they were trained."

When it comes to growing asparagus on a national scale, for Jones there is no discussion: "If you talk with one of the huge asparagus growers, they're not even growing white asparagus commercially. Any of the asparagus that you are getting year round is coming out of Chile, where during its growing period it is covered with soil -- which again only serves to produce a very, very woody piece of asparagus. Sometimes, you're just better off throwing this asparagus away and eating the cardboard box it came in instead." Enough said.

Although his cuisine gravitates towards Asian and French cultures, Chef Scott Bryan started out his cooking career in New England under the auspices of Bob Kinkead -- first at The Harvest in Boston and then at 21 Federal in Nantucket: "My very first kitchen job was working atThe Harvest when I was seventeen. At the time I was attending Johnson and Wales and decided to drop out because I realized that I had learned more in a month at the restaurant than I had in a year at culinary school. For me, the best culinary education at that time was hands-on experience."

Bryan's early beginnings at accomplished restaurants were precursors to his eventual success. His true culinary training boasts stints at stellar restaurants with many well-known names in the industry -- Bob Kinkead, David Bouley, Eric Ripert, Gray Kunz, and Richard Leach. Although this roster of talent may have enhanced Chef Bryan's career in the kitchen, he is most recognized for his love of unmanipulated food that conveys the epitome of intense flavors: "I think my food is very straightforward -- almost Italian in philosophy. My main focus is bringing out the natural flavors of whatever ingredient I happen to be working with. It's important that each ingredient retains its natural essence. I try not to get things 'muddy' or confusing on the palate. I have a tendency to lean towards Thai food for this very reason. Thai food is clean, fresh, high in acid, and employs a great balance of sweet and sour flavors."