No chicken here please

Art Culinaire, Summer, 2009

Ivy Stark fell in love with cooking at an early age. "I used to cook with my mom when I was little, and I had one of those "eureka" moments when we were making potato salad, of all things. I was just amazed at how it worked. I was maybe six years old and I remember it very distinctly." Stark's epiphany did not initially inspire her to become a chef. "I don't even know if I knew that was a career option that was available to women at that time," she explains.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Even though that lack of female role models in the restaurant industry led Stork to college instead, cooking kept calling her back. "Everyone was pushing me to be a lawyer or something along those lines, but I started working in the restaurant business and I just loved it so much." The chef adds, "There were a few female chefs around at that time like Mary [Sue Milliken] and Susan [Feniger], so I had a little confidence that possibly there might be a place for me,"

After an externship at Milliken and Feniger's California based restaurant, Border Grill, Stark found her place in several New York City restaurants, including Amalia, Rosa Mexicano, Zocalo, Match, Cena, Sign of the Dove and Ciudad. Her advice to other female chefs trying to find their place in the restaurant industry is an optimistic one: "Being a woman, I'm often mistaken still for the sous chef or the pastry chef. My advice would be to go for it. Don't let those little things bother you. There's more opportunity out there today for female chefs than there has ever been before."

Stark's current opportunity as Executive Chef of Dos Caminos allows her to focus on her love of Mexican cuisine. "Growing up in Colorado and spending time in the Southwest, Mexico and Arizona, there is some great Mexican food there." She continues, "I just grew to love it, When I finished cooking school, I knew pretty specifically that I wanted to work with Mary and Sue, not only because they were female chefs and I thought I could learn something from them in that way, but because they were taking a different approach to Mexican food by using fresh ingredients and modern techniques."

Stark attributes the success of Dos Cominos to "looking to offer more value to the guest because that's exactly what they're looking for. We want to serve foods that are comforting. We want to offer the ultimate hospitality experience from the minute they walk in the door. We want to give them food that's really good, filling and delicious, and not make them pay an arm and a leg for it."

Stark rounds out her culinary repertoire with an impressive knowledge of wine gained through extensive study of it. "I think it's a good way to train your palette, and I certainly think it has improved my palette. Being able to match wines with your food is very important because I don't believe in eating without wine." The chef laughs and then continues, "The right wine with the right meal enhances each other, and I think it's incredibly important for a chef to have a strong knowledge of it."

Another thing Stark feels passionately about is her distaste for a surprising ingredient. She laments, "I despise chicken. I get the gag reflex if I even think about eating it, I didn't always hate it, but I worked at a job where I was the morning sous chef and I used to butcher a couple of cases of chickens every morning, and literally, from then on, I just haven't been able to stomach it."

One thing the chef can stomach is the bright future she envisions for herself, "I would like fo continue doing what I'm doing. I love my job. I love being a chef. I love getting up in the morning and coming to work. I love working with the people I'm working with. Someday I would like to retire and go to a beach somewhere, but other than that, I'm really happy with what I'm doing right now and would like to continue along the same path." It is perhaps the ability to relish the present that has made Stark's career such a successful one.

Ivy Stark,

Executive Chef,

Dos Caminos,

New York, NY