Mixing Things Up With Chef Joe Brown - owner of Melange Cafe in Cherry Hill, New Jersey - Brief Article

American Visions, April, 2000 by Sonya Kimble-Ellis

The marrying of several styles and influences is nothing new in art. And although at times the mixing of two forms may seem unconventional, the end result can be divine. Such is the case with the dishes served at Melange Cafe, a quaint restaurant in Cherry Hill, N.J., owned and operated by Chef Joe Brown.

The menu at the eatery, which boasts elegant table dressings and walls covered with African art, features foods from Louisiana and Italy. Customers are treated to such daring blends as seafood etouffee, a thick stew filled with scallops, shrimp, clams, crawfish, peppers and onions poured over fettuccine; pan-fried catfish served atop garlic mashed potatoes and garnished with a "corn mock-shoo" (maque choux is the Cajun version of succotash); crawfish ravioli; and crabmeat cheesecake.

"The word melange means `mixture' in French terminology," says Brown--a native of Bellevue, N.J., who grew up in Willingboro. "My idea of coming to this type of cuisine is that I always wanted to be able to mix the different cultures." The Southern influence in Brown's cooking comes from his mother, who was born in Tennessee. Her creative handiwork in the kitchen gave him many of the ideas that he uses today. "My mother always cooked," he says. "She made a lot of her own breads and stews. We were not a rich family, so we learned how to use leftovers and stretch them. If we had turkey, I watched her make turkey stew or maybe turkey croquettes. We also had a garden, so it wasn't uncommon for us to grow our own tomatoes and peppers. I was taught to utilize the things we had."

When Brown traveled to New Orleans, he discovered a melting pot of cultures, including French, Spanish and African, that provided him with the perfect model for fusing different cuisines. "Using New Orleans cuisine gives me the opportunity to not limit what I do," he stresses, "and I can cater to people of all cultures."

Making authentic Italian pastas and sauces isn't a stretch for Brown, either. He has worked as a cook at a number of Italian restaurants, and he received formal training at the Restaurant School in Philadelphia.

His decision to attend cooking school was prompted by a desire to become an executive chef and to learn every aspect of the restaurant business. As he intended, the experience taught him everything--for example, how the fork was invented, how to pair the best wines with each dish, how to run a restaurant properly.

Brown didn't know early on that he'd become the owner of his own restaurant, but he had an inkling. "I had a business point of view a an early stage," he recalls, as he tells the story of hi, Kool-Aid stand. While other children stirred sugar into nonsweetened Kool-Aid and sold it to customers at a low price Brown purchased the presweetened Kool-Aid and sold his for more money!

At age 18, at the suggestion of a friend, he began work as dishwasher at a seafood restaurant in New Jersey. Noting Brown's speed and efficiency, one of the chefs took him under his wing. Under the chef's direction, Brown began preparing sandwiches and working in the restaurant's pantry, and soon he became a line chef (the position below sous-chef that is critical to chefs advancement). He later honed his skills at sever al diners and Italian restaurants in the New Jersey-Philadelphia area. In addition, Brown's work at a local hotel that ran both a catering hall and a restaurant taught him ways to serve hundreds of people as well as small groups.

Brown opened Melange in October 1995. "I had been in the business 15 years," he says. "You hit a glass ceiling ... , especially being African-American. You're always looking to get to the next level, and there's always somebody at the top trying to deny that." So for Brown and his family, the next logical step was for him to go into business for himself. He had gained experience as a chef, had successfully managed someone else's restaurant, and had established a clientele. The true test would be to make those factors and the lessons he had learned work for Melange.

After securing a loan through the Small Business Administration, Brown settled on the Cherry Hill location, an area not known for having many African-American-owned or -operated restaurants. The preparation and actual opening of Melange had several snags. "It was not easy," he says. "The Civic Association and all kinds of inspectors came in to check on us while we were doing a week of renovations. They wanted to know if we had permits to do the work."

Although business bustled when the restaurant first opened, Melange soon faced a decline in customers caused by a major winter snowstorm and, later, construction work blocking the road leading to the restaurant. Placing ads in newspapers, magazines and on the radio wasn't bringing results, so Brown decided that if customers weren't going to come to him, he would take his product to them. Cooking demonstrations and the services of a publicist got the word out.

The restaurant now has a steady clientele and glowing reviews from local newspapers, and Brown has made TV guest appearances on local stations and the Food Network. "It took us about three years to get to the point we're at now," he says earnestly. And where Brown finds himself now is running a successful restaurant, gearing up for the release of his first cookbook by year's end, and possibly opening another Melange in a nearby location. Not bad for a man who's not afraid to take chances by mixing things up a little.