Burke's kitchen is smoking at the River Cafe

Nation's Restaurant News, May 22, 1989 by Ken Frydman

Burke's kitchen is smoking at the River Cafe

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- River Cafe executive chef David Burke loves smoked meats, fish, and fowl. So he had a separate smokehouse built to his specifications behind the restaurant's main kitchen.

Burke's 2-feet-high-by-2-feet-wide-by-2-feet-long brick smoker is constructed like a home fireplace--complete with a flue on top for escaping smoke and sweeps on the sides to clean out burnt wood. That custom-made model replaces the stainless-steel proof box that Burke's predecessor, Charles Palmer, used for making steamed dough rise before converting it into a smoker.

To reach the smokehouse, Burke and his crew cross perhaps the most scenic driveway anywhere: the cobblestone path leads directly under the Brooklyn Bridge. But with the scent of smoked quail, duck, salmon, and bacon wafting through the air, directions aren't necessary.

What makes the real difference when it comes to smoking food, however, is the wood, according to Burke. Applewood and cherrywood, two flavorful hard woods, give Burke's smoked dishes their distinctive, smoky tastes.

But there are other smoking trade secrets.

Burke's salmon is pastrami-cured before being smoked over applewood; the kidneys are bacon-cured; quail is smoked with cinnamon sticks; smoked duck is done with whole cloves; shrimp is marinated in light olive oil with fresh herbs and shallots and smoked over cherry and apple wood; smoked chicken bones are used to make smoked stocks and consommes; and fresh halibut is smoked classically with salt cod. Other Burke smoked specialties are duck confit, smoked sausages, other charcuterie, and chorizos.

The smoker, part of a $30,000 upgraded-equipment and renovation project, is only one element in the kitchen extension out back. The satellite kitchen, measuring 15 feet by 10 feet, also contains a pastry area where chocolates are hand-dipped, a meat butchering station and plenty of storage, locker, and work area. Three collapsible, wooden, food-preparation tables, each eight feet by three feet, are built into the walls like Murphy beds to save space and allow for easy deliveries.

"We wouldn't be able to afford this kind of space if we were located across the East River in Manhattan," says the 26-year-old Burke realistically.

Instead of consulting outside design and construction firms, Burke kept the project in-house.

"We had to buy materials but saved a lot of money by doing the work ourselves," explains Burke, referring to his customized plans, owner Michael "Buzzy" O'Keeffe's money, and fulltime maintenance man Mike Loughran's sweat.

Loughran, who handles all the River Cafe's plumbing and electrical work, also had his hands full in the restaurant's main kitchen. At Burke's direction, he installed stainless-steel shelving between the fish and meat stations, a new grill half the size of the original, two levels of wood and stainless-steel pull-out portable tables over the garnish trays, an appetizer steamer, and a new $20,000 ceiling with recessed lighting to ease cleaning.

"The shelves allow us to separate our front-line meat station from our back-line fish station, and the pull-out tables save space and make plating simple and time-efficient," he added.

When Palmer left in December 1987 to open his own Manhattan restaurant, Burke rose from River Cafe sous chef to executive chef. Since then he's been remaking the kitchen to suit and reflect his "own style."

For instance, he cut down superfluous traffic by moving the time clock to the storage room, began feeding the front and back of-the-house crews during the off-hours in the dining room instead of the kitchen, redesigned the pastry area and added new dessert equipment, and bought copper pipes to bake bread in and cook rounded potato wafers on.

"Generally, we've rearranged the various stations to create more space and improve work flow," Burke says.

Like the River Cafe's dining room, the kitchen is set on a 90-foot-long-by-30-foot-wide rectangular cement slab barge supported by wooden pilings. Simulating a ship, the dining room and kitchen are divided by porthole windows and a gangway covered by waterproof parachute material.

Today Burke's tailored kitchen follows a line from the far right cold and hot appetizer stations to the grill and two saucier stations on the left, pastry station on the far left, meat line up front, and fish line in the back.

"This way I have a clear perspective of all the other stations from my point at the expediting station," Burke says.

Burke's kitchen even runs like clockwork. The 15-person morning crew do all the day prep work, including pastries, from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Lunch service is from noon to three, when the 12-man evening crew starts its 9.5-hour shift by prepping, cooking a la carte dinner dishes, plating, and serving.

"We're on a barge, so we run like a ship," Burke quips.

PHOTO : David Burke, executive chef of the River Cafe in Brooklyn, N.Y., had a separate smokehouse

PHOTO : built behind the restaurant's main kitchen. Here, he takes a look in the smoker, a