Blast from the past

As a first quarter culinary student at Sullivan I had the privilege of having John Richards as my instructor. My question is what can people tell me about Zephyr Cove (Chef Howerton ). I would love to have a little inspired by dish at the Club if I can get a feel for what it what it was.

He's at Corbett's and posts here pretty frequently. cbhowerton is his "handle".

As a first quarter culinary student at Sullivan I had the privilege of having John Richards as my instructor. My question is what can people tell me about Zephyr Cove (Chef Howerton ). I would love to have a little inspired by dish at the Club if I can get a feel for what it what it was.

Zephyr Cove was by far my favorite place in town when it was open. It was just wonderful--amazing food, a very cool bar, and good music.

They had a lot of dishes with gamey meats in them--I remember a great ostrich appetizer with a sweeter red wine sauce. Perhaps that could be your inspiration?

[Robin Garr]

Although the menus differ, it should be noted that in some ways - the Len and Nancy connection, the infusion towers on the bar, some of the furniture I believe, and, to some extent, the inspiration - L & N Wine Bar & Bistro might be called Nephew of, if not quite Son of, Zephyr Cove.

I loved Zephyr Cove! I didn't like it's reincarnation as Kentucky Cove quite so much.

My best memories of Zephyr Cove involve two things- their chocolate fondue (choc-raspberry, perhaps? Not sure) which was way too much for two people but such a good treat. The second thing was not edible, but was the wonderful piano player- Dave(id?) Barrickman, IIRC. After just a couple times there he'd remember my mom and I and always play 'Linus & Lucy' for her and anything by Elton John for me. It was wonderful!

I would love to have a little inspired by dish at the Club if I can get a feel for what it what it was.

It may be a bit off base for me to say this; but it strikes me as a bit off to create a dish "inspired by" both a restaurant long closed, one that you never dined at, etc. as I dunno... kind of silly.

It'd be one thing if it was a dish you has ate, loved... and wish to pay an homage to.
Or a signature representation of a dish that that a chef was especially known for. (a dish from one of Charlie Trotter's books comes to mind... "in the style of Fredy Giradet"... by presenting the dish in a manner than Chef Giradet had become almost synonymous with...).

No disrespect to Chef's Richards or Howerton... but I understand the whole rationale behind a "reference point", but if the reference point is something that you haven't experienced firsthand, nor is not generally excepted to be a hallmark of that chef's particular style...
The whole point of referencing a point in a restaurants or chef's career is to make a homage to them, with something that has particularly inspired you. By referencing a chef that is either unknown to you, or your clientele, etc... just seems to leave a huge gray area if it's not something you haven't experienced first hand...
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like there could other things you could concentrate your efforts towards without doing tributes to dishes you've never ate yourself, instead of homages to chef's you've learned under, but to dishes you've never ate yourself.

What is wrong with a little grey area? As a completely inexperienced culinary student Chef Richards was a strong inspiration. So what if I didn't get to eat there. Food is emotional, it is, for the exception of sex the most intimate experience we can have. It can be far reaching; beyond what is firsthand. Without Chef Richards maybe I don't make it through the first quarter of school. I can cook and without the early influence maybe that goes without. I owe Chef Richards Alot, I owe Chef Joe Castro even more, so everybody else can just fade to black.

I apologize, but if I can make one more point. Some people may disagree with my POV. Chef's have been using Escoffier, Point, Bocuse, etc, etc. as inspiration. How many Chef's have met these masters? An Inspiration is whatever it may be. Chef Richards played a large part in keeping me in school and realizing my dream. I have only been good at three things and food is one of them.

Speaking of John Richards, did you know that prior to attending Sullivan for several years John was the base guitar player in the band City Lights? He and his family owned the bar City Lights, on Main Street. It's the space on the North side of the street with the tall iron gates across the front facade. I think they owned the bldg. And they may still own it. CD

I actually did know that, I just found him to be very charismatic. I made a big career change and his enthusiasm throught the first two quarters kept me going. He also had a hand in helping get my first job at the English Grill. I definitely owe him a big thanks.

I graduated from Atherton High School in John's class. He is a very talented musician. My boyfriend, Gordon (who is also a local musician)'s brother, Hank (Linderman) played in City Lights with John. We occassionally get to see him play with our good friend Wayne Young! It's that artistic thing - great chef, great musician!

John and I were delivery drivers at Roppels Market on Frankfort Ave, 1973-74.

I apologize, but if I can make one more point. Some people may disagree with my POV. Chef's have been using Escoffier, Point, Bocuse, etc, etc. as inspiration. How many Chef's have met these masters? An Inspiration is whatever it may be. Chef Richards played a large part in keeping me in school and realizing my dream. I have only been good at three things and food is one of them.

Perhaps I missed what you were trying to do. If so, I apologize.


The way your original post read, seemed (at least to me) that you wondered what some dishes other people had experienced and loved at Zephyr Cove, and were looking to draw inspiration from them.
The "gray area" I referenced was comparable to the "telephone game" - you take the descriptions people give you of dishes they had years ago, that may be foggy in recollection, you never saw how it was presented, tasted how it was prepared, nor have the original menu description, etc... and a little gets lost in translation.

I am all for tributes and homages in dishes... but do it by things that have inspired you personally.

Personally I've done a number of desserts that are a riff on one singular dish and it's theme.
The menu description read "inspired by Gale Gand"... but the only inspiration was from the three central flavor components. From there, I put my own spin on things, etc. and it hardly resembled the original dish. And no - I hadn't had the dish at the time (I since have had a variation of it at TRU last year - a very deliberate "quest" to put things in perspective).

My point though is this... it was my interpretation of something that particularly inspired me.
I didn't deliberately go fishing for a dish by another pastry chef to pay tribute... nor did I say "Gale Gand has really inspired me... i should do a riff on one of her desserts." It was only after I had conceptualized the entire dish, did i make the realization that the key flavor profiles were inspired by something i saw in a book - but the inspiration was subconscious.

Tributes and homages are something that come entirely from the heart and should come without thinking.

On the notion of wanting to pay tribute to one of your mentors... by all means, do it!
But do it from your heart, from something that directly inspires you.
It doesn't even have to be direct or obvious to anyone but you.

The more the homage comes from the deepest parts of your soul (and less from asking other people what they remember), it bears more reverence and it's more rooted in your affection for there mentorship - not what other people liked about them.



If you really want to get down to the bare bones of it... most modern (western) cookery is inspired (directly/indirectly or otherwise) by the old French masters anyway. Any tribute food-wise should be focused, otherwise every single last one of us (cooks) would have a laundry list for each dish of who inspired who, yada yada yada... back for 100 years. Sort of like a genealogy/family tree for every dish. Know what I mean?

I understand your point of view, if I came off as a little hostile it was not intended. I definitely am not looking to replicate a dish of Chef Richards, I guess I was hoping for a little insight to his food and his philosophy on said food. I reread my first post and I can see where I was not clear on my intentions.