CustoM Cabinets

“I fIrST WaNT mY fooD to be inviting,” says Brandon Hughes, executive chef at the Wine Cask “I am not into molecular gastronomy. It’s kind of funny, because I studied chemistry before deciding that cooking was my true passion, but that approach is just too cold and scientific. There is no love there. for me cooking is not so much about technique as it is about energy, about passion. It is about the final product; you have to feel every dish, look at how it is going to feel to the people who receive it. Dining is a very social thing, and I want my dishes to reflect that.” hughes likes his food to be “rustic,” but this simplicity is actually the result of a lot of thought. he has been studying the classics, reading escoffier, and he and his team are constantly discussing food, reexamining traditional cuisines, experimenting, pushing each other to excel. “I’m in the kitchen 16 hours a day,” he jokes. “I just love the camaraderie of it.”

Perhaps the best way to experience what hughes means is to join him for his “chef’s counter” dinners. Built around seasonal farmers’ market products - “The local produce is so fabulous, it would be almost silly not to use it,” hughes says - the Chef’s Counter gives hughes the freedom to introduce dishes that might be too adventurous for the main menu, like meaty, garlicky snails stewed in wine, “a traditional meal of workers in the field,” or succulent seared cornish game hens brushed with onion and hot pepper jelly, served with amazingly sweet little ears of baby corn, Donna Tamai’s tender pattypan squash, and pan juices scented with sweet marjoram. Guests sit at the oversize bar, a modern twist on a community table. It’s the kind of food you want to eat with your fingers, dishes inspired by what your mother might have cooked in late summer if you had the good fortune of growing up on a farm and mom was a fabulous cook. It’s food that makes you happy, and that is exactly what hughes is after.

For more information on Chef’s Counter and other events at the Wine Cask call 805-966-9463 or visit www. winecask.com.