TABLE TALK

Chef Melissa Kelly in her organic kitchen garden outside of Primo at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes.

Chef Melissa Kelly

The two-time James Beard award-winning chef opens a new version of her restaurant, Primo, at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes later this summer. We wanted to know more.

BY BROOKE FEHR

Where does your love of cooking come from?

My family. My grandfather was a butcher, and I grew up in an Italian-American family with a garden. Food was the center of the universe in my family.

Which came fi rst: farming or cooking?

Growing up, they came hand in hand. In my culinary life, cooking came rst. When I opened Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, I was directly involved in the farming aspect. I don’t think I’ll ever do it di erently. I feel like it’s the pulse of what we do.

What’s your favorite breakfast?

If I am going to eat breakfast, it’s yogurt with goji berries, granola and honey. If I have a day o , I might have spinach and poached eggs and a piece of toast. e perfect poached egg is just [perfect] with a little crunchy salt.

What’s one ingredient you always have?

Olive oil, because I use it in so many di erent ways. In sauces, as dressing, to cook with. I joke, but I x things with olive oil. It’s good for your skin too.

What’s one fl avor you think is underappreciated?

I love bay leaves. I really love the aromatics, how perfumey they are. I always keep a tree in my greenhouse and we grow them here.

What is your single most favorite thing to cook?

I love making fresh pasta. It’s very therapeutic for me. It’s something I’ve done since I was ve years old with my grandmother. Being in Maine for 22 years, I love cooking sh because I think it’s an art and I’m picky about it.

You wear a lot of professional hats: chef, farmer, educator, mentor. What’s your favorite?

I love cooking so much, but there’s nothing more rewarding than when someone comes back and says, “ ank you. I learned this,” or “I keep my kitchen organized this way because you showed me this way to do it.” e mentorship is really important to me, especially as I get older.

How has the kitchen changed for women over the course of your career?

I feel like it’s becoming an even playing eld. When I started running my own kitchen, I put up with nothing. And I taught a lot of young professionals who came through my kitchen, male and female, what goes and what doesn’t go. But we’ve grown leaps and bounds recently. It’s so good to see.

What’s the most creative dish you’ve ever made?

I’m really the more cautious chef. Less is more for me. If we have perfect arugula, I want to put a little salt and olive oil on it, and maybe a tiny squeeze of lemon. I want to taste that arugula.

What’s your favorite drink?

I drink a lot of tea. I make my own kombucha and di erent herbals, tisanes. If someone has a sore throat in my kitchen, I’m grabbing ginger, cloves, oranges and honey and making them a remedy.

What’s your favorite restaurant right now?

Last year [pre-pandemic], I took two trips out to L.A. and visited a restaurant called Bavel with this big, open, wood- red kitchen and Mediterranean in uences, lots of vegetables, and I was mesmerized by their food. e way they were cooking food was just so primitive, the avors were clean and the food was really fresh and great.

What’s your guilty food pleasure?

Normally on Sundays at Primo in Maine, I get crab rolls for the sta for lunch, and we get salt and vinegar potato chips. We put the chips on the rolls and eat them like that. It’s so good. It’s deadly.

Any rules to live by in the kitchen?

Be organized and be clean. ey have nothing to do with the cooking, and everything to do with the cooking. It’s something that I really drill into my cooks’ heads. When you take care of something, it lasts. And if you’re not organized, it’s a recipe for disaster.

The Tough Stuff

Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla Beer or wine? Wine Pizza or pasta: Pizza Gelato or sorbet? Gelato Roasted or sous vide? Roasted

Street eats or sit

down? Street eats

More money or more

time? More time Facebook or Instagram? IG Current Binge? I really don’t watch TV