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African spice
- After studying Farrah Olivia’s brown wall decorated with arty white saplings and the ceiling with its cascade of dangling discs, you may describe the overall effect as “lush” fanciful” or even “exotic.” After sampling one of executive chef/owner Morou Ouattara’s creations, you’d probably use the same adjectives, adding “elegant” and “wildly fanciful.” Obviously, Chef Ouattara’s Alexandria restaurant kitchen is his playground, where he can create, adapt and dream about food as art.
- After studying Farrah Olivia’s brown wall decorated with arty white saplings and the ceiling with its cascade of dangling discs, you may describe the overall effect as “lush” fanciful” or even “exotic.” After sampling one of executive chef/owner Morou Ouattara’s creations, you’d probably use the same adjectives, adding “elegant” and “wildly fanciful.” Obviously, Chef Ouattara’s Alexandria restaurant kitchen is his playground, where he can create, adapt and dream about food as art.
Southern roots, global palate
- Despite her Southern roots, Nashville native Karen Hayes, chef de cuisine at the Roof Terrace Restaurant in the Kennedy Center, does not cook overtly Southern foods. Instead, her dishes are lighter, and she draws her ideas and many of her ingredients from the global pantry. But going from a Southern cook-at-home girl to a chef heading a prestigious Washington kitchen has meant plenty of hard work honing her skills and developing an international palate.
- Despite her Southern roots, Nashville native Karen Hayes, chef de cuisine at the Roof Terrace Restaurant in the Kennedy Center, does not cook overtly Southern foods. Instead, her dishes are lighter, and she draws her ideas and many of her ingredients from the global pantry. But going from a Southern cook-at-home girl to a chef heading a prestigious Washington kitchen has meant plenty of hard work honing her skills and developing an international palate.
'I think of food as art'
- Despite the dress-up interior of Bangkok Joe’s restaurant and her own professional chef’s garb, Aulie Bunyarataphan — owner and executive chef of this and the contemporary Thai restaurant T.H.A.I. in Shirlington — looks very casual and just a little bit older than a teen. Yet she has packed in 20-plus years of cooking and restaurant management experience, and brims with so much energy and so many ideas that ordinary folk feel somewhat dazed.
- Despite the dress-up interior of Bangkok Joe’s restaurant and her own professional chef’s garb, Aulie Bunyarataphan — owner and executive chef of this and the contemporary Thai restaurant T.H.A.I. in Shirlington — looks very casual and just a little bit older than a teen. Yet she has packed in 20-plus years of cooking and restaurant management experience, and brims with so much energy and so many ideas that ordinary folk feel somewhat dazed.
Anything but one dimensional
- A 1992 graduate of Maryland’s L’Academie de Cuisine, native New Yorker Jeff Heineman is yet another local boy who makes good in the restaurant business. Well, actually, makes great. Owner and executive chef of his own Bethesda restaurant, Grapeseed American Bistro and Wine Bar, Heineman is low-key, casual and unassuming, despite his very outgoing personality that elicits at least a “hello” from the salesman dropping by on a recent Thursday morning.
- A 1992 graduate of Maryland’s L’Academie de Cuisine, native New Yorker Jeff Heineman is yet another local boy who makes good in the restaurant business. Well, actually, makes great. Owner and executive chef of his own Bethesda restaurant, Grapeseed American Bistro and Wine Bar, Heineman is low-key, casual and unassuming, despite his very outgoing personality that elicits at least a “hello” from the salesman dropping by on a recent Thursday morning.
Chef, born and raised
- Thoughtful, serious and certainly passionate about cooking — particularly traditional Indian fare — Executive Chef Nilesh Singhvi of D.C.’s The Bombay Club restaurant is the right man for this kitchen. With 20 years of experience backing him, and most spent in the kitchens of the prestigious Taj Group of Hotels in India, Singhvi has learned the secrets of the Indian masters.
- Thoughtful, serious and certainly passionate about cooking — particularly traditional Indian fare — Executive Chef Nilesh Singhvi of D.C.’s The Bombay Club restaurant is the right man for this kitchen. With 20 years of experience backing him, and most spent in the kitchens of the prestigious Taj Group of Hotels in India, Singhvi has learned the secrets of the Indian masters.
