.png)
Brunelle runs the kitchen here.
• Part 2 of 2. Miss Part 1? Go here.
COLONIE, NY -- Going from kitchens that offer a broader range of foods to one that specializes in seafood hasn't hampered chef Luca Brunelle's creativity.
His boss, Reel Seafood Company owner Legrande Serras, has given him leeway to add some meat and pasta dishes, and he has to come up with a dozen different entrees every two weeks to keep the menu varied — which means 312 variations a year, not counting appetizers. Brunelle says he finds himself doing more research all the time to stay fresh.
When Brunelle joined Reel Seafood Co., his blending of classic and innovative seafood ideas quickly came to the fore. One of his early successes was a platter of oysters Florentine, a quartet of classically prepared morsels on the half-shell baked with shredded spinach, tiny bits of smoked bacon, parmigiano-reggiano and gruyere cheeses. It was a bold beginning that exploits the four taste areas — salt, sweet, sour and bitter.
"One of the big things in the business right now is to deconstruct classic dishes and put a twist on them," he says.
Take the crab Cobb salad he prepared for a trio of lunch guests in his Colonie kitchen. Rather than a huge layered affair, he created a smaller appetizer-sized mound using the traditional shredded romaine, hard-boiled egg, crumbled bacon, Roquefort cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, scallions — and jumbo lump crabmeat, rather than julienned turkey, ham and beef, as the twist.
Or the muffaletta, that jumbo traditional New Orleans focaccia sandwich stuffed with salami, capicolla, provolone and pepperoni, with an olive tapenade spread. "I haven't made one of those since school, but it makes a great sandwich wedge with herbed steak fries on the side."
A far cry from a fish fry.
The meal was perhaps the final one Brunelle will prepare in the recently-renovated house, since he's headed off in his own direction now. But he's thinking about maybe reproducing the same ambiance — the Corian countertops, solid wood cabinets, lime green walls and colorful food-related artwork hung here and there — in his next home.
"It's a tough transition, but a lot of people go through it and we're hoping we all come out better on the other side," Brunelle says. " Like I said, just living the dream, a day at a time."
Oh, and by the way, his name isn't really Luca. "It's Derrick, but guys in our fraternity at UAlbany gave each other nicknames from The Godfather. Mine was Luca, for Luca Brasi," the character that was killed by an opposing mob and tossed into the ocean. "The difference is, I don't sleep with the fishes; I cook them."
NOTES ON NAPKINS: Reel Seafood Company (originally spelled "Real") is located on the suburban Wolf Road commercial strip, just south of Northway Exit 4. Phone: (518) 458-2068. ... You can read my original review of Brunelle's debut at the restaurant here.
Comments