Master Chef Nephi Craig, part 1: Introduction - for the first time in her life, Margie eats her own Apache acorn stew and bone marrow (I do too) in a restaurant, cooked to perfection
Monday, April 2, 2012 at 8:55PM ;)
This is Master Chef Nephi Craig in the kitchen at the Sunrise Park Resort hotel, where he supervises an all-Apache kitchen staff of 28 - 14 line cooks, and 14 on the wait staff - those who serve the customers. In my last post, I informed readers that it did not look like I would be able to conduct a phone interview with him until Tuesday, and so I would postpone his story and go ahead and start my India coverage.
Much has happened since then - first, I spent somewhere close to ten hours making a preliminary thumbnail skim of my entire India take, stopping occassionally, almost at random, to blow one up for a close look - and I realized I have huge, huge, task ahead of me and it won't hurt at all to take another day or two to begin to absord it - and Nephi called Monday afternoon and we did the interview.
So I decided to return to my original plan and post my Nephi story first. It is a story that will have more than the average number of pictures and more words than usual, too. So, rather than rush through it tonight, I decided to introduce Nephi in this post and then to publish the main story tomorrow.
Nephi's story is important to me for a couple of reasons. He is the second of the three sons of Vincent Craig, my best friend from Arizona and as good a friend as a man could have in this world, who died in May of 2010 in the evening of the very same day that I traveled to Arizona to see him for the last time.
I loved Vincent and I love his children and grandchildren and so I love Nephi.
Even if this were not the case, I believe that what he is doing is important, innovative, interesting, and a good story. After exploring the world of French and other "high-class cooking" and mastering the skills necessary to work in any fine restaurant in the world, he came to understand that there is no higher class cuisine than the traditional food that has sustained his own Apache and Navajo people since time immemorial.
He decided that Apache, and other Native American food would be the cuisine he would highlight and he would do so at an Apache-owned restaurant.
He gave me a good story, so please come back tomorrow and I will share it with you. Then I will take this blog back to India.
;)
Shortly after I joined Margie in Arizona, we drove up to the tribal-owned Sunrise Ski Resort and I took the picture of Nephi that stands atop this page. Afterwards, we made the short drive to the ski area itself. We did not stay long and I took no great pictures. The sun was high and hard and I had only one short lens with me, no skis, no boots, so I took this picture, just so I could show you something about the background against which Nephi works.
;)
In the evening, we returned to the restaurant, where Nephi treated us to a ten-course, "Chef's Table" meal that included three sister items (corn, beans and squash) an indigenous power salad from Meso-America, Pacific salmon and, among many other savory items, Apache acorn stew and bone marrow.
When we were young and Margie first brought me to the reservation, she was a little hesitant to feed me acorn stew - just like the Iñupiat of the Arctic Slope are often a little hesitant to feed their whale, seal, walrus and such to non-Natives whom they do not know.
It is not unusual for non-Natives to turn their noses away from acorn stew, or to shudder when they take their first bite and then refuse to take a second.
Admittedly, when I first tasted acorn stew, it struck me as bitter, but I did not turn my nose or shudder. I ate it. And as I ate, my palate began to adjust to the new taste sensation it had not experienced before. My second bowl tasted okay and my third - delicious.
That's how it generally works when you give food that has long sustained and pleasured other peoples, but is new to you, a chance.
On this night, acorn stew and beef bone marrow was the eighth of our ten courses. It was the first time either of us had been served acorn stew or bone marrow in a restaurant. As you can see, Margie slipped into culinary heaven as she ate it. I did too. I savored the entire meal.
It was exquisite, beginning to end.
;)
I had originally thought that there was no way I could eat ten courses, but Nephi knows how to portion the servings so that they do not stuff diners and make them uncomfortable. Instead, they satisfy. The ninth course was hangar steak, prepared from Apache beef, made savory by salt from the reservatio salt banks in Salt River Canyon.
Man... so good! I don't think I ever tasted better steak in a restaurant. It was every bit as good as the steak Margie's mom cooks over an open fire, up in Carrizo Canyon.
There is no higher compliment I could give a chef than this.
;)
;)
Two nights later, I would return to follow Nephi as he and his staff prepared a Chef's Table for four visitors from the San Carlos reservation, even as they fed a full house of skiers and other visitors to the resort. That visit is what I will feature in my next post, when I tell Nephi's cooking story.
Reader Comments (6)
Margie looks so pretty.
Acorn stew sounds yummy! I remember eating something at your house, I've asked Jake about it a few times and he doesn't remember...I think it was some sort of nettle or fiddler fern salad? Gathered from the woods around your house? You're right, being young and ignorant (at the time) I thought it was odd. I wish I could remember what it was. I do know it surprised me, so delicate and delicious!
Oh, that does look wonderful! Thank you for sharing your meal.
looks delicious
Love this post and that menu is amazing. Looking forward to tomorrow's post. He should be featured on the food network, as I'm sure a lot of us have never been exposed to this cuisine before.
Ooh Bill, this is going to be a wonderful journey. Learning more about Margie's heritage, and a chef that is perpetuating it. Wonderful!
Thank you for introducing us to another world of cuisine! How exciting. I wouldn't know how to chose from that menu! I would want to try them all! Does he do a buffet where you can sample them all? What beautiful presentation. Our son is a chef and just love to have him come and take over my kitchen. He can make tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich look like a meal for a King. Can't wait till tomorrow!