Local chef finds his flow in tiny NYC kitchen

There’s no escaping it: cooking = math.

But check out the word problems that Virginia Beach chef Rodney Einhorn recently wrestled with:

-If he’s cooking on the first floor, and dinners need to be served at the exact same time and the same temperature to diners on three floors, how much hotter should the top-floor meals be coming out of the kitchen than the first-floor ones?

-If it takes customers five minutes to savor pork shoulder risotto with butter beans and bacon while sipping a 2009 Foley Vineyards Charbono, and it takes servers 10 minutes to clear the plates, when should he start cooking the fennel pollen-encrusted sea scallops?

Actors have Oscars, athletes the Olympics.

For chefs, an invitation to cook at the James Beard House in New York City places them on par with the best in their field.

Last week, Einhorn took center stage there with a sold-out, seven-course dinner for 79 that started with yellowtail tuna skewers and ended with the award-winning restaurateur sharing a rare bottle of cabernet with his exhausted staff.

The James Beard House is revered in culinary circles. Headquarters for the nonprofit James Beard Foundation, it was the New York townhome of Beard, host of America’s first food TV program in 1946 and deemed the “dean of American cookery” by The New York Times. Beard died in 1985.

Chefs worldwide come to pay homage and prepare multi­course, fundraiser dinners in Beard’s tiny, Greenwich Village kitchen. Jacques Pépin, Thomas Keller and the like have had turns simmering and sautéing there.

Invitations are based on cooking style, reputation, menu and theme.

“Coming to cook at the Beard House is a rite of passage,” said Izabela Wojcik, director of house programming. “It’s a showcase, … not an award.”

It’s also, Einhorn discovered, equal parts hard work and excitement.

He spent weeks designing the Virginia-centric menu, working closely with the featured vintner, Robert Foley, Food & Wine magazine’s 2007 Winemaker of the Year.

Once the food and wine pairings were approved by the Beard Foundation staff, Einhorn, a self-described perfectionist, staged a dry run at Terrapin, which he opened nearly six years ago at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

Einhorn had plenty of experience hosting wine dinners. But at the Beard House, he’d have to do it with Swiss-watch precision, sending the first of the hors d’oeuvres out of the kitchen at 7 p.m. precisely, dinner at 8 sharp and dessert done by 10 exactly.

Splattered notes from that Nov. 17 test dinner document just how long it takes diners to finish white truffle custard with a black truffle ragout while sipping a 2009 pinot blanc (five minutes) or braised veal short ribs over cheese pumpkin ravioli, butternut squash and mushrooms with a 2008 claret (seven minutes).

Einhorn also recorded the tiniest of errors in the kitchen – no tasting spoons at a cook’s station and a partially filled pepper grinder.

“Which is fine for here,” Einhorn said. But on the big night, that could cost a critical minute or two, which could throw off the timing, up his own anxiety or that of his crew, and who knows what else.

Einhorn also consulted with South Hampton Roads chefs who had cooked at the Beard House before him.

Sam McGann, of River Stone Chophouse and Vintage Tavern, both in Suffolk, told him to try to relax and do what he does best.

Todd Jurich, of Todd Jurich’s Bistro in Norfolk and Todd Jurich’s 21st Century Burger Bar in Virginia Beach, stressed organization.

Jerry Weihbrecht, of Zoës Steak & Seafood in Virginia Beach, offered culinary contacts in New York and a loan of as many coolers as Einhorn needed.

Last week, Einhorn and his staff packed a wall of coolers with Rappahannock oysters, Dave & Dee’s mushrooms, cheeses from Meadow Creek Dairy in western Virginia, spices, truffles and sun-dried tomatoes – every morsel that he’d be serving at the house.

All that – plus Einhorn’s favorite Miyabi utility knife and Wusthof paring knife – went into a rented van, and they headed north, where surprises awaited.

First, there was the size of the kitchen where Einhorn and nine assistants would work. The whole area was the size of the open kitchen at Terrapin.

Then he learned one diner had a nut allergy and another couldn’t have gluten.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got a pasta course. What am I going to serve this lady?’?”

And despite his double checklist system, Einhorn forgot his chef’s shoes.

But the Beard House kitchen was a dream, stocked with the finest cookware and equipment. The staff members were polished professionals, including a kitchen steward who stood at the ready with clean, hot plates the instant Einhorn needed them.

Assisting Einhorn were several locals – sous chef Jarrett Freeman and line cooks Alberto Balderas, ODU chef Jeffrey Fleishman, Billy Page and Einhorn’s former sous chef Helen Ward.

On the Tuesday night after Thanksgiving, the moment before his symphony started, Einhorn felt a knot in his gut. He thought, “I’m at the Beard House now. This is my A-game. Let’s go.”

“After that, things started clicking,” he said. “We had a good flow, the sauces were tight and everything was looking good.”

Afterward, Einhorn left the crew to finish the cabernet while he followed a Beard House tradition, making rounds of the dining room, answering questions from guests, who paid between $130 and $170 per person.

Einhorn figures his cost at about $15,000 for food, hotel rooms, transportation and closing his restaurant for a night.

More than worth it, he said.

“It was intense, and I don’t know if I’d do it again. It was an honor to be asked. One of those once-in-a-lifetime things.”

Lorraine Eaton, (757) 446-2697, lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com