Category: Q&A

Executive Chef at The Birch on Elm (968 Elm St., Manchester, 836-1958, birchonelm.com)

“I started by cooking in high school. It was just a part-time job at Nadeau’s sub shop, but I started there, learned a lot of speed, and did that for money,” Provencher said. “I played golf in college but when I came home for summers or ever needed to make money, I always worked in kitchens. It’s kind of my second love behind golf, and eventually after college I dove more into this industry because it’s fast-paced and kind of chaotic, which I like. I really threw myself into it, which started in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where I worked for four to five years before coming out to Manchester to help my executive chef at the time open the Foundry. I met the ownership of Birch through that and we started that in 2016 and I’ve been there ever since,” he said.

“I think my philosophy is to keep food outwardly simple while simultaneously having a level of complexity that showcases whatever season we are in, using different techniques and flavors from all around the world.”

What is your must-have kitchen item?

I like a good set of plating spoons. No matter where I am, if I’m doing off-site cooking or at the restaurant, I always make sure I have a little versatile group of plating spoons that I can use. They’re like slightly larger than tablespoons, but you can maneuver them and get your plating just right. Some of them are slotted, in case you need to get rid of excess moisture or liquid.

What would you have for your last meal?

The last one ever would probably have to be like huge rib-eyes and lobster tails. Simple. If I’m going out, that’s probably what I’m going out with.

What is your favorite place other than The Birch to eat out at?

I think someone that has come in alongside of us and helped push the city’s [food scene] forward that I’m really impressed with is probably Evolution. I love what they’re doing there. We’re very happy to have them a block over and help us make this a food destination as much as possible.

Who is a celebrity you would like to see eating at The Birch?

Chef-wise, it would be hard to pass up getting either just shown out for Gordon Ramsay or, if you got yelled at by him, I feel like it would in some way be a weird honor. I came up in more cutthroat, old-school kitchens. I wouldn’t be new to getting chewed out a little.

What’s your favorite thing on your menu?

I’m really proud of our rabbit lasagna. We make all the pasta — well, we make everything in house — but pasta is one of my true loves when it comes to cooking. So we have handmade pasta sheets laid with a velouté that we make from the braising liquid of the rabbit we cook. Housemade ricotta’s layered in there and then a bunch of fresh-grated Parm and all of the braised rabbit meat layered up with our homemade pasta.

What is the biggest food trend you notice in New Hampshire right now?

Honestly, it’d be hard to not say food trucks. I feel like every which way I look, people either I know or am associated with seem to be opening pop-up kitchens and food trucks. If they’re doing well, it’s almost like if they asked me, I’d be like, ‘Hey, keep the truck, man. Your overhead’s low, the variables are minimal. You can control everything.’ Once you get inside four walls, things get a little different.

What’s your favorite thing to cook at home?

If I’m cooking at home, if I have a whole day to cook, I’ll probably be simmering some type of sauce, braising some type of meat and making homemade pasta. I love it.

Featured Image: Nick Provencher. Courtesy photo.

Bar Manager at Spice Restaurant & Bar (300 Main St., Nashua. 417-7972, thespicenashua.com). “I got into bartending in 2004. I was a server and … the owner … said, “…Carolyn, get on the bar.” I got thrown to the wolves, but I made it work,” Trepanier said.

“For me, a craft cocktail means pairing the … stand-out ingredients of the restaurant you’re working for with a drink that complements them. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, I was looking at our peanut sauce and the crushed peanuts that we use for our summer rolls and the pad thai. I just brought some peanut butter whiskey in. I’ve made peanut butter cup martinis before. This time I elevated it. I took a glass, I did a chocolate drizzle, I whipped peanut butter in it with a spoon to make an additional drizzle. I rimmed it with the peanut sauce and then I rimmed that with crushed peanuts. And I used two chocolate liqueurs and peanut butter whiskey. And it’s amazing.”

What is your must-have item behind the bar?

A cocktail shaker. As a mixologist, you need it to properly mix the ingredients in there. I don’t like it when someone just does a transfer [and pours a drink back and forth between two glasses]. I like it shaken. That makes sure everything’s infused in together.

What would you have for your last meal?

A rib-eye, medium rare, with scalloped potatoes au gratin, creamed spinach and a blueberry cobbler.

Aside from Spice, where do you like to eat?

I like Surf [207 Main St, Nashua, 595-9293, surfseafood.com]. There’s a salad there that I really like. As a matter of fact, I like it so much that we’ve started making a version of it here. Aside from that, I like Italian food. I like a place that’s cozy and quiet and a little dim that serves authentic Italian.

Who is a celebrity you would like to see drinking one of your cocktails?

Gordon Ramsay, though I don’t know if he drinks. Howard Stern if he still drank but he doesn’t drink anymore. I like people who are feisty and confident.

What’s your favorite drink on your menu?

My mai tai. I’m very proud of it. It’s a recipe I came up with. I altered another popular recipe, with one ingredient being omitted and made it my own and it’s been very popular.

What’s the biggest cocktail trend you’ve seen recently?

Fruit wheels — dehydrated fruit wheels. At first I was not a fan of it, I didn’t think they looked very appealing. However, I looked into the purpose of it and it definitely serves its purpose. It offers an essence of that ingredient throughout the whole beverage as opposed to squeezing a citrus fruit in where you get the pulp, which people may not want … that may be textural.

What do you drink when you’re at home?

A margarita or a white wine — a pinot grigio. In the summertime, though, I do keep the fixings for an Aperol spritz, or a raspberry white Russian.

Lychee Martini from Carolyn Trepanier
This is very popular — very light.

3 ounces vodka — you could use a gin, but it might fight with the lychee.
1½ ounces lychee juice or puree — we have the puree here, which to me makes a visually more pleasing drink; it’s more cloudy, it’s got something to it.
A dash of dry vermouth, which is a very surprising ingredient.

Stir together with ice in a mixing glass, and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a whole lychee.

Featured Image: Carolyn Trepanier. Photo by John Fladd.

Owner and baker of The Sweet Spot, 353 Riverdale Road, Weare, 529-6667, thesweetspotnh.com

“My grandfather was a Japanese chef in New York City. Both my parents were wonderful cooks…. I’ve always baked my whole life, since I was a little girl,” O’Dowd said. “I grew up in Long Island and I baked with my mother. I tried an office job. I didn’t like it, and then I tried a baking job and I loved it. … I worked in a couple of bakeries and coffee shops and then finally the fancy plating stuff with this pastry chef. Then, we bought this place. The previous owner [Just Like Mom’s] really wanted it to stay a bakery.

What is your ‘must-have’ in the kitchen?

Butter. I make everything from scratch. And I use real cream in all my chantillys, … My meringue is from egg whites, but I’ve separated the eggs. … But I guess butter would be the first thing.

What would you have for your last meal?

I would have linguine with white clam sauce. My father was a really good cook, a really amazing cook. And he had five daughters, and for our birthdays he would make us whatever we wanted. And every year I wanted his linguine with white clam sauce and he’d always be like ‘Jackie, that’s so easy! Like the easiest thing to make, come on!’ But I told him, ‘That’s my favorite.’

What is your favorite local place to eat?

That’s a tough question. I like Campo Enoteca [in Manchester], though. I just like the vibe in there. I like homemade pasta.

Who is a celebrity you would like to see eating something you’ve baked?

I love Joanne Chang [celebrity baker and owner of Flour and Myers+Chang in Boston]. I love her. Her recipes are great. … I also like Paul Hollywood [from The Great British Baking Show] … [H]e’s actually legit, he grew up baking bread with his father. So those are my two top bakers who are alive.

What’s your favorite thing on your menu?

Everyone here knows it: pecan sticky buns, which actually use Joanne Chang’s brioche recipe. I’ve tweaked it a little bit here, but really like the pecan sticky buns. My staff all know on the weekend when things are left over you save sticky buns for Jackie.

What’s the biggest food or baking trend that you see in New Hampshire?

Gluten-free, absolutely. … [Gluten-free baking] has advanced so much with new flour mixtures that I can bake almost anything gluten-free.

What’s your favorite thing to cook at home?

It’s not one thing. I get the Milk Street magazine and they have a lot of interesting recipes from all over the world. So I love to pick a recipe like that. For Christmas we always pick a different country and we’ll just dive into that country, something different and exotic, usually from overseas. Last week I made this Korean fried chicken from a Milk Street [recipe], and it was so good. It was so good, so satisfying. So if I’m home making something, I try and do something fun and interesting like that.

The Sweet Spot Maple Honey Granola

12 cups oats
4½ cups total raw nuts and/or seeds (chopped pecans and whole pepitas, for instance)
1½ handfuls whole almonds
3 teaspoons sea salt
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
1½ cups organic coconut oil, melted
¾ cup maple syrup
¾ cup honey
3 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups total dried fruit (dark and golden raisins, dried cranberries, etc.)

Mix oats, nuts, salt and cinnamon.
Mix wet ingredients separately, stir well. Add to oat mixture and stir by hand until all items are coated.
Add to parchment-lined, lightly sprayed full sheet pans (two pans). Spread evenly. Bake in 275°F oven. Stir every 20 minutes until nicely browned, approximately 1½ hours. Allow to cool.
Place in large bowl when cooled. Add dried fruit and mix well. Leave some clumps.
Store in airtight container.

Featured Image: Kristen Chiosi. Courtesy photo.

Kristen Chiosi is owner of and instructor at The Culinary Playground (16 Manning St., Derry, 339-1664, culinary-playground.com). “I got my master’s in business management and human resources. But I’d always loved to cook,” Chiosi wrote. “I always spent a lot of time in the kitchen and always took cooking classes wherever I was. … The business came up for sale and I decided that I kind of wanted to take a leap of faith and buy this business and see where I could take it. That was in 2013. The previous business owner had put in a lot of elbow grease, got a nice foundation going. I took it on in 2013 and we’ve just continued to grow and develop, offer new things.”

What’s your must-have kitchen item?

I say my must-have kitchen tool is your mindset. You have to want to do it. … It’s just an opportunity to connect and be really present. Getting all of your stuff in order — ‘mise en place’ is a term that we use. It’s just from start to finish, from pulling your ingredients, compiling your recipe, enjoying the meal, cleaning up, it’s just all such a beautiful ritual.

What’s your favorite place to dine out at?

I really like to try to keep it local, and we have some nice options downtown in Derry. We have Cask and Vine, who is just always being really unique and coming up with some great menus. We have Foundations that just reopened. We have a great little Indian place downtown, Destination India. I love that just from my location from my kitchen I can walk to all different types of cuisines.

Who’s a celebrity you would like to see taking one of your classes or eating some of your food?

Oh my gosh, I just love Barefoot Contessa [television chef Ina Garten]. She’s just so approachable …

What is a class that you really enjoy at the Playground?

I love homemade pasta. I think people are really impressed when you can make your own pasta, and it’s such a tactile experience. … We do homemade ravioli in one of our classes, and it’s just awesome.

What’s a food trend that you see in New Hampshire right now?

… I think we’re kind of moving away from a dependence on all these meat-filled dishes. I like the idea of getting more vegetables and whole grains into the diet, but not in kind of fake ways. Let’s highlight the ingredients for what they are and their nutritional value.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

I like soups and stews — something that you piece together and leave it simmering. It fills your house with these beautiful scents…

Ham & Cheese Scones

From Kristen Chiosi at The Culinary Playground. Makes 4 regular sized (or 8 smaller sized) scones

1 cup flour, spooned and leveled
½ Tablespoon sugar
½ Tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons buttermilk
¼ cup diced ham steak or deli slices
½ cup shredded cheddar
½ Tablespoons snipped scallions

Preheat oven to 425°F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, garlic powder and salt.
Add cold butter. Mix into coarse crumbs using hands or pastry cutter, working quickly so as not to soften butter too much.
Stir in buttermilk, ham, cheese and scallions. Mix until a soft dough forms.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 3-4 times with hands.
Flatten out dough with hands until you have an even circle of dough, approximately 1 inch thick.
Cut into wedges (4 large or 8 small).
Place each wedge onto baking sheet, separating them so they don’t touch. Use a pastry brush to brush each scone with heavy cream.
Bake for 18-22 minutes or until lightly browned and firm to the touch. Let cool on baking sheet on a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving.

Featured Image: Kristen Chiosi. Courtesy photo.

Cole Gaude is the owner and head ice cream maker of Social Club Creamery (138 N. Main St, Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com).

“I have a degree in fine arts,” Gaude said. “And I had about a six- or seven-year career in graphic design, and at one point was living in the middle of New York City. And then … kind of fell in love with food and fell in love with ice cream. And then once I moved back to New Hampshire — because I’m originally from Laconia — I just kind of started thinking more and more about it. And so after a few years of living here, I took the plunge to open an ice cream shop and then opened Sunday Scoops … in Concord, and then over the last four years it transformed into Social Club Creamery.”

What’s your must-have kitchen item?

I would say probably a coffee maker. I drink a lot of coffee, and you need it to work the long hours. I mean, we’re doing 12-hour shifts, so I actually didn’t drink coffee until we opened up these shops and now I’m having about four cups a day. I like a light roast, the grassier the better.

What would you have for your last meal?

Some garlic green beans, something like that, and a little baked potato.

What’s your favorite place around Concord to eat?

Probably Sour Joe’s Pizzeria. I absolutely love it. It’s a pretty rare treat for me. I maybe go like once every two months or so, but it’s so good. He did this apple pizza with bacon jam a month ago. It was amazing. It’s just more like — I don’t want to say like upscale pizza, but more like specialty pizza. He doesn’t do a pepperoni pizza — every flavor is unique.

Who is a celebrity you’d like to see eating your ice cream?

… Jeremy Allen White. I just watched The Bear a couple weeks ago. I like him. He’s a cool dude. I think that’d be real cool, seeing him with an ice cream cone. It’s kind of the opposite of the character he plays.

What’s your favorite thing on your menu?

My favorite thing, which is probably one of the least-ordered things that we sell, is actually the oatmeal raisin cookie. I love oatmeal raisin cookies. That’s probably the reason we still have it on the menu — because I refuse to get rid of it; it’s my favorite thing. I love just that combination of fruit and sweets with a little bit of salt. It’s the salt that makes it for me. Huge salt. Like anything, any type of ice cream that we do with salt in it, I just absolutely love.

What’s a food trend that you notice in the ice cream world?

A little bit ago, it was the croissant cookie, which I haven’t been seeing much anymore. The crookie, I think it was called. I never got to try one, but I saw that everywhere. I think right now there’s Dubai chocolate that I’m starting to see.

What’s your favorite thing to cook at home?

Probably tacos. I make good tacos. I like steak tacos with a hard shell and a little cilantro. I like to keep it pretty simple. A big hard shell is pretty much like eating a portable nacho. I love it.

Honeycomb Candy

Needed: food thermometer and 8×8-inch pan
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
⅓ cup (80 ml) light corn syrup
⅓ cup (80 ml) water
2½ teaspoons baking soda

Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in a medium-sized heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until the sugar is dissolved and mixture comes to a boil. Once mixture begins to boil, don’t stir any longer.
Without stirring, cook to 300°F (149°C). Once mixture reaches temperature immediately remove from heat and stir in your baking soda (heads-up! It’s going to bubble up quite a bit). The mixture will immediately begin to foam; stir until baking soda is completely combined and the color turns golden, but don’t over-stir or you’ll end up deflating your candy and won’t have any holes.
Once foaming stops and baking soda is dissolved into the mixture, spread into prepared pan. Cool at least 1 hour before breaking into pieces.

Featured Image: Cole Gaude. Courtesy photo.