COVER · 14

Checking in with Chef Andrew Skala

BY OLGA BOIKESS

Dishwasher or chef — guest or whoever, no difference — everyone is important. I treat everybody the same. Deep down, we are all human beings — we all want to be treated well.”

His go-to Christmas dinner? Appetizers — oysters, smoked salmon and caviar (sometimes, foie gras), luxury oeuvres … good champagne (but not everything on the table at once). For the main course, Peking duck, served Austrian-style with lingonberry, grape cabbage, chestnuts and mashed potatoes — and make a good sauce. Good wine at the table, of course.

Puck wears a wristband that reads, “Allergic to Stupidity.” Is it about politics? “Now, it’s us against them,” he says. “They should do what’s good for the country. I think politicians are so paranoid. Where is the middle ground? The country got paralyzed — it’s supposed to be the United States of America, not the divided states of America.”

For the new year, Puck has a resolution he could not fulfill last year: “When I travel to different places, whether Bahrain or Budapest, I will work three days and then take two days to explore and learn the local scene.”

As for the future of the Wolfgang Puck company, its co-founder looks to his four sons — Byron Puck already manages restaurants — and told L.A. Magazine last year: “I was approached many times to sell the business. I really don’t want to do that. Ideally, it will stay a family business. My dream is to look down from heaven and say, ‘Oh my God, the kids are doing much better than I did.’ ”

“What’s new?” Wolfgang Puck asks Cut’s Executive Chef Andrew Skala during his frequent calls. Skala explains that Wolf is always “pushing our thinking.” Right now, what’s new on DC Cut’s raw bar is a dish based on hard-tosource Maryland crab. “Wolfgang was recently in Paris,” says Skala, and Puck raved about a celeriac remoulade he had there. Skala’s riff on this classic is a crab salad made with celery root that he punctuates with persimmon – adding a complex “sweetness” and tang

Also, on the raw bar menu is another “new” dish that riffs on a “modern classic” – tuna tartare. “Now is the season for the Atlantic blue fin tuna” that Skala prizes for its “winter mix of fatty and lean.” He contrasts the tuna meat with a maitake mushroom topping and finishes with a touch of pine nuts pureed with horseradish.

Vegetables are very important to Puck who was one of the pioneering California chefs driving miles to seek out farmers. Skala, also, “did a lot of visiting farms” in the mid-Atlantic when he first came to the region. This winter he is featuring an appetizer based on locally sourced cauliflower. The floret is seared and then roasted in a wood-burning oven. It is accented with chili and honey, along with a labneh made with dill, and topped with toasted pumpkin or sesame seeds.

Grilled Virginia rockfish, the basis of another featured dish, also pays tribute to the mid-Atlantic region. It also exemplifies what Skala describes as Puck’s “global cuisine – pulling flavors from different parts of the world.” In this dish, the fresh fish and sweet delicate squash contrast with an Indonesianinspired sambal. Skala finds this cross-culinary approach “a way of learning about cultures.”

A table setting with tomahawk steak at Cut DC. Photo by Nico Schinco. Executive Chef Andrew Skala of Cut DC. Georgetowner photo