Chefs, like authors, artists and musicians, often have interesting life stories to tell. Intriguing yarns of when and how they first tapped into their love of food, why they chose cooking as a career and what inspires them to create their unique culinary fare. Some are even willing to describe their life as a favorite dish.
White Bear Lake is home to many delicious dining locales and talented chefs who serve up a variety of artful cuisine, and we’re lucky enough to have three of them—Chris Whalen of Acqua, Brent Pilrain of Roma and Tony Seguin of Ingredients Café—dish up some of their own stories for us to enjoy.
Brent Pilrain
Chef, Roma Restaurant Bar Market
460 Stillwater Rd.;Willernie
651.653.4733; roman-market.com
Brent Pilrain chose his career as a chef because he’s always had a passion for food; he especially enjoys eating and trying different flavors. Even as a kid, Pilrain says he was always willing to try foods that other kids would typically shun.
Educated at St. Paul College, Pilrain was in one of the last classes led by an original instructor with the program. “I was lucky to have him,” says Pilrain. “He is of a dying breed of chefs. He taught me to love the creative aspect of cooking and the endless opportunities of bringing flavors together.”
In the kitchen, Pilrain likes to slow things down, keep things a little more simple and rustic. He likes to let flavors speak rather than follow trends that get out of control, resulting in some creative plates.
Education combined with experience has shaped him into the chef he is today. He’s proud to say that he hasn’t worked outside of food service except for one year of his working life. Always surrounded by food, Pilrain considers himself lucky to have grown up in a family of good cooks. “I come from a big family,” he says. “Both of my grandmothers and my aunts helped prepare big holiday spreads. Those are fun memories. And as I got older, I became able to help with family events. I enjoy that.”
Now with young kids of his own at home, Pilrain says his fridge is always stocked with plenty of juice boxes and snacks. But he also likes to keep tortillas, cheeses and chicken breasts on hand. He says, “I like things that are easy to toss on the grill when I cook at home.”
Pilrain looks for inspiration everywhere: TV, magazines and other local chefs. It’s part of his daily ritual to see what’s out there and what’s new. From that, he’s always thinking about what new dish he can prepare.
If he were to imagine his life as a great dish, Pilrain says “it would be a taco with layers of different flavors and texture. It would be many different things that all blend into one savory bite.”
Tony Seguin
Chef, Ingredients Café
4725 Hwy. 61; White Bear Lake
651.426.6611; ingredientscafe.com
Ingredients Café chef Tony Seguin comes from a food family. His family owned a meat market and his mother made dinner from scratch every night of the week when he was growing up. Formally educated at Kendall College Culinary School in Chicago, Seguin also studied under chef Jean Banchet at Les Français in Chicago. Although his biography says that French cuisine is his true passion, Seguin says he enjoys all kinds of combinations that a chef can do with vegetables and proteins. “Cooking is like having my own canvas to paint on,” he says. “All the colors, textures and shapes make working with food very artistic. If I can cook food that is visually pleasing and also tastes good, I’ve created something artful.”
Seguin says that his inspiration comes mostly from farmers who work the nearby fields, and the bounty that emerges. “I love local produce. It’s what inspires me, inspires what I do and what I make.” He also gives a nod of appreciation for the inspiration he’s received to executive chef Ferris Shiffer of the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis. “Shiffer taught me modern technique, which is such an important foundation to my own style,” he says.
That French style is prevalent even in Seguin’s refrigerator at home; his fridge is often stocked with Champagne. “You’ll also usually find fruit, half-and-half for coffee and bottled Mexican Coca-Cola with pure cane sugar,” he says.
As for Seguin’s life on a plate, he says that lobster ravioli—if he had to choose just one—would best represent his life. “If all aspects of lobster ravioli are done well, it’s a boisterous dish, complex, not simple,” he says. “But if it’s not done well, it can become crabby.”
Chris Whalen
Executive Chef; Acqua
4453 Lake Ave. S.; White Bear Lake
651.407.7317; acquawbl.com
Cooking is something Chris Whalen got into late in high school. He’d been working in various mom-and-pop diners and some chain restaurants and continued during college. “Restaurant work paid the bills,” says Whalen. “But I like working on my feet and with my hands. Plus, I kept getting promoted. So I wondered if maybe I should go to school for culinary arts.” He applied to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. “When I got in, they asked if I could be there the following Monday!” he says. “I moved to New York three days later and knew immediately that I’d made the right decision.”
After Whalen graduated, he traveled the country. “Experiences are everything in this business,” he says. When asked what he loves about cooking, he says revealingly, “What I dig most is that there are no limitations to imagination once you understand the fundamentals. It’s fun to experiment, tweaking dishes until I nail it. I’m only limited by cuisine. I steer toward Italian cuisine but with a French style and technique.”
Whalen says he is a hands-on chef. “I work the line every night and plate many of the dishes that go out,” he says of his choice to work with instead of above the kitchen staff. “I’ve got to be in the mix.” He also has great advice for beginning chefs in the form of a childhood story. When he was 9 years old, his mom helped him bake an apple pie for Thanksgiving. “I was so proud of it,” he says. “Then Mom was carrying the pie to the dessert table and she dropped it! I remember thinking, I can just make another one.” That’s what Whalen tells new chefs: Stuff gets burned. Little things go wrong. He encourages people not to sweat the small stuff because you can always make another one.
Whalen says he doesn’t do much cooking at home, and admits his fridge is typically stocked with condiments and not much else. But he often prepares a “family” meal for the staff at Acqua.
If one dish could sum up Whalen’s life, he says it would probably be seared scallops with foie gras topped with apple and blackcurrant chutney. “That dish is most like me because seafood is tricky,” he says. “And once a chef can perfect that particular combo, the result is sweet and savory.”
