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David Thomas, the new chef at The Bistro at the Childress Vineyards winery, displays an antipasto platter with a selection of peppers, pickles and onions. (Photos by Donnie Roberts/The Dispatch)
By PAGE H. ONORATO
Correspondent
You could easily imagine yourself to be touring the wine district of the Piedmont in Italy, had you not just turned off N.C. Highway 64 West just beyond Eckerd Drugs in Lexington. Stepping through the wide entry into the winery at Childress Vineyards is an Old World experience right here in our very own Piedmont region.
A few steps farther lead you into The Bistro where Chef David Thomas prepares for lunch: chopping fresh vegetables, searing meats, stirring sauces and sprinkling exactly the right amount of seasonings. Last Wednesday morning he was at work creating several new entrées for the menu, including grilled terres major (prime beef with Bordelaise sauce), seared scallops, grilled tenderloin of ostrich, New Zealand broiled lamb chops - a favorite of Richard Childress - and roast beef with arugula sandwiches (slow roasted garlic infused sliced sirloin with Provolone on focaccia bread).
Thomas, the new chef in charge of the kitchen at The Bistro, is not new to cooking. His introduction to the art of fine cuisine began as a little kid while playing with pots and pans in his grandmother's house in Marshville.
Watching her make delicious Southern food such as hot biscuits, sticky buns and chicken and dumplings, he developed an interest in cooking himself.
"She let me help her make biscuits once in a while, but mainly I just made a mess," he admits about his first culinary endeavors.
But it was his desire to play with a small band in high school that turned him in the direction of career cooking. "I wanted to buy a drum set, so I went to work at The Boar's Head in Charlotte, busing tables and washing dishes." Later, when dreams of attending Lees-McRae College on a football scholarship in pursuit of a degree in physical therapy fell through, Thomas opted for Central Piedmont Community College's culinary technology program, where he received an associate degree.
Today Thomas is a Certified Chef de Cuisine who came to the Childress enterprise in January from The Trophy Room at Dale Earnhardt Inc. in Mooresville, where he oversaw the production of a daily buffet and a la carte menu for the racing teams, as well as serving as personal chef for the Earnhardt racing family.
One of Thomas’ new entrées at The Bistro is Grilled Baby Lamb Chops on a bed of fingerling potatoes and grilled zucchini with a mint jelly reduction garnish.
Thomas is a two-time winner in the Great Chefs of Charlotte Cookoff and has been featured as a celebrity chef at Charlotte Shout, one of the city's most significant culinary events.
Watching Thomas and his staff prepare meals is like watching a well-choreographed dance recital. Each person knows her or his job and gets immediately to work with no nattering around, for the food must be ready to serve at 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday and by noon on Sunday for the after-church crowd.
But lunch is not just soup, a salad or a sandwich anymore. Thomas has developed a new menu at The Bistro based mainly on Mediterranean cuisine and featuring locally grown organic produce (J&S Farms is a main supplier.), fresh meats and seafood, homemade pastas and desserts such as strawberry mousse and Tennessee Bourbon Bread Pudding.
The first weekend in May, the terrace will be available for meals, where a light offering of seasonal fruits and vegetables with cheeses and meats will be served.
Don't forget a glass of wine to sip while you dine. There are the house specials - pinot gris, cabernet franc, syrah, sauvignon blanc, sangiovese and the signature wines to choose from. If you need help picking one, just ask.
"Fresh" is the watchword around Thomas' kitchen. He grinds his pepper and makes his own salad dressings, pestos and marinaras, as well as the brown sauce. The asparagus, radicchio, eggplant, arugula, carrots, mushrooms and onion that pass through his kitchen are only a short trip away from the farm. And, of course, the wine, which is served appropriately and elegantly with meals, is only a cork away from its opening.
The chef has other tips to offer, plus a couple of recipes for The Recipe Swap column. Always keep your knives sharp enough to cut paper at a draw, he says. Use kosher salt in cooking, not iodized. His favorite pans are the well-seasoned ones, those that most of us hide away when company is coming.
He advises that every kitchen must have a Teflon skillet. Allow your meat to sit on the counter about 15 minutes before cooking and let it "rest out" after cooking so it won't juice up the plate. Use olive oil with its intense flavor for marinades but mix it with canola oil or butter for cooking. And my favorite tip, cook for others as you do for yourself ... relax and enjoy it.
Thomas and his wife, Brooke, share cooking chores - oops, I mean fun times - at home for their evening dinners. When asked for his most memorable meal, he recalls his grandmother's fried chicken and pound cake as a child, then updates his choice with the fine dining he's had at The Charleston Grill in Charleston, S.C., and Bonterra in Charlotte, complete with flowers, candlelight, a flight of wine (I had to ask, too. It's four small glasses of various vintages.) and, needless to say, a meal fit for a chef.
For a meal fit for a chef at your house, try one of the recipes in Recipe Swap on today's food page. Sorry, everybody, but no matter how I begged, Thomas declined to part with his bread pudding directions.
Guess we'll just have to go to The Bistro to sample it. See you there.
Page H. Onorato is a retired teacher.
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