SF Chefs 2010 Cooking demo at Williams Sonoma in Union Square San Francisco
During SF Chefs weekend, I got to sit in a cooking demo with Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant in San Francisco. He showed us how to make Fresh Squid Ink Pasta with Dungeness Crab, Sweet Peppers, and Basil (pictured below). Chef Accarrino made the dark colored pasta from scratch with a hand cranked pasta machine.
Along the way, Chef Matthew Accarrino threw in helpful cooking tips. He said that when you make the dough, it’s the best time to season your pasta, not when you are boiling it. The pasta has no oil and is cooked 75%. Then it finishes cooking in a pan with the sauce. This squid ink pasta dish was so good that I almost licked my plate! Who knew squid ink pasta could be so good?
After the demo at Williams Sonoma in San Francisco’s Union Square, I had a fabulous opportunity to interview him, on behalf of Foodbuzz. Chef Matthew Accarrino was super nice, very knowledgeable about food, and is probably the only executive chef who sports a mohawk, and can get away with it!
With an impressive resume, having worked at Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur, Todd English’s Olives New York, Chef Mathew Accarrino was also the opening sous chef at Thomas Keller’s Per Se. He then went on to work at New York City’s Craft, Craftsteak, Craftbar, and most recently, Craft Los Angeles.
Fresh Squid Ink Pasta with Dungeness Crab, Sweet Peppers, and Basil
YummySF: How did you get started as a chef?
Matthew Accarrino: I’ve always wanted to be a professional cyclist so I had a lot of control on my diet and cooked for myself. I had an accident and was in bed for months. I watched way too much Food Network in the early 90s’s. So I wrote Emeril Lagasse a letter and he said, “Why don’t you come and work for me?” And so I went and the rest is history. I did some short internships before I went to culinary school.
Chef Matthew Accarrino explaining his techniques
YSF: What was your first cooking experience like?
MA: My first cooking job was in a little restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey. I used to go there and wait tables at lunch and then prep dinner. And I can still remember the first day when somebody called out for the nighttime shift to cook. It was a Tuesday. I remember it like it was yesterday because it was the most exciting day of my entire life! Somebody actually was willing to throw me into there. That was my first night as a line cook ever and it was the best thing. And I never looked back.
YSF: What is your inspiration for new dishes?
MA: People say they are product-driven. I’m sort of ingredient-driven, which means that I buy good ingredients wherever I find them. And I figure out what to do with it after. Sometimes my inspiration will be pressure. There’s this farmer who has this great squash and so I buy the squash. But I don’t know what I’m doing with it when I buy it. I just want to buy great product. Eventually, some of the best lessons and the best things you’ll ever cook will come out of that. When I travel, I try to look at regional dishes that haven’t made it on the map yet and do an interpretation of it.
YSF: What is your favorite ingredient?
MA: I have this dish on the menu, an orzotto, which is a regional dish in northern Italy. It’s not orzo pasta. Orzo in Italian is “barley”. It’s a really nice pearl barley, cooked risotto style and I actually finish it with a nasturtium pesto. It’s the leaves of a nasturtium, which has a peppery, spicy flavor. And there’s sopressata on it and fried potato skins, and smoked goat cheese. Those are ingredients that around now that I’m inspired by.
YSF: How is San Francisco different than LA?
MA: People drive in LA more than they drive [in San Francisco], so they drink less. There’s more of a wine culture here, especially being where a lot of the wine is made. But I also think that [a San Francisco foodie] prides themselves on being very, very educated about ingredients, pedigrees of ingredients and very in tuned with their local economy of farmers and ranchers. And I would say LA is less aware, in general, of those things that are happening around there. They are aware of good food but it’s less important in LA that things are super local.
And LA is a city that goes to sleep slightly earlier than San Francisco. And certainly San Francisco goes to sleep earlier than New York.
Chef Matthew Accarrino with SPQR sous chef, Cherie
YSF: Any new changes for the upcoming year?
MA: I’m playing with the idea of a price fixed menu, which we don’t do now. I’m thinking of doing something like… lamb four ways with a cheese course and dessert. I’m always trying to sharpen up what we’re doing. I’m always trying to provide the best value for the customer, that I can, for what they’re paying. And we’re working on a cookbook for the restaurant.
Chef Matthew Accarrino and me
YSF: What do you recommend to aspiring chefs?
MA: When I first started learning to cook, there were a lot ofpeople who had an open door policy, Emeril, people like that who really opened their kitchen and allowed people to come in and learn and take all this super valuable information. So I try and do the same thing. So I always have interns and let them spend time there. And I would always advise that they do that and not only once. But come two, three times a week or once a week. But they come for six months and spend six hours with us. And you can see them progress over time. And they have to read a lot. Read everything they can get their hands on about food. Read every person’s take on food. The more you become aware of ingredients, what to do with them, how it tastes, it’ll make you a better chef.
YSF: What do you read to stay up-to-date?
MA: I read Eater and Tasting Table for currency. I’m always looking for books about the industry or ingredients. A lot times when you get to a certain level of knowledge, you start looking back. What were they making 30, 40 years ago? Sometimes you can see where things came from and how they got to where they are.
You can find Chef Matthew Accarrino and try his amazing food at SPQR.
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