Former
NYC chef to direct
Written by RUSSELL J. MOORE.
Tuesday,
August 28, 2007
The
Conimicut Village Association’s first annual clambake
will be in good hands as Bryan Tortorella, a former
executive chef at expensive restaurants in
The
event takes place Saturday, Sept. 8, at
Association
members will dig a pit in the sand and place wood and granite stones at the
bottom. The wood will be set on fire, which heats the rocks. Layers of seaweed
will be placed upon the stones, and the food – lobsters, clams and other
seafood – will be placed on top of the seaweed, covered by canvas. The heat
from the rocks will then cook the food.
A
ticket for the seafood portion of the clambake, including a lobster, costs $35.
Those who don’t care for seafood, few and far between in
Everyone
at the clambake will be served chowder, corn on the cob, watermelon, a dessert
and a beverage.
All
proceeds go toward the Conimicut Village Association,
which works to improve the neighborhood and surrounding area.
Entertainment
for the event will feature volleyball, horseshoes and a variety of children’s
activities as well as live music.
Save
The Bay and the Buckeye Brook Association are also involved in the event.
Tortorella, chairman of the food preparation committee, said,
perhaps somewhat optimistically, that he’d like to see the event grow to the
size of the Charlestown Seafood Festival, which also takes place on a yearly
basis in the summer.
Tortorella said fundraising events like the clambake can do a
lot to increase the neighborhood’s infrastructure, like its playgrounds, which
he views as dismal.
“They
don’t have enough good stuff for the kids around here, and we’ve got at least
12 kids on my block alone,” said Tortorella.
Tortorella isn’t a Rhode Islander, but he sounds like one. He
grew up in
Tortorella learned about cooking at a young age from his
Italian grandmother. He always wanted to work with his hands, he said.
Though
he lacks any formal education, he’s led the kitchens of some of New York City’s
most chic restaurants, such as Ruby Foo’s, a
high-class Asian restaurant located at Times Square and on Broadway, and
Isabella’s, a Mediterranean-style restaurant known for its Sunday brunch.
Tortorella said he used an old-fashioned concept to move up
the ranks in the kitchen: hard work.
“I
sure wasn’t one of those kids who spent a lot of money on a degree from
somewhere like Johnson & Wales and came out thinking I was going to make
$100,000 a year right away,” said Tortorella. “I
enrolled in the school of hard knocks. I started as a dishwasher at 18 and just
worked my way up.”
And
work he did. At times, he said, working seven nights a week and every holiday
one can think of made him feel as if he didn’t have a
life. But as most successful people will attest, hard work always pays off.
Within
a few years he was an executive chef at premier restaurants. The executive chef
is the highest-ranking full-time chef at the restaurant. The position is
largely a management role, which oversees the whole kitchen. No entrée leaves
the kitchen without the executive chef’s approval.
The
executive chef answers to the restaurant manager, and if the restaurant is a
part of corporate chain, the corporate chef, who is oversees numerous
restaurants.
“You
were pretty much married to the restaurant,” said Tortorella.
Tortorella, for the most part, enjoyed city life. He met some
big-name celebrities such as supermodel Cindy Crawford, classic rock legends
The Allman Brothers, and members of the hit rock band
The Black Crowes.
But
for him, as for many others, Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything.
“September
11, 2001, was a turning point for me. It brought me up here,” he said. “I was
pretty much all set with the city life after that. I wanted to just get away to
somewhere smaller.”
Enter
“I
got a call from Kevin Gundreau [now the executive
chef at Ruth’s Chris in Providence], who had already moved from the city to
Rhode Island, who had a job opening for me, and I decided to go with it,” he
said.
After
working a number of chef jobs in
“It’s
a nice quiet neighborhood that’s close to the water. It’s affordable. We found
a great local spot,” he said.
Though
he’s no longer in the food business full time (he does food sales for Sysco, a
supplier), he still does catering part time.
He
looks at the clambake as a great way to give back to his newfound community
with his newfound friends.
“It’s
a perfect fit. The association needed help and I said, ‘Hey, I’ll do whatever
you folks want,’” he said.
Tickets
are available by calling 737-5559 or at West Shore Carpet and Blinds at
and
the