A Taste for New Flavors: Johnson & Wales Chef Revels in Studying Food, Then Creating Unique Combinations

By Leigh Dyer, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Feb. 26–Bill Schutz, 42, has been cooking professionally for 25 years. But only in the last few years has he been a practitioner of molecular gastronomy, a science that’s changing the very nature of food.

Its adherents study food at the molecular level to find pleasing combinations, resulting in such dishes as cabbage gazpacho with mustard ice cream.

For a recent demonstration, Schutz reinvented the panzanella salad — a classic Italian dish consisting of bread, tomatoes, onions and olive oil. For his deconstructed version, he created an olive oil ice cream, flavored with lemon and just a hint of sugar, and placed it on top of a mix of toasted breadcrumbs, chopped tomatoes and red onions. He topped it with a paper-thin dehydrated tomato skin for garnish.

“When you eat everything together, it kind of comes together,” he said. “It’s just playing with food, really.”

Another technique emerging from the study of molecular gastronomy is sous vide cooking — putting vacuum-packed meat, vegetables or other ingredients into a circulating pump, which cooks it in a bath of warm water at relatively low temperatures. The result is the items are more evenly cooked and flavors are more intense.

Schutz, the culinary events chef at Johnson & Wales University, says he is the only practitioner of these cooking techniques in the Charlotte area as far as he knows, but he and other experts believe the influence of the cooking methods will eventually be felt in restaurants around the country.

Cooks are the 13th most popular profession in the Charlotte region, according to U.S. Census figures. More than 10,310 were counted in the area in 2000 — four years before Johnson & Wales opened its local campus.

Schutz’s advanced knowledge doesn’t mean he whips up polenta and sun-dried tomatoes every night for dinner — “When I’m not at work I like to just eat simple stuff — burgers, sushi, pizza,” he said.

For him, the chance to study the new techniques is part of what has kept him in his grueling profession for so long. Typically, those who cook professionally work nights, weekends and holidays, and workweeks can reach 80 hours.

He worked his way up through a series of restaurants in the New York City area, earning promotions and pay raises through experience and without a culinary degree — a typical career path in the profession. A degree can be a foot in the door, he and other experts say, but most cooks must rely on hard work to advance.

The upside of the profession is that cooking can be a creative outlet, with each new dish a work of art.

Schutz took a pay cut from his post as a restaurant chef to work at Johnson & Wales — the tradeoff was regular hours, and the chance to pass his knowledge to pupils, including his teaching assistant, Heather Bowker.

It also brings freedom to keep trying new culinary challenges, he said. “You can do it 50 years and not know everything. To me, it’s about pushing the envelope and trying new things as you go.”

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