Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/455266
34 / the tasting panel / january/february 2015 CHEFS: ONE-ON-ONE WITH MERRILL SHINDLER Merrill Shindler: Have you been in the kitchen your whole life? Mary Dumont: My father was a baker, then owned a hotel. I was always in the kitchen, always doing something. I remember watching his hands. He had such great muscle memory of how much things weighed. He would squeeze the batter and know. Did your whole family work in the kitchen? I was the youngest; I guess I still am. We did. But I went off to do other things. I just wasn't ready. I have a sister who runs a beach restaurant in New Hampshire, a brother who's a Certified Master Chef. I guess it was inevitable that I'd come back. Did you go to cooking school? I went to Simmons College in Boston for literature. Then, I moved to San Francisco. I was waiting tables at a restaurant. One of the cooks didn't show. So, I went into the kitchen and said I'd do it. How'd it work out? Not so good. I called the chef by his first name. I was told never to do that again. I didn't even own a knife. They put me at the salad station, where I couldn't do much harm. You've got moxie! And from there, you went to Jardinière? I woke up one day and decided to apply. Traci Des Jardins asked me if I knew what a composed salad was. I thought, and said, "Well, I guess it's put together nicely." I got the job. You were on The Next Iron Chef and Iron Chef America. Which is scarier—TV or real life? Being on TV is a whole different type of terror. You have to figure out the dishes very fast. It can be pretty humiliating. What do you cook at home? I cook in the morning to get everything ready for the kids when they come home. They're teenag- ers—but they're okay with salmon and mixed vegetables. I try to cook healthy. Which is more than can be said for your favorite guilty pleasure? I love spicy Italian sandwiches. They make a great one at Cardullo's in Cambridge. And I dream about the mac 'n cheese my mom made growing up. Mary Dumont HARVEST, CAMBRIDGE, MA C hef Mary Dumont was to the kitchen born. She says that if she didn't spend her life cooking, she'd be a writer—or she'd be out on the water surfing. But there are culinarians throughout her family. And as one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs and Executive Chef at much-loved restaurant Harvest in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she's the family member who's influencing American cuisine more than any other. A page of her restaurant's website is dedicated to the small local farms that supply her with raw ingredients—cozy New England names like Brambly Farm, Applecrest Farm and Island Creek Oysters. Even in the coldest of Massachusetts winters, she manages to source farm-to-table— tables covered with dishes like her celery root and Honeycrisp apple soup with Jonah crab and baby celery and her crisp baby kale with sweet potato and a raisin-sherry purée. If there's a Cambridge Cuisine, food-smart enough for Harvard and MIT, this is it. PHOTO: JOHN EARLE