The Talented Mr. Koetke
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When he started high school he got his first job in a real restaurant, as a kitchen hand at Strongbow Inn, a family-run American restaurant in Valparaiso. Before long the chef and owner Russ Adams recognized his abilities and gave him free rein over planning and preparing the Sunday brunch. Soon, whole poached salmon and aspic-coated turkey were appearing on the menu. He also tried his hand at ice carvings. Patrons loved it. So did Adams, who gave Koetke increasing freedom in the kitchen over the following four years.
In 1985 he enrolled at Valparaiso to study French literature, but he continued to hone his culinary skills by commuting to Chicago and working part-time at Lucien Verge and Alan Tutzer’s famed (and now defunct) L’Escargot. For his junior year of college he headed off to the Sorbonne, where his academic and culinary interests battled for his attention. He spent his free time volunteering in the kitchens of famous eateries–in Paris at Pavaillon and Elysees and later in Lyons at Orsi.
He shows me what they’ve been working on this week. A dozen homemade sausages hang inside a hand-rigged smoker that in another life was a Peking duck oven, headcheese terrines (bits of pigs’ heads, braised until tender) line one shelf of the cooler, pans of scallop and snail pate cook in a bain-marie (water bath) in the oven, and the sink’s full of ducks awaiting boning. Koetke circulates through the room, inspecting each station and reminding students of the most important step. “Did you taste it?” he asks. “Don’t tell me if it’s good or bad, tell me what it needs to be extraordinary. Lemon zest? Rosemary? More pepper?” Students run over to the four-tiered spice rack and grab various bottles. By ten they’re tasting and retasting seared duck hearts, liver pate, and escargot.
JaponiSante, a new French-Japanese fusion restaurant at 2044 N. Halsted, reopened February 1 after it was closed by a fire January 19.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jon Randolph.
