Method of Preparation: While there has been much talk about the new American cuisine, what has been happening in American cooking is actually more an evolution than a revolution. No chef has been more closely identified with the rediscovery of our American roots than Larry Forgione, first at New York's River Cafe and now at his own restaurant, An American Place (named for Alfred Stieglitz's gallery of the 1930s). While Forgione has always displayed solid technique, making imaginative recombinations of traditional themes, what is most striking about his cooking is his commitment to finding and using top-quality American ingredients from all parts of the country: Willapa Bay oysters, blue cornmeal, Michigan buffalo. It didn't all happen at once, though. When he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1974, he recalls, "there was no real future for an American, all the kitchens, even here, were European controlled. The Europeans thought Americans didn't know anything about food. So I went to work at The Connaught in London to get enough training to get my foot in the door. "I was struck by all the great ingredients that were brought in: the chanterelle mushrooms, the game birds. Well, we've got every possible climate in America, and I realized that these wonderful ingredients MUST exist here -- it's just a question of finding them. "I made a connection with someone with a shooting preserve who provided ducks fed on wild grasses. And I found a farm that raised chickens the way chickens are supposed to be raised, ranging free. Now they supply every top restaurant in the city -- French restaurants, too. I think the first place they supplied, other than mine, was Lutece." Forgione's real breakthrough in ingredients came when he met a former Broadway actor, Justin Rashid, who had moved to Michigan. "Anything I wanted he would get: wild watercress, wild blackberries, wild huckleberries. It was the perfect solution: He was in a depressed area, and here I was asking the farmers there to convert acres to growing miniature vegetables and everything else -- guaranteeing that I'd buy it all." Working with such native-grown ingredients, Forgione has developed a highly distinctive style. His terrine of three smoked fish, garnished with their respective caviars, is a tour de force. And the chili-corn sauce served with steaks of beef or buffalo uses flavor combinations found in traditional recipes for chili. Asked about the discrepancies between his cooking, with its refined overlay of professional technique, and traditional American home cooking, the chef remarks: "What I try to do is to highlight American ingredients, not my style of cooking. Of course, like all movements, it goes through a period when, if anything, it's too creative. But since opening An American Place, I feel much calmer with myself. "Now maybe I'm becoming a little more rustic. When you first sit down, there's raised cornmeal bread, spicy pepper bread, and butter from a small family dairy farm in Michigan. And for dessert I make chocolate pudding or my Apple Pan Dowdy. "Until recently," he continued, "we denied our past. It almost seemed that we were ashamed of American cooking. It's not easy to find our regional cuisines, but it's important that we do. Until now, no one was proud enough to do it." Menu: An American Place Terrine of America's Three Smoked Fish with : Their Respective Caviars : (Fish terrine with a mousse of fresh fish and smoked : white fish and smoked salmon, served with a sour cream : sauce and garnished with whitefish, sturgeon, and : salmon caviars.) California Goat Cheese Crepes with Sweet Onion Sauce : (Herbed crepes stuffed with goat cheese, olives and : fresh basil, served with a sweet onion sauce.) Michigan Beef Steak with Chili-Corn Sauce : (Sauteed steak with a chili-flavored sauce flecked : with bell peppers and corn kernels.) Apple Pan Dowdy : (Rum-faced apples topped with crisp bread rounds, : baked in individual serving dishes.) Source: New York's Master Chefs, Bon Appetit Magazine : Written by Richard Sax, Photographs by Nancy McFarland : The Knapp Press, Los Angeles, 1985 Chef: Larry Forgione, An American Place Restaurant, New York Submitted By ROB STEWART On 07-24-94
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