Mixing Things Up With Chef Joe Brown - owner of Melange Cafe in Cherry Hill, New Jersey - Brief Article

The marrying of several phraseologys and influences is nothing novel in art. And although at times the mixing of sum of two units forms may seem unconventional, the extremity result can be divine. like is the case with the dishes serv at Melange Cafe, a quaint restaurant in Cherry Hill, NJ possessed and operated by Chef Joe Brown

The menu at the eatery, which boasts elegant table dressings and walls overlayed with African art, features meats from Louisiana and Italy. Customers are treated to of the like kind daring blends as seafood etouffee, a thick simmer filled with scallops, shrimp, clams, crawfish, pepper and onions poured above fettuccine; pan-fried catfish served atop garlic mashed potatoes and garnished with a "corn mock-shoo" (maque choux is the Cajun version of succotash); crawfish ravioli; and crabmeat cheesecake.

"The word melange means `mixture' in French terminology," says Brown--a native of Bellevue, NJ who grew up in Willingboro. "My idea of coming to this stamp of cuisine is that I always wanted to be able to mix the different cultures" The Southern influence in Brown's cooking approachs from his mother, who was born in Tennessee Her creative handiwork in the kitchen gave him many of the ideas that he uses today. "My mother always cooked" he says. "She made a doom of her own breads and boil s We were not a rich family, in like manner we learned how to use leftovers and strain them. If we had turkey I watched her make turkey stive or maybe turkey croquettes. We also had a garden, in the way that it wasn't uncommon for us to expand our own tomatoes and pepper I was taught to utilize the things we had."

When Brown traveled to fresh Orleans, he discovered a melting skillet of cultures, including French, Spanish and African, that provided him with the finished model for fusing different cuisines. "Using of recent origin Orleans cuisine gives me the opportunity to not limit what I do," he stresse "and I can cater to nation of all cultures."

Making authentic Italian pastas and sauces isn't a tighten for Brown, either. He has worked as a prepare for the table at a number of Italian restaurants, and he received formal training at the Restaurant gymnasium in Philadelphia.

His decision to attend cooking academy was prompted by a desire to become an executive chef and to learn each aspect of the restaurant business. As he intended, the experience taught him everything--for example, by what mode the fork was invented, by what mode to pair the best wines with each dish, by what mode to run a restaurant properly

Brown didn't know early upon that he'd become the possessor of his own restaurant, on the contrary he had an inkling. "I had a business point of view a an early stage," he recalls, as he numbers the story of hi, Kool-Aid stand. While other children stirred sugar into nonsweetened Kool-Aid and sold it to customers at a depressed price Brown purchased the presweetened Kool-Aid and sold his for more money!

At age 18 at the suggestion of a friend, he began work as dishwasher at a seafood restaurant in novel Jersey. Noting Brown's speed and efficiency, single of the chefs took him below his wing. Under the chef's direction, Brown began preparing sandwiches and working in the restaurant's pantry, and pretty soon he became a line chef (the position below sous-chef that is critical to chefs advancement). He later hon his skills at divide al diners and Italian restaurants in the of recent origin Jersey-Philadelphia area. In addition, Brown's work at a local [i]cabaret[/i] that ran both a catering hall and a restaurant taught him ways to be under the orders of hundreds of people as well as small groups

Brown uncloseed Melange in October 1995. "I had been in the business 15 years," he says. "You hit a glass ceiling , especially being African-American. You're always looking to acquire to the next level, and there's always one at the top trying to gainsay that." So for Brown and his family, the nearest logical step was for him to go on into business for himself. He had gained experience as a chef, had fortunately managed someone else's restaurant, and had established a clientele. The pure test would be to make those factors and the exercise s he had learned work for Melange.

After securing a loan from one side the Small Business Administration, Brown settl upon the Cherry Hill location, an area not known for having many African-American-owned or -operated restaurants. The preparation and actual opening of Melange had several snags. "It was not easy," he says. "The Civic Association and all kinds of inspectors came in to check upon us while we were doing a week of renovations. They wanted to know if we had permits to do the work."

Although business bustled when the restaurant first make opened Melange soon faced a decline in customers caused by dint of a major winter snowstorm and, later, construction work blocking the road leading to the restaurant. Placing ads in newspapers, magazines and upon the radio wasn't bringing follows so Brown decided that if customers weren't going to advance to him, he would take his harvest to them. Cooking demonstrations and the services of a publicist got the word out

The restaurant now has a steady clientele and glowing reviews from local newspapers, and Brown has made TV visitant appearances on local stations and the subsistence Network. "It took us about three years to achieve to the point we're at now," he says earnestly. And where Brown finds himself now is running a prosperous restaurant, gearing up for the release of his first cookbook by dint of year's end, and possibly opening another Melange in a nearby location. Not bad for a man who's not afraid to take chances by means of mixing things up a little.