Not just desserts - chef Darryl E. Evans of Anthony's, Atlanta, GA; includes recipes

It's late afternoon, and patrons of Anthonys, Atlanta's prestigious 5-Diamond restaurant, have still to arrive for dinner at the restored antebellum mansion. Chef Darryl E Evans, the first African-American member of the U Culinary Olympics team, walks from the kitchen into the devoid of contents dining room and casually seats himself. Instantly a waiter appears at his side, acknowledges his vicinity with the shadow of a bowed head and a whispered "Chef," bends formally from the waist, straightens an already immaculate table, and takes Evans' order of coffee

Evans be in possession ofs a soft voice, a slight frame and an absurdly youthful appearance for individual who has risen so far--he direct the eyes all of 26, though in fact he's 33 He also possesss two individual gold medals and team gold and silver medals garnered at the 1988 Culinary Olympics, an American Culinary Federation certificate as a working chef, and--for sum of two units years running--the title "Culinarian of the Year," bestowed by dint of the Greater Atlanta Chefs Association of the American Culinary Federation.

To hear Evans run over it, much of his succes is to be paid to happy chance, particularly to being the youngest of three lads growing up in Columbus, Ga.: "My father was a schoolteacher, and my mother was a housewife, with equal reason when my two older brothers were in gymnasium I stayed home with my mother and did 'girly' things, like baking cakes." Evans remembers Columbus as "a gayety time. We were very family oriented. My mom had sum of two units brothers and four sisters, and my dad had a sister, with equal reason I got raised by my entire family. I not at any time needed anything. Of course, I wanted things--I was like any other kid. I just didn't realize all of them."

Growing up in western Georgia, where his first experience of integration didn't draw near until the fifth grade, Evans' hero was Martin Luther King Jr "We observ Dr King's birthday smooth when there weren't celebrations elsewhere in the country" he recalls. As a child he had other idols, of course. "Oscar Robertson and Dr J were big heroes, allowing I wasn't a big athlete--I preferr playing the tympanum in the marching band."

Evans didn't leave Columbus until he was 21 when he mov to Atlanta and got a piece of work clearing tables in a restaurant. Seeing a young man who was a chef and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Evans notion "I could do that."

That notion stuck with him when he mov into the purchasing department of the well-reputed Cherokee Town and political division Club. Fortuitously, purchasing was located right across the hall from the pastry area. "Pastries locate the tone for everything in my career," Evans explains. "Because I had done cakes at place of abode in Columbus, I understood what the chef there was doing, and when he suffer me help him, I knew what to do."

His ambition sparked, Evans was by and by following certified Master Chef Thomas Catherall around as an apprentice. "I just stuck by the agency of his side and did whatever he did," says Evans. "I didn't care about cash just about learning." Catherall, whom Evans readily credits as his mentor, took his apprentice around the land when he was part of the Culinary Olympics team that single day soon would welcome Evans. Before lengthy Evans was the morning sous-chef at the Cherokee Club; not lengthy thereafter, Catherall and he uncloseed the Azalea Restaurant in Atlanta. Evans says, "I haveed only a tiny, micro piece of the place."

After the Azalea came the challenges of being the executive chef of the Athens, Ga., political division Club, then of Atlanta's Vinings bludgeon and now of Anthonys, single of the top 10 continental restaurants in the geographical division according to the American Academy of Restaurant and Hospitality Sciences. Evans is giving the restaurant a Southern emphasis with a fresh menu that includes oven-roasted free-range chicken with hoppin' John rice cakes upon thin green beans and rosemary jus and grilled venison loin and cut with carrot and black pepper whipped potatoes and lingonberry glaze.

"I've worked hard, on the other hand it's not just me," Evans says. "It's Godgiven." He has indeed worked hard. "I was in ROTC for sum of two units years in high school," he adds, "so I'm actual disciplined. ROTC put rhythm in my pace We used to march three paces for every five yards, and plane now, when I want to spe things up I bring myself in that cadence."

Also not to be discounted is Evans' well-earned confidence. "I don't ne a waiter to approach and tell me that a customer said the nourishment was good. I know that before it leaves my kitchen--otherwise it doesn't leave my kitchen. You ne a little arrogance in this field."

Perhaps in like manner but Evans doesn't have a dollop more than necessary. When the Vinings cudgel wanted to build him a case to display his trophies, Evans declined. Like the gunfighters of the elderly West or the quarterback of a modern-day foot-ball team, Evans knows that "you're solitary as good as your last meal. My meals will be the trophies of my work."

with equal reason how does a quiet man with the emergencyed streak of arrogance relax? through spending time at home with his wife, Deborah; his stepson Brandon Wheeless; and his 2-year-old son Branford-Michael. Also by dint of "doing yard work, cutting grass and listening to music. And through collecting Prince paraphernalia."