Greg Epperson, executive chef, Wild Ginger in Franklin.

Tag : ginger

Having grown up in a farm setting, chef Greg Epperson alwayssuspected he would work in a kitchen. From an early age he learnedabout butchering meats, filleting fish, preserving fruits andvegetables, as well as curing country hams.
He attended Johnson & Wales University after working under a formerinstructor at the college who encouraged him to go to culinaryschool.
How did you learn to cook?
Like most, by growing up in a family of great cooks. My mom and dadare both great cooks.
When I got my first "real" kitchen job, I was one of the onlypeople in the kitchen with no culinary degree. Because of that, Iconstantly had to try harder to impress the chef, so I read andstudied everything I could find about food and cooking. I made it apoint to try and be better than the other cooks that had formaltraining.
In 1993 I enrolled at Johnson & Wales University and received ahigh-level culinary education that taught me to understand food ona molecular level.
Any advice for the novice home cook?
Use more onions and garlic in all of your cooking. Cook the garlicfirst until it turns the color of peanut butter, and then add andcook the onions until they are translucent. You may need to addsome liquid (wine, stock or water) to prevent burning. Cook themlonger and slower, and anything else you add to the dish shouldtaste better in the end.
Please tell us about one of your favorite dishes at Wild Ginger andits inspiration.
The golden apple and fennel salad with wok-fired shrimp. I learnedabout these flavors from one of the most talented chefs I have everworked with. He is from Ankara, Turkey.
This salad is the one for people who are not sure about freshfennel or the fragrant aromas of a light lemon and curry emulsion.It is truly one of our best salads.
Do you have a favorite tool in the kitchen?
Yes, it's called a sous chef. No, seriously, I would not want to bewithout the R2 robot coupe (a food processor). And because we gothrough so much fish here, my knife sharpener.
What could we always find in your home refrigerator?
Onions, garlic, butter, garden fresh vegetables, fresh fruit,blueberries, yogurt and a bottle of white wine for my wife.
If you could choose your last meal, what would it be?
A medley of the following: pulled whole hog barbecue fromLexington, Tenn., with a side of smoked ribs; mesquite-grilledEuropean turbot (fish) with pan-fried Yukon gold potatoes andgrilled vegetables with a high-quality olive oil and some rusticartisan bread; 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild Grand Reserve;wedding cake with vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate mousse;strawberry pie.
What are the challenges and benefits of fusion cuisine?
The benefits are that with fusion cuisine it should be easier for alarge group of diverse people to come in to our restaurant and findsomething they can order and enjoy.
It also gives my kitchen crew the chance to grow and develop theirskill and knowledge of global food.
The challenges are that it is difficult sourcing and stocking allof the products that we use here on a daily basis. Many of our dryproducts come from other countries and can only be delivered once aweek.
Some of our dishes are complex and require a little more thoughtand effort in the plating process.
Training new staff to work with foods and flavors they may not befamiliar with is also a challenge.
Is there a book or cookbook that's been particularly inspiring toyou?
A book by Escoffier (Georges Auguste Escoffier, 1846-1935, Frenchchef, restaurateur and writer) was the first real cookbook I read.I was amazed at how, back then, someone could know so much aboutfood. It really laid the groundwork for explaining food.
Madeleine Kamman's book The Making of a Cook is a good one, and Becoming a Chef by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page is also an influential book.But I really get inspired when I pick up my French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller.
I also am a big fan of the books by Charlie Palmer, CharlieTrotter, and Alfred Portale. The El Bulli books (by chef Ferran Adria) are pretty amazing, too.
 JENNIFER JUSTUS, STAFF WRITER