Duane Nutter recalls the time he overheard a flustered new bartender at one of his restaurants ask, “What goes in a rum and Coke?”
Amused, he shouted back: “Ice!”
The line got laughs, including from the sheepish bartender who suddenly realized she’d answered her own question. Nutter took note. Later, he jotted down the interaction in the notebook where he keeps two running lists: one for kitchen prep needs and the other for improv material.
Throughout most of his culinary career, Nutter has moonlighted as a stand-up comic known as “the Mad Chef” at various Atlanta clubs, often weaving real-life restaurant experiences into his shticks. For years, he traveled the country as a spokesperson for the National Peanut Board, wearing a peanut-shaped plastic foam hat as he demonstrated peanut dishes and cracked peanut jokes — another endless source of comedy gold.
“Some folks new to the food business get real down on themselves for making mistakes,” he recently told me while we sat at the bar at Southern National, the Summerhill restaurant Nutter and longtime business partner Reggie Washington relocated from Mobile, Alabama, two years ago. “It’s hard sometimes to tell if people are laughing with you or at you. I’ve been fortunate enough to have more people laughing with me because I can poke fun at myself as well.”
About a decade ago, while helming the kitchen of One Flew South, the critically acclaimed upscale restaurant at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Nutter began thinking about how he could use humor to coax fans of his style of cooking — classic Southern mixed with contemporary international influences — into trying his dishes at home.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
He hired veteran cookbook producer Janice Shay to help him hone his vision, which finally came to fruition this month after 10 years in the making. In “Cutting Up in the Kitchen: Food and Fun From Southern National’s Chef” (Gibbs Smith, $35), Nutter shares recipes from his life and life’s work. He tells how his mom, “who can make something out of nothing,” instilled in him a love of red beans and rice in the projects outside Morgan City, Louisiana, where he was born. And the way his extended family in Seattle, where he spent his formative years, taught him the joys of roast leg of lamb and homemade doughnuts dipped in eggnog.
Nutter also pays homage to mentors who paved his career path: the home ec teacher who showed him how to make butter and scones from scratch after a football injury derailed his athletic ambitions; the culinary school instructor who explained how to pronounce — and perfect — coq au vin. Most of all, Nutter credits Darryl Evans, one of the few nationally recognized African American chefs in the ’90s. It was the trailblazing Evans who recruited Nutter to work in high-end restaurants frequented by celebrity crowds in Atlanta.
Recipes for menu favorites are written and simplified for home cooks of all skill levels. They are organized in chapters that nod to his dual talents, from The Setup (Favorite Cocktail and Improvised Classics) through Curtain Calls (Dessert). Each represents a step along his tantalizing culinary journey, where fun plays an essential role.
His first thought upon holding a fresh-off-the-presses copy in his hands? “Hmmm, a dyslexic kid grows up to write a cookbook. Now that’s funny.”
RECIPES
In his first cookbook, “Cutting Up in the Kitchen: Food and Fun From Southern National’s Chef,” Duane Nutter shares recipes from his life and restaurants. The following recipes from his book illustrate Nutter’s classic Southern sensibility mixed with contemporary international influence.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Black-Eyed Pea Salad
When Duane Nutter came to Atlanta in 1994 at age 20 to study under Evans at the Four Seasons Hotel, his mentor made a black-eyed pea relish for a pork tenderloin dish that Nutter never forgot. “It was the first time I realized the humble food I grew up eating could be served in an elevated setting,” he writes. Whenever he makes his own brightly flavored interpretation today, it’s because “I’m thinking of Chef Evans, someone I lost and miss very much.”
This ultra-simple yet bold-flavored dressing makes more than you’ll need for this recipe, but it will keep, refrigerated, for a couple of weeks for future salads.
Salad
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon peeled and coarsely chopped fresh ginger
- 1 (15-ounce) can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1⁄2 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 1 yellow pepper, seeded, and diced
- 1 red pepper, seeded, and diced
- 1⁄2 red onion, diced
- 1 (5-ounce) package arugula
- 1⁄4 cup sunflower seeds, for garnish
- 1 cup goat cheese, for garnish
Dressing
- 1⁄4 cup aged balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
- Make the salad: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the olive oil and ginger and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, until the ginger becomes slightly brown. Stir in the black-eyed peas, salt and pepper, and reduce the heat to a simmer just long enough to warm throughout. Set the pan aside and let the beans cool to room temperature.
- Using a slotted spoon, scoop the cooled beans into a bowl. Add the chopped parsley, the yellow and red peppers, and the onion and mix well. Adjust the seasoning as needed.
- Make the dressing: Combine the vinegar, olive oil and mustard in a jar or a pint container with a lid. Seal and shake well.
- To serve, divide the arugula between 4 plates, then equally portion the black-eyed pea mixture among the servings, placing on top of the greens. Sprinkle the sunflower seeds and some goat cheese on top. Add a few spoonfuls of the vinaigrette over each salad.
Serves 4.
Per serving, using 2 tablespoons vinaigrette dressing per salad: 511 calories (percent of calories from fat, 69), 13 grams protein, 26 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams total sugars, 7 grams fiber, 39 grams total fat (8 grams saturated), 20 milligrams cholesterol, 856 milligrams sodium.
Lamb Burger Helper
Having grown up on Hamburger Helper, Duane Nutter set out to recapture that childhood memory in a more sophisticated way by substituting lamb for the beef and infusing the tomato sauce with fresh fennel and warm Mediterranean seasonings. It’s now a menu favorite at Southern National. To take the nostalgia a step further at home, he suggests serving it with Kool-Aid and two cubes of ice.
- 1 (28-ounce) can whole San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- 1 pound mini rigatoni
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 1⁄2 yellow onion, cut into small dice
- 1 fennel bulb, tops trimmed (save to use in a salad), and diced
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 ½ cups homemade chicken stock or store-bought broth
- ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray or oil a 9-by-13-inch casserole dish and set aside. Puree the tomatoes in a blender on medium speed and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water with 1 tablespoon salt to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, according to the package directions for al dente. Drain the pasta in a colander and transfer to a large bowl.
- Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottom pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the ground lamb and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, breaking it up as it cooks, until browned. Turn the heat off and use a ladle to discard about half the fat.
- Turn the heat back on to medium-high and add the onion, fennel, garlic, bay leaves, remaining 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, pepper, oregano, cumin seeds, coriander, ginger, smoked paprika and red pepper flakes. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the fennel and onion are tender.
- Add the pureed tomatoes and stock and stir until well combined. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaves from the sauce and pour the sauce over the pasta. Add the Parmesan cheese and toss with a large spoon until well combined. Transfer the pasta mixture to the casserole dish and top with the mozzarella cheese.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly around the edges of the casserole. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and starting to brown. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Note: A tasty variation is to stir 3 cups of fresh spinach and arugula into the finished sauce before tossing over the pasta.
Serves 8.
Per serving: 537 calories (percent of calories from fat, 41), 26 grams protein, 53 grams carbohydrates, 7 grams total sugars, 5 grams fiber, 24 grams total fat (10 grams saturated), 62 milligrams cholesterol, 937 milligrams sodium.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Coffee-Fluff Milkshake
Duane Nutter claims his love for the Nutter Butter cookie “goes back before my mom got married and I became a Nutter.” He almost always features a “Nutter-Butter-something” on his menus. This recipe calls for the homemade coffee ice cream also featured in his book, but I took the shortcut with Häagen-Dazs and it was a decadent delight. Nutter says this “makes two small shakes (or if you’re my size, one large shake).”
- 2 cups coffee ice cream, homemade or store-bought
- 3 tablespoons marshmallow creme, divided
- 1⁄4 cup milk
- 6 Nutter Butter cookies, divided
- 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- Whipped cream, for topping (optional)
- Sprinkles, for topping
- Combine the ice cream, 2 tablespoons marshmallow creme, milk, 4 Nutter Butter cookies and peanut butter in a blender and puree on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
- Pour the shake into 2 glasses, top with a dollop of the remaining marshmallow creme, some whipped cream, if using, and an additional Nutter Butter cookie to top it off if you wish, and some sprinkles.
Per serving, based on 2 (with the extra cookie garnish): 948 calories (percent of calories from fat, 52), 19 grams protein, 130 grams carbohydrates, 81 grams total sugars, 2 grams fiber, 54 grams total fat (31 grams saturated), 180 milligrams cholesterol, 373 milligrams sodium.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Pimento Cheese
At Southern National, Duane Nutter upgrades this Southern staple with freshly roasted red pepper, top-shelf cheeses and mayo (Duke’s!). He serves it on a platter with house-pickled vegetables and sesame flatbread crackers.
- 1 red pepper, stemmed and seeded
- 4 ounces (1 cup) grated sharp white cheddar
- 4 ounces (1 cup) grated sharp yellow cheddar
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon cayenne powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup Duke’s mayonnaise
- Heat the broiler. Move the center rack to the top position in the oven if you don’t have a broiler rack. Broil the bell pepper for 4 to 6 minutes, until the skin starts to blacken.
- Place the pepper in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for 10 minutes. Then remove the charred skin from the pepper and discard. Cut the pepper into slices.
- Combine the grated cheeses, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne powder, Worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise, and bell pepper slices in a food processor and pulse until well combined.
- Transfer to a bowl and serve chilled with your favorite bread, crackers, or vegetables. Pimento cheese can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Serves 4 to 6.
Per serving, based on 4: 435 calories (percent of calories from fat, 84), 15 grams protein, 4 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams total sugars, 1 gram fiber, 42 grams total fat (16 grams saturated), 81 milligrams cholesterol, 531 milligrams sodium.
Recipes excerpted from “Cutting Up in the Kitchen: Food and Fun From Southern National’s Chef” by Duane Nutter. Photography by Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn. Reprinted by permission of Gibbs Smith Books.
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