In the past few years Jay Villani’s Local 188 has transformed from the little Bohemian Dive it was on 188 State Street in the early 2000s, into one of Portland’s hotspots. Much of this is in due part to the chef de cuisine of Local 188, Nicholas Nappi. With a very refined palate, innovative ideas, and a very clear passion for cooking, the menu has been changing, and is now expected to constantly change. Coming from humble beginnings at an Old Country Buffet, Chef Nappi did not attend culinary school but instead learned the basics from an unexpected place. Who knew that Old Country Buffet would teach their staff how to make rouxs, and proper rouxs mind you, as well as other vital skill-sets that any professional chef nowadays need to have!
If you’ve ever been into Local 188 on a busy Friday or Saturday night, there’s really no way you could miss Chef Nappi. He expedites on these evenings, and his voice certainly carries throughout the majority of the dining room and lounge area. Commanding respect in the kitchen, but also incredibly friendly to his back-of-the-house team, Nicholas understands the importance of a strong relationship between back-of-the-house workers. Much like Jay, he also agrees with the notion that education in any kitchen is imperative. I can’t tell you how many times he’s sworn to me, that Thomas Keller’s the French Laundry, taught him so much, and made him think in an entirely different way about the art of cooking. For a chef to be able to take so much from another chef, and not only learn, but apply these skill-sets, is at the very least, impressive. In addition to his openness to new techniques, it would only make sense that Chef Nappi also has been intrigued by the original work done at El Bulli and Alinea. Grant Achatz, is currently providing Chef Nappi with a lot of inspiration, with his sensitive plating techniques, use of sous-vide and emulsions, and his, what some might claim to be, “overly”-conceptual dishes. While the Chef might not be hanging strips of bacon from wires at the moment, he is taking the root of what Grant practices, to heart, while maintaining his own voice. This past August, yes, I know, quite sometime ago, I got the chance to sit down with Nicholas– who also doubles as my superior and mentor– to chat about where his passion stemmed from, his aspirations, and what inspires him in the kitchen.
On that late August day, when I was still working two jobs, we both took a moment out of our busy schedules to dabble in a game of tennis, which, for quite sometime, seemed to be a joke between the two of us. But there we were, in our tennis attire- my whites, and his mismatches, at Deering Oaks, trying to play a good game of tennis. That didn’t happen unfortunately, despite the fact that I had just spent a month being a counselor at a tennis camp in New Hampshire. Chef Nappi was truly aggravated by my lack of finesse and energy that I had brought to the courts those days. So what did we do instead? Well, we sat, and talked, and he smoked a cigarette. It was that day that I learned that his grandfather is by far his biggest role model. He spoke fondly of him, relaying anecdotes, and explaining that it was his grandfather who actually got him into tennis. The subjects definitely flew around, neither of us staying on the same topic for too long. He spoke of his early days at Local, working lunch with the infamous Trent, while maintaining night shifts with Jay and the crew, and a whole other job at a friend’s restaurant, which basically required him to sleep behind the bar in order to work all 4 shifts he had up there. Shortly after those were over, he’d speed down to Portland to make it into Local in time for prep.
Then came the talk about when Jay first let Chef Nappi do the ordering– which, according to Nicholas was quite unexpected. It seems, from what I gathered, and from Nicholas has said, that it was from then on, which he acquired a considerable amount more of responsibility. If you look at what Chef Nappi has accomplished, it’s actually both humbling and impressive. I know you’ve heard the standard rags to riches story, countless times in your day, but come on, Old Country Buffet, to being chef de cuisine at Local 188, without and formal culinary education? It’s impressive, if I do say so myself.
Chef Nappi has a critical eye for plate design, and while it’s true that most chefs possess this trait, it’s especially true for him. He’s quite meticulous about every last detail on plates, from the gels that he used quite recently on a rather delectable razor clam tapas special, to the way his scallops are placed atop of the sour orange aioli, and then adorned by the cute (though he might beg to differ) dehydrated kalamata olives. He’s archived many of the plates that he’s sent out to diners, on his smart-phone, so that he can “keep track” of what he’s done, and what he wants to do. He recognizes that in order for a restaurant to remain interesting, new things need to be developed constantly, whether it involves front or back of the house. Chef Nappi is all about the unexpected, which, I suppose is appropriate of course. It’s clear that Chef Nappi has quite the future ahead of him. Maybe some James Beard noms are in his future? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Erika
We all definitely applaud your efforts with this blog, and enjoy reading it. But this post shows your inexperience and overall naive outlook. I have worked for TK at The French Laundry and Per Se. I have worked with Grant at Alinea. I have apprenticed at El Bulli. There is no way this kid would last 5 minutes in any of these kitchens. He hasn’t learned anything from TK. He has read a few cookbooks and called the ideas his own. Any cook can copy something out of a pretty cookbook.
Neither he nor Jay are great chefs. 188 is a great place to have dinner. But he’s doing a poorly designed square peg in a round hole. The overall theme of the restaurant is miles apart from the “specials” Nick puts out and takes pictures of. And from what I’ve seen and eaten of his, they are all blatantly stolen from these books. He can’t take the root of anything from these chefs, because their world is too big for him to even scratch the surface.
Working with TK or GA you learn, simply, that this stuff isn’t supposed to happen. In reality, there is no way he would be able to create these dishes on a regular basis, on a real scale. A home cook can copy a recipe. And the techniques “taught” in the books are a far cry from what you really learn from those chefs when you work alongside them.
It is safe to say that you admire this kid, and that is cool. But you should really look in to how much he is copying these chefs. And finding inspiration is important for all chefs, but he isn’t experienced or smart enough to do anything original on his own yet. There will be no James Beard nod for him any time soon. He is too full of himself and his ability to copy a technique and call it his own. Any cook who has worked for these chefs mentioned would know better than to do what he is doing. There are thousands of young cooks who masturbate daily to the French Laundry Cookbook, and he is just one of them.
Karl
For starters Karl, everyone has the right to their own opinions and expressing them how they see fit, yet this does not mean that others will interpret or share your same point of view. More often than not, one can post something with good intent and have it entirely collapse on them. I’m sure you didn’t intend for your comment to appear as a personal attack (I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, just as I do all people), but I’m also sure that it has given that impression to others. For starters, I’ll thank you for your compliment (although it might have been a tad bit backhanded) about my “efforts” with this blog. It’s always nice to hear positive feedback from people who have a considerable amount more experience in this industry than I do. In regards to this post showing my inexperience, I can’t help but point out that I just started working in kitchens in the fall as well as the fact that most people have the advantage of age over me– I’m sure you’re about twice my age, and obviously with age comes more time to gleam experience– this is just a matter of fact.
Now your comments towards Nicholas and Jay, they’re entirely your opinion, and I’m not one to try and refute people’s feelings, as it proves to be pointless and a waste of time. The one thing I think you should know however, is that I have seen both Nicholas and Jay give credit where credit is due, and I’m around them quite frequently, as I work at Local (you can claim for this to be a bias, but que sera, sera). Perhaps what you’ve experienced with Nick’s specials is a lackadaisical experience with servers? As someone in the industry, you know that once you explain specials to servers it’s up to them to do YOU justice, it’s up to them to decide how they want to sell the dish. You’re not following them around on the floor saying, “WAIT!!! If I may interject, I was inspired by GA or TK, so there ya go!” We already don’t get paid a ton, so to babysit front of the house would just be overkill, don’t you agree?
Lastly, if you haven’t picked up the new issue of Lucky Peach, I highly recommend it. Read the dialogue between Change, Ben, and Daniel– they discuss innovation in food and how nothing is new and how even Adria, Achatz, and Keller got their styles from somewhere else. I think reveling in someone’s techniques is a way to learn until you’re comfortable and then you can apply your own voice and style in that. The only analogy I can think of is if I were to take my first ever high-dive, and then be told immediately after to make it my own– that’s just stupid. In order to make something your style, you need to have a firm foundation before you can innovate.
Cheers! (PS:) If Longfellow has sold out of Lucky Peach Issue 3, I’d be more than glad to loan you my copy– it’s really quite good!
He should most definitely focus on getting the food out to the dining room in a timely manner instead of trying to do something he doesn’t understand. That, and working on doing the simple things correctly, like most of the brunch dishes I have tried, and temperatures on the dinner food I have had. In fact, he needs to learn how to use salt before he gets in to doing things inspired by Alinea. He shouldn’t be trying to innovate before he learns how to cook, I mean really cook. Because the basics are missing there.