Memorable experiences part of menu in R.I.

The call came earlier this spring from a local food writer to a Providence restaurateur: “You have been written up in the Los Angeles Times!” was the excited message.
The business owner said, “What did we do to get their attention?” The answer was, just doing what comes naturally every day, serving unique, flavorful food and giving diners a memorable experience.
The local restaurant was CAV in the Knowledge District, which is becoming somewhat of a Restaurant Row in its own right. CAV has been doing its eclectic thing there for nearly two decades. It is one of the city’s must-eat restaurants for graduation celebrations and proprietor Sylvia Moubayed often talks about taking reservations for commencement-weekend dinners a year or more in advance.
I have broadcast from Moubayed’s landmark eatery on numerous occasions over the years, most often lately during weekend brunch. On the brunch menu is a special egg dish that attracted the attention of the West Coast. Added to fluffy, scrambled eggs are chunks of lobster and a Thai chili cream sauce that achieves the harmony between sweetness and heat as only Thai cooking can.
The eggs and lobster are served atop toasted brioche that has a sweetness of its own. Poached lobster-claw meat tops the dish. The reporter asked Moubayed about the Asian flavor profile, most likely thinking there was a chef in the kitchen who hailed from there, or a similar explanation.
But it turned out to be much more. Moubayed has a genuine affinity for Thailand. “Every year for the past 10 years, I [travel] to a remote area of Thailand in Chiangsaen – where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma meet – to live simply, like the people, restore our spirit and come back to CAV renewed,” she told the Times. “Thus, I wanted to have some Thai dishes on our CAV menu, to bring back a little of the spirit of Thailand.”
When chef, author and television personality Ted Allen came to the state on his book tour, he had hopes that he could squeeze in a visit to another of our iconic restaurants. Allen, who won a James Beard award this year and is known for his hosting duties of the Food Network’s “Chopped” series, signed his latest cookbook and posed for pictures with fans and foodies who braved a rainy, spring day to see him at Dave’s Marketplace.
He even found time to do a radio interview with me as I broadcast from the supermarket. After a couple of hours of signing and chatting, he wondered if it were possible to have dinner at Al Forno. He wanted to go and have the experience because proprietors George Germon and Johanne Killeen’s cookbook, “Cucina Simpatica,” was one of the first books he says inspired him in a life of cooking. As luck would have it, Germon and Killeen were in the restaurant that night. As Allen said in a Facebook post, “I finally got to eat at Al Forno!” We who are fortunate enough to live and dine out in Rhode Island have high standards and equally high expectations. It isn’t until we travel that we find how spoiled we actually are. To live in an area that is comparatively easy to get around in but which offers a multitude of choices every lunch and dinnertime is a prize that is lost on many of us. Friends who live and do business in New York may have the choices that we have but at the expense, literally, of battling the crush of humanity that lives in and around the megalopolis.
For Father’s Day, chefs were asked for advice their fathers gave them. One New York chef replied, “My dad told me never to come to New York City!” I have told the story of the self-styled restaurant critic who engaged me in conversation at the Newport Flower Show after observing me doing my radio show.
He was amazed that I could find enough material to fill three hours on restaurants located in Rhode Island. He went one step further and incredulous, demanded to know if my point of view was that our restaurants were up to par with restaurants in New York (where he was from). My answer was in the form of a question.
I asked him to name an iconic New York restaurant, preferably one named after an equally iconic chef. Then I posed this question: What are the odds on any given night that the chef whose name is on the door is going to be in his or her kitchen cooking for you?
The difference in Rhode Island is that our restaurants, some of which are eponymous, many of which are well-known nationally and certainly unique, come equipped with a chef-owner who is actually cooking for us night after night. •


Bruce Newbury’s food and wine talk radio show is heard Saturdays and Sundays locally on WPRV-AM 790, on radio throughout New England and on the Stitcher mobile application. He can be reached by email at bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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