Greenwood: cooking up his own history - chef Will Greenwood

As a student at the Culinary Institute of America, Will Greenwood, now executive chef at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C., conceived and designed for a class project a restaurant he called "Windows Manor."

The school project's fare was to be American regional cuisine, and so Greenwood created recipes that relied on American ingredients that -- when subjected to his contemporary whisk -- were simultaneously traditional and new.

"It didn't get a great grade," he remembers, recalling a skeptical instructor at the institute, which had not yet opened its own American restaurant, American Bounty. "But it's what I'm doing today. And I've even made some of those dishes here."

During three years at the Jefferson, Greenwood, 33, has become known for such dishes as his hot-smoked shrimp with Virginia grit cake and crab-and-lobster cake with Pommery mustard sauce. He is reportedly a contender for White House chef.

"I usually have gut feelings," he says. "And if someone says, 'This isn't gonna fly,' I push for it even harder. Now I look back, and I have substantiated my feelings."

Those feelings were ignited by his mother, a native Oklahoman who read cookbooks for fun and began cooking Sunday dinners on Thursdays.

Greenwood, an only child, watched her work with black-eyed peas and okra, and by the time he was 10 years old he was experimenting with french fries and cornbread. He decided to attend culinary school when his father, who had a doctorate in music and a master's degree in mathematics, refused to let him bypass college. Greenwood already had two jobs -- one as a cook at Lum's in Baltimore -- and the institute's two-year program presented a happy compromise for both father and son. But Mom was ecstatic.

"When I told her I was going to be a chef, she was happier than if I'd said I was going to be a doctor," he recalls. "But there were a lot of whispers in the family."

They have since subsided.

After school Greenwood returned to Baltimore, where he helped open Cafe des Artistes in 1983. Two years and a couple of properties later -- his classic French training having been put to good use -- Greenwood began to fulfill his American dream.

First, he became executive chef at Treaty of Paris at Annapolis' oldest inn, the Maryland Inn. The position provided a history-entrenched springboard to his next post, executive chef at Gaspard's in Winchester, Va.

It was at this restaurant, safely tucked in the country and away from other culinary influences, that Greenwood developed the "new Virginia cuisine," which has become his trademark.

The Lancaster Group sought him out in 1989 when it decided to reposition the Jefferson Hotel's previously formal restaurant into a property that would be a destination for locals, explains Elmer Coppoolse, the hotel's managing director and the Lancaster Group's chief operating officer.

"Will had all of the right qualifications on paper," he says. "And when we spent time talking with him, he had the most inspiration and innovation about the cuisine." Eighty percent of the dinner customers are now curious locals and tourists, Coppoolse adds.

Greenwood initially turned down the Jefferson's offer, fearing a bureaucratic atmosphere. But promises of artistic freedom lured him, and now he admits that the hotel, its upscale clientele and the eight-member kitchen staff have provided the perfect environment for his fare.

"My card says 'executive chef,' but I really am behind the line," he explains. "When I came here, they were serving Dover sole meuniere and cold steak. I've made it what you see today."

Today the menu proffers traditional local dishes with contemporary twists -- regional ingredients infused by Greenwood's hand with Thomas Jefferson lore.

For instance, the oysters and turnip greens in the spicy Chincoteague oysters on braised greens are abundant locally, Greenwood explains. And Jefferson loved curry, so the oysters are sauteed in Greenwood's own curry powder.

The grilled spring lamb chops with peas pearl onions in a minttarragon broth are served with spring peas because Jefferson and his neighbors had an annual contest to see who could grow the year's first, he continues. The dish also comes with a macaroni-goat cheese souffle because Jefferson loved pasta, a product the well-traveled ambassador to France brought back from his trips to Italy.

"It's simple," he says of his fare. "But the simple is almost harder to do. If macaroni and cheese is on the menu, it's a really dangerous thing because people have in mind an image of what it's going to be."

Despite his success to date, Greenwood has a single complaint about his chosen profession.

"The one disappointing thing about food is it's a momentary brilliance," he notes.

For that reason, when Greenwood slips out of his whites, he slips into a small recording studio in his home. There, with his guitar and about 2,500 compact discs, his creations last.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
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