July/August 2007

Quickie Cuisine

Unusual ingredients meet creativity for five chefs in our convenience store cook-off.

By Patrick Evans-Hylton

It was a mission that a handful of area top chefs chose to accept: turn away from your truffles, put down your parmesano reggiano, and bypass your balsamic vinegar. Instead, speak with your inner Spam, and find out what he's been up to lately.

We gave five chefs $25 and 25 minutes in a Miller's Neighborhood Market convenience store (c-store, for those in the know) and asked them to prepare a world-class entrée and desert. And they did. Really.

Here is their tale:

MONDAY, MAY 14

8 A.M.

Five chefs arrive at Tidewater Community College's downtown Norfolk campus. They are: Pete Evans of Zing Brasserie in Virginia Beach; Bobby Huber of Bobbywood in Norfolk; Chad Martin of Create Bistro in Newport News; Sydney Meers of Stove in Portsmouth; and Phillip Craig Thomason of Vintage Kitchen in Norfolk.

Norfolk-based Miller Oil Co., owner of Miller's Neighborhood Market stores across the region, provides the chefs with a pimpin' Hummer limousine to whisk them to the company's c-store on Hampton Boulevard, across from Old Dominion University.

"Where's the champagne?" Huber asks, noting the bar in the limo. Alas, there is none. The driver lunges forward, and 15 minutes later, the crew arrives at the store.

8:15 A.M.

The gleaming red, blue and yellow Miller's sign greets the chefs, as does the c-store's president, Jeff Miller. Joe Flanagan and cameraman Jason Walsh from WVEC-TV 13 start filming inside for a piece to air on the local news as the culinary professionals scatter about the store.

"Are they filming a commercial?" asks one wide-eyed customer getting his morning coffee and Fun Buns fix. "I want to be on TV."

8:30 A.M.

It's apparent what some chefs may have in mind. Meers has a basket with apples and Prego spaghetti sauce. Thomason carries a box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix in hand. Alarmingly, Martin picks up some Levi Garrett chewing tobacco. The chefs begin their checkout process, using gift cards supplied by Miller's.

The, the unthinkable happens—during the bold move of eating a Cadbury candy bar purchased with extra money on his gift card, Meers fumbles his plastic sack of goodies, and his spaghetti sauce crashes and splatters on the linoleum floor.

"Crap," he says. No worries—a handy mop is used to clean the mess, and Meers acquires some more sauce. The crew returns tot he limo for the ride downtown. A television displaying a fireplace video crackles in the background as the chefs chatter.

9:05 A.M.

Like arriving rock stars, the chefs enter the culinary lab at TCC. Chef Don Averso, head of the culinary program at TCC, graciously opens his kitchen to the visiting culinarians. The chefs begin to unpack their bags and set up at each station.

"Extra points for anyone who uses Funyuns," says Miller's director of food service, Mark Smith.

The buzz in the room intensifies. I outline the rules—"Only use the ingredients you bought at Miller's and any staples in the lab's pantry." (Chefs were allowed to bring one personal ingredient from their own kitchen.) "In 50 minutes, chefs should plate an entrée and dessert for judging by a panel of culinary experts."

Then, c-store cooking began.

For the rest of this story, including the chef's final recipes, see the July/August issue of Hampton Roads Magazine, currently available on newsstands.