Dining
Crazy Water Shines
By Catherine McGarry Miller Crazy Water 839 S. 2nd St. 414-645-2606 Dinner 7 days a week, 5-9 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. until ten Culinary performance artist Peggy Magister plays nightly in the window of her popular Walker’s Point restaurant, Crazy Water. She’s on stage more and closer to her audience than most Broadway stars. If I were in her clogs, I’m sure some choice expletives would escape now and then. “I do swear,” she admits. “You just can’t hear it over the fan!” Besides, she continues, “there’s really no one to swear at – the people I work with are too good. I like working in the open – I get to see what’s happening out front and get immediate feed back because I’m not removed from what’s happening.” The Milwaukee native was inspired by her mother’s home cooking, and as a girl started baking cinnamon and sugar pastry cookies from her mother’s pie dough scraps. She enjoyed duplicating fancy desserts from magazine covers, like caramelized walnut tortes and pastry shell jewel baskets bursting with fruit. By high school, Magister was hosting elaborate dinner parties for family and friends. “I subscribed to Bon Appetit. I have all of them and pull them out all the time. That’s how I learned to cook – mostly from magazines.” Magister studied business at Boston University and then completed a degree in nursing at Marquette. After working for five years as a nurse in Seattle, her mother died and she moved back to Milwaukee to be near her father. It was then that the would-be chef began administering to customers through their taste buds instead of I.V.s. A job at La Boulangerie was a vocational turning point. “I had no cooking skills whatsoever,” Magister says. “(Owners) Lynn and Dale Rhyan gave me my palate. Lynn, a classically trained chef, took me under her wing and taught me everything. She taught me how to taste something – that’s what I think is so important. There are tons of restaurants that are busy, but there not tons that have great food. Many chefs can do basics, but if you don’t have a palate, it’s like painting with technique but no sense of color.” The experience whetted Magister’s appetite for culinary education. She got her degree from the California Culinary Academy in San Franciso and on-the-job experience at Wolfgang Puck’s Postrio. Though the famed gastronome was rarely in attendance, she got valuable training in all aspects of cookery from butchery to bakery. Both homesick and wanting to make a mark in her field, Magister again returned to Milwaukee. Chip ‘N Py’s offered her the perfect opportunity. “I wanted a job with more responsibilities and didn’t want to start at the bottom. Chip ‘N Py’s was looking for a lead lunch cook to plan a menu, cost it out and implement it.” There she met Tony Betzhold, who became her business partner. Together, they launched a catering business and, later, The Fork restaurant in Cedarburg. Since then, the […]
Oct 1st, 2005 by Cate Miller
Tenuta’s a Hit in Bay View
By Catherine McGarry Miller “It was either the job or get married. I chose the job,” says Tenuta chef Frank Alia who picked a culinary career over wedded bliss. To do both would lead to divorce, he admits, and cooking is a zeal bred from his Southern Calabrese Italian heritage. After a short stint as dishwasher in one of his uncle’s Kenosha restaurants, Alia began cooking in earnest at just 16 years-old. His pride is in doing the job right. “Anyone can follow a recipe but [the outcome] depends upon the kind of passion you put into a dish – I love making a product that people really enjoy,” he says with great delight. Alia honed his skills with lots of practice. “I listened to a lot of good chefs, went to school [Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (CHIC)], and wasn’t really afraid to make mistakes.” And as all young chefs, mistakes he made. Once, he made a real doozy, ordering his staff to cook raviolis for forty people, only to realize halfway through the painstaking process that the party was the next evening. “It made a nice employee meal, but I don’t make too many mistakes now,” he says grinning. Alia’s cooking philosophy is true to his Italian heritage. He seasons his dishes with a simple palette of salt, pepper and oregano, roasted garlic and vegetables and vinegars of all kinds. “I use Balsamic vinegar as a base and infuse it with various flavors: raspberry, lemon and sometimes honey like an Italian sweet sour.” The house vinaigrette is so good a bottle of it sits on each table for bread dipping as well as for dressing salads. For Alia, the key to gastronomic success is to start with the freshest ingredients available. Gnocchi all’ Fungi is Alia’s specialty and a dish he loves to recommend. “The gnocchis are made by hand made fresh. The Alfredo sauce is light and creamy, not pasty or heavy. It’s velvety on the tongue.” Alia himself prepares the daily specials and makes the foccacia bread. All specials, pizzas and sauces are made-to-order. Italian loaves are purchased from Canfora Bakery. “We use as many local purveyors as we can – it’s good for business,” Another local business, Battaglia, makes Italian sausage for the restaurant using Tenuta’s own recipe. Desserts, including the popular Tiramisu and Chocolate Godiva Cheesecake are made from scratch. As with any job, there are occupational obstacles to overcome. For Tenuta’s, it is a snug cooking area. “I’m afraid to measure the kitchen, it’s so small,” Alia says with a smile. No more that 25’ by 18,’ equipment is packed in cheek to jowl. The chefs must perform a nightly ballet choreographed between several small prep areas and the ovens, broaster, fryer, steam table and six-burner stove. With all the coolers and freezers in the basement, Alia estimates that he makes a hundred trips a day, which keep him slender enough to navigate his tight quarters. The Bay View Tenuta’s is the […]
Oct 1st, 2004 by Cate Miller
