David Burke Gives Insider Cooking Class At Middletown Library

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — On the eve of the midterm elections, the hottest place to be wasn't glued to CNN or Fox News, but rather the Middletown Public Library, where celebrity chef David Burke gave a private cooking class on how to prepare favorite Thanksgiving side dishes.

Burke, who grew up in Hazlet, has rapidly become New Jersey's favorite chef du jour, as he's opened restaurants up and down the Jersey Shore (Drifthouse and Nauti Bar in Sea Bright, the GOAT in Union Beach), but also the absolutely luxurious Red Horse in Rumson (the old Fromagerie), and Orchard Park in East Brunswick and 1776 in Morristown.

Burke told an intimate crowd how his first job in the restaurant business was as a dishwasher at the old Holiday Inn in Holmdel as a young teen.

"All the rock stars playing in this area would stay there: Jackson Browne, Meatloaf. And to avoid the public, they would always hang out in the kitchen. It was 1977; who knows what they were doing or smoking, but I would just listen to them hanging out with the kitchen staff, just talking, sharing stories. I learned then that the best people — a bunch of free spirits — always hung out in the kitchen of restaurants."

Burke talked about his career rise, from working at Pyramid at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas in the '80s — "all anyone wanted in Texas in the oil boom years was French restaurants. French, French, French. I've never made so much puff pastry in my life" — to working as a private chef for the wealthiest man in Norway and once cooking a salmon for Prince Charles in a dishwasher — "It really works. Sous vide."

At the age of age of 26, Burke was named executive chef of the legendary River Café in Brooklyn.

Burke is admired in this area for elevating the Monmouth County restaurant scene, and investing a lot of money in this community. He's a man with vision and a desire to grow. Watch out: Burke hinted that Red Horse has become such a strong brand he's thinking of expanding it to more places in western New Jersey (can you guess which town?) and Westchester County, New York.

Wouldn't they be lucky?

"New Jersey's been good to us," mused Burke to the audience. "We had to pick New Jersey to grow; we had to get out of New York because of their minimum wage laws for restaurant staff. It was impossible to grow. The best chefs work 60-70 hours a week. That's how you become one of the world's best chefs. That's why the best restaurants today are in four countries: Switzerland, Spain, Denmark and Italy. Not in France anymore. The government got involved in how much time chefs could work in the kitchen."

While he talked, Burke showed the audience his take on Thanksgiving: Homemade creamed butter with cranberries, pecans and herbs; cornbread/sausage stuffing and Brussels sprouts with warm dressing —"Start warming your dressings! If you make a good homemade salad dressing, warm it up, saute it, serve it warm over vegetables! Who cares if it separates?"

And if you don't know what "door sauce" is, Burke shared the recipe tonight. All the world's best kitchens have it.

What's Burke's secret sauce for success?

"Everyone else always follows the script. All the other chefs just followed the script of what chefs before taught them. I didn't."