Meet the Chef and Manager of Rose Tree Inn

In a restaurant, the staff is divided into the front of house and the back of house. The front of house refers to the people who have direct interaction with the customers, the servers, the managers and the food runners. The back of house refers to the people behind the scenes including the chef, the cooks, prep cooks and dishwashers. There is usually a degree of rivalry between the two but in the best restaurants both back and front of house form a united front.

Steven Smith and Larry Knight of the have a genuine friendship built on trust and mutual respect. They would complete each other’s sentences and smile upon hearing each other’s stories for the tenth time. The two men have a combined 50 years in the restaurant business and yet still love going to work. Read below to find out more about this dynamic duo behind the Rose Tree Inn.  

General Manager: Steven Smith, 43, of Rose Tree

Chef: Larry Knight, 40, of Exton 

Years in the Industry:

Both have 25 years experience

Favorite Thing about the Community:

SS: The hometown feel about it really… I really don’t leave Media too much, people tease me about it all the time. I went to Jersey the other day and got lost.

LK: People are really nice, really friendly. They do care about the restaurants in the area. A lot of people here try to support every restaurant they can in this area.

Do you do any Community Work?

SS: We’re very supportive of the community, the different charitable organizations, Crozer-Chester hospital, lots of charities, giving to the community.

Earliest Cooking Memory:

SS: Probably making frozen waffles with my mom, probably when I was about 5 years old.

LK: Making lemon soup (avgolemono soup) with my mom, my mom is part Greek and American Indian.

First Kitchen Job:

SS: Chi Chi’s in Granite Run Mall, I was a busboy in high school.

LK: Taco stand in Margaret Orthodox down in Philly, we made fresh tacos, hot dogs, slurpees, stuff like that. I was 13.

What Brought you to the Industry?

SS: Actually my buddy had gotten a job at Chi Chi’s, so that’s how I got in. I went to school in Reading and there was a Chi Chi’s there as well and I wound up going back and forth between the two. I had planned to move to Colorado but my grandfather was ill, so I stayed to take care of him and I stayed committed to restaurants. What has kept me in the business this long though are the people and the relationships I’ve made. It’s neat to build the long-term relationships. We’ve done christenings to engagements for the same people. It’s like family.

LK: It was the only thing I was good at. It was the only thing that I could do without thinking so hard about it, it just came easy.

Advice for Home Cooks:  

SS: I like to cook every once in a while. Don’t worry about exact ingredients. People get hung up on details. I think a free hand is good at home, unless you’re baking.

LK: Don’t watch the Food Network. People are afraid to invite me into their house because they think I will be critical but to me home cooking is the best. The food your mom and grandma cooked, it’s the best kind of food you can cook. Everyone tries to be so fancy and buy expensive knives, 'I got truffles in my house…' and that sort of nonsense.

Favorite Thing to Cook:

SS: Spaghetti with meat sauce and sausage. Simple, tastes good and lasts for days.

LK: Chicken and four-cheese pasta, it’s got four cheeses, marinara, vodka sauce, pasta and chicken.

Favorite Menu Item:

SS: Probably veal tenderloin sometimes served with lobster tail. Veal takes on a whole new flavor profile that appeals to me very much.

LK: I would say the branzino, it’s just light and nice. We also offer small plates at half the price. We want to change the perception of the restaurant, it’s not just a special occasion place. We want people to feel comfortable eating here any time.

Healthiest Menu Item: 

SS: Probably any of the fish, branzino, salmon, what Larry does with the sauces is light and fresh, not a lot of rich butter cream. It’s all lighter healthier eating.

LK: The seafood salad with fresh baby spinach, onions, red peppers, poached scallops and shrimp and roasted shallot vinaigrette.

Favorite Local Restaurant:

SS: Rose Tree Inn, Friday nights we always have great bands. Thursday nights we have open jam, lots of local talented musicians come in and jam together. A tremendous amount of talent comes in and plays their hearts out for four hours. We’ve had musicians that have been on tour with BB King and Bonnie Raitt. The entire restaurant has been renovated and overhauled and revamped over the past few years under the new owners (October 2009 is when it changed ownership).

LK: Rose Tree Inn. 

Favorite Restaurant in the World:

SS: I don’t really get out much because I work all the time.

LK: Catherine’s in Unionville, it’s just a small little restaurant, they don’t do much, it’s just a nice cooked meal. Simple but well executed. Kevin is a great chef there. They have a house attached to it.

Guilty Pleasure (food or drink):

SS: I’m on a KFC kick, it’s on the way back from picking up stuff for the restaurant. I’m a practical person. Not a craver.

LK: Chocolate ice cream and bbq chips, mixed. It’s the greatest thing you’ve ever tasted. Me and my son eat it all the time. Gotta use Breyer’s ice cream though.

Last Meal on Earth:

SS: Probably a porterhouse steak and a bottle of ’85 Chateau Margaux.

LK: Lemon soup that my mom made.

Cook for Any Celebrities?

SS: All of our local clientele are celebrities. Joe Frazier used to come in and order two livers with bacon and onions. Lots of the Phillies have come through as well-- Dalton, Dykstra, Harry Kalas with his sons (my last memory of him was with his sons).

Favorite Food Shows:

SS: I never watch any of that.

LK: I don’t watch any of them. 

Biggest Kitchen Disaster:

SS: Our dear waitress dumped the entire dessert cart on a customer, I had to scrape the cake off this woman’s back. It was actually the cake that the woman had come to pick up.

LK: One Thanksgiving day the chef I worked for forgot to pull the turkeys from the freezer the night before. They were frozen solid. It was a disaster. I won’t tell you how we defrosted them but we got it done.

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