Chefs share recipes learned from their mothersChefs share recipes learned from their mothers

Bret Thorn

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Whether they started cooking while holding their mother’s apron strings, were inspired by the treasures served at the family dinner table — or possibly, if their mothers’ priorities weren’t in the kitchen, learned to cook in self-defense — maternal influence can usually be found in a chef’s cooking.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

On this Mother’s Day weekend, several chefs reflect on the recipes and ideas they got from their moms.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Sophiane Benaouda, executive sous chef at Grand Cafe in San Francisco, loves to go home to the south of France for his mother’s seafood cassoulet, which now is a new menu item at his restaurant -- albeit with California ingredients.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Blythe Beck, executive chef of Central 214 in Dallas, serves her bread with pimento cheese spread and smoked trout salad, two of his mother’s favorites.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

“She jokingly said to me one day that that would be the best treat ever if she sat down in a restaurant and they brought that to her," Beck said. "As a chef, if you can make dreams happen, you do. More importantly, I could do something nice for my mom.”Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

The pimento cheese is made with ground Colby Jack and mixed with mayonnaise, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, salt and lemon juice. The trout salad is smoked fish with roasted garlic aioli, thyme, lemon juice and salt. Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

“My mom came in and I surprised her with it,” Beck said.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Her other guests liked it, too, so she kept it on the menu.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

In Portland, Ore., Mother’s Bistro & Bar and Mama Mia Trattoria features recipes from mothers from around the world with their Mother of the Month menu.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Particularly close to chef-owner Lisa Schroeder’s heart is her own mother’s chicken noodle soup, a Jewish holiday staple when she was growing up.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

 Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

In New York, at Capsouto Freres, the house artichoke is the recipe of the Capsouto brothers’ mother. The artichokes are added to hot water with carrots, potatoes, oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and a little honey. That’s covered with romaine lettuce leaves, which act as a lid. The cooked artichokes are served with a sauce made by reducing the cooking liquid.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Their calf’s liver -- sauteed in butter, deglazed with sherry vinegar and bordelaise sauce, topped with fried shallots and served with mashed potatoes, spinach and baby carrots -- is also a specialty of their mother.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Eduard Frauneder, co-owner and executive chef of Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar in New York, learned how to make traditional crumbled caramelized pancakes called Kaiserschmarrn with apple stew from his mother in Vienna.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

“Like most children, my brother and I preferred sweets over fruits and vegetables,” he said. “In order for us to get our daily intake, my mother had to hide it in these pancakes. I still have the smell of the freshly baked Kaiserschmarrn with just a hint of rum forever in my nose.”Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

And some chefs just haven’t managed to match their mothers’ cooking. John Currence, chef-owner of City Grocery, Snackbar, Big Bad Breakfast and Boure, all in Oxford, Miss., won the 2009 James Beard Foundation Award for best chef in the South, but he still can’t match his mother’s version of duck stew -- a riff on a South Louisiana recipe, with mushrooms and water chestnuts. He also has spent his whole life trying to recreate his great-grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies. Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

She made them without measuring, just cooking by feel and memory. He said he’s getting pretty close, but he hasn’t quite nailed it yet.Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.

Ask chefs how they got interested in food, and the most common response has something to do with their mother.