Years in the making: Meet 6 of NJ's veteran chefs
The life of a chef is not an easy one.
The days are impossibly long, spent at the stove, the pass and everywhere in between. Hot oil and sizzling pans burn the skin. Knives slice through fingertips. Backs and shoulders ache from standing, and carpal tunnel settles in wrists that spend hours –years, actually – chopping and dicing, then chopping some more.
The chef owns the restaurant? The days just got longer, and even more is on the line.
Some chefs try – very hard – before deciding this is not the life they want. But for others, it is the only kind of life there is. They spend decades in the kitchen, always chasing the next great meal and keeping up with the times while holding on to a passion that sparked long ago.
Here are the stories of six of New Jersey's veteran chefs, the people who shape the way we eat and define the culinary identity of the Garden State. We are glad they stuck with it.
Chef Mike Jurusz, Chef Mike's Atlantic Bar & Grill in South Seaside Park
Some chefs are quiet, others more exuberant. Jurusz is the latter, a tell-it-like-it-is Jersey guy who loves making beautiful food and has been working hard for decades. Now 50 years old, he believes chefs should start at the bottom and put in the work. He pushes young chefs to master the basics before they try to spread their wings. "Success is longevity," Jurusz says.
What inspired you to become a chef? When I was 13, my neighbor owned a restaurant, and I would go over there and play around. And my mom’s a great cook, so I’ve just always been in the kitchen. I just found out I had a natural talent; it was very easy to me. It made sense to me.
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How did you get started? While in high school, Jurusz attended a county culinary program. After graduation, he went to culinary school at Johnson & Wales University, where he had perfect attendance: He didn't want to miss anything. “I dedicated myself to my profession, which you really don’t see today,” he said. After culinary school, Jurusz hit the road and spent six years traveling across the country to hone his craft. “I wanted to see the world, see who was doing what. I was very fortunate to work in some of the best restaurants in the country, with the best chefs. And I was just a sponge; I always had a notebook and wrote everything down." He returned to New Jersey in 1994 and got to work in local kitchens, eventually landing at Atlantic Bar & Grill, where he was head chef for 10 years before purchasing the restaurant in 2013.
Jurusz was inspired by Chefs Chris Mumford of Mumford's Unique American Cuisine in Long Branch and Cafe Mumford's in Tinton Falls, Neil West of Neil's in Brick, and the late Joe Romanowski, who owned Joe and Maggie’s Bistro in Long Branch and Bay Avenue Trattoria in Highlands. "They were all the guys to look up to as a culinary kid in the late '80s, early '90s. No one else was doing that kind of work; everyone was doing basic seafood, basic Italian. No one was doing anything cutting edge.
"Everybody has their own path. In culinary, there's a million avenues – fine dining is just one of those roads. That's the road I went down. I love the creativity, the colors, the plates, the excitement and the technique. That, for me, fueled me."
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Who are you as a chef now as compared to when you began? In the beginning, Jurusz pushed himself hard, as most chefs do. Hundred-hour weeks weren't uncommon as he made a name for himself. He believes young chefs need to learn and master basic techniques before skipping ahead to what’s trendy. “The analogy of my business is that all the kids today want to be rock stars before they’re even roadies. You have to learn to carry the equipment, you have to learn to set it up, before you can be Bon Jovi. Hard work and dedication to your craft pays off.”
Jurusz acknowledges that time has taken its toll on him. Older chefs, “we are not on the line anymore. I went so hard for so many years, and it just beat up my body. I feel it now, it’s caught up with me. But our knowledge is still there, our passion, our love. Our menus are still there. But I have no problem passing over the torch.”
What is your favorite ingredient to cook with? The chef favors chiles, a result of time spent in kitchens in Arizona and New Mexico. “When I came back to New Jersey, no one had heard of chipotle peppers, Anaheim peppers ... My other favorite thing is sea salt – local sea salt, Cape May sea salt, Himalayan sea salt, just really good finishing salts."
What is your favorite restaurant? When he goes out to eat, Jurusz favors fine-dining restaurants in New York City, Drew’s Bayshore Bistro in Keyport and Jersey Shore BBQ in Belmar, and adds that he loves Asian food, too.
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What do you love about NJ? The camaraderie between the chefs and the restaurateurs and the people in the industry is unbelievable. There's no in-fighting, no "I'm better than you." People like that don't make it. The guys that have been around a long time, there's such good camaraderie.
Go: 24th and Central avenues in South Seaside Park; 732-854-1588, https://chefmikesabg.com
Chef Jim Vena, The Coal House Bistro in Point Pleasant Beach
Longtime Monmouth County diners remember Vena, 56, from Anthony's in Brielle, where he worked for more than a decade before the Italian restaurant closed nearly 20 years ago. Today, he is executive chef at The Coal House Bistro, which opened in May on bustling Arnold Avenue. Customers from Anthony's visit him there, sometimes asking for a dish from the past. He is happy to make it.
What inspired you to become a chef? As a child in the '60s I lived in an Italian/Albanian neighborhood in Jersey City. At that time and place, it was still all about family and friends, with weekly get-togethers and food culture. I lived in the Italian house that you think of when you talk about Sunday dinner: We had a second kitchen and huge dining room in the basement. It was there that all the macaroni was made – taralli, sausage, fresh and dried – breads, etc. I would say I was born into it.
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How did you get started? Aside from all the cooking I saw and did at home, my first cooking job was when I was 12 years old. I worked the grill at an open counter at Johnny Bacc’s on Park Ave in Rutherford. My first job out of Johnson & Wales was at the Waldorf Astoria (New York City). I cooked for many celebs and politicians out of the room service kitchen. Frank Sinatra, who I would speak to about his meal, called me "The Kid from Jersey" because I gained his trust to cook Italian food for him.
Who are you as chef now compared to when you began? The restaurant industry has changed so much over the last decade because of social media. So now not only do I perform all my kitchen and office duties as a chef, I spend no less than an hour a day on the computer posting, and I also make a lot of videos that go online.
What, so far, has been the greatest meal you’ve ever eaten? ’’Over 20 years ago (in the mid '90s), the first time I had dinner at Le Bernardin. Second would be Le Cirque in 2000. Both meals really changed the way I thought about methods of preparation and presentation. Gotham Bar and Grill in the '90s also blew my mind with vertical cuisine plating.
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What are you favorite local ingredients? Here at Coal House Bistro, I take full advantage of the local fishing trade. I wait to get the call for a scallop or flat-fish boat coming in and getting true “that day fresh” seafood to my guests.
What is your favorite thing to cook? Not one specific thing, but the style of comfort food. It can be a pot of my 18-hour Sunday gravy for the Bistro or chicken and dumplings at home for the family.
What is your favorite thing about New Jersey? We truly are the Garden State, and I take full advantage of the seasons. And of course, as I mentioned, in Point Beach, my access to truly fresh-out-of water seafood.
Go: 710 Arnold Ave.in Point Pleasant Beach; 732-899-4400, thecoalhousebistro.com
Chef Scott Cutaneo, Oldwick General Store in Tewksbury
Rated one of the top 100 chefs in the world by The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, Cutaneo has had a long and varied career that has seen him as proprietor of the four-star Le Petit Chateau in Bernardsville, feeding athletes at six Olympic Games, and filming more than 200 food segments as Great Scott on “Fox and Friends” for 10 years. He has worked with acclaimed French chefs Michel Guérard, Daniel Boulud and Alain Ducasse and is one of the youngest James Beard Foundation Chefs to cook at The James Beard House in New York City.
A classically trained French chef, Cutaneo got his professional start in 1995 as a 26-year-old taking over the reins of the now-shuttered Le Petit Chateau in Bernardsville. Six months later, the restaurant was named “Best of the Best” by NJ Monthly. Le Petit Chateau received its first four-star designation in 1998, and Cutaneo was named one of the top chefs in the state and one of the top 100 chefs in the world.
Though he worked incredibly hard at Le Petit Chateau, Cutaneo, 49, felt he “never worked a day in my life.” The experience was pure joy, and that is the way he still approaches his greatest love – food. It all revolves around the kitchen, Cutaneo said. Many of the young chefs he mentored and tutored in his kitchens and who he calls “my chefs” now run top restaurants. Currently, Cutaneo can be found at Oldwick General Store in Tewksbury, and he is looking forward to his next and yet unnamed venture. His heart, and perhaps his soul, belong to French cuisine.
“That’s what I do," he said. "That’s what I love.”
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What inspired you to become a chef? I went to Boston University for business. All my side jobs were working in restaurants, from high school on. BU had an externship in Brussels (Belgium). They just opened it, and I took it with two MBA students. For my operations management class, they put me at the Royal Windsor Hotel. They had me in the front office, and I asked the director if I could work in the kitchen. I had always worked in the kitchen. And their chef, John Rabin, was the best in Europe the year before. I asked if I could fulfill my operations management in the kitchen and they said yes. It really had nothing to do with operations management. I was hooked. My mom is European, so I had dual citizenship and that’s how I was able to move to Europe after school. Then I went to Hogere Hotel School in Maastricht, Holland. I worked at The Ritz in Paris and for Michel Gurard at Les Prix de Eugenie in the southwest of France – major places. It was all about creating something and making such an impression on the person, and that goes back to everyone is a VIP and nobody is. That was my experience. So, I don’t care who they are. It doesn’t matter. If we just do every element of every plate 100 percent every time, then we are doing our best. We treat everyone like a VIP and are honest with ourselves that we are doing that. That was my experience. That is my experience. I took that to heart and I wanted to exceed everyone’s expectations because I fed on that. I wanted to please them. Cooking is my vehicle to do that.
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What is your trademark dish? We were really known for our duck confit, short rib and foie gras presentations, but then there are many more. If the food is in season – when it is most abundant, it tastes the best and it is least expensive – and you are passionate about this business, then whatever you are cooking is it. The best plate is getting the best reaction from the client, whoever they are. I don’t have any one dish. I like everything. French food to me is the benchmark of all cuisine. It is the sum of all its parts, the part being the whole. You could make a sea bass with four ingredients and it could taste like 4,000. It’s just the French food to me is nurturing that product to be the best that it can be, and if I have a great product to start with, I’m not going to mask its flavors. I’m going to nurture that to be the best that it can be.
What is your favorite part of a chef’s day? Going out to talk to the guests. I love interacting with guests. Like I tell some staff, “You’re here, and hopefully you have good self-esteem because whether it’s a president of a company or your child, if you see a smile on their face, that should be your only goal.”
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Who are you as a chef now as compared to when you began? (Earlier in my career) it was like a whirlwind. I was on the cover of magazines and …now, I’m calmer. Not getting jaded by any particular press or anything, I just want to enjoy and be the best that I can be.
What is your main goal as a chef? Every element of every plate that is executed is 100 percent - that is my mantra. All I want is to please people and exceed their expectations. Whether it’s French cuisine there (at Le Petit Chateau) or sausage and peppers here (at Oldwick General Store), we are responsible for those people during the time they are here. We are responsible for their nutrition. We are responsible for their experience, and that’s what I try to convey to my staff. They can go anywhere they want. We need to be grateful for every guest.
A lot of chefs are competitive. It’s irrelevant to me. If I can do the best that I can do and always thrive and never rest on my laurels and never believe more than five percent of what I am told in the thousands of articles that have been written about me, then I’m doing my job. I want to keep going. And get better. And once you think you know something in this business, you don’t know anything. If you are honest with yourself, there are new things and new ways, and a recipe always evolves through the years and it changes because you just have that feel. It’s hard to convey it in words in a recipe book. But you know when you do something long enough, you say “Let me add that,” because you feel confident. Because you want to refine it. And you want to get more excitement from the people you are cooking for.
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I remember those days so vividly – when the reviews meant everything. There have been so many cornerstone moments, chef moments in my life, all revolving around this business. This is my life. As you get older, it’s not about competition, it’s just “Good luck and God bless” and I’m trying to do my thing. That’s what I do. That’s what I love. And I never worked a day in my life.
What is the best meal you have ever had? I always remember the great meals I had in life. A James Beard dinner at The Watergate Hotel in D.C. It was called Restaurant John-Louis (for French chef Jean-Louis Palladin) and I ate there early on. I never tasted food like that. I remember I had an apple strudel. Oh, I was so green. But what I did know then was that I wanted to be able to create this. The way I felt, the way that experience impacted me, it was like a drug. I wanted to be able to do that, to impact someone as great as I had been impacted. I couldn’t believe that food could do that. That is something that I will never forget.
My other meal was (from) Rick Tramonto at Tru in Chicago. I went in there for lunch I went to Chicago for a restaurant show, so my goal was, I’m staying at the Four Seasons so I’m going to eat at Seasons – that’s a four-star restaurant. Then I’m going to eat at Tru – that’s a four-star restaurant. Then, dinner at The Empress Room. I went to Tru at lunch and he made a 28-course tasting menu. I didn’t get out of there until 4:30. And I cancelled my reservation at The Empress Room. I never went. But I didn’t ever taste flavors like that. It was French-inspired, but it was eclectic ingredients from around the world cooked in the French technique.
Go: Oldwick General Store is at 57 Main St.; Tewksbury; 908-439-2642.
Chef Shigeru Fukuyoshi, Sagami in Collingswood
Before Shigeru Fukuyoshi’s sushi became the stuff of culinary legend, the James Beard nominee had a simple goal – earn some money and go back to his native Japan. At the time, few Americans ate sushi at all.
Now 74, Chef Fukuyoshi continues to create some of the best at Collingswood’s Sagami the way he learned as an apprentice in the early 1970s in a New York City restaurant. Even as the Japanese dish is everywhere from four-star restaurants to food courts, it is Fukuyoshi's sushi that has Philadelphia chefs, celebrities and star athletes crossing the Delaware to savor his creations. See him at work in the video at the top of this story.
Shigeru Fukuyoshi and his wife, Chizuko Fukuyoshi, who manages Sagami, opened their restaurant in 1974 in a wood-paneled ice cream parlor on the Camden border. Today, the restaurant looks much the way it did during the Watergate years, set inauspiciously beside the PATCO high speed line, and separated from Collingswood’s restaurant row by the divided lanes of Route 130.
Generations of South Jerseyans and Philadelphians have sat in Sagami’s cozy wooden booths, in a space that looks much more like a 1950s ski lodge than an award-winning Japanese restaurant. (Chizuko Fukuyoshi says the first thing the new owners had to do when taking over the restaurant was to spend weeks scraping gum from beneath the tables.)
In 2017, Sagami was nominated for Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation Awards.
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What inspired you to become a chef? (Shigeru Fukuyoshi hesitates, and then breaks out in a wide grin.) Money! (He chuckles.) I don’t know … I just came to this country without money, so I started at a Japanese restaurant for a job. Then I like it, but I plan to go back to Japan. Then I meet her. (He points at his wife of 48 years, who is enjoying a quick supper of noodles before the dinner rush.) I met her at the same restaurant, and I was in the kitchen helping and she was attending daytime business school and nighttime she was a server. She made me stay here.
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How has your role as chef changed in 40 years? I don’t think we change, that’s why maybe we are so good. I think original menu is just changing according to economy and prices, they get a little higher, but this is original menu. When it was 1974, we didn’t have a sushi bar (where guests could watch chef at his craft), we had a hot kitchen. Then in 1985 sushi began booming, so we had to do it because the customers want.
What is your signature dish? Chirachi. I know people come here for that. (Made from scraps of fish, chirashi is a dish traditionally made to use up leftovers. At Sagami, it is made of only the best fish that comes from New York City almost daily, served over a bowl of rice with vinegar — mackerel, uni, engawa). People tell me other restaurants don’t have chirachi; I don’t know because I never go out.
What keeps customers coming back generation to generation since 1974? I think it is more a family restaurant, and also local. To people around here, we are like family. And here, we are a family. We have teamwork. Everyone is friend. (The couple has one adult daughter, Mymy, who lives in New York, he says.)
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What is your favorite thing to cook at home? She cooks for me. (Points again at his wife, who says her husband likes “mostly vegetarian food including an organic vegetable soup, maybe some broiled mackerel, as well as beans and fruit. He’s skinny, so he should eat more meat!’’ Her husband’s eyes light up.) And she cooks a good chili con carne!
So, how has it been to cook beside your Valentine for so many years? (Fukuyoshi grins again). Her birthday, Christmas … between us, we never do anything. We are always here. But to me, she is my friend ... My very best friend. We never tried to do this (he gestures at the room in a way that suggests he means its longevity, its great success). It just happened that way.
Go: 37 Crescent Blvd. in Collingswood; 856-854-9773
Chef Robin Winzinger, The Robin's Nest in Mount Holly
It was the sheer love of food that inspired Robin Winzinger to become a chef and later to buy an historic Victorian building in downtown Mount Holly that became her Robin’s Nest Restaurant more than 30 years ago. It was and still remains the anchor business of the Mill Race Village of antique and other shops that also are housed in historic buildings.
Now 56, Winzinger actually began cooking away from home as a teenager at a boarding school and “never looked back,” eventually graduating from the Philadelphia Restaurant School as a pastry chef as well as a regular chef. She calls her menu eclectic in a unique combination of French and American cuisine served amidst vintage decor, but she is well known for her bakery of scrumptious pastries and cookie varieties that also can be bought as take-out at the restaurant bakery counter.
Who are you as a chef now as compared to when you began? I now know how to make a dish out of ingredients we have on hand. And a chef really learns how to juggle the demands of the restaurant on the job, though getting the food cooked and in the window for the wait staff to bring to the customer is still stressful.
What is your favorite part of a chef’s day? Making soups is my favorite.
What do you love about New Jersey? The produce that is available to me, along with Jersey Shore scallops and clams.
What is your favorite local ingredient? Asparagus
What is your trademark dish? My trademark dish is honey pecan chicken with New Jersey cranberry cream sauce.
What is your favorite dish on your menu and why? My favorite is the entrée salad topped with grilled chicken. It is good for you and delicious.
What, so far, has been the greatest meal you’ve ever eaten? Rack of lamb on the grill. You can't beat it.
Go: 2 Washington St. in Mount Holly; 609-261-6149, www.robinsnestmountholly.com
Chef Michael Latour, Latour in Ridgewood
Chef Michael Latour has been an unapologetic champion of old-school French cuisine in New Jersey for more than 20 years. His Ridgewood restaurant opened in 1998 and has been offering rich, classic French food ever since, even as other French restaurants in New Jersey and New York have slowly shuttered due to dining trends moving away from the precise French way of cooking. Latour, 55 of Ramsay is a Johnson & Wales College of Culinary Arts alum, a member of the Société Culinaire Philanthropique, one of the oldest associations of chefs and pastry chefs, and has worked at many fine-dining restaurants, such as the Four Seasons.
What inspired you to become a chef? My parents took me to fine-dining experiences when I was a kid. We would go to the city in formal attire quite often and hit up every restaurant, from French restaurants to steakhouses. When you’re a young person and your parents have a profound interest in cuisine, it’s inspiring. And those were the days when no one went out to eat – you were lucky if you went to a Chinese restaurant once a year.
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What is your trademark dish? Our beef Wellington. It’s been our best seller for 21 years. We do it Napoleon style, so it’s layered and not encased. That way if you want it medium well or medium, we can make it.
What is your favorite part of a chef’s day? I go out in the dining room in between seatings. I make my rounds and I talk to all my customers. It’s a way to keep in touch with them and what their expectations are like. You have to be ready to eat crow a bit, but when you get negativity you can address it and make adjustments. There’s a stigma that when you go to a French restaurant, you leave hungry or you won’t be seated without reservations. There are certain expectations, and we don’t want to be like that.
Who are you as a chef now as compared to when you began? Right now, I’m making all these different breads. I basically have a commercial kitchen I designed in my home. I have rye and whole wheat starters. It’s incredible. I have these big buckets of flour, and I’m using different techniques. I’ve been using highly hydrated dough that I work into this beautiful product. Sometimes I cover them like a Dutch oven, and sometimes I’m just adding steam in the oven. As a chef you’re constantly evolving, and that’s important. I’d be bored otherwise.
What is your main goal as a chef? At this point in my career, with 21 years in Ridgewood, I’m very proud we’re still busy. My main goal is to fine tune and maintain quality.
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What, so far, has been the greatest meal you’ve ever eaten? It was the tasting menu at Le Moulin de Mougin in the South of France.
What do you love about NJ? I live in Ramsey, and it takes me six minutes to drive into work. I could never work in New York City again. It’s too much. And I could never work for anyone again. Being in Ridgewood is great; it’s the mecca of North Jersey dining.
What is your favorite local ingredient? I’m almost like a farmer, so I do grow a lot of my own vegetables. The scallops in New Jersey are very consistent, and working with duck is one of my favorite things.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home? Besides the bread, my favorite is a nice seafood bouillabaisse. You throw all your shellfish in and make a lobster sauce. It’s amazing.
What is your favorite dish on your menu and why? My favorite is the Dover sole that we do. You can’t find that at restaurants outside of France anymore. When you cook it with the butter and you get that natural saltiness with the gelatin and champagne and vinegar, it’s beyond good.
Go: 6 E Ridgewood Ave. in Ridgewood; 201-445-5056, latourridgewood.com
Hello, foodies! I'm Sarah Griesemer, food writer for The Asbury Park Press. If you have a tip on a new restaurant or an idea for a story, please share it with me at sgriesemer@gannettnj.com. And if you love reading about the Shore's dining scene, follow me @jersey.shore.eats and consider a subscription; learn more at https://offers.app.com/specialoffer.