Chef Chittum with piece de resistance for Mother’s Day menu Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
Executive Chef Anthony Chittum has set out a tray in the kitchen at Vermilion on King Street with ham, goat cheese, local honey, homemade red onion marmalade and coddled eggs. He is making the Mother’s Day special, which was a favorite of the French mother of his sous chef Franklin Sivac. Chittum says the upcoming Mother’s Day menu is focused on the Mother’s Day favorites of the staff at Vermilion.
Since the restaurant is farm-to-table with the freshest local and domestic ingredients, Chittum says the ham is a domestic prosciutto from a farm in Kentucky, the Goot Essa ash goat cheese is from Pennsylvania, the sourdough is from Bread and Water in Alexandria and the honey from Earth and Eats in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. The olive oil which is sprinkled on as the grand finale is from Georgia Farm where they grow and press the olives.
Chittum cuts a thick slice of sourdough bread and tosses several generous pats of unsalted butter in a cast iron pan on high heat. Then in goes the slice of sourdough bread. “Usually we would grill this but Franklin called his mother in France, and his mother said she wanted the bread buttered. “So I will toast the bread in the skillet about a minute on each side, just long enough to warm the inside and caramelize the outside.” He adds a couple more pats of butter.
Chittum takes the toasted bread to his work counter and carefully arranges several slices of the prosciutto on the top of the slice. He cuts two chunks from the roll of Goot Essa ash goat cheese and cuts each in half. Then with a vision, he arranges them in and around the prosciutto.
“I’ll make a small space here on the side for the coddled egg. “ He has cooked the egg 5 minutes in boiling water, drained it and immediately plunged it into ice water. “Then you peel it immediately.” This gives you the coddled egg which is the perfect place between a soft boiled egg and a hard boiled egg. He carefully breaks open the egg on the plate and the yolk drips around the edges of the prosciutto. He sprinkles on a little Maldon sea salt.
Chittum tucks small dollops of red onion marmalade in the crevices around the prosciutto and goat cheese. He has made the marmalade by chopping purple onions finely, adding local honey, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, and a little citrus and cooking it for about 20 minutes. “It adds a little sweet and sour. It is very rich.”
Finally he garnishes the dish with purple watercress “which adds a little heat, bitterness” and then sprinkles a few mustard blossoms around the top. He says this is one of the four appetizers, five entries and two desserts on the Mother’s Day menu.
Chittum has been at Vermilion for a year and a half but it was a return for him after spending 5 years at Vermilion before heading to Irongate in DC for 12 years. Chittum grew up on Kent Island where he remembers going crabbing and shucking oysters in the backyard. But his parents weren’t really culinary experts, and he got his first real experience with food when he was 17 years old working for a talented young chef in a neighborhood place. “I learned a lot from him, and it was the first time I thought of cooking as a potential career.”
His next step was a move to San Francisco where he worked for James Beard award-winning chef Donald Link who he says was his biggest influence. “It was the first time I was away from home, my family and friends. I had to make it on my own. It was a pivotal experience, and I had to make money to survive in the big city. He ran a very strict ship, and it was here I learned a lot about the difference between a neighborhood and a high end restaurant.”
Chittum says being a chef is a big challenge. It is about a lot more than preparing food. You have to manage people and also the costs. He explains about 30 percent of restaurants will go out of business in the coming year. Chittum also thinks times have changed, and chefs want more balance in their lives. “It is a tough job. I want to give my staff good wages and a balanced life. I want to see my ten-year-old son’s baseball games.”
Chittum has earned a number of culinary awards including a Best New Restaurant nod from the Washingtonian at Notti Blanche, Rising Culinary Star of the Year when at Vermilion the first time as Executive Chef with recognition as the Best Upscale Casual Restaurant with three stars from the Washington Post.
As for the Mother’s Day favorite in Chittum’s family. “Well, you see the porterhouse steak on the menu. That is always the favorite of my mother-in-law. She requests it at every occasion.”