Charlottesville Food by Casey Ireland Read Free Book Online Page B

a dining room is more formal, with views looking out over downtown Charlottesville. A knowledgeable waitstaff, bartenders-cum-DJs and a creative kitchen make C&O both a dependable local watering hole and a fine dining destination.
    On first impression, Dean Maupin could be a bassist in a New Wave band instead of a chef trained by French imports in ski resort kitchens. A native of Crozet, Maupin cut his teeth in the apprenticeship program at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. Rotations on breakfast shifts, sauce shifts and multiple other departments allowed for intensive training in various aspects of cooking for fine dining. Stints at Albemarle Baking Company and the Boar’s Head Inn preceded Maupin’s tenure at the C&O, an originally French restaurant opened in 1976.
    A father of three, Maupin’s ownership of the C&O is informed by his family life and vice versa, like many other food producers and chefs in the area. Maupin views restaurant work as the means to stay outside the mainstream nine-to-five work culture but insists on making his job work for his family. “The beauty of independent restaurants is that we close on holidays, but it’s counterculture in that sense where you’re going to work when everyone is getting off,” Maupin says. 99 Having other cooks in the household doesn’t hurt, either. “My wife was a chef, and she did this for ten years, working her way into good kitchens,” he notes. “She understands the time commitment and dedication it takes.” Maupin’s twenty-year career at C&O has certainly demanded dedication on his part; like any successful individual, however, Maupin has managed to balance work and family in a way that has made both intrinsic to his daily life.
    The C&O’s current mix of French and American cuisines, liberally peppered with local ingredients and seasonal flavors, was not always so. According to Maupin, C&O in its original format was as old school and traditional as some of Thomas Jefferson’s classic French recipes. Maupin states, “It wasn’t until the very early 2000s when the C&O stopped doing the French menu upstairs.” The more formal dining room on the second floor was almost a separate restaurant from the first floor, referred to as “the Bistro.” “One menu upstairs was French food, handwritten in French, with different plates than the Bistro but the same systems,” Maupin relates. “It needed to become a convivial, simplified menu.” And simplify Maupin has. C&O classics such as the steak chinoise , butter lettuce salad with Pommery mustard vinaigrette and the delectable coupe maison remain on the menu but in updated forms with new accompaniments. The classic salad now comes with grated Gruyère; the coupe is now topped with whipped white chocolate, with strawberries added to the decadent sundae.
    When asked what makes Maupin’s restaurant distinct from other fine dining options in the area, he notes that individuality and experience are key. “We’re all pulling from the same pool of vendors and farmers so that what makes you different is not so much the product that you’re using but the experience you’re offering,” Maupin says. “I think there’s great-quality food all over Charlottesville, which is truly a unique thing, this town being as saturated as it is with talented people and people who want to eat that way.” According to the chef, the only distinguishing factor between himself and other chefs are his “personal experiences as a chef and their personal experiences as a chef, how I look at it, how I write a menu, the relationships that I have with my line cooks.” Maupin sees running a restaurant as a collaborative experience, viewing himself as equally important as the line cooks and servers who implement his culinary designs. Another integral part of the collaborative effort is the products of local food