Disney chef shares advice, recipe
I just came back from Disney World and had the best time any one could have. My favorite ride was the Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith. It shoots you out at 60 mph!
There was a lot to see and do and eat. I had a very tasty, but very strange, bubble gum milk shake, and I loved ice cream waffle cone from France in Epcot’s World Showcase. One night we went to the California Grill for dinner and I interviewed one of the chefs, sous chef Daniel Sicilia. Sous chef means second in command.
How old were you when you started to cook? I started cooking with my mom when I was about 6 years old. I always looked forward to the weekends when my mom and I would make cookies together. ... The kitchen was a place where you could get dirty, throw flour around. The best part was eating them.
What inspired you to become a chef? I really started cooking when I was 16 in Biloxi, Miss. My dad was a chef as well, and my grandfather was a butcher. It was in my blood. I enjoyed watching my father cook, going to see him in the restaurants and enjoying the food that he produced. I enjoy being around food.
Did you come to Disney World as a kid and want to work here? Actually, no. I came down to Florida to go to culinary school when I was 23 and was looking for an opportunity for an internship. ... When I started cooking here I loved it. I’d go to the park, watch the fireworks. I felt like a kid again.
What is your favorite dish to cook? I like making chili; I pride myself in my chili. And I like making a baked macaroni and cheese. I pour the chili on top of the baked macaroni and cheese. My mom always made chili mac; I just look it a step further with the macaroni and cheese.
When you were a kid, what did you like to eat? My mom had this Sesame Street cookbook and there was a recipe in there for tuna melts that I always ate as a kid. Either that, or she would make peanut butter and fluff sandwiches. I enjoyed that as well.
Did your parents force you to eat anything that you did not want to with any regularity? (My pop asked this one) Cauliflower. I love it now; there’s not really anything I won’t eat now, but when I was younger I absolutely despised cauliflower. My mother would put Cheese Whiz on it, but no matter what she did to it I would not eat cauliflower. Now I love it roasted, pureed, sauteed, in soup, pretty much any which was you cook it.
A word from Mom: Chef Daniel went to culinary school at Johnson & Wales in Miami has been working as Disney for eight years.
Jerome’s favorite dishes at California Grill at the Contemporary Grill were the goat cheese ravioli appetizer and the sweet potato dumplings with roasted Brussels sprouts. Chef Daniel e-mailed us the ravioli recipe and we made it the other day. I have a Pampered Chef tool that makes zigzag edges for pie crusts and we used that instead of a knife to cut the ravioli.
ŸJerome Gabriel is in fifth grade and has been helping in the kitchen since he could hold a spoon. His mother, Deborah Pankey, is the food editor at the Daily Herald.