carl thorne-thomsen, the executive chef and co-owner of story restaurant in prairie village, weaves a tale of the best ingredients and his family’s favorite dishes
by contributing writer carl thorne-thomsen
The premise behind the style of food I make both at home and at my res- taurant, Story, is that quality of ingredients
matters. As chef, ingredients inspire me. I like to know where they come from, what makes them unique, the “story” behind them. I don’t believe in excess or overabundance. I don’t manipulate or embellish products to the point that they are no longer recognizable. Chicken should taste like chicken, shrimp like shrimp, artichokes like artichokes. Each dish should be focused, with a central ingredient, a supporting cast of three or four flavors, a variety of textures, and a nice balance of sweetness, tartness, saltiness. More often than not, like an editor, I’m looking for things to remove from a plate.
Ceviche typifies simplicity. A traditional South American dish in which the acidity in citrus “cooks” diced fish, ceviche depends primarily on having great quality seafood. At the restaurant, it showcases the freshness of the fish we are able to get, despite being in the middle of the country. Thanks to FedEx, we can have fish in our kitchen the day after it comes off a boat. Snapper, bass, and fluke are all great choices for ceviche. Based on the season, I might highlight the fish with diced apples, raw corn, or radish; then some sort of heat, like habanero or serrano peppers, fresh herbs, and something crunchy, like a tortilla chip or crackers. It’s a refreshing appetizer that pairs well with a glass of cava or prosec- co for a delicious start to a meal.
My wife and business partner, Susan, and I have three young children, which can be a challenge when it comes to meals. We all like chicken though, and my favorite comes from Campo Lindo Farms in Lathrop, Missouri. It’s an amazing product, one of the best local ingredients in the area. Not only
are the chickens free-range, all-natural, and antibiotic free, they are unbelievably fresh, juicy, and delicious. At Story we roast the breasts and fry the thighs. The rest of the bird goes in the stockpot. At home, a pan-roasted chicken breast cooks quickly and is a partner for any seasonal produce. In the spring, pair it with asparagus and morels; in the summer, eggplant and tomatoes; in the fall, apples and roasted squash; in the winter, Brussels sprouts and fingerling potatoes.
Another mealtime favorite of my kids is homemade bread. I’ve been making bread almost daily for as long as I’ve been a professional cook. It’s important to me, somehow, an indicator of who I am as a chef. The art of baking bread, more interesting to me than the science of molecular gastronomy, never ceases to challenge me. I always said if I ever opened a restaurant, I would make the bread for it. Fortunately I’ve been able to do so at Story. We bake focaccia, brioche buns, and batard loaves daily for lunch, brunch, and dinner services. At home, my kids not only enjoy the finished product, they get involved in the process—measuring and mixing ingredients, kneading the dough, shaping it and watching it rise.
For dessert, we will have something with chocolate, there’s no question about that. Everyone loves it. Everyone devours it. I met my wife because of chocolate. She owned a gourmet food store that I first patronized for its selection of specialty chocolates. Scharffen Berger, Valrhona, and Callebaut are among my favorites. Iapplied for my first professional cooking job at her store and brought in a dozen dessert samples for her to taste. She told me I was hired after tasting the brownies. I still make them. I like to serve them barely warm, with homemade vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate ganache. It’s a simple delicious recipe that, along with the others, I hope you enjoy. Cheers.
Carl Thorne-Thomsen prepares the ceviche in his home kitchen.
sional cook. It’s important to me, somehow, an indicator of who I am as a chef. The art of baking bread, more interesting to me than the science of molecular gastronomy, never ceases to challenge me. I always said if I ever opened a restaurant, I would make the bread for it. Fortunately I’ve been able to do so at Story. We bake focaccia, brioche buns, and batard loaves daily for lunch, brunch, and dinner services. At home, my kids not only enjoy the finished product, they get involved in the process—measuring and mixing ingredients, kneading the dough, shaping it and watching it rise.
For dessert, we will have something with chocolate, there’s no question about that. Everyone loves it. Everyone devours it. I met my wife because of chocolate. She owned a gourmet food store that I first patronized for its selection of specialty chocolates. Scharffen Berger, Valrhona, and Callebaut are among my favorites. I applied for my first professional cooking job at her store and brought in a dozen dessert samples for her to taste. She told me I was hired after tasting the brownies. I still make them. I like to serve them barely warm, with homemade vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate ganache. It’s a simple delicious recipe that, along with the others, I hope you enjoy. Cheers.
RECIPES
Focaccia
10 ounces lukewarm water
1 teaspoon dried yeast
14 ounces all purpose flour
1 ounce olive oil, plus more for drizzling 2-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more
for sprinkling
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Pour the water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the yeast, flour and olive oil, then mix on low speed with the hook attachment until the ingredients form a rough dough. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
Add salt and mix on medium low for 15 min- utes. Increase the speed to medium and mix for five minutes. Spread a film of olive oil in a clean bowl or container large enough to accommodate three times the amount of dough that you have. Add the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until triple its original size.
Place a large sheet pan upside down in your oven and preheat to 500 degrees.
Turn the dough out onto a floured table and press out to a 10-inch by 15-inch rectan- gle. Flip over another sheet pan large enough to hold the shaped bread and lay a piece of parchment paper on it. Transfer the dough to the parchment lined pan, dust the top with flour, and cover with plastic wrap. Let proof until the dough feels airy when gently pressed. Remove plastic wrap, dimple the dough with your fingertips, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle on salt and Parmesan, and slide the dough, still on the parchment, onto the preheated pan in the oven. Close door and bake for ten minutes. Remove loaf and let cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
Ceviche
6 ounces snapper, diced
2 tablespoons green onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons apple, diced
1 serrano chile, halved lengthwise, then thinly
sliced
Mint leaves, thinly sliced Cilantro leaves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Salt to taste
Tortilla chips
In a bowl combine all of the ingredients except for tortilla chips. Mix and let rest for a minute or two. Place a spoonful of ceviche on each chip and serve.
Chicken Breast
2 6-ounce chicken breasts, boneless, skin on 2 tablespoons bacon, minced
6 fingerling potatoes, split lengthwise
8 Brussels sprouts, split
1 tablespoon shallot, minced 1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup white wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste Canola or grapeseed oil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat two sauté pans over high burners. Liberally season both sides of each chicken breast with salt and pepper. Add oil to one sauté pan and when it begins to smoke add both chicken breasts, skin side down. Meanwhile add the bacon to the other sauté pan and brown lightly. Add potatoes and Brussels sprouts to the pan with the bacon, and then place it in the oven. When the chicken skin has nicely caramelized, flip the breasts and place that pan in the oven as well.
After 12 minutes remove the chicken from the oven and set the breasts on a cutting board to rest. To the same pan the chicken was cooked in add the syrup and vinegar, then place over a medium burner and reduce by half. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Remove the potatoes and Brussels sprouts from the oven, add shallots, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Divide the mixture between two plates. Slice and plate each breast. Drizzle with syrup mixture.
Brownies
8 ounces unsalted butter
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly
chopped
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large saucepan melt the butter over low heat. Add the chocolate, put a lid on the pan, and remove from the heat. After 4 or 5 minutes remove the lid and stir until the butter and melted chocolate are smooth. Stir in the sugar and salt, then the eggs and flour.
Line an approximately 6-inch by 10-inch pan with parchment paper. Pour in the brownie mixture and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before cutting into squares or rectangles. (It’s so moist it will be hard to cut in such a way that the brownies look nice. At the restaurant we freeze the brownie while it is still in its pan. With a knife we separate the edges of the brownie from the sides of the pan, then flip it and let the brownie fall out in one piece. Then, while it’s still frozen, we cut our portions.) Serve barely warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
SIDE DISH
After moving from his home in Connecticut to Wichita to pursue a masters in creative writing at WSU, Thorne-Thomsen discovered his true passion in cooking. He was self-taught but tal- ented enough to be hired by a small café that happened to be co-owned by his future wife, Susan. After the couple moved to Kansas City, he worked as a line cook for 40 Sardines, and then followed Michael Smith on to his epony- mous restaurant and to Extra Virgin. When the opportunity arose to tell his own “Story,” the next chapter began.