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Moosewood Chef David Hirsch

September 19th, 2007

The Full Sensory Experience

David Hirsch, One of Eighteen Owners Inside Moosewood Restaurant


Moosewood restaurant is not just famous in Ithaca, it’s famous all over the United States and has been for over three decades.  Extremely well-known for its 10 cookbooks, it has vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike begging for more fresh and innovative recipes.  Dishes such as: Greek Fish in a Packet, Barbecued Tempeh and Peppers, Spicy Corn Quesadillas and Asparagus with Fried Eggs and Cheese are but a few of the fast, nutritious and easy meals they have excelled at creating.

After several visits to Moosewood, where the festive food and presentation always exceeded my expectations, I heard about the infamous garden of one of the owners, David Hirsch, from my waitress.  She also handed me his book, The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden.  I visited David at his country home, several miles removed from the city of Ithaca.  We sat indoors around his barn-wood dining table as the rain nourished the lavish evergreen shrubs; deep shades of foliage created a wall around his country home. David was carefully tending to baby kale as he placed their delicate frames inside plastic containers.  From where I sat I could see his handsome and exuberantly colorful garden, a varied palette of herbs, spices and legumes.

What has made Moosewood famous?
We were in the right place at the right time.  We also had talented people.  It was a good example of, “too many cooks not in the kitchen.”

Is it true the owners of Moosewood were all hippies in the ‘60’s?
No, but I can see how you got that.  There’s that kind of aura which makes it seem kind of crunchy and granola.

What’s the key to becoming comfortable in the kitchen?  
Oh, some people just have an innate talent.  You have to be sensitive to the material you’re using and to the end result.  If you’re making a stir fry, tofu, vegetable dish, you want the vegetables to be crisp and tender.  You also have to be sensitive to the timing of the vegetables, which is very different from the timing of the tofu.  Basically it’s a question of learning from your experiences.

What makes a really good cook?
Being sensitive to texture, smell, taste and appearance.  It’s a full sensory experience.

Some people follow recipes to the T – is that necessary with Moosewood recipes?
It’s important at first and after a while you should use your own sensibility.  With baking though, it can be important to follow the recipes as they’re written.

Tell me about the philosophy behind the cookbooks.
The major thing is they’re all well-tested and user-friendly.  Each one has a specific theme, like Quick and Easy Cooking, Low Fat Cooking, Simple Suppers and Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites, for example.

What is the difference between vegetarian and vegan?
Vegetarians don’t eat meat or poultry, but they will eat cheese, eggs, and dairy.  Vegans don’t eat anything relating to animal products.  Fish and seafood is 15 percent of our menu.  On the whole, Moosewood is predominately vegetarian and meatless. 

Do you think Moosewood would be famous if it were in any other town other than Ithaca?  How about Los Angeles?
That’s an abstract question because we’re not any place else.  But, some of the owners thought about opening Moosewood in other cities.  When push came to shove, no one wanted the daunting task of moving a restaurant.  Historically speaking, restaurants have a high risk factor.  You have to get all the factors just right for it to work.  I personally tend to think it would work in other cities though.

What is the most difficult part of running the business?
Keeping the quality of the food as good as you want it to be.  It’s a continuing challenge. Being part of a collective honorship requires a lot of give and take and compromise.

Do all the owners work at the restaurant?  
No, but I will say this, everyone who is an owner has put a lot of sweat into it at one point or another.
I noticed that everyone works together at Moosewood, that is, the wait staff help one another and share tips.

What is the philosophy behind this collectiveness/team-work of Moosewood employees?  
It’s very much encouraged for people to cooperate and help each other.  It’s collective in the kitchen and the dining room.  We once had this intern from Europe come and work for us who wanted to learn vegetarian cooking and he was surprised how supportive and helpful everyone is at Moosewood.  I guess his experiences in Europe were very competitive.

What if someone buys your cookbook but doesn’t normally cook – are the cook-books easy for non-cooks?  
All of our books have an A to Z guide to ingredients that make it easier for everybody, but if someone doesn’t normally cook, then I doubt they’ll buy any cookbook.

How did you begin cooking?  Did anyone influence you?
I was living in a couple of communes and cooked for people.  I loved watching Julia Child.  I was 15 or 16 and she made it look so wonderful.  And when I first moved to Ithaca from New York City, I was the cook at a fraternity.  That was my last job before I started at Moosewood, in fact.  I had eaten at Moosewood frequently and loved the food.  Then one day I went to the restaurant and offered them fresh basil to cook with, some I had grown in my garden.  We ended up doing a barter and eventually I started working for them.

Were you thinking of a different career path before getting involved with Moosewood?
I actually had a degree in architecture and had a great job in NYC, but I felt trapped being inside all day long.  So my plan, when I first moved to Ithaca, was to have a farm, work at Moosewood and enjoy my country home and country life.  I never intended it to become a career.

Did you start gardening before you joined Moosewood?  
Gardening was one of the reasons I moved here.  My love for gardening started at an early age.  At 12 or 13 years old I had a couple of flower beds.

How do you manage your garden in the winter?
That’s the time for rest.  You just let it sit.  If I lived somewhere where I could garden 365 days of the year, it wouldn’t be as precious.

What herbs do you love to cook with the most?  What’s your least favorite herb and why?  
I really like basil.  It has an exciting flavor.  I suppose my least favorite is probably savory.  In fact we never use it at Moosewood.

What is the process of coming up with a new recipe?
Since we have so many already, we check our database and see if we’ve already come up with a proposed recipe.  If we haven’t, then we fit the recipe into a theme, for example we have a number of tofu burger recipes, so I thought it would be a nice idea to come up with more veggie burger recipes.  We think of different ethnic leanings, like a Southwestern burger, for example.

What food is extremely difficult to cook and work with, but popular all the while?
Fresh artichokes, but then you have to clip them.  Fresh fennel and leeks, but there’s a lot you end up wasting.  Regardless, each of these has their own unique qualities.

Is everything organic at Moosewood?
No.  Living in this part of the world, December through April, any fresh produce would have to be shipped here.

How many of the owners have gardens?  Do they bring food straight from their gardens to the restaurant?
On occasion, but not enough to sustain more than a few days.   

What is the downside of working at Moosewood?  The upside?
Because the restaurant is collectively managed, there are times you have to let go of some issues or end results because others might have a different agenda.  When you’re sharing, you have to have the kind of nature that can, “go with the flow.”  It’s not necessarily a disadvantage, but the pie can only be cut in so many pieces.  The upside, well, if it’s just you and your family running the restaurant, you would be completely consumed.  At Moosewood all of the owners have a life beyond the restaurant.

Does Moosewood participate in charitable giving?
Every single one of our cookbooks gives to a local cause.

How has Moosewood changed over the years?
It’s changed, but it hasn’t.  We still do some of the same recipes that we started with and there are plenty of new ones.  We’re definitely more aware of vegan cooking and cooking with less rich ingredients.
What do you see happening to Moosewood 100 years from now when all the owners have passed away?
We haven’t figured that one out yet.

Has Moosewood’s original concept changed since you started?  
We have this perception of ourselves as a mid-range restaurant.  We have regulars who have been aware of us for years and years, but at the same time, we raise prices when our costs go up.  We have this argument about raising prices every now and then, but you don’t want to loose your business.

You ever think of having your own cooking show on cable TV?  
About five or six years ago, we started working on a pilot pitched to PBS, but that fell through.  At one point I thought a cooking school would be interesting, but I don’t know if Ithaca is the right place for that.  The restaurant business has never been a big enterprise for anybody. It’s all about working your brand and we’ve certainly nourished that.  What we do, we do really well, but we’re not entrepreneurs the way big companies are.  For us to expand, we need entrepreneurs to come along and run with us.

Moosewood Restaurant is located at: 215 North Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY  14850.  To speak with David Hirsch directly, call Moosewood at, 607.273.9610.

 

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