Category: Chef’s Favorite

When given their chance—either at home or at work—it’s surprising to hear what popular Massachusetts Chefs often turn to. Whether a nostalgic recipe or simply solution, the Chef’s Favorite thing to eat or prepare is often not what you would expect.

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Burgers, Mussels, Scampi and More: Chef Mike Muscarella Shares His Favorite Thing to Make in the Kitchen

Chef Mike Muscarella's Mussels

Our new series asking chefs to tell us their favorite thing to cook has posed a different question—what’s better: the process of creating or creating something for others to enjoy?

When I spoke with my brother, who is also known as Chef Mike Muscarella from The Fix Burger Bar, he agreed with Chris Rovezzi’s sentiment from the first Chef’s favorite article.

“Chris hit on something I think a lot of chef’s feel,” Mike said. “Chefs are hosts. We want to prepare food people enjoy and make sure everyone is having a good time. But, when we get home, cooking isn’t always something we feel like doing.”

You can see Mike's creative license alive and well while at The Fix, including The Dog Father which includes cheddar, beef chili, slaw, diced white onion, all beef hot dog, mustard pickles, on a brioche bun.
You can see Mike’s creative license alive and well while at The Fix, including The Dog Father which includes cheddar, beef chili, slaw, diced white onion, all beef hot dog, mustard pickles, on a brioche bun.

From the commoners’ perspective, I think we envy what a chef can do. We non-chefs wish we came home from a hard day’s work with the arsenal of a chef’s brain.

As far as being in a restaurant kitchen, Mike is proud of all of the burgers he has created on the menu at The Fix (like The Dog Father, pictured left), which is moving from their Shrewsbury Street location to the Northwards building in early July. But, he acknowledged that there’s a difference between the time you spend experimenting with recipes and when the restaurant is packed.

“When you have more time, it’s more fun. I like cooking on a holiday partly because I picture 30-feet of homemade gnocchi in Nana’s kitchen on Christmas with chicken cutlets, a ham, and a turkey on the side in case we’re still hungry—all of which she seemed to prepare effortlessly throughout the day,” he said.

“I also like the idea of making the same things year after year—like brining my turkey,” says Chef Muscarella.

After hearing that, I had to interject. I told Mike that if I had to guess his favorite thing to cook, I would have said shrimp scampi. I assumed the significant other’s favorite dish would top the list.

“I do really enjoy making shrimp scampi because of how much Lindsay likes it,” he said. “But if I had to pick a favorite thing to cook, the closest dish I can think of is mussels because it has a lot of all of the ingredients I like: too much garlic, too much white wine, chili flakes, and shellfish.”

While we may not have figured out ubiquitously if chefs like seeing people enjoy their food more than cooking food, I have two consolations. Mike vowed to post more burger photos on Instagram as @burgerchefdad.

And, he gave us his favorite mussels recipe so we can go home with a chef’s brain tonight.

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A Little Luck From A Box

Chef Chris Rovezzi Finds Comfort in Something From A Box.

With many incredible chefs in the Central Mass area, here at Mass Foodies we got to wondering: What do chefs enjoy preparing the most in the kitchen and at home? From there our new series Chef’s Favorite began. Our first stop took us west of Worcester to talk to Chef Chris Rovezzi, executive chef and owner of Rovezzi’s Ristorante in Fiskdale.

Having been through extensive culinary training and sampling the best of what the aisles can offer, Chef Chris Rovezzi can point to only one dish he likes to prepare when he’s at home. What’s most astounding about the dish is its prep time. In a mere 27 seconds, this chef can kick back with a fresh bowl of Lucky Charms.

I thought maybe he was exaggerating so I asked, “What about holidays and special occasions?”

His response: Never.

This doesn’t mean Chris goes without home-cooked meals; his wife, Tracy, does the cooking.

“She makes delicious meals. And, she has an eye for plating. She really goes above and beyond what I would do in some cases,” Rovezzi said.

Despite the restaurant industry’s notoriously late hours and frequent emergencies, Chris manages to make it home for two dinners a week with his wife and daughter.

With the wonderful, yet undeniable, chaos of the restaurant business, being in control seems essential. Given that, it’s hard to imagine why Rovezzi relinquishes all culinary control at home.

The chef recalled a story to help explain his affinity for the multicolored marshmallow cereal and the no-cooking-at-home policy. When Chris was set to meet Tracy’s parents for the first time, they were terrified to cook for a chef.

To allay his future in-laws’ fears, he said, “Anything you make will be wonderful, even if you put out franks and beans.”

They followed his instruction and Chris arrived to a feast of hot dogs and canned baked beans.

“Now that’s not something they would normally prepare but I happily ate it,” Chris said before asking the question: “Want to know why?”

I was stumped.

“Because someone else made it,” he said.

Between keeping track of ingredients and tapping into what the people want, his culinary prowess is satisfied at the restaurant. With that said, he doesn’t have a favorite dish to prepare when he’s there.

“My favorite dish to make is whatever will bring people the most pleasure,” Chris says.

His menu is filled with “fattening” his word and tasty (my word) food made fresh and with passion.

Before saying goodbye, I had to ask one more time: “If your wife didn’t cook, you wouldn’t even crack an egg? Slice up some cheese and a baguette?”

“No, I’d be eating a lot of cereal,” he said through a laugh.