Meet the chef: Duncan Aiken
Title: Chef/owner Overton Park Pizze Stone
Age: 39
Hometown: Brownsville, Texas
Who or what was your first cooking influence? My mother and Julia Child. I grew up watching Julia Child. My dad was a smoker. I saw her make these chocolate cigars and I was like, "I'll make my dad quit smoking by giving him chocolate." ...They didn't come out correctly at all. I was like 5 years old.
Duncan Aiken
More Dining News 
Share and Enjoy 
What was the first thing you ever cooked or baked? My sister made me really mad one time. ... I just grabbed sugar, flour, eggs, some raspberry jam and some earthworms and ... made an earthworm cake for my sister.
What made you decide to become a chef and when was that? I love to eat and I love to cook, but one day I learned the proper knife skills. I was only 16. I'm sitting there chopping things and looking over at Rick (Farmer, chef/owner at the old Jarrett's restaurant) at what he was doing. ... He finally noticed I'm just looking at him just chopping a thousand miles and hour and he was like, "Do you want to be a chef?" ... It was the only thing I was ever interested in.
What was your first food-related job? La Patisserie.
What was something important that a fellow chef taught you? What Michel Leny (Cafe Society host/former owner) taught me is never to cheat the customer. Never let them leave hungry.
What is the Duncan Aiken style? Simplicity. Three to five main ingredients, main dominant flavors.
Describe a dish you created. The Savory Cheesecake I do. The spinach, artichoke cheesecake. It's similar to a spinach artichoke dip, which I love.
What do you cook or bake at home, if anything? I go for the cold things. I like hummus and good cheese. Simple. Really, I just make pasta at home, fresh pasta.
What's your least favorite ingredient? Cardamom. ... I'm just not used to the flavor. I probably haven't worked with it enough and probably overused it. It's a delicate thing. It's perfumey. ... It's a hard flavor to pair.
Overton Park Pizze Stone is at 1545 Overton Park; 725-7806./p>
Contact Michael Donahue at 529-2797 or e-mail donahue@commercialappeal.com.
Comments » 1
QuestionMemphis writes:
forgetaboutittt go D
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.