Chef Mark Alan Mollentine / The Well-Seasoned Chef
My interest in cooking started early. My family is Italian-American, and for the most part pretty good cooks. I grew up around food. Our yard was graced with fruit trees and berry bushes and we always had a small garden with vegetables and herbs. When it came to family visits, it was always a major production. We would go to the Italian market for authentic items: spicy sausages, rich cheeses, specialty peppers, bundles of fresh garlic and bottles of imported vino, for cooking of course! Everything was always hand-made, the pasta, the sauces, the side-dishes and, of course, the desserts. The food was simple, but extraordinary.
In high school, I worked in a few restaurants and actually took a home economics class, where I won first prize for my cherry pie. (Just to be clear, I also played Texas football and cowboyed on a cattle ranch.) I went to college and started in a career in sales. However, my passion for food always continued. I was the person my friends called to help them with special dinners, or to be in charge of the BBQ at the picnic, or to make sure there was food at all those parties one attended when you're in your twenties. In fact, for the first date with my wife I cooked her dinner, and 30 years later she still loves my cooking!
My sales job evolved into me organizing hospitality suites, grand openings and outdoor events all around the middle U.S. in cities like Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, San Antonio and many other great food towns. There was always food, and I was always in the middle of the excitement! I quickly learned to love the diversity of food in this country. It wasn't the fancy catered hors d’oeuvre parties at the expensive, big-city hotels I remember most from this time period. But rather, it was about experiencing first-hand Memphis style B.B.Q., or seeing how alligator tail is “properly cooked” in Southern Louisiana, or sweating through meals made with "real" chili peppers in San Antonio from people all passionate about their local foods.
Fortunately, I was in a position to attend culinary school in Dallas, Texas. As a culinary student I was selected by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) as “Outstanding Student” and was invited to the annual conference in San Antonio where I assisted Ms. Julia Child with her activities, including book signings and prepping for a TV Show. (The story “My Day with Julia” can be read on this website's blog.)
My first professional “chef job” was as an apprentice at a small, private school. One day, this tiny little blond girl of 6 or 7 was tugging on my pant leg and when I bent down to her she whispered, “Please don’t tell my mom, but I like your food better than hers.” My first fan!
With my wife, we returned home to Kansas City. My experience here has included eight years as a culinary instructor; banquet chef for Hallmark Cards' family namesake country club, Hallbrook C.C.; executive chef of the prestigious Wynbrick Country Inn in Liberty, Mo.; owner of a prominent catering business and the historic Governor’s Meeting House Restaurant in Shawnee, KS. I'm also the private corporate chef for Gear For Sports, a Kansas City-based international corporation; chef for Good Natured Family Farms local-food alliance and I write a food column “The Chef’s Table” for a Kansas City food magazine.
I've cooked for major celebrities, renowned political figures, top corporation executives and prestigious university chancellors. I was the chef/caterer for the movie “Ride with The Devil”, where I was chosen to personally chef for the movie's top talent, Ang Lee, Jewell, Toby Maguire, Skeet Ulrich and others. My own “screen credits” include over 20 live-television cooking segments, a DVD highlighting local holiday foods, appetizers & cooking techniques, and hundreds of private and public “chef cooking demonstrations.”
Proudly, for the past five years, I’ve been associated with the Kansas City Buy Fresh / Buy Local program, helping to create a better consumer understanding of local, farm-fresh foods. In connection with this venture, I've launched my own line of artisan-crafted, All-Natural Sauces and Hand-Selected Seasoning Blends under the name “Chef Mark Alan.”
Everyday as a chef is full of new experiences for me. Even after doing this for two decades, I'm still delighted by a compliment from a guest, or by creating a new “interesting” dish or discovering a crate of perfect peaches for the weekend's desserts. As when I was a young boy watching my relatives collectively peeling, slicing and dicing up all sorts of foods into a hodge-podge of bubbling pots and pans holding food fit for royalty, but made for our family, I still try to make everything I cook that simple, yet that extraordinary.