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Vital Source Magazine 09/2006
CHOW. BABY! Anaba Tea Room: Serenity to a tea
by Catherine McGarry Miller
Chef Gregg DesRosier dives into new and challenging situations just as he did in high school when he lettered in the sport. He now applies that energy and dexterity to a vocation he believes he was destined for. Today his two-and-a-half reverse today is putting an international spin on an English tradition.
"It's not hard to outdo the food in England," he says with characteristic bonhomie sans bravado. Anaba Tea Room is an English-style tea room with a Japanese name meaning "little known but pleasing space." The atmosphere in the lower level of Garden Room, the specialty gardening center where Anaba Resides, is more than pleasing with its tranquil fountain, exquisite artwork and more plants than any outdoor patio I can think of. It is enchanting. Given the accolades from tea aficionados who travel the globe seeking fascinating infusions, Anaba won't be "little-known" for long.
Pairing his menu with Anaba's concept and environment, Des Rosier flavors the British paradigm with touches of Asia, reflecting the name and the cuisines of tea-drinking nations like India.
The top layer of his three-tiered Afternoon Tea may feature sesame chicken salad atop savory scones laced with tea leaves, or lemon shrimp with Thai chili mayo on Asian slaw. His tea sandwiches have innovative fillings like sweet, minted cucumber, curried egg salad and proscuitto with avocado. The pastries reflect the English teatime heritage: sweet scones with jelly, berries and Devonshire cream, lemon curd crumpets and the like. The tea service is paired with any of over 50 Rishi teas infused tableside from leaf teas.
A West Bend native, DesRosier's culinary training started with an apprenticeship under Bonnie Stuntebeck, who left a position as sous chef at John Byron's to work at the Riverside in West Bend. "When I met her she was making a venison ravioli with ginger consumme', and food-wise that's like hearing the Dead Kennedys for the first time. It's like, 'Wow, you can do that?"
Early on, DesRosier decided to commute in order to live close to his family in West Bend. When Stuntebeck arrived, he begged her for a job and worked six days for three days wages in order to learn all he could from her. "It was a joy to work with Bonnie - I learned ten new things every day," he enthuses. "I learned the basics of everything from the ground up. In the 80s we were doing Beef Wellingtons, steaks and salmon. She was way ahead of her time making simple but time-consuming dishes - not sloppy or lazy. We had a real sense of pride and that's how you distinguished yourself then because everyone had the same menu.
DesRosier's career took off after his stint at the Riverside. He got every job he applied for and moved up the culinary ladder. In the early 90s, as Head Chef of the Audubon Inn in Mayville, he met up with a 15-year-old dishwasher with promise, Josh Sernowski. Des Rosier took him under his wing and taught him to cook.
"He really had aptitude and natural ability," DesRosier recalls. "He had the energy and I had the wisdom." In 2003 they formed a partnership to open a new restaurant in the Riverside's former location called Muddy's On Main. DesRosier felt the'd come full circle and that everything in his life was falling into place. Bt the deal broke down one day and the next Sernowski was in a car crash that left Josh with serious long-term injuries and another dear friend dead.
DesRosier was devestated. "Josh is somebody I wanted to work with all my life. (After the accident) I didn't want to cook again, so I sat in my house and sulked."
Then in March 2004, DesRosier read about Anaba on the Internet. "I didn't know anything about tea rooms and thought it would be a good place to start all over again - a complete distraction from what was going on in my life. I wanted to pick something I know nothing about."
He auditioned for the job by preparing several dishes for owner Deb Kern. "She's become an important person in my life," he says. "I landed here for a reason and she's a part of that reason. I couldn't have landed in a better person's lap.
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