Michelle Polzine

Chefwatch: Before we get started, tell me a little about yourself. Where you worked.

Polzine: I didn’t go to cooking school. I learned cooking in North Carolina.

Chefwatch: You were at Elaine’s, weren’t you?

Polzine: Yes!

Chefwatch: So are you from there originally?

Polzine: No, I’m from Southern California. I kind of went there via here.

Chefwatch: So tell me about your work history, where you learned, where do you feel like you learned?

Polzine: I feel like what I learned there and how I learned was in a different way than most people, because the people who are cooks in Chapel Hill are not cooking school people. They’re people who finished the PhD program but never finished their dissertation. Mostly people there, until I started working at Nana’s, they don’t take cooking super seriously. It’s a thing that they do.

I always wanted to do desserts and I was a line cook, and I didn’t get a chance until my boss where I worked called me because the bread baker was too drunk to come to work and said, “Can you come help?.” I was like, “yeah but you’ve got to give me a shift.” So that’s how I got my first baking job. I kind of muscled my way into making desserts.

Then… I don’t remember what year it was… it was for my birthday, and I was 26? 27?... my husband took me to dinner at this place called Nana’s, which was opened by Scott Howell. We went there and I said, oh my God, this is so different! This isn’t like what we’re doing. I want to do this. And so then I called the pastry chef and she was like, ‘Okay well you can come up and intern here’ and so I did.

After I worked there a little bit she was like, ‘You’re cool. Come work here.’ No way? ‘Really.’ And so then I had to learn how to drive.

Chefwatch: How old were you?

Polzine: 27?

Chefwatch: You didn’t know how to drive until you were 27?
You know, it’s not that fun teaching angry people how to make cake.
Polzine: I used to only work at places that I could walk to from my house in Chapel Hill. So I worked there and then at Pop’s with my friend, Kevin Farmer. He’s a super bread baker. I’d baked some breads before, but he was like one of those mystical bread guys.

I learned a lot of my philosophy from him and other super educated guys. His philosophy was very simple. I got a lot of my aesthetic from him, like just leaving it alone. Nana’s could be fussy but Pop’s was not fussy. Kevin was not fussy. Kevin was simple.

Chefwatch: How long were you at Elaine’s?

Polzine: Over two years.

Chefwatch: So, where did you work here?

Polzine: When I first worked here I got a job at Bacar which is where I met Phil (West), and then Lulu’s, and Delfina. I worked briefly as an instructor, or I should say associate instructor at CCA. But I like cooking more than teaching cooking. That school is kinda strange. It’s really expensive and I feel like the kids are bitter. I got them at the end doing advanced baking and pastry and they were starting to realize that the jobs were paying $10, $11 an hour and they had $50,000 debt. They were angry by then. You know, it’s not that fun teaching angry people how to make cake. They’re bad mouthing the cake.

“I’m a cook. I don’t want to make cake.”
“Come on, let’s make some cake.”

I used to tell them, do you want to be a pastry chef’s bitch because if you don’t know how to bake you will be.

I did that for a while and then I went back to Delfina where I was the pastry chef for two years. Then I took off and did an internship at Chez Panisse and then I came here. I couldn’t go directly here. I had to do a little hopping. Neighborhood politics.

Chefwatch: I wondered about that because there’s so many places you’ve worked in this ‘hood: Luna Park, Delfina, and here, Maverick.

Polzine: Phil lets me do what I want here. I couldn’t do what I wanted at Delfina… I could only make two new things there. And then I had to make panna cotta and profiteroles and that stupid molten chocolate cake every day. It was within a pretty strict framework.

Chefwatch: Really boring for you.

Polzine: Yeah, really boring. Yeah. Really boring. And I mean, they don’t even make their own ice cream for the profiteroles. They buy it from Ciao Bella. So I didn’t even get to have the pleasure of making ice cream.

It’s more fun for me here since I get to do whatever I want. Look, I’m writing my menu right now! I scribble little notes in my diary which is better since I used to always do it on little scraps of paper. But then my husband got me this and, he’s like, “This will help you be a little more organized.” I’m like, “what, you’re sick of finding these everywhere?” But it’s good because I start to have a little more of an archive.

Chefwatch: Well you can start putting them on the computer because eventually if you ever wanted to write a cookbook…

Polzine: The computer…funny. (laughing)

Chefwatch: Says the woman who doesn’t like to type.

Polzine: Yeah, not yet. I’m different than the other kids. It’s not in me to be super organized. Like I sorta make it up as I go.

Chefwatch: So I know we talked about your cooking history but how did you get started cooking?

Polzine: Well actually I’d been a political organizer for three years for environmental groups and organizing on women’s health care in San Francisco and, I wanted to do a job that I didn’t care about as much. Isn’t that funny? Yeah, so there you are. I think it’s just the way I am. I end up caring about whatever I do.

Chefwatch: Who or what is your main culinary inspiration?

Polzine: Hunger.

Chefwatch: Hunger?

Polzine: I cook for myself. I cook to please myself. Luckily that happens to please other people.

Chefwatch: I like that. So how does that translate into what you’re doing now?

Polzine: Well, I wake up in the morning and I think about what I want. So I usually like write it down in my diary and drink my coffee and write my goals and then I ride my bike to work. If it’s like colder outside than I thought it was then I might change some things. Like, oh it’s cold, I want cobbler. I want this, and, or that’s too refreshing for a cold day. Or it’s hot outside. So I might change it to something lighter.

Chefwatch: Like a Granita?

Polzine: Yeah. Sorbet or something fruity, not rich. So that’s how, I think about what I want; I think about what are the deals. Sometimes I’ll come to work and, like yesterday, I had my whole menu planned out and I came in and there was a flat of strawberries, M had an extra flat of strawberries on the truck. So I changed everything. You know, because if you change then something else might have to change to make the menu complete. It’s like a little five piece puzzle. You think, Oh that can’t be in that cause that’s in that other dish.

Chefwatch: Do you change your menu every day?

Polzine: Yeah.

Chefwatch: Wow.

Polzine: I think that’s what I learned from the crazy smart people in North Carolina. I’ll just go with it.

Chefwatch: Keeps everything fresh.

Polzine: Yeah. I don’t like making the same thing over and over again. The thing that I have to make over and over again is the cheese soufflé.

Chefwatch: So what keeps you going day after day? What keeps you fresh?

Polzine: I can change the menu as much as I want so I never get bored. There was one time when I was burned out and Phil said, “Why don’t you just not change the menu for a while?” So I kept it the same for a week, and then I needed to change it and I couldn’t because all the gears were stuck. They weren’t moving. It’s sort of like I guess if you don’t take your car out, the battery dies.

Chefwatch: Do you have a favorite ingredient?

Polzine: I think plums. I like to eat them. I love plums. I’m crazy about them.

Chefwatch: What is it about plums?

Polzine: They’re so good! They’re so delicious. I love them. And there are so many different varieties. You know, they mix them with all kinds of stuff; like apricot, you get pluots. I think they’re delicious like you can make tarts with them, and ice cream and sorbet. They just really lend themselves to everything good.

Chefwatch: So what was the most memorable meal you’ve ever created?

Polzine: Um. I don’t know. I don’t really think that the way I am is that I do one thing which is like, Ohhhhh! The one thing! Maybe it doesn’t seem like that exciting, but I think when you come here and you eat Phil’s (West) food and you follow it with my food it’s like all very meshy. Everything is very linked. As far as the way things work in San Francisco I think there is continuity and I don’t think you get that a lot. It can be charming.

Chefwatch: Well, what’s the most memorable meal you’ve ever eaten?

Polzine: I would have to say it’s that birthday dinner at Nana’s because it really changed so many things for me. You know, I’ve eaten at the French Laundry but it didn’t change my life. It made me a lot broker. But it was super delicious and a great experience but it didn’t do anything for my life at all.

Chefwatch: Okay. Do you have a favorite chef or a favorite place to eat?

Polzine: Pizzetta 211. That’s my favorite restaurant in San Francisco. I love it there.

Chefwatch: Really? What makes it your favorite place?

Polzine: First of all we ride our bikes. My husband and I, we go on a bike ride there and he’s a vegetarian and so, there’s stuff he can eat, there’s stuff I can eat. The pizzas are perfect. They’re just these perfect little creations and they’re small enough that I can get everything if I really have to. They make a chocolate cake which is good. And she makes super delicious tarts. The tarts that Ria makes that are some of the best that you can get in San Francisco.

And they have cheap wine. You can sit down and have a bottle. It’s good.

Chefwatch: Without breaking the bank.

Polzine: I always end up breaking the bank although I don’t know how I do that.

Chefwatch: Was there a challenging time in your career?

Polzine: Yes, when I moved to San Francisco no one would give me the time of day. North Carolina? You didn’t go to cooking school? Nobody cares about you. I even called a headhunter and I was like, “where are all these jobs that read about in the paper.” I called this woman and she was like, “honey, no ones ever heard of you. No one cares about you. You didn’t go to cooking school.” And I was like, “but I had a five page spread in Fine Cooking on the cover and everything.” And she was like, “no one cares.” Okay. No one cares. So I ended up as a pastry assistant job at Bacar. I moved here at a really weird time. I moved here just after the dot-com bomb and…I moved here in January of 2002. An interesting thing had happened in the city right before I came in that all these people had left their restaurant jobs and there were tons of restaurant jobs being filled , so I felt that at that time there a lot of, people were less qualified than me in their chef positions. No one was moving. No one was going anywhere. So I took an assistant job, which was hard for me after already having been a chef.

Chefwatch: Yeah.

Polzine: I mean it’s fine if you come to a point in your life where you’re say, I’m going to take a step back now. I think that’s totally something everyone should do lots of times. But I wasn’t ready to do that. I wanted to come here and not be broke. When I was planning on moving here I was looking at how much people were making and how many jobs there were available and then, George Bush made everyone mad and they blew things up and then everything went to hell and then I couldn’t find work. So here we were. I think that was the biggest challenge.

Chefwatch: I remember that. That was a tough time. So if money, time and manpower were no object what menu would you create?

Polzine: There’s a place in New York that I love called Chikalicious and I love the way she does her menu. She does, like sit down, and it’s just a little bar, and sit down and you get an amuse, you choose from four desserts, you get your dessert and then you get petit fours. I mean that’s perfect. That’s a dessert meal. That’s what I would do. I would totally do that here if I had more of those things, mostly the money one.

Chefwatch: I think that would really go here.

Polzine: Yeah, I think so too. I know somebody’s probably going to do it before me because I don’t have the money. Maybe they’ll work out all the kinks and then I can do it after them and do it better.

Chefwatch: What one piece of advice would you give to cooks who are just starting out that you wish somebody had told you when you first started out?

Polzine: Are they already done with school? Don’t go to school. Go find your favorite restaurant and ask them to work there. This is exactly what I did. Work and not get yourself into all that debt; you need to go work someplace and see what it’s like and see if this is something you want to do. It’s super hard and you don’t get the days off that you want, and it’s hot and your back hurts and everything hurts and you have to know if that’s what you really want to do. If you’re willing to work through all those things before you do it. But that’s not good. That doesn’t really answer the question. h

Chefwatch: No, it does answer the question.

Polzine: Good, cause that’s kind of what I did. I think that’s sage advice. I look at a lot of young people; I think actually the strangest thing for me now, I’m 37 and I work with, when you’re 37 the other chef in the kitchen might be 37 but everyone else in the kitchen is like 21. They come in and they come to work.

Chefwatch: And they all want to be Michael Mina or Thomas Keller.

Polzine: Well I think that’s the impression that they’re given when they’re recruited for school. I have a lot of problems with people want to go to the CCA accelerated program and it costs as much as the two year program at CIA. They’re not going to learn as much and they’re going to pay as much. It’s insane.

Chefwatch: It’s like cooking stock. It takes time.

Polzine: Yeah, yeah. It does take time. You know, a $50,000 monkey on my back for a 21 years old. You should not be starting out with that. My advice is, don’t start out with that. If you work for a while and find you’re not getting what you want and you need a classroom to learn then go. But maybe community college or even like, I like the Tante Marie school. It’s small and she’s an award winning instructor. You’re not getting a glorified shuffle through the classroom.

Chefwatch: So what advice would you give to home cooks out there?

Polzine: Chill your butter. I don’t know. Chill your butter. Preheat your oven. Get a pizza stone. It’ll make everything better.

Chefwatch: Any future plans that you’d care to share with us?

Polzine: Nope, I’m here for a while.