All About Food: Playhouse cooks up drama with play

That world-renowned Parisian restaurant, Café du Grand Boeuf, is now serving dinner at the Laguna Playhouse.

Unfortunately, it is only dinner for one. Victor Bullard is a fabulously wealthy gentleman who created the restaurant for his own pleasure and who, even more unfortunately, has decided to starve himself to death as the result of an unhappy love affair. All the while, he (and the audience) are being tempted by his loyal staff with mouth-watering descriptions of an elegant gourmet seven-course menu.

If this taste of the plot has tantalized you and you want more, this charming little play runs through Sunday. Claude, the head waiter, dramatically and deliciously describes each dish with a feast of adjectives and adverbs in an attempt to get Victor to reconsider his mortal plan.

“The first course is Wild Game Consommé with poached rabbit quenelles: first, little bones are meticulously roasted until golden brown, nestled in the oven with garlic cloves, Welsh leeks, plum tomatoes and fresh herbs, deftly simmered and delicately strained through a fine chinoise; second, rabbit meat is lovingly pureed and tenderly folded with goose egg whites and heavy cream, then elegantly spiced with gossamer sprigs of tarragon.” No waiter has ever bested Claude in his illustrative elegance.

Victor remains intransigent. Claude tries again with the next course, Roasted Leg of Pheasant with Wild Mushroom Duxelles. “Feather-light crimini and chanterelle mushrooms with minutely chopped white and dark truffles brazenly sautéed in olive oil with garlic, shallots and fresh thyme; all mixed with a regal dose of heavy cream, then add one 20-pound bird executed in full plumage by crossbow this morning in the Loire Valley.”

At this point, we were certainly feeling pangs of hunger, possibly induced by the perception that we might be smelling the redolent aromas of these dishes.

After the performance, we were taken backstage and introduced to John Lowe, the assistant stage manager, who it turns out was producing these savory scents in his makeshift kitchen (a hot plate) right behind the set’s exit door.

In a soup pot filled with water, he composed the appropriate fragrance for each course by adding various condiments and herbs such as tarragon and rosemary, which he freshly chopped on a small cutting board and added as required. He also put in a chicken bouillion cube for the pheasant and packaged onion gravy and tomato paste for the chateaubriand.

John said he loves to cook and happily prepares this brew every night. The trick is to get these smells out to the audience! He achieves this feat with the help of two large fans; whether it works depends on where you are sitting.

While we were backstage, we were introduced to one of the shows principals, Stasha Surdyke, who plays Claude’s wife, Mimi, the waitress. We had the pleasure of talking to her in the green room along with Chris Trela, the Playhouse’s director of communications.

Stasha’s fascinating background actually prepared her very well for the part. As a young woman, she worked as a deckhand on sailboats, graduating to yachts as a stewardess, then head stewardess on even bigger yachts.

Realizing she had gone as far as she could go in this profession, which didn’t pay that well, she decided to learn to become a chef, having previously worked in the restaurant industry at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. She took three months off, got lots of books and taught herself to cook.

Luckily, a connection from the yachting industry recommended her to a family in Puerto Rico to be the chef on their boat and she worked for them for a year. She had plans to go back to school but once again was made an offer to chef on a yacht, this time for one of the richest men in the world and his family. The salary was just too enticing to pass up, and so she sailed off again.

Being the chef on a yacht is special sub-category in the world of professional cooking, requiring its own expertise. One has to be ready for natural disasters, a variety of unscheduled circumstances at sea, as well as requests for spontaneous or short notice events on board, such as cocktail parties, dinner parties, drop-ins etc. All of which means that provisioning is a rigorous and creative endeavor.

A year into this rarefied world and in spite of the high remuneration, she found herself feeling dissatisfied. Stasha had always dreamed of going to drama school but was uncertain and afraid. In the midst of all this abundance, she found herself still longing for a sense of purpose and had a true epiphany. She realized that it was now or never and discovered within herself that she was willing to fail as long as she could pursue her dream.

She did in fact go to drama school at Washington University and paid her dues in lots of little theater, some film and TV.

Now fast forward to her audition for Andrew Barnicle to play the character of Mimi, someone who was longing to find herself as well. Stasha had only seen a few pages of the play and was very nervous.

Barnicle told her that the problem with the other people auditioning for the part was that they didn’t see the depth in the character. They saw the humor but not the deep dissatisfaction or the difficulty of her position.

He said to Stasha, “Try to imagine that you are working for the richest man in the world who owns the best restaurant in the world.”

She laughed and said to herself, “I can do this. That was my life.” Needless to say, after she read for it, the part was hers! “An Empty Plate in the Café Du Grand Boeuf” (big meat) is a plateful of goodies for foodies and non-foodies alike.

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ owned A La Carte for 20 years. They can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected]