I first met David in 2013 he was the Executive Chef for Meridian Pint in Washington DC, I’ve since run into him on numerous occasions at various events and thought he would be a cool person to hang out with for an Afternoon and do a photoshoot with, Well lucky for me because it seems like I reached out at the right time. He’s currently working on a new endeavor (Cozy Feast) that focuses on the slew of hard working people in DC who spend countless hours in their office and the saddest hour eating a very sad desk lunch. Honestly this used to be me, so of course I was intrigued. Now keep in mind I was used to him being in a restaurant setting and this had conjured up visions of food trucks (Not that there is anything wrong with food trucks at all!) We quickly set up a day and time for the shoot and didn’t look back. I met up with David this past Tuesday, he had just finished having an MRI and could picked me up from the metro and do the shoot. After a quick stop by his place for a change of clothes and to pick up some props we were off to a side of town called Crestwood (His old stomping grounds), David said there were some spots that we could use as a good backdrop, I said cool, let’s do it! We arrived at this nice neighborhood with what looked to be million dollar homes and an entry into a patch of woods that are part of Rock Creek Park, at the entrance a wooden bench that read “CrestWood”. We grabbed our gear and went a little ways in till we reached a clearing and used that as base camp and dropped our gear. About 30 yards away there was a trail with a log across it and I thought this would be a nice spot, To my right I immediately noticed a huge Orange mushroom growth that looked like “Chicken of the Woods”. I had been studying Sulphur shelves a few months back and I was sure this was what it was, I pretty much ignored it and began shooting, I then asked David to grab his Concertina (a very small accordion like instrument) and start playing it. Not even two minutes into it I started hearing the breaking of twigs and sticks like an animal walking towards us and looked over to the right and down the hill, I thought I saw a small Raccoon, but it kept getting bigger, David noticed it too and gave a WTF look (which of course I had to capture), He kept playing and that object was really starting to freak me out because now it looked like a Black Bear, that’s when I really started freaking until I realized it was a person climbing up the hill towards us. A very angry and annoyed person who really didn’t want us there, we were both a bit on guard and freaked out due to the angry nature of the rant from this woman who’s slumber we clearly interrupted. Needless to say neither of us wanted anything to escalate so we headed back to base camp to collect our thoughts. Halfway back David laughs out loud and looks at me and says “we’re having a bit of an adventure” I laughed hard shaking off the encounter and said “yes we are”. We finished that part of the shoot on the bench near the entrance and then loaded up the car. As we’re putting our stuff in his trunk I looked over at David and said I think I saw “Chicken of the Woods” back there where we were shooting, you wanna go back there with me and get it? David looked at me with raised eyebrows that then lowered into a smile and said Sure! We made our way back to section of path with the fallen log and the very very angry lady, who I guess at the sight of two big guys walking briskly in her direction decided to go in the other quickly and still yelling at us. I dove into the patch of briers and poison ivy and dug up the bright Orange growth and hightailed it out of there.
We hopped in the car with a sense of pride in our find and drove off for our next destination, Mess Hall in NE DC. Along the way we passed by a house that David said he and his Ex-wife had lived in years ago. We stopped for a moment to look, he said not a thing has changed, not a bush, not a tree, not a thing. We drove on. It being almost 2:30pm in DC we started to hit traffic so our route had to change in order to circumvent traffic, it took us by The Old Soldiers Home with its grand old buildings that were gated off because they were condemned, David pressed play on his CD player and the sound of Concertina music began filling the car (it kind of reminded me of the song “what do you do with a drunken sailor” but a lot slower). I asked David about some of the pictures I had seen of him on his FB page with him and a group of men dancing in the street wearing white pants with bells around their shins waiving handkerchiefs. He explained it was a very old style of folk dancing called Contradance, it comes from around the New England area and is a big part of his life, well that and few other types of folk dances he mentioned. He said he usually gets out about 4-5 nights a week, its good exercise. It was something he picked up as a Youngman, he had an older friend of the family that was very influential to him that introduced him to it and it stuck ever since. In remembering his old friend he also mentioned that his friend at 75 years old had decided to live out the remainder of his life as a woman, which was a shock to him, of course I still loved and respected him he said, it was just a lesson in acceptance for me, I mean what can you do, he’s still the same person just a little different on the outside, right? Instantly, I had become enlightened and I said you’re right.
Shortly after we reached Mess Hall DC, David introduced me to Al Goldberg the principle of Mess hall DC before giving me a tour of the kitchens and finished up the photoshoot. We were both hungry and still had time left so David and I stopped by Brookland Pint (the sister restaurant to Meridian Pint) for an early dinner. Upon arrival we were greeted as Vip’s and immediately seated, David had a chance to reminisce with some of his old staff and meet the new Chef, It was great to see the love and respect they poured out to this man for his work. David extoled to me his love of great service and attention to detail and how it was a declining skill, I agreed. About Halfway through our meal David says to me with a smile I thought you were supposed to be doing an interview, I said you’re right, so how did you get your start as a chef? He broke down for me the experiences that molded him into the Chef he is today. In his early years working at La Grenouille in NY, one of the last bastions of French haute cuisine and getting used to the high level of service they provided their guests was the primer that set his habits and carried him forward, from there working as a private Chef for Billionaire clients, some of which literally wanted the same meal every day for four years, he said I never grew tired of the precision, attention to detail and rudimentary aspects of it and then others who challenged him on a daily basis to not make the same thing twice really put him in his creative mindset, those were the experiences that most formed me into the chef I am today.
In hearing that I knew that this new venture (Cozy Feast) would be a success, this man’s passion and creativity were the defining factors that made Meridian Pint’s menu a success as well as Pinewoods. He also expressed a strong discipline in cooking vegetarian meals and that they were not just something thrown together but created from the ground up and a dish to be respected along with all his other creations. After dinner David dropped me off at the metro and I headed home, soon after I began to see him post pictures on FB of the “Chicken of the Woods” that we had found earlier that day as he prepared it with bits of Lavender and a cream sauce over noodles. I truly wish I could have stayed a little later to taste it because it looked beautiful. I promised David that I would catch up with him again in September when Cozy Feast was running full steam, as they are still in the incubator phase. I’ve attached his Kickstarter info if you would like to help #stopsaddesklunch and bring this to fruition.
dededos
origamiaround
janainaart
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
kaledo-art
prguitarman
romaincrisis
