Cute, crafty, creative: Hook's Jonathan Seningen

Chef Jonathan Seningen of Hook is known for his creative seafood dishes. -- Andrew Harnik / Examiner

WASHINGTON — "He's so cute," many ladies coo about Hook's new chef de cuisine, Jonathan Seningen.

He certainly has an arresting presence, resembling in a tall, angular way the young Jimmy Stewart. But what makes patrons really swoon is the creative way Seningen approaches cooking and presenting sustainable seafood, the hallmark product of this restaurant's menu.

It helps the restaurant's credibility, of course, that Seningen grew up on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and even as a young boy caught and grilled perch over an open fire during fishing season.

"I once caught as many perch as I could eat at the time," he says. "This year, there was no perch run. I've experienced sustainability firsthand. That's how I grew up, and now I am seeing it completely vanish."

His early perch-cooking may have led directly to his present career, though several other factors may have bolstered his ambitions. At about the age of 7, Seningen developed a craving for his mom's freshly baked sugar cookies, inspiring him to make them himself.

"They weren't bad," he says. Also, both his grandmother and father were at home in the kitchen, and Seningen describes how his father has provided some inspiration.

"He just gave me an idea for a bluefish dish," he says. "He poached it and shaped it into crab cakes with Old Bay seasoning. I could see that recipe unfolding in my head."

By his teens, Seningen had started working at a local restaurant, where he bussed tables and watched the chefs in the kitchen working with their sleeves rolled up and slipping into the walk-in refrigerator for swigs of beer.

"It was cool, fun," he says.

Given a chance to cook at the restaurant, Seningen picked up the skills quickly and immediately decided he wanted to become a chef.

Seningen first gained solid career experience at a French hotel in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands — "I learned how to manage people there," he says — and then returned to New York to enroll at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan. He also worked in several city restaurants. "I was there [in New York] for four years," he says, "and New York was my playground. I could do what I wanted and got to see what was going on in the cooking world there."

But Seningen decided to settle down to really learn serious cooking skills, and moved to D.C. to work with Yannick Cam at his Le Paradou in Penn Quarter.

"That was the best training experience I could have had," he says. "I worked as his chef de partie. Cam told me, 'If you are willing to stay, study and learn to cook, you will be an amazing chef.' That was an amazing compliment."

Given his training and his fishing-centric background, it's no wonder this young Jimmy Stewart-like Seningen takes to his present position.

"I want to raise people's awareness about what they are eating and so they make the choices to eat local, sustainable food," he says. "The way industrial farming works is the opposite of the way to eat. People should eat perch in the spring and tomatoes in season. … I hope people come in and say, 'The chef is using sustainable products well.' "

Well, he is.

If you go
Hook
3241 M St. NW
(202) 625-4488
Lunch -- 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; Dinner -- 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday-Tuesday, 5 to 11 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; Brunch -- 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Q&A with Chef Jonathan Seningen

Do you cook at home?
Yes, but when I cook at home, it's usually on my day off, and I would like someone else to cook for me. I eat out to see what other chefs are doing.

What is your comfort food?
A tall glass of cold chocolate milk. Nice, fresh milk with plenty of Hershey's syrup. And nothing beats a good sandwich. Then there's fried chicken, mashed potatoes and pan gravy.

How do you define your cooking?
It's modern American cuisine. There is no recipe that really defines what I do, because someone else has done it before. … There are lots of things I do well, but it will take 10 years more of cooking before I contribute. I have a lot of work to do.

What's in your fridge?
Wild Canada goose, deer filets (I shot it myself; I've been a hunter and sports fisherman for as long as I can remember.) Lettuce, cheeses, lemons, avocado, grapefruit, cream cheese and bagels.

What is your favorite restaurant?
Le Paradou, Cashion's, CommonWealth -- The People's Gastropub

From the Chef's Kitchen

Roast lobster salad with heirloom beets, arugula and juniper cilantro oil
Serves 2

» 1 pound heirloom or red beets, each about the size of a lemon, well-rinsed
» 1/3 cup salt for seasoning water
» 20 dried juniper berries
» 1/2 cup grapeseed oil, or a neutral-flavored oil
» 1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
» 2 tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
» 1 tsp. finely diced shallot
» 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
» 1 (1- to 1 1 ⁄ 2-pound) live lobster
» 1 pint fresh arugula
» Juice from 1 lemon
» 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
» Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Put the beets into a pot with water to cover, and add 1/3 cup salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cook for 30 minutes or longer or until the beets are fork-tender. Drain and remove the skins with a paper towel. Slice the beets into 1⁄4-inch rounds, and set aside.
 
To make the juniper-cilantro oil, toast the juniper berries in a dry skillet until the berries look glassy, about 1 minute; remove and chop into a semifine powder. Put the powder into a small bowl, and add 1⁄4 cup grapeseed oil, 1 tablespoon olive oil, shallots and the cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.

To prepare the lobster, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat a skillet and add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or remaining grapeseed oil or just enough to roll around pan; do not let it smoke. Rapidly pull off the tail and claws, remove the rubber bands, and place the claws and tail into the skillet. Saute both sides until bright red, about 1 minute per side. Place the pieces into a baking pan, and roast the tail for 4 minutes and the claws for 8. Remove from the pan, place the pieces into a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap.
 
To serve, when it is cool enough to handle, remove lobster meat from shells, and slice tail into medallions. Mix the remaining olive oil together with the lemon juice. Lay slices of beets in a square in the middle of a plate, season with salt, pepper and some of the oil-lemon juice. Toss the arugula, season with salt, pepper and the remaining oil-lemon juice mixture, add in lobster medallions. Toss together, arrange in the middle of the beets, place claws on top and finish with juniper oil around and over the salad.