It doesn’t take long to determine how well executive chef Peter Schaffrath fits into the hushed dignity of The Lafayette dining room of the landmark Hay-Adams hotel, just yards from Lafayette Square and the White House. Keeping up with such prestigious neighbors really requires a similar setting and a chef who can produce a prestigious menu.
Consider this: an appetizer of roasted beet root carpaccio with ash-ripened goat cheese and crushed pistachio nuts drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and for an entrée, char-grilled veal paillard with warm farro grains, zucchini and black olive concassé. Not your average steakhouse fare.
Who is this chef who can produce such elegant fare? A modest native of Germany, Peter Schaffrath has spent most of his life in the kitchen, starting off when he worked for his uncle at his restaurant in southern Germany.
“I used to spend time with him when I was a teen,” he says. “I loved the atmosphere, and I learned to cook so many dishes. … That was my first inspiration.”
Besides, he adds, “I have always liked eating.” To that, he adds cooking and traveling.
After college, Schaffrath made his career choice: to be a chef. But he chose to attend culinary school in Germany, at the Catering College in Aachen, where students work as an apprentice during the week, and then spend one day in the classroom. After graduation, Schaffrath took his first job in Zurich, Switzerland, in a small restaurant where he learned the fine art of making fondues and the Swiss potato-and-cheese dish, raclette, plus numerous other Swiss specialties.
While speaking warmly about his cooking experiences there and at other Swiss restaurants, Schaffrath notes that Switzerland is a beautiful part of the world … and besides, he learned how to ski.
From Switzerland, Schaffrath worked in Paris and London to cook in different high-profile kitchens, including a singular experience of working for Maxim’s to participate in the 2,500-year anniversary of the Persian monarchy. During his European years, Schaffrath also entered in several culinary competitions, winning several gold medals for his creations.
After several other chef posts in Paris and London, Schaffrath made a dramatic shift in venues, accepting the executive chef position at the Plaza of the Americas Hotel in Dallas. But before he actually picked up his first spoon there, he spent six months at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan.
“The company wanted to see how I would do with American ingredients,” he says. “The menu was based on my background, but I adapted to the American market fairly quickly.”
In the early 1980s, Schaffrath moved to Washington as the executive chef at the Willard InterContinental, where he worked for 12 years before accepting the position at The Hay-Adams. Clearly, Schaffrath has learned well how to adapt his European training to the American palate.
“If you are a team player,” he says, “you listen, then work within your environment, plus you listen to the (culinary) trends.”
Besides, he notes, hotel guests — and indeed, the Washington community — is comprised of so many different nationalities.
“You must be flexible,” he says, and that’s good advice from a chef who continues to garner recognition for his work. He has participated in several chef competitions including the Hotelympia where he was twice awarded a gold medal and a challenge trophy. Schaffrath also has won Baron de Rothschild’s prestigious Mouton Cadet Competition and Frankfurt Cooking Olympics. Most recently, he was featured on the Food Network’s “The Best Of” segment.
Q&A with Chef Peter Schaffrath
Which is the dish are you the proudest of?
Two veal medallions with a Grand Marnier and green peppercorn sauce. But I don’t prepare it any more. I have to go with the times. Here, it is crab cakes, and I use 50 to 60 pounds (of crabmeat) a week … Also [our guests] like Chilean sea bass cooked in a fennel-saffron broth.
Do you cook at home?
Only if my wife and I have people come over. Usually, we go out.
What is your comfort food?
A good, old-fashioned hamburger. And lots of salads and pâté with onion and a nice pork chop with a glass of good wine.
What’s in your fridge?
Not that much. Lychees, plums, peaches, tomatoes and cheese such as brie and feta, breads, butter and Belgian endive. And apple juice and Kit Kats.
What cooking tips would you give readers?
Planning and timing, these are very important and the best skills a chef can have. You can precook many components of a meal so you have everything ready. Don’t start cooking when your guests arrive. Choose good ingredients; these will always make you look good.
From the Chef’s Kitchen
Chilled Cantaloupe Soup
Serves 4
2 large cantaloupes
1 ⁄ 2 cup German Riesling wine
1 cup champagne or white port
1 ⁄ 2 cup simple syrup (see recipe below)
1 ⁄ 2 cup orange juice
diced fresh mint leaves
Peel the melon, cut them in half, remove the seeds and cube the melon. Chill. Place the melon cubes and simple syrup in a blender and purée. Combine the Riesling, champagne and orange juice, and stir into the purée. Chill and serve in chilled soup bowls garnished with mint.
Simple Syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 ⁄ 4 cup light corn syrup
Combine the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat; cook for about 3 minutes, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Cool to room temperature. Makes about 1 1 ⁄ 2 cups.
(Restaurant Information: The Lafayette at The Hay-Adams; 16th and H Street NW, Washington; Breakfast — 6:30 to 11 a.m. Monday-Friday, 7 to 11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday; Lunch — 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Saturday; Dinner — 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday; Sunday brunch — 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
