Cultural Cooking

Wearing his baseball cap pulled down over his forehead, Patrick Dinh looks like any guy on his way to a ball game. Truth is, however, Dinh is only his way to the kitchen, where he works as the executive chef of Leesburg’s long-time and well-favored watering hole/dining spot, Tuscarora Mill restaurant. And, of course, the baseball cap is just part of Dinh’s chef’s garb, a cap he takes off to talk about his daily job, which to him is more fun than work.

It should be fun, considering for the past 20 years Dinh has been in and out of various kitchens honing his craft. He even had the good fortune to spend a year in San Francisco working at Stars with the renowned, if somewhat eccentric, chef Jeremiah Tower.

“Working with him was the best I could have done,” he says, though also adding he would have liked also to work a stint with Wolfgang Puck, but he disliked the crush of Los Angeles.

“David Robins (Dinh’s chef at Stars) was an aggressive young cook then. It was demanding work, so I learned on the job,” he says. “I would have done anything to be a high-caliber cook. After one week, I was just allowed to prep. After three months, I worked on the line.”

But people who know Dinh know that wanting to cook — or at least, to work in a restaurant — may well have been an inherited desire. After all, this native Washingtonian came by this culinary passion naturally.

“My dad owned a restaurant in D.C.,” he says, “although it was more a lounge than a restaurant. It was on M Street and has long since gone.”

And, as it turns out, his dad was a great home cook, where he taught his young son all about the French-Vietnamese traditions of his family.

“My dad made osso buco and Beef Wellington,” he says. “He always put good food on the table. The cooking was very cultural — Chinese, Vietnamese, and French. The older I get the more I hearken for my dad’s cooking.”

But as a college student, Dinh had his sights on a career in finance.

“It wasn’t in my constitution,” he says. “After college, I had one bank interview, and it went south. I said I wanted eventually to cook É I thought, ‘God’s telling me something.'”

And that was Dinh’s turning point, the time when he took up the spatula and put aside his financial focus, and the time when he started at the very bottom rungs in a local Italian restaurant in the city, where he learned about making pastas and pizzas, about waiting on tables and realizing how much he really enjoyed cooking. He remembers asking the chef when he could start cooking.

“The chef said, ‘Are you crazy?'” he says. “He started me with salads, but the sous chef pushed me on.”

Now years later, during which time he has formed his own distinctive cooking style, Dinh can clearly characterize his own cooking.

“It’s worldly,” he says. “I like food to have a cultural point on the plate. It’s not fusion, but true to the roots of the dish.”

For example, one of his Mexican-style dishes is a pork roast cooked with chorizo sausage, beans and mole sauce.

“I am producing something that you might get in Mexico ÉAny food has its own place of home, its own cultural point of reference,” he says.

Q&A with Chef Patrick Dinh

Do you cook at home?

Yes. I have three children and it’s challenging. I make congee (rice gruel) and it’s so subtle and warming. I also make lots of spaghetti because the kids are not quite into tofu yet. But I keep it simple, healthful food.

What’s your comfort food?

The No. 1 is pho (a Vietnamese soup) and the No. 2 is the soup my dad made: a spicy noodle soup with pigs’ feet, lemongrass and shrimp paste. This is what I grew up with. And a good braised short ribs; these are the only exception to my Vietnamese heritage.

Where do you eat out?

I try different places a lot. It’s important to see what’s going on. The last restaurant we [Dinh and his wife] went to was Ray’s Hell Burger. It was a darned good burger É And we eat a lot of Asian food, like at Mark’s Duck House.

What’s in your fridge?

Four different types of milk — almond, soy, cow and goat. This may be the only household to specify a dozen Asian condiments, plus tofu, pickled bamboo, capers, olives. I cook for a day, so I don’t buy huge quantities and stash food in the freezer. Also Vietnamese charcuterie.

Which is your favorite cuisine?

That depends on the mood. Sometimes it’s really good northern Italian food. Then Asian cuisine, though I’m not so hot on Korean food. Vietnamese and Chinese are my top two.

From the Chef’s Kitchen

Patrick Dinh’s Pan-Roasted Snapper with Chili Mango Sauce, Coconut Risotto and Cucumber Slaw

Serves 4

For the Chili Mango Sauce

1 ripe mango peeled, pitted and cut into medium dice

2 Tbsp juice from pickled ginger

1 Tbsp pickled sushi ginger

1 Tbsp chopped cilantro leaves

1 tsp Sriracha hot chili sauce

Pinch of salt

In a blender or food processor, add all ingredients and puree until smooth. Set aside.

For the Cucumber Slaw

1/2 medium cucumber, julienne, preferably using a Japanese Benriner Vegetable slicer

6 mint leaves, chopped

1 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil

Pinch of Salt

Mix everything together and set aside.

For the fish

4 (6 oz.) fillets snapper or grouper

1/2 lemon sliced into thin wheels

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp chopped cilantro leaves

1 Tbsp chopped fresh ginger

Marinate the fish with above ingredients for 30 minutes (give the lemons a little pinch to release some juice). Meanwhile, start the risotto.

For the Coconut Risotto

1/2 cup diced onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 lb Arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine

3 green onions, sliced thin

1 cup hot chicken broth

1 (13 oz.) can coconut milk

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

In a 4-quart sauce pot, brown the onions and garlic in olive oil over high heat until tender, about four minutes. Add the Arborio rice, and cook with onions and garlic for two minutes, stirring constantly. Keep the heat high. Add the white wine and stir. Cook for three minutes. Add hot chicken broth to the rice and stir. Reduce the heat to medium. Cook for seven minutes, stirring often. Add the coconut milk and continue cooking for about eight minutes, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper.

While the rice is cooking, heat a 12-inch sauté pan over high heat. Gloss pan with 1 Tbsp oil, and carefully lay the fish into the pan, cook until well browned, and then flip the fish over, adding the remaining oil. Cook to desired doneness; the fish and the risotto should be done at about the same time.

To serve, on four large entrée plates, place a pool of mango sauce in the center about five inches in diameter, place 3/4 cup of coconut risotto in the middle, place the cooked fish on the risotto and finish the dish with a large pinch of cucumber slaw on top of the fish.

Enjoy with a good margarita.