A Scotsman to his core, Douglas Anderson, executive chef of Seasons at the Four Seasons Hotel, still considers himself all-American. Born in Scotland and raised in Illinois in a Scots-centric home, Anderson learned early on that, as he says, “Food is everything in a European family. … That’s how we identify ourselves. We [our family] had lamb and barley for breakfast.” Perhaps to underscore his Americanness, however, the teenaged Anderson decided he wanted a dirt bike, and to earn the money to buy it he got a job in a Chinese restaurant kitchen. “I started cooking at the age of 15,” he said. “The work was very theatrical, all the insanity of woks, cutting vegetables, peeling shrimp. But my Dad let me do it because the job made sense.”
After graduating from high school, Anderson entered the Coast Guard. As fate would have it, he attended the Coast Guard’s Food Service “A” School in Petaluma, Calif. “I spent four months learning to cook soft-shell crab and other stuff you’d never see on a cutter,” he recalled.
| IF YOU GO |
| Seasons |
| » Where: Four Seasons Hotel, 2800 Pennsylvania Ave. NW |
| » Info: 202-944-2000 |
| » Hours: Breakfast, 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturday to Sunday; lunch, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday; brunch, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday |
But Anderson dove in, studiously reading textbooks and, thus, excelling at the program and the seven-year enlistment that followed. The experience proved a firm founding to his current career: “The Coast Guard standard was, ‘Whatever it takes,’ which instilled a lot of pride. I feel that same energy and pride in the Four Seasons way of doing things,” he said.
After leaving the Coast Guard, Anderson started his culinary career in earnest: He enrolled at the Baltimore International Culinary College. “I ended up working for Georgetown chef Michel Laudier of the Rive Gauche as his sous chef,” he said. “I then applied for a job at a Four Seasons hotel in Boston, and went from line cook to executive sous chef in three years.”
With that training, Anderson’s career was firmly in place, and for the ensuing years he moved from one Four Season Hotel’s kitchen to another, from West Coast to East Coast. And 10 years ago, Anderson found himself selected to run the hotel’s very prestigious Seasons and the hotel’s in-house catering business.
But one aspect of his life and career seems more down-home than upscale-posh. Anderson devotes his culinary energies to basing his meals on local, sustainable ingredients. “I have been doing farm-to-table cooking for the past 10 years,” he said. “I work here with the SEED school in Southeast D.C. to grow vegetables. I do other charitable volunteer work with other schools.”
Not only is he conscious of seasonal cooking — fitting when working in a restaurant named Seasons — but also Anderson has radically reshaped the formerly standardized menu. How about starting your day with a portion of lamb kidneys or a bowl of steel-cut oats?
Q&A
What is your comfort food?
The thing I love late at night is tomato, basil, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, with cavatelle. That is the most perfect comfort food in the world. I eat it twice a week.
What is your signature dish?
I would go with the catering menu. It’s the sous vide short ribs with celery root and carrots.
What’s in your fridge?
Tons of vegetables. One of the think I like making is simple curries, vegan-style food. One-percent milk, tons of hummus, cheese. It’s really not as stocked as you’d think.
Which is your favorite restaurant?
Central … but there are so many I like. I love Oyamel. I like simple, tasty, well-prepared foods. Zaytinya and Palena.
Recipe
Douglas Anderson’s Creamless Fire-Roasted Eastern Shore Crab Bisque
Serves 4
Crab stock
1 (4-pound) box of crabs, either fresh or frozen crab bodies
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/3 cup peeled and coarsely chopped onions
1/3 cup coarse chopped celery
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic
1 cup white wine
1 gallon water
Simmer all the ingredients in a stock pot for 1 hour, and strain; the crab stock is reduced to half. Discard the solids.
Soup base
1 small coarsely chopped red bell pepper
1 ripe tomato seeded, but not peeled
1/4 cup peeled and coarsely chopped Idaho potato
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and stemmed
1 Tbsp coarsely chopped onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fennel
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
10 ounces canned plum tomato
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
Pinch fresh thyme
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss the peppers, potato, jalapeno, garlic, fennel, and tomato in the olive oil and lay out on a baking sheet and roast until tender. Approximately 40 minutes.
Add all remaining ingredients into a small saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes. When the roasted vegetables are cooked, add them and the cooked soup base to the crab stock, and cook over medium-low heat for another 30 minutes. Puree until smooth.
Garnish
1/3 cup picked lump crab
Pinch chopped chives
1 small tomato, diced
Ladle soup into a bowl, and garnish with a the lump crab, chives, and tomato.
