Youthful and earnest, executive chef Daniel Wilcox Stevens creates a little bit of magic in the Sterling restaurant Mokomandy. Not only is the presentation whimsical and appealing, but also the flavors he and his cooks create are memorable. Where else can you find a kitchen that puts out a range of dishes that are part Korean, part Cajun and wholly delectable? Why this gastronomic mix? The owner, Thaddeus Kim, is honoring his Korean heritage — hence, “Mo” for modern and “Ko” for Korean — and the Cajun heritage of his mother, Mandy. As unlikely as the melding is, the results are a credit to the culinary skills of Stevens, who interprets the flavors the family loves best. “This is what I do, this is my passion,” he noted.
This Maryland native and Culinary Institute of America graduate got his start in the kitchen early in life, thanks to family summers spent in Cape Cod, Mass. There the youngster picked mussels off rocks, emptied lobster pots and grilled blue fish in his grandfather’s yard. Added to that was the opportunity to pick and prepare garden-fresh veggies from his grandfather’s large garden.
| if you go |
| Mokomandy |
| » Where: 20789 Great Falls Plaza, Sterling |
| » Info: 571-313-0505 |
| » Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday |
“My first cookbooks were his James Beard and Craig Claiborne books,” Stevens said. “We made pickles together, and he explored that process with me,” adding that as a youngster, he watched “The Galloping Gourmet,” Julia Child and Burt Wolf on TV.
Before he enrolled at the CIA, Stevens worked flipping burgers at a burger shack and working the line at a yacht club kitchen in Nantucket, Mass. Once at the CIA, he says he read as many culinary textbooks as possible and worked at three off-campus kitchen jobs.
But perhaps his best off-campus job was the externship at the CIA’s Napa Valley campus. “I did all the mise en place for all the different classes, making the basics for everything from carnitas to kibbeh,” he says. “It was fun. Many of the chefs there knew I came early and stayed late so they spent extra time with me to teach me.”
Now at the age of 27, this young chef is facing probably his most exhilarating challenge yet: creating dishes that are not just fusing two disparate cuisines but showcasing dishes that are faithful to the traditions of Cajun and modern Korean cooking.
“I am exploring how Cajun and Korean flavors fit together,” he says. “I like learning, and that is what I enjoy about cooking, how ingredients communicate a culture, … There is a parallel between Korean and Cajun food. It has been interesting to see how their chili peppers are related.”
So how do his parents feel about Stevens’ rather unusual cooking challenge? “It is perplexing to them,” he says, “because they eat at accessible American and Italian restaurants. They have no foundation for understanding these cuisines. But they like it.”
