If you check out Daniel Singhofen’s Facebook page, you’ll find plenty there that tells you who and what he is: a color shot of a coddled farm egg with smoked steelhead roe, braised black truffle, potato and assorted greens as a garnish plus a list of favorites that includes bacon and Sriracha sauce, a Thai condiment. Since young Singhofen is a foodaholic, that should not surprise friends, family and friends-to-be. He is, after all, the chef and owner of a newly revamped and opened restaurant on 20th Street in Dupont Circle called Eola.
If you go
Eola
2020 P St. NW
202-466-4441
Hours: 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
As it turns out, native Floridian Singhofen has been a dedicated foodie since about the age of 3, when he says he first started scrambling his own eggs for breakfast. In his early teens, he already was hired on at a friend’s restaurant to make sandwiches. By the time he was in college, he was working in kitchens as a cook. But even before he graduated, he said he paused one day to ask himself what he really, really wanted to do with his life.
“What am I going to do with a literary degree?” he said. “I left college even before I graduated and went to the Culinary Institute of America in New York. I have always loved cooking.”
While there, he spent his externship at Gigi Trattoria in the Hudson Valley, and gives it due credit for really, really teaching him to cook and giving him an appreciation for local ingredients and seasonal eating.
“I went to school in the morning and to the restaurant where I worked for the rest of the day,” he said. “It was all passion driven. The chef and sous chef really taught me to cook.”
After graduation, Singhofen returned to Florida, where he worked in the kitchens of the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, and later at the K Restaurant Wine Bar. Then in a career move that benefited himself and family, Singhofen chose to move to D.C., where he opened his fledgling enterprise in the fall of 2009.
Where does all this food passion arise? Not, he says, from his family, who have never been much into cooking. But, he says, “I do have fond memories of food while I was growing up.
“Food was always present [at gatherings],” he said. “My mom really was a great cook.”
As it turns out, the restaurant has become a family affair: His parents are his partners.
“My family is my backing,” he said. “So they love it. We are a close-knit family.”
While they may be his backing, Singhofen said the restaurant and its menu are true expressions of his own personality. My style is modern American, and I see all that I was taught in the past,” he says. “It’s simple, but slightly complex. I enjoy playing with off cuts of meat — jowls, tongue, pig’s head — and make them to become edible. We like to challenge our patrons.”
While he has no signature dish, he does take traditional recipes and spins them his way. For example, consider how he treats the traditional Italian custard dessert, panna cotta.
“I am in love with a savory panna cotta,” he said.
In his nimble hands, Singhofen converts a sweet to a savory one composed of parsnips, blue foot mushrooms, pistachio, oil, radish and leaves, fleur de sel salt and espellete pepper. Interpretive cooking: Singhofen’s formula for Eola.
Q&A with Chef Daniel Singhofen
What is your comfort food?
Fried chicken and arugula salad. I am not into desserts, but a good apple or pumpkin pie is real comfort food.
What are your kitchen essentials?
A good set of knives, pans and a decent blender. Many types of salt, pepper and whatever’s in season.
Where is your favorite place?
In the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla. It’s a flat area, with a beach and fishing. It’s so peaceful and quiet. I would also like to travel to South America. I’ve been to Venezuela.
What’s in your fridge?
Leftover chicken and dumplings.
What has been your luckiest moment?
Opening this restaurant. This is the luckiest I have ever been and to create it according to my own whim.
From the Chef’s Kitchen
Arugula salad
Serves 1
To this simple spring salad, the chef says you can add your favorite seasonal ingredients.
“At Eola, the salad changes daily based on what our local farmers are harvesting and what produce is in season,” he said.
The best part of this simple salad is testing which of your favorite ingredients from the farmers market can be added.
1 lemon wedge
1 tbsp. of high-quality olive oil
Salt to taste, preferably Fleur de Sel brand
1 large handful of arugula
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese to taste
Squeeze the juice from the lemon wedge and whip together the juice with the olive oil in a bowl until the two liquids are emulsified. Add salt to taste to the liquid, to ensure taste, use a high quality salt, Fleur de Sel recommended for its top flavor and quality as one of the best sea salts available. Fold the arugula into the mixture, coating the arugula. Plate the salad. Shave the Parmesan over the salad as a garnish to your taste.
