With his silvery buzz cut, ruddy complexion and snapping blue eyes, Tom Power looks more like Hollywood’s answer to a swim coach or prototype surfer than a happening chef. By his own admission, the chef and owner of Corduroy Restaurant, a D.C. “hidden treasure,” instead spends 60 to 70 hours a week indoors behind his very hot stove, not out swimming.
Washingtonians are the luckier for this. Power has moved from high school dishwasher to Johnson and Wales graduate to hotel chef to sous chefdom with Michel Richard’s Citronelle to Corduroy, where he has cooked the past seven years.
“I have total control and I don’t compromise the food. I am very lucky to be here,” Power said, remembering his days in big institutional kitchens when others were the master of his fate and fare.
It’s his cooking, of course, that draws crowds to his second-floor hideaway in the Four Courts Hotel, proving “location, location, location” does not always mandate success. In Power’s case, he has won over food critics and foodies alike with his emphasis on clear flavors and dishes developed with subtle surprises. Take his menu, for example, where such fare as buffalo mozzarella porcupine, peppered rare Big Eye tuna and seared sea scallops dominate.
“I keep it simple,” Power said. “I don’t use too many ingredients, so the food is clean. … I use great ingredients and build on what’s there.”
As great chefs do, Power relies on what’s best seasonally, working with local farmers and meat and fish purveyors. When considering his most popular dish, he identifies the seared sea scallops, fresh caught and bused to him daily.
“These are popular because of their quality,” he said. “I pick them up at the Greyhound bus station. They are so fresh you can eat them raw.” He said his scallops retain their natural sweetness and dense texture without any added preservatives to maintain quality.
Embracing his career with no regrets, Power pondered the question, “Why cooking?” His answer: “I chose it,” he said. “Or did it choose me?”
Chilled tomato soup
Think about summer and its tomato crop. Serve hot or cold.
Serves 8 to 10 (yields two quarts)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound Vidalia onions, thinly sliced
5 pounds ripe tomatoes, stemmed and cut into chunks
1/3 pound celery
1 head garlic
1 bunch thyme
1 bunch basil
2 ounces butter
Fresh basil leaves for chiffonade garnish
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat and saute the onions until translucent. Add the tomatoes. Wrap the celery, garlic, thyme and basil in cheesecloth, fasten the bundle shut and add to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking until the mixture is reduced by half. Discard the cheesecloth with the celery and herbs. Puree the mixture in a blender, add the butter and strain into a large container. Cool, then chill. Before serving, garnish with a chiffonade of basil.
In Power’s own words
What is your favorite food?
Everything. It might be fish for my last meal. Raw, like sushi and sashimi.
What is your comfort food?
Pizza, from 2 Amys or Pizzeria Paradiso. A plain Margherita or one with pepperoni.
Do you prefer cooking at home or at the restaurant?
I don’t ever cook at home. My stove has been broken since 1998 or 1999, and I have not had it repaired. I don’t want to cook when I am off. I go out.
Which is your favorite restaurant?
It’s hard to find one open when I am off [on Sundays]. But Sushi-Ko, Circle Bistro, Citronelle, Central, Marcel’s, Bistrot Lepic. My favorite cuisines are French for its complexity and Japanese for its simplicity, so they are opposites.
What’s in your fridge?
Sour milk, a couple of beers, champagne, a moldy lemon. I haven’t looked in a while.
What cooking tip would you share?
Home cooks should taste their food more often while cooking. Even in our kitchen, when new cooking students start, they don’t taste enough. It’s hard to cook well if you don’t taste.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?
In a small restaurant without room service, breakfast service and without banquet service.Some days I spend 20 hours here. Room service is the oddball. Over Cherry Blossom [Festival] weekend, if it starts pouring and there are families of five in one room, that means making 1,000 meals at once. I would like to serve only lunch and dinner.
