No food snobs, just good food

That ever-zany restaurant tucked into a hotel lobby at 16th and Rhode Island Avenue NW, Nage, is an unexpected package of goodies, offering over-the-top, outrageously good food at street-food prices. Its Web site even broadcasts its raison d’etre: “no food snobs here.”

To that end, management has hired minor food celeb Glenn Babcock as chef de cuisine.

If Babcock’s name sounds familiar, it’s no wonder. Young Babcock is no stranger to the ins and outs of D.C. power restaurants. He once served as sous chef under executive chef Tony Conte at the high-profile the Oval Room, just steps away from the White House, and to get to that high-powered position took some serious kitchen prepping.

Babcock, a graduate of the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago and a former sous chef at Chicago’s La Piazza, got his start in the culinary world not at his mother’s knee, but as a college student.

“It was a summer job,” he said, “but I found I had an affinity for it.”

A philosophy major, Babcock found a philosophy degree wasn’t much use in a downturned economy, so he headed to culinary school for a different kind of degree.

“People don’t take you too seriously without culinary school,” he said. “But you can still learn so much on the line.”

After the one-year program, Babcock started at Rick Tramano’s Tru with its rigid brigade system.

“I worked with Chicago chef Guitano di Benedetto, who had worked all over Italy for 20 years,” he said. “He changed things every day with seasonal ingredients in regional Italian dishes. I learned something new every day, different perspectives on flavor combinations, because he also dabbled in many cuisines.”

Influenced by such culinary bravura, Babcock said he learned to cook in a very thoughtful way, describing Benedetto’s training as an adrenaline rush. No wonder he was ready for the primetime experience of the Oval Room, where he picked up the basics of the trendy “molecular gastronomy.”

Now on his own and assured of his developing style, Babcock muses about other factors that have contributed to his career choice. For one, his Swedish great-grandmother owned her own catering company and had gained a certain renown for her culinary specialties.

For another, he said his typical nuclear family believed that a prime idea of life was about appreciating food.

“Life should be about enjoying time with friends,” he said. “I threw dinner parties with friends in college. And all this shaped me — the camaraderie — with the end product being delicious food. One of the great things is to have people enjoy sitting around to eat.”

But for Babcock what really makes food and cooking fit into his worldview is this: Eating, and thus cooking, have an ethical framework. Are his ingredients grown locally? Sustainably? Are they high quality? So approaching menu creation, he said he thinks, “Is this something I feel right about doing?” With a “yes” answer, Babcock can surge forward to create delicious, yet affordable, meals. Order their prime rib burger as proof.

Q&A with Chef Glenn Babcock

What’s your comfort food?

Mac n’ cheese on a cold, dreary day. On a hot day, Peruvian ceviche in a half avocado.

What are your pantry essentials?

Onions. I can’t cook without them. They are the base of everything, more so than butter. Then vinegar, especially rice vinegar. A fresh herb garden. Vegetable stocks. Eggs.

What’s in your fridge?

Milk, eggs, butter, a rotting pomegranate, half a pepper and some cold pizza.

Which is your favorite restaurant?

My favorite experience is Korean barbecue, especially Cho’s Garden and their fish cakes. Vidalia, and my staple go-to place, Lebanese Taverna.

What is your favorite cuisine?

Absolutely my favorite is Italian. I spent so much time there. I look at the whole world through Italian lenses. Also I love Asian food, particularly Korean barbecue.

From the Chef’s Kitchen

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Serves 8

Pasta Dough

1 cup pumpkin pulp

1/2 lb. butter, at room temperature

2 Tbsps. salt

1 Tbsps. ground cinnamon

1 Tsp. ground nutmeg

4 cups all-purpose flour

8 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Sauce

4 oz. wild mushrooms

About 3 Tbsps. butter, at room temperature

1 Tbsp. minced shallots

4 sage leaves, minced

1/4 cup marsala

1 Tbsp. heavy cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

To make the pasta dough [pate de choux method], combine 2 cups water, pumpkin pulp, butter, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a 4-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil, and add the flour; reduce the heat to low, and stir well for 15 minutes or until the flour is well incorporated. In an upright mixer or food processor, add the eggs slowly to flour mixture, allowing the eggs to incorporate. Add the grated Parmesan cheese. Refrigerate. When cool, roll the dough out on a floured surface, and cut 3/4-inch gnocchi. Set aside and bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil.

To make the sauce, brush off any dirt from the mushrooms and trim off any bad spots. Heat 1 1/2 Tbsps. butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, and sweat, or soften, the shallots. Add the mushrooms and sage, stirring to combine well. Add the marsala, and cook until it is slightly reduced. Add the cream and stir to combine well.

Blanch the gnocchi for 3 to 5 minutes and remove from the water with a slotted spoon. Add the gnocchi to the sauce, stirring well and stir the remaining butter into the sauce. Season with the salt and pepper, and serve.