Chef Christian deLutis discovered a passion for cooking at a young age. Growing up in central Pennsylvania, he watched closely as his northern Italian grandmother cooked elaborate meals from scratch.
“You’d be swimming at my grandmother’s house, and there’d be towels on the line drying, and sheets of pasta on the line next to them,” he said. Her 21st birthday gift to him was her coveted pancetta recipe.
As a chef, deLutis combines his love for simple, fresh ingredients and the Cordon Bleu training he received at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Culinary Institute to produce elegant dishes with bold flavor. One entree he created for Brasserie Tatin, where he is the chef, gives classic ingredients such as rabbit, bacon, prunes and brandy a modern interpretation.
DeLutis removes all bones from the rabbit, fills the cavity with rabbit mousse and wraps the bundle tightly in bacon, which is cured at the restaurant. He then roasts the rabbit in a wood-burning oven and serves it with tender lentils and a rich prune and Armagnac sauce, garnished with prune leather tuiles.
“What I’m all about is taking very familiar food and altering it and refining it, updating it for the 21st century, but with a lot of respect for what has been done until now,” he said.
DeLutis, 30, worked at Corks, Hampton’s and The Wine Market — with a brief detour to Ireland — before coming to Brasserie Tatin earlier this year. Even on his days off, deLutis loves to cook at home. “If there’s not an oven on behind me, I’m not the same person,” he said. “When I stop having this much fun, I’ll do something else.”
His fridge is well-stocked for the impromptu meal. “I’m a condiment junkie,” he said. “I’ve got to have anchovies, good mustard and horseradish.” He also likes to have on hand field carrots, garlic, fermented black bean paste, homemade preserves and meat for braising, like short ribs, brisket or a whole chicken.
And deLutis still has two jars of pickled watermelon he canned last summer. “I’m totally into the Mason jar thing,” he said.
On a night off, deLutis might check out what his colleagues are up to at Corks, The Wine Market or Woodberry Kitchen. “I love Woodberry,” he said. “I think it’s the restaurant that Baltimore definitely needed.”
However, he added, “The place I go the most is the Helmand.”
