Rick Vargas

Rick Vargas has been working in a commercial kitchen since he was barely old enough to hold a sharp knife under his father's supervision. As this now world-traveled chef remembers, "I was just a small kid and I was only allowed to slice up maybe a few carrots or something easy, but it was a way to be close to my dad, who was always at his famed West Portal Joe's restaurant in San Francisco as I grew up. I idolized my father, so being able to go with him on the weekends gave us quality time together and the experience certainly helped define my career direction. I still remember those unique and special smells; aromas that I try my best to replicate every Monday night at the Bistro V in his honor for what we call Retro Night. It's an evening of my father's specialties, some from the very early years in the City, others from our 25-year run in Palo Alto, California.

Rick's father, the late Miguel Vargas, operated West Portal Joe's for some 40 years in a section of the city known by the same name, as well as Palo Alto Joe's, located further down on the San Francisco Peninsula. At the age of fifteen, Rick began his culinary career in earnest, working with his father after school. It was a very natural choice that he would follow his father's vocation, earning his own chef whites through formal training in France, then apprenticeships throughout Europe before working under a number of chefs in this country, all in preparation for opening his own Bistro V in Sebastopol, California.

Sebastopol is a perfect location if one is a chef passionate about preparing all dishes from scratch using the freshest ingredients possible. The restaurant is even located on a road named after a variety of apple, Gravenstein Highway. The first day I interviewed Rick for this feature I caught him in the early afternoon, just before he was about to make the rounds of several local farms and niche producers to pick up his needs for that evening's menu. The produce had been harvested that same morning specifically for the Bistro V per the chef's request. It's called "shopping for dinner supplies country-style", or in his words, "This is an incredibly prolific growing region! I deal with the local farmers when it comes to the actual transactions, of course, but I also speak Spanish so I prefer to visit and discuss my needs at the field level with the foreman of the farm in order to get the uniformity and condition that I am looking for in all fresh ingredients." The chef went on to explain, "The people who work the fields every day give me a heads-up on what is coming into production and what items are waning in supply and quality. Sometimes I ask for special plantings and other times new additions to our menu come from crop information received from these direct field contacts."

The second time we spoke, Rick was making plans to go on a wild mushroom hunt on the only day that his restaurant was dark. His search was prompted by a few recent rainy days and he was hoping to find an extremely rare fungus called a Prince Agaric, which only grows at the base of ancient redwood trees. Since redwoods grow in limited environments in Northern California, the subsequent dish would most assuredly be an infrequently served delicacy for a few lucky diners if his hunt was successful. Of course, there was no guarantee of finding anything but wet bark in a wetter forest, but this mushroom can only be had with hours of solitary patience roaming his local woods. A passionate chef really never has a day off! Plus, he admitted, it was a great excuse to get away from the hectic kitchen life for a few hours to boot. Wet boots, no doubt!

And hectic it is around the kitchen of the Bistro V, these days. "The professionals on the staff include only me and my wife Meekk. She is the backbone of the Bistro V, in charge of all breads and pastries made from scratch, the financial accounting of the business, and oftentimes is the keel to her stressed out partner/chef/husband! Beyond Meekk and myself there is no other kitchen hierarchy at all; instead, as my father did for me, I employ and guide a group of very hardworking teenagers who I must always remember are learning on the job. Sure it is more time-consuming than employing professional staff, but the tutelage that I am providing to these young people is also extremely rewarding. Perhaps a few may even point to me, as I point to my father, when they are interviewed as a chef some years from now. Seriously, they are a great group of kids with no professional egos; I have watched them learn to listen, take direction and to work as a cohesive unit. Like my Monday night dinners, I believe this also honors my dad's memory and training."

While the influences of his father are evident, his culinary education does include more than a home-schooling in the family business. In his early twenties he made the trek to France to study at the oldest culinary school in the country. Here he received exposure to the most traditional techniques that are at the core of all French cooking. He took this foundation on the roads of Europe with four-year sojourn through eleven different kitchens working his way slowly through the major regions of France and Germany, learning the styles of several well-known chefs. "The number of positions I held in such a short period of time was by design; the varied locales exposed me to the great cheese and wines of the Burgundy region of France, the heavy German sauces of Strasburg, as well as the robust fare of the Rhone Valley. It was a fantastic time of my life that added a repertoire of styles that was invaluable in honing in on my own approach to fine cooking."

Later, when he returned to this country, his training in Europe was melded with his father's influence that was steeped in the chiles, sauces and ceviches of his own Peruvian culture. "I do work with a lot of sauces," the chef admitted, "But they are mostly reductions to the essence of ingredient flavors; designed to enhance, not overpower, the natural tastes of each dish. We use local artisan ingredients produced right here in Sonoma County as much as we can, and make everything from scratch. The fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, fish and wines from this region provide me a palette of flavors that I respect. So, while sauces are my passion, it's a fine balance between the bold and the understated, if one can use those terms together. At least that is my goal - to underscore without overshadowing."

I also noticed an interesting theme night posted on the Bistro V website for last May that demonstrated another kind of community awareness that Rick and Meekk possess as savvy restaurateurs. It was called Parent's Night Out with Kidspot. Sensitive to those potential diners who have small children, it was a very reasonably priced evening that included child care for ages 2 - 6 years at a nearby day-care center while the parents dined without worry at the restaurant. And the kids were fed a pretty good meal too! It struck me as a very smart idea to provide frazzled young parents with an evening of adult-time while at the same time creating new business with a customer who would not have crossed their threshold otherwise.

Taking advantage of the region's burgeoning reputation for producing some of the finest wines in the state, the restaurant also hosts several evenings throughout the year where a vintner and the chef work in collaboration to present a meal of several courses, matched with appropriate complementing vintages, making for some special one-time menu offerings.

Chef Rick was excited about the timing of this feature, appearing during the harvest month of September, when asked to contribute a few seasonally-germane recipes using fresh ingredients. He explained, "At this time of year, all my producers' summer efforts come into full production. I have a whole alphabet of items to work with from apples to zucchini flowers and everything in between. I hope Melissa's readers will enjoy my selections as I've tried to show off the incredible diversity of the dedicated artisans that support us here at Bistro V."