Chef cooked his way back home again

September 15, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER - Michael Graham lives and works no more than three miles from where he grew up in the Valley, but he took a roundabout way to get back there.

&#8220Traveling gave me a solid idea on where I wanted to live,” Graham said.

Graham worked his way through Marriott's food and beverage manager program while he was studying communications for his a bachelor's degree at Carroll College in Helena, Mont.

Marriott contracted the school's food service, and offered its own culinary training program.

&#8220It worked hand in hand for a degree and a certificate,” he said.

Graham decided he preferred cooking more than broadcast journalism, so he traveled as a chef for Marriott's western region.

He trained and worked with other chefs at colleges in North Dakota, Idaho, Washington and Nebraska, and he spent 1989 to 1990 in Omaha, working at the St. Mary's School for Girls.

&#8220It was neat,” he said. &#8220At 26, it was awesome. But after Omaha, I said, ‘I'm moving back home, guys.”

Moving back to the Valley meant leaving Marriott, but shortly after Graham's return to Alaska, Marriott signed a joint venture with NANA Corporation and hired him back. He worked at Alaska Pacific University, on the Alaska Railroad and on the North Slope.

He met great chefs in those places, he said.

&#8220I learned a lot from them,” he said.

Graham has been working at Alaska Job Corps in Palmer since 1994, and he's been in charge of the culinary program there since 2001.

Cooking for Graham is a passion.

&#8220I like to instill that into my students,” he said. &#8220What I put into it, the passion and love that makes it my type of dish.”

The culinary program, which graduates about 10 students a year, allows students to enroll every two weeks. So Graham might be teaching baking to some students and basic meat cutting to others.

&#8220I think of it as 24 multi-tasking opportunities,” he said.

Last year, the Alaska Culinary Association honored Graham with an award.

&#8220They were nice enough to vote me Chef of the Year,” he said. &#8220I was surprised, amazed and shocked.”

Graham doesn't cook much at home, unless it's for a group gathering. It's just one of those things, like mechanics who work on their own cars last, he said.

Going out to eat is a tough one, he said. Everyone who works with food, from salad people to cooks, looks at what others do in restaurants differently than the rest of us.

&#8220Does it look right?” he said. &#8220Could I have done it better? But it's not my position to say something. I don't criticize their work.”

Lately, Graham's attentions have turned to baking, but his favorite dishes revolve around beef and pork.

&#8220Pistachio-stuffed pork tenderloin is a signature dish for me,” he said.

&#8220And in Alaska, we use a lot of seafood. Herb-seasoned salmon with ginger creme fraiche grills

quickly.”

In November, Graham will take part in Secrets of the Chefs, a fund-raiser in Anchorage for food banks across the state.

&#8220It's live-action cooking all evening,” he said. &#8220The tickets are $100 and the money goes straight to the food bank, the food is donated by local vendors.”

Graham and two other chefs will be cooking paella for the crowd.

&#8220It's Spanish comfort food that can be as simple or as fancy as you like,” he said. &#8220The dish changes as you travel through regions in Spain. It's one of the original 30-minute meals.”

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.