General News: A New Chef in the Village
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| Michael Dederick is stirring up some new dishes |
November 01, 2007
Visitors to the Market-on-Hudson in the heart of the village may have noticed a new face in the kitchen recently. He’s Michael Dederick, the head chef for the market and for Painter’s Tavern next door.
Michael took over the role of developing the menu at the two food establishments following the departure of Donna Hammond, who established the market in 2005 as a place for fresh, tasty food to go.
“Donna created an amazing business,” he says, “but I can’t be Donna. I want to infuse it with my own style.”
That style, he says, would see a greater emphasis on vegetarian dishes and ethnic variety, including items like chicken enchiladas, chipotle turkey burgers, and tandoori chicken with jicama wrap. He has already introduced a Brazilian seafood dish on Painter’s menu and talks about integrating Hudson Valley produce, like pumpkin risotto, as well.
Dederick, a Hudson Valley native who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, developed his skills while working with some of the best chefs in the business. He learned about using fresh local ingredients from Bruce Kazan of the Main Course in New Paltz where he worked for seven years. From there he traveled to Manhattan where he honed techniques in virtually every position in the high-end kitchen of the Union Square Café, one of the city’s top-rated restaurants.
City living didn’t agree with Dederick, who wanted to come back to his roots in the Hudson Valley. He found a home as the original chef at Beebs, in Newburgh, where, he says, he was able to showcase his skills in a small venue.
He had a bigger showcase when he crossed the river to become the executive chef at the Belvedere Mansion in Staatsburg where he worked for several years before opening his own place, Nikolai’s restaurant, at the Newburgh yacht club.
A stint as the chef at the Café Amarcord in Beacon followed before he landed in Cornwall-on-Hudson, where he now also lives.
As Dederick reflects on the possibilities for catering, developing a gourmet deli at the market, or the importance of presentation of food, he mentions that one of his early influences, a French chef in Paris, told him to always combine French techniques of braising, sautéing and roasting with the Italian principles of using the bounty of the garden, with olive oil, to create the perfect dish. If he follows that guidance, he says, food is bound to delight.
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