Simple Pleasures: An interview with chef Samantha Izzo of Simply Red Bistro
Published by Natasha October 9th, 2009 in Local, Music, Books, Food.
[From the Ithaca Times] Samantha Izzo has been passionate about music and food her entire life. A native of South Africa, Izzo grew up listening to Old Time, bluegrass and Appalachian folk music. As a current Ithaca resident, Izzo owns and cooks at Simply Red Bistro at Sheldrake Point Vineyard. Every Monday, Chef Izzo — otherwise known as Mama Red — presents a special menu that focuses on comfort food from the American South and South Africa. During those nights, live string band music — featuring a wealth of the region’s finest musicians — is served up alongside Izzo’s delicious fare.
Several years ago, Simply Red relocated from its original location on Main Street in Trumansburg (where Hazelnut Kitchen is currently located) to Sheldrake Point in Ovid. Now, six years after the inception of Simply Red, Izzo has released her first cookbook, Mama Red’s Comfort Kitchen: Recipes from Monday Nights at Simply Red.
The book lovingly details Izzo’s decadent, comforting recipes with anecdotes, sidebars, and jokes, and is sold with a CD specifically recorded for the book by local quartet and Monday night regulars The Evil City String Band.
Izzo’s book includes the recipes of her most popular dishes — Creole jambalaya, shrimp and grits, South African curries, Blue Plate special meatloaf, Cajun cornmeal-crusted catfish, mac-and-cheese deluxe, and her famous honey-stung fried chicken. “The idea for the book really came from the fact that people kept asking me for recipes from our Old Time music nights on Mondays,” Izzo says. “I’ve always wanted to publish my own cookbook, and it made sense that my first one would be based on our Southern food nights at the restaurant. It’s such a community-based evening, and the atmosphere is what makes the Monday nights what they are. And for people who buy the book, I really wanted them to understand and to feel that.”
While the book is organized into gustatory categories — appetizers, classic recipes, specialties, desserts, and so forth — every recipe is lovingly annotated with Izzo’s personal stories, bits of culinary knowledge, historical trivia, and essays about the winery and the music.
It’s not just a cookbook — it’s a portal into Izzo’s world, and something that begs to be read cover-to-cover. “I like the fact that it’s more than just recipes from page to page, but rather something where the reader could learn why the T-burg sweet potato fries were created, or what the first recipe was that I liked making as child,” Izzo says.
Izzo has a personal relationship with every dish in the book. When asked what her favorite dishes were, Izzo says with a laugh, “Shrimp and grits on a Monday night. It was the last meal I had before I gave birth to my daughter. I had pork ribs and potato salad, too.”
Growing up in South Africa, Izzo listened to American jazz and blues, but loved the American traditions of Old Time and fiddle music. “I grew up around a lot of live music,” recalls Izzo. “When I was little, for about four years I traveled with a bluegrass band called the Silver Creek Mountain Band. It’s natural for me to have music in my life.”
Unlike most conventional restaurants, the live music that pulses throughout the dining room is a crucial part of Simply Red’s lively atmosphere. Most weeks, The Evil City String Band — featuring banjo player Richie Stearns, guitarist Pat Burke, fiddle player Steve Selin, and doghouse bassist Ben Gould — perform their spirited renditions of Old Time songs for hours on end. It can transform a normal dining experience into something seriously terrific. “Sam always wanted a partnership like this. She gave me control over the music, and to make it something really fun. I invite friends as well as people and bands from out of town to come up and play tunes with me — we once brought Musafir here with The Evil City String Band, Mac Benford, and Chad Crumm. It was a trip,” Stearns laughs. “Loud and fast gypsy music all night.”
As soon as Izzo moved to town, she heard about Stearns and his successful Old Time music night at the Rongovian Embassy. “I introduced myself and asked if he would be interested in being a part of a community-driven music night at my restaurant. I had opened my place only about a month before,” recalls Izzo.
Soon, the rotating cast of characters that included a variety of both Ithaca and out-of-town musicians solidified into what The Evil City String Band is today. “Originally, Simply Red wasn’t even open on Mondays,” says guitarist Pat Burke. “But after Richie started the music nights, you had to have a reservation just to get into the place on a Monday. I would play with Richie as a duo, or with Chad Crumm or Gregor [Sayet-Bone]. I really gravitated towards that scene.”
Stearns’ music was a perfect fit for Izzo’s Southern-style cooking. “I definitely connected to Richie’s music,” Izzo says. “I would not have been able to write the book if it hadn’t started with Richie and the musicians who played for pennies and food in the beginning. For them, it wasn’t about what they were paid, but to be a part of what was there — and have a great plate of supper.”
The concept eventually grew to include Evil City’s music alongside Izzo’s book. “We loved the idea of including a CD with the book, and the recording sessions went great,” says Burke. “We didn’t really have anything planned at first, and some of the songs that we recorded I had never played in my life — but that kept everything fresh, and those ended up being some of my favorite tunes.”
“It was really important to me that the music was a part of the book,” explains Izzo. “Monday nights wouldn’t be what they are without every single musician that has come through here.”
Indeed, Mama Red’s Comfort Kitchen is a culmination of the efforts of not just Izzo, but a host of players, inspirations and muses. “I am very aware that my success is not only because of my talent but of the people who surround me. From the amazing staff who scrub the booths to friends who watched my daughter to my sous-chef, they’re the ones that made it possible,” says Izzo. “Being at Sheldrake Point, I’m still able to run the restaurant the way it was run when it was located in Trumansburg. Because of the location of Sheldrake and the volume that comes through, we’re allowed more flexibility and creativeness with our product.”
Ordinarily, it would seem intimidating to recreate a fine restaurant’s decadent, rich dishes in your own kitchen, but Izzo’s book is surprisingly accessible and direct, reflecting her own self-taught approach to cooking. Unlike complicated recipes found in books by celebrity chefs such as Mario Batali or Emeril Lagasse, Izzo presents a straightforward collection of recipes, written in a conversational style, and often with helpful serving suggestions.
“I’ve loved to cook since I was four, and I’ve worked in the restaurant business since I was 16,” says Izzo. “I don’t pretend to know everything about the culinary world, because I don’t have a trained background. And in the Finger Lakes area, it can be easy to become stale and comfortable because it’s smaller than New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, where there’s a lot of competition. I always try to travel when I can, to see what other people are doing, and then come back refreshed, inspired, and glad to be home.”
From the recipe for Izzo’s honey-stung fried chicken: “It’s the dish that’s near and dear to the hearts (and stomachs) of Monday night crowd. We add honey butter and drizzled honey to the chicken when it comes out of the hot oil, served up with our own wine country version of hospitality. Be sure to make enough for dinner and still have a few pieces leftover. It’s even better cold the next day.”
Mama Red’s Comfort Kitchen is currently available for purchase at Sheldrake Point, Meyer’s, Bookery II, and Wegman’s, as well as online. The book is truly a labor of love, and with the help of a stove — and a stereo — Mama Red’s Comfort Kitchen makes it possible for any home cook to recreate Izzo’s popular Monday nights right in their own kitchen.
The Evil City String Band will perform at Simply Red Bistro on Monday, Sept. 22. For reservations, call 607-532-9401. Simply Red is located on 7448 County Road 153 in Ovid. Samantha Izzo will host a cooking demonstration at the Trumansburg Farmer’s Market on Oct. 15 from 4-6pm.
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