Chef Of Size Big On Taste
‘No one trusts a skinny chef,” Bernie Vest says, patting the substantial stomach under his white chef’s jacket. “I’m living proof that the food here’s good.”
Bernie is the new chef at the Beach House in Sandpoint. The restaurant had no chef all summer. It has gotten away with uninspired food and a bland decor for years because it distracts diners with a soul-filling view of Lake Pend Oreille.
Those days are over. Bernie is impatient for diners to discover his skill with soups and his prowess with prime rib.
“I spice it and keep it rare,” he says, his stiff mustache twitching in his excitement. “I make all my soups from scratch.”
Speaking of soup, Bernie’s is bubbling on the stove. His pleated chef’s hat cuts through the steam as he sniffs the vegetable beef aroma from the pot and drops in a pinch of something.
“You’re either a professional chef or a professional eater,” he says, turning his linebacker’s body with a dancer’s ease. “I’m a professional eater. I’ve learned what food should taste like from eating.”
Paul Prudhomme beats Bernie in size. But Bernie’s commitment to food is as huge as any of the great chefs.
The love affair began 21 years ago when Bernie was a 13-year-old busboy. His brother the cook needed help, so he promoted Bernie.
“It seems people are more thrilled to have a good meal than anything else,” Bernie says. “I like to please people through their stomachs.”
For 20 years, he cooked in four-star restaurants in Hawaii, Oregon and Colorado, searching for the smoothest sauce, the most succulent steak.
He learned escargot and Cobb salad, marinated herring and chateaubriand, then moved to Sandpoint where he says he’ll sink his roots.
“It’s a steak and potato crowd here,” he says, sizing up the diners around him without a trace of disappointment. “But it’s fun to work on new challenges. People will eat anything that tastes good, if they know about it.”
Voices of angels
OK, some school events can be a trial to sit through. But choir at the high school level is a treat for all ears, especially when the singers belong to North Idaho’s honor choir.
Two hundred kids from high schools in Coeur d’Alene, St. Maries, Rathdrum, Sandpoint, Post Falls and Priest River auditioned for the choir, and 100 were chosen.
They’ll sing everything from Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” to John Lennon’s “Can’t Buy Me Love” in Lake City High’s auditorium at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets are $2 per person or $5 per family to hear voices worth a million bucks. The 13 high schools in the Panhandle will use the money to buy sheet music.
Nice touch
Next time you hate humanity, talk to Osburn’s Joyce Huff. Two weeks after one of her hips was replaced and the other was repaired, Joyce went to a concert at Spokane’s Opera House on crutches.
Ushers offered to change her seat to make it easier to reach. The people in her row helped her to her seat. The women in line in the bathroom let Joyce go ahead to the handicapped stall.
“There are many wonderful people in our world,” Joyce writes. “I encountered many of them that night.”
Thank heavens
Coeur d’Alene’s Joe Kamps made a bid for sainthood a few weeks ago. He gave the group trying to open the Holy Family Catholic School $627 he raised in one day at his Go-Kart Family Fun.
Father George Rassley from St. Thomas Catholic Church didn’t canonize anyone that day, but he did gamely climb into one of the go-carts.
Who in your community deserves sainthood? Bless their souls for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; FAX to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo