At Home At The Clark House

On a recent afternoon at the elegant Clark House in Hayden Lake, Everett Fees looked blissfully happy as he sawed kernels of corn from cobs and scraped the guts out of spaghetti squash.

He was surrounded by windows that looked out on tall pines and the lake beyond. He marveled at the spacious kitchen’s abundant counter space and pulled all sorts of gadgets from the well-organized drawers and cupboards.

“Most kitchens I’ve worked in have been in the basement, the least desirable spot in the world,” said the former executive chef at Patsy Clark’s Mansion in Spokane. “This is just such a wonderful environment. The only thing that would make it better is if I owned it.”

Fees doesn’t mind that he no longer has a sous chef or a prep cook to do his chopping and grating. He does it all. He cooks six-course meals for up to 50 people in an evening and he’s relishing the chance to get back to basics.

“I’m doing what I got in this business to do and that’s cook,” he said.

For years, Fees was a fixture in area kitchens, starting in the late ‘70s with Soups, Etc. in Coeur d’Alene and working his way up to being the sous chef at Beverly’s shortly after that restaurant opened.

He later became executive chef at Patsy’s, where he stayed for nearly four years before being lured to Portland. Widmer Brothers Brewing Co. wanted him to develop a series of food-friendly brewpubs. It didn’t pan out.

Fees moved back to this area and took a year off from cooking. The Clark House position came up at an opportune time.

“I was selling meat and it wasn’t much fun,” he said.

Because he’s a one-man show at the Clark House, Fees usually spends the morning shopping in Coeur d’Alene and dreaming up his creations for dinner.

That kind of spontaneity “really keeps me creative,” he said.

The Clark House (208-772-3470) draws a mix of seasoned travelers and well-heeled local residents (complete meals run around $40). So the menus are inventive without going over the cutting edge.

“It’s fun to play around with new stuff, but we don’t do anything radical,” Fees said.

One of the house specialties is tenderloin of beef with a mushroom bordelaise sauce, but something as offbeat as ostrich is a surprising crowd-pleaser.

Fees draws inspiration from reading food magazines and watching cooking shows on the Discovery Channel. And also by walking into his own back yard, where he culls exotic herbs and some vegetables from raised beds tended by his wife, Elizabeth, who is a professional gardener.

To the fresh corn he’s just cut, Fees adds water and a handful of homegrown savory, a fragrant herb from the thyme family, as the base for that evening’s soup course.

“Food doesn’t have to be fancy to taste great,” he said.

Serving dinner in courses turns a meal into an event, and Fees recommended trying it at home.

“Too often we load everything on one plate and dinner is over and it’s back to the couch and the TV,” he said.

He loves to entertain and suggested doing a potluck multicourse feast.

“Everyone ends up in the kitchen anyway, so why not put them to work?” Fees said. “It’s a great way to connect with your guests.”

Gazpacho

A great first course and a nice way to display all those ripe tomatoes from the garden.

12 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (preferably a mixture of red and yellow tomatoes)

2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 medium red onion, finely diced

2 teaspoons fresh garlic, finely diced

1 cup Spanish pimento-stuffed olives, sliced (optional)

2 Anaheim peppers, seeded and chopped

1 cup cilantro, chopped

2 cups tomato juice

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve in chilled soup bowls with a dollop of sour cream.

Yield: 6 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 163 calories, 4.1 grams fat (23 percent fat calories), 7 grams protein, 32 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 545 milligrams sodium.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: Chef du Jour is a monthly feature of IN Food that profiles area chefs and provides one of their recipes for readers to try at home.