Do you ever wish you could step inside the kitchens of your favorite restaurants and chat with the chefs? Well, pull up a chair, pour yourself some coffee, and get ready for some tasty morsels, because we paid a visit to four of the Susquehanna Valley’s top chefs. Enjoy their insider stories, cooking tips and maybe even a recipe for their secret sauce.
OLD-SCHOOL LOCAL
Every morning, Jim Switzenberg opens his window shades and admires the view. From his Wrightsville home, he watches the sunrise over the Susquehanna River.
He bikes across the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge to the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail with his wife on his days off. Or, he takes his kayak out on the river, where he knows the bald eagles’ nest locations like the back of his hand.
But most days, he walks a few blocks to work. For nearly 15 years, he too has been a fixture along the shores of the Susquehanna—as John Wright Restaurant’s executive chef and one of four owners.
“This landscape is key—it’s what got me here,” says Switzenberg, 54, gesturing out the windows of the John Wright Restaurant. “From Harrisburg to Havre de Grace, you don’t have another restaurant with a view like this.”
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While the location is unparalleled, many would say Switzenberg’s culinary skills are too. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he’s overseen restaurant kitchens across the country, from Houston to Los Angeles, New Orleans to the Big Apple. As executive chef for Texas Tech’s athletic department, he organized kitchen operations that fed 140,000 people attending sporting events every weekend.
Closer to home, he designed and ran Harrisburg Area Community College’s (HACC’s) culinary program. In many ways, he’s still educating people through John Wright Restaurant’s menu, which he describes as “clean and natural,” highlighting local produce and farmers.
“My experiences have all led me here,” Switzenberg says, who recalls childhood memories in his first kitchen. “I was cooking when I was seven years old. I used to trade cooking with my brother, for household chores. It was innate from early on. It’s all I’ve ever done, but it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
Switzenberg prides himself on forging personal relationships with local farmers. In fact, he calls himself “old-school local.”
Case in point, there’s a story behind his longtime relationship with an Amish farmer who supplies the restaurant with eggs.
“Fourteen years ago, I was riding my bicycle by an Amish farm and noticed they were selling eggs. I asked the farmer if he could supply me with 90 dozen a week,” Switzenberg says. “It was a Tuesday, and he said, 'I was getting ready to sell my chickens Wednesday—tomorrow—but I reckon I shouldn’t sell them now.’ Today, he sells me 120 dozen eggs a week—and 180 dozen in peak season.”
In John Wright’s kitchen, pasta is made fresh daily. All deli meats are smoked in-house. Corn is grown a mile and a half away. Kernels from 80 dozen ears go into the freezer every winter. Switzenberg even has a secret source for wild ramps nearby, from which he makes a unique ramp pesto.
“It’s fun and local and natural,” he says. “What we do here is completely clean food, with no chemicals and limited GMOs, natural and from the earth.”
“I’ve had many unique opportunities,” Switzenberg says, “cooking for countless celebrities like Cher and the Eagles. But what’s really been a blessing to me and my life is watching my sous chefs under me learning and moving on—watching the next generation and pushing my passion for cooking to others.”
A Recipe from Chef Jim Switzenberg:
Gumbo Base
“Gumbo will never come off the menu” at John Wright Restaurant, Chef Jim Switzenberg says. “I learned how to make it during Mardi Gras in 1992, working at Mother’s Restaurant, so that’s the real deal. People from all over the South come here now and say it’s the best gumbo they ever had. Because I was given that recipe, I’m happy to do the same.”
6 Servings
Ingredients
1/3 cup vegetable, peanut or canola oil
1 cup flour, all-purpose
1 large onion, medium dice
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 celery rib, sliced
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
½ tsp each, dry thyme and oregano
1 qt liquid (stock of your choice)
2 cups canned, peeled, diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 Tbsp hot sauce
2 Tbsp gumbo file (specialty seasoning)
1 or more, protein of choice (chicken, andouille sausage, shrimp, seafood)
3 cups cooked white rice
Steps
1. Heat oil until very hot. Whisk in flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until dark brown. Add trinity (onion, pepper and celery), garlic and dry spice, and cook until just soft.
2. Slowly add liquid, tomatoes, hot sauce and bay leaf while stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 30 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add cooked protein (sausage, seafood, etc.) and the file, and cook 5-10 minutes more.
4. Remove bay leaf and serve in soup bowls with a mound of hot rice in the center.
Keep It Simple: 3 foodie tips from Chef Switzenberg
1. Shop only on the perimeter of the grocery store, Switzenberg says. “There’s nothing that’s food in the center of the store except maybe pasta.”
2. Read the ingredient labels. “If you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t be eating it. Our bodies weren’t made to run on chemicals.”
3. Buy quality food, and cook simply. “A zucchini seared in olive oil is delicious. Salt, pepper and olive oil are mainly what I cook with.”
John Wright Restaurant | 234 N Front St, Wrightsville | jwrpa.com
CULINARY COMMITMENT
There’s a tattoo near Chef Brent Golding’s wrist. As he stirs, chops and plates his dishes at Gettysburg’s Sign of the Buck, that tattoo and its meaning are a reminder of his work ethic.
“It’s a Japanese symbol that means ‘devotion, to commit to something,’” says Golding, 39. “I can’t go halfway—it’s the mentality I’ve always had. When you care about things so much, it dictates and orients everything you do in your life.”
At Sign of the Buck, one of Gettysburg’s newest restaurants, Golding’s menu is “the culmination of everything I’ve done and everything I’ve wanted to do,” he says. It’s also a return to home, his native Adams County. French-trained, he’s worked in the nearby kitchens of Taneytown’s Antrim 1844, Hanover’s Sheppard Mansion, Lancaster’s Aussie and the Fox, plus Philadelphia’s Harp & Crown and two Nashville restaurants—Josephine and Husk.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with passionate people who took a chance on me—they saw I was hungry for it,” Golding says. “Other cooks said, ‘I’m just going to show you as much as I know,’ and that has meant a lot to me.”
He has taken all those lessons and created a thoughtful menu.
“We wanted to take familiar dishes, but put our own spin on them,” Golding explains, “adding some whimsy.”
His Crab and Hash Brown royale is a good example.
“We bridge something as humble as a hash brown with this beautiful crab dip—cleanly seasoned—topped with caviar. It encompasses the whole approach,” he says.
Or, take the steak tartare.
“We start with a great local piece of beef,” Golding says, “and we create something very French, but covered with potato chips. Something a little serious, brought back down to earth. So simple, yet approachable.”
But Golding has created something even bigger than the menu at Sign of the Buck—a kitchen that’s a nurturing workplace. He calls it his “greatest success.”
“The most important thing for me here was to create a kitchen that I’d want to cook in—one that nurtures growth, learning and patience, where chefs aren’t hot-headed and egotistical, but human beings,” Golding says. “And that translates to everything else we do.”
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Kitchen IQ: 3 foodie tips from Chef Golding
1. Open up your pantry and work with the ingredients you have on hand. That’s how most chefs develop their menus and specials.
2. “One of the most valuable things, whether you’re working in a professional or home kitchen, is to develop an intuition when you cook,” Golding says. You can think of it as “kitchen IQ.”
3. Going a step further, if a recipe doesn’t turn out the way you’d like, evaluate why. “A lot of people are scared to fail, but I actually encourage it, because it’s the only way to learn,” Golding says. The next step is to “substitute an ingredient with confidence. As pros, we do it every single day. That intuition is super valuable—it can save you time and money and allow you to become more creative in the kitchen.”
Sign of the Buck | 29 Chambersburg St, Gettysburg | signofthebuck.com
IT’S A LOVE LANGUAGE
Ever since she was a little girl, Chef AnnMarie Nelms found kitchens fascinating. She remembers going to The Tops Bar & Restaurant on Derry Street in Harrisburg with her family.
“There was one booth where you could see into the kitchen,” Nelms says. “I would always try to sit there, because you could see the steam from the pots and pans and everyone hustling. To me, that was magic—and I think that’s where it started for me.”
There are a million more childhood memories, all swirled together with food and family.
“I remember being in elementary school and playing hooky because I wanted to go to work with my mom,” Nelms says with a laugh. Her mother—actually, her entire family and maybe even their DNA—is in the restaurant business.
Today Chef Nelms, 45, has intertwined her family’s heritage, culinary and otherwise, into a restaurant of her own, Thea, in Mechanicsburg. The name is a nod to her mother and her sisters, Nelms’ “theas,” Greek for “aunts.” Her mother is Sophia of Sophia’s at Walden, in Mechanicsburg.
At Thea, Nelms cooks for guests as if they’re family.
“My meatloaf in the fall is my Grammy’s recipe, from my German side,” Nelms says. “It’s by far the best meatloaf, with a rich red wine demi-glace.”
Meatballs? Her uncle Joe’s recipe. Chicken orzo soup? Just like her yaya (Greek grandma) used to make.
“It’s my true passion,” Nelms says, “but I have to be honest—I have an amazing staff. My cooks have worked for me for a long time because I allow them to be part of the puzzle— not just a piece of the puzzle.”
Nelms often encircles the dining room, greeting guests. But when guests compliment dishes that one of her chefs created, she makes it a point to send that chef out to accept the kudos.
“You can’t run a one-man show in this business—it’s a full-on team effort,” she explains.
Nelms also makes it fun. She’s constantly smiling and laughing—and, she admits, cussing. There’s a sign in the kitchen, above her station on the line: “People say I have a bad attitude, and I say screw them.”
Amidst the laughter, there’s also a lot of love at Thea.
“Food,” Nelms says, “is a love language.”
From Chef AnnMarie Nelms’ Kitchen:
Lemon Chicken Orzo (her Yaya’s recipe)
14 Servings
Ingredients
¼ cup olive oil
2 ½ lbs chicken thighs
Salt and pepper
7 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ½ cups onions, small dice
7 carrots, peeled and diced
5 stalks celery, small dice
1 tsp dried thyme
12 cups chicken stock
7 bay leaves
2 cups orzo pasta
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
Juice of 3 lemons
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
Steps
1. Poach chicken thighs and tear up.
2. Add olive oil to a stock pot. Add garlic, onion, carrots and celery. Cook until tender. Stir in thyme, and cook a minute or so until fragrant.
3. Whisk in chicken stock, bay leaves and 7 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
4. Stir in orzo, rosemary and chicken. Reduce to a simmer until orzo is tender, about 10-12 minutes.
5. Stir in lemon juice and parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Letting a Well-Kept Secret out of the Bag: 3 tips from Chef Nelms
1. Did you know you can shop with the chefs? “My sole food provider is John Gross & Co. [in Mechanicsburg],” Nelms says. “They’re open to the public, with restaurantgrade products you can take home and cook. You could buy the same fish they bring in for me. … It’s a well-kept secret, but they’re a local food purveyor that’s been around for over 100 years.”
2. Start slow cooker meals in the morning, and come home to “amazing” home-cooked dinners.
3. Quality pots and pans will last a lifetime. Nelms is still using her Grammy’s pans with copper bottoms. “If you love to cook at home,” she advises, “buy the good stuff.”
Thea | 1303 Saxton Wy, Mechanicsburg | thea-dining.com
BEAUTIFUL VIEW
When Chef Anthony Davis looks back on his career path, leading to one of Lancaster’s most popular restaurants—The Belvedere Inn—the view is pretty sweet. After all, Belvedere means “beautiful view.”
But the path sprung up from humble beginnings. Davis was inspired to become a chef as a teen working in the kitchen of a retirement home.
“One of my coworkers was going to culinary school, and he recognized I had some natural talent, so he encouraged me,” says Davis, now 33.
His coworker gave him a copy of “The French Laundry Cookbook.”
“I had never seen anything like it,” Davis recalls. “It was an eye-opening moment at the tender age of 15, and I started falling in love with the idea of becoming a chef at an upscale restaurant.”
Today, Davis indeed leads the kitchen at The Belvedere Inn—a position he’s held for nearly three years—after working as executive chef at Pour, The Imperial, Carr’s, and York’s Heritage Hills Golf Resort. In his first sous chef role, he met his wife—a part-time server.
“It’s a classic tale,” Davis says. “We’ve been together for 12 years now.”
And yet, none of it would have happened without that one former coworker.
“He was like a beacon of light, shining and showing me where I wanted to go,” Davis says.
And Davis loves where he landed.
“The reason The Belvedere is popular is because of the ownership—I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone care this much, and that makes all the difference in the world,” he says.
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For his part, Davis enjoys pushing the menu “as modern as possible” and incorporating global culinary influences—from Nashvilleinspired hot oysters and Korean BBQ quail to tuna tostada featuring traditional salsa verde.
“We have a duck dish,” Davis says, “with a Mexican mole sauce made with 40 ingredients. It takes me half the day to make that one sauce. But we have someone on staff from Mexico, and he said, ‘It reminds me of my grandmother's’ And that may be the best compliment I ever received.”
Season, season, season: 3 tips from Chef Davis
1. There are two things that home cooks should do more of, Davis says: Use more seasoning, and taste more often. He recommends tasting multiple times throughout the cooking process in order to add more seasoning as needed.
2. “If you want to have a great meal at home with loved ones,” Davis says, “think back to high school and the tongue diagram.” Round out your meal with something salty, sweet, tart and bitter. Include umami—that savory meatiness—plus texture and a touch of heat via pepper or garlic.
3. Quality ingredients go a long way. Take a tip from The Belvedere’s longtime menu staple, the grilled Caesar salad. While it only requires a handful of simple ingredients, the dish shines thanks to its high-quality Parmesan cheese.
The Belvedere Inn | 402 N Queen St, Lancaster | belvederelancaster.com
