This interview column is dedicated to the people who grind it out daily but not necessarily out of a sand trap. Whether it is a course superintendent of a local country club or the head of a major corporation I hope to be able to delve into the lives of those who make a difference but are rarely in the public eye.
Today’s interview is with Steven Haverson, Executive Chef of Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. Enjoy!
TST: What is your job description?
Steve: I’m the individual responsible for the entire food program, purchasing of all food stuff, supplies and uniforms. I also suggest and participate in the purchase of all equipment and getting bids for the kitchen and working on capital projects for the kitchen as necessary.
The other part of the position is to formulate menus throughout the year for all the special events as well as a la carte for ladies’ and men’s events for the Anderson tournament at Winged Foot which is our national amateur championship and to be involved in any outside activity such as the U. S. Amateur that we had last year in 2004 as well as the 2006 U.S. Open.
TST: How long does it take for you to prepare for these tournaments?
Steve: It’s something that’s discussed one year in advance and then we work towards the event by coordinating everyone’s responsibilities within the beverage program and also how our program relates to the bigger picture such as parking for employees or how we would bus them back and forth because there are not enough parking facilities. We would be talking about that throughout the year and then we would start the year in February or March to get ready for the event if it was in August.
TST: A little background about yourself. How did you ever decide to become a chef?
Steve: I always had a love of food and I lost my father when I was young and I was responsible for cooking at home when my mother ran the business that we had. I went to college and got an economics degree from the University of Bridgeport. I then got the opportunity to study Cordon Bleu in Paris so I decided to go and regardless of whether I would be a chef or not the culinary skills and the opportunity to live in France to absorb the entire culture of wine and food and the commitment to excellence and enjoyment of food and then from that moment on that’s when I knew that this is what I would be doing for the rest of my life in one capacity or another. As it turned out my initial love was pastry and baking which I pursued for the first few years of my career by exclusively just doing that and then I needed to branch out and decided that I wanted to be a full chef. I started as a day chef in Connecticut at a private house and then I worked my series of jobs over the years where at this point I put in a thirty-year career with my own catering business and I’ve been an executive chef for twenty-two years and I’ve been running operations since the age of twenty-three.
TST: How did you get the job at Winged Foot?
Steve: Well all these jobs are jobs that either put in a search person’s hands and they bring together the candidates with our different backgrounds and the process, for me, took six full interviews to the final time I was offered the job as executive chef.
TST: Have you had the chance to cook for any celebrities, dignitaries or professional tour players?
Steve: At Winged Foot over the course of my six years there we had entertained a number of golf pros although we just completed the U.S. Amateur and we have the U.S. Open next year so everybody will be on board. As an example, Arnold Palmer was at Winged Foot to receive an honorary membership.
TST: Tiger Woods?
Steve: No, Tiger Woods has not been there since I’ve been there.
TST: How about the rest of the “Big 5”?
Steve: None of those players were at Winged Foot because there was no reason for them to be there, although everybody will be there in 2006. We’ve had numerous actors and actresses, we’ve had most of the New York Yankees, the New York Rangers Hockey Team and other well-known celebrities. A number of people were able to come to Winged Foot through their connections and they love playing the course since it’s one of the finest courses in the United States. It has two courses that are rated, I believe, within the top 100 in the world.
TST: Do you create any special dishes for these celebrities?
Steve: Of course but the dishes that they eat are the dishes that they would just ask for off of the menu.
TST: So are they finicky eaters?
Steve: No, there haven’t been too many people that are finicky. We have extensive lunch menus, we have extensive dinner menus, there may be a menu that’s specifically put together for a group of people which would include someone who’s a dignitary or the president of a corporation and it’s always high-end food using the finest ingredients.
TST: When the pro golfers play at Winged Foot do they bring their families? If so, are there special areas for the golfers and their families?
Steve: All of that would happen during a major event. At the U.S. Amateur you do have special food areas and places where the families will gather and eat with the pros. As I said I haven’t been there during a major event other than the U.S. Amateur until next year.
TST: What playing privileges does the staff have at Winged Foot?
Steve: All of the Winged Foot employees are allowed to golf every Tuesday after 4 o’clock. They have to sign up for that so they can golf once a week throughout the season, and then when our outings occur which run from May through the end of October finish, usually with permission we’re able to golf on Monday also.
TST: Are you allowed to play either of the courses?
Steve: Yes, it’s just depending on availability.
TST: Which one do you prefer?
Steve: I like them both. I know the West is the most famous course but I enjoy both of them. I started out on the East so I actually prefer the East over the West. It’s a beautiful course.
TST: How long have you been playing golf?
Steve: Actually two years. I’m a novice, attempting to play golf.
TST: Does the golf pro at Winged Foot give you tips? Instruction?
Steve: If I would ask him he would. I haven’t spent that much time golfing that I’ve asked that much of anybody. I have a friend who mentors me so I’ve been relying on him.
TST: If you could play in a foursome with three others, who would they be?
Steve: The thing is that I’m not at the quality where I could be playing golf with people who CAN play golf and for me to feel comfortable that I’m not holding them back so it would be great to go out with a professional golfer such as Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. I did happen to see Vijay Singh swing at Pinehurst this year and I have to say he’s got such a beautiful swing just to be part of the opportunity to watch him play and to see if any of that could rub off on me, which would be great. I don’t think I’d want to play only with golfers, Id want to bring some politician in there.
TST: The 2006 U.S. Open will be played at Winged Foot. What will that entail for you?
Steve: What that would be is a series of meetings to get ready for all of our food and beverage responsibilities. Winged Foot is going to be responsible for all the clubhouse activities. Everything outside of the clubhouse is going to be consigned to a separate entity that takes care of all the spectators. I believe we’ll be dealing with 35,000 spectators a day. Our club would not have the facility to prepare that food on a daily basis so all of that is done outside of the club. The club itself will be responsible for multiple eating areas to feed the pros, feed the families of the pros, feed the members of the USGA, take care of the Winged Foot members as well as people with special tickets that can come into the clubhouse. So we’ll be doing five simultaneous breakfasts and five simultaneous lunches.
TST: When will you start preparing for the Open?
Steve: I believe the U.S. Open is the second week of June so I will be preparing for it as of now by putting together menus and either beginning the thought process of utilizing the experience of the Amateur event and my recent visit to Pinehurst as to what I’ve seen from them that can help me actually do this the best I can. But realistically in March of 2006 the U.S. Open will be very much a focus as to how I put forth a plan to be ready.
TST: Are you going to create a signature dish for the event? Something personal that you’ll whip up? Anything with a special name to it, perhaps a special dessert?
Steve: What we do for the U.S. Open is when we’re feeding our larger buffets for both lunch and breakfast we will always try to put some of my own signatures on things, so I make for breakfast for example we do individual waffles with candy pecans and bananas. That’s something I know I’ll have on at least one buffet or I do a crispy cornflake french toast. That will be on one breakfast buffet. And then what I do for lunch, I like to do a lot of really nice room temperature platters such as a Chicken Milanese with baby arugula and three kinds of tomatoes or we do a marinated old bay and olive oil shrimp with three dipping sauces or we’ll do a skirt steak quesadilla with guacamole and salsa and sour cream. So, you know, we’re going to spread out a lot of ethnic foods and traditional American foods, you know, fresh lobster salad and give a sandwich probably as one of the entrees for our a la carte program and I’ll have either a lobster club or a Maine lobster club sandwich and we’ll cook all those lobsters and extract the meat…we won’t buy cooked lobster. We really try to do everything fresh made on premises. We make our own cookies, we make our own brownies, our own blondies, we make our own muffins and so we really try to let everybody have a time at Winged Foot which is obviously based on golf but as far as backing it up through our food program we want everyone to walk away and say, ‘Geez, those guys do a great job’.
TST: How many people are on your staff?
Steve: My staff in the summertime which is also the auxiliary snack bar area has a staff of about 27 people.
TST: Will that staff swell for the U.S. Open?
Steve: That staff will all play a role in the U.S. Open and we’ll need to bring in approximately ten auxiliary people from outside of the club as well as the staffing both in the car parking and the pool will all come to work with the kitchen so it will probably be around a staff of fifty within the food operation not including servers to make that week work.
TST: Do you have any special story from your time at Winged Foot?
Steve: During the U.S. Amateur I understand that the winner, Ryan Moore during the last day was behind there and there was a request by his mother to my sous chef that he wanted Ritz crackers and peanut butter on his crackers as a snack and my sous chef put that together for him and he went on to after being down for like 33 out of the 36 holes he went on to win at the end and get the U.S. Amateur title which was quite an accomplishment for him and my sous chef credits the peanut butter cookies for making that happen.
TST: Was there ever a dignitary, tour player, etc. that irked you? That said something about your cooking?
Steve: No nothing personal because you know as a chef you don’t necessarily get the comments from them directly because you are working in the back and you may see them and say hello but openly those comments are going directly to a server or manager.
TST: So during these large tournaments do you go out and greet the actual players?
Steve: During the large tournaments you will see everybody at one point except that I understand from Pinehurst that these guys are very private and to themselves. They eat, they do their own thing. You will see them walking around but they are very focused people. You know, they don’t get involved outside of their golf game. That’s what their concentrating on. These are major tournaments. The U.S. Open represents something that is so special to them to capture that victory that they really stay, I believe, amongst themselves, to themselves maybe with their families. There’s not a lot of interaction that I see, except maybe for waving to the crowd.
TST: What’s for lunch today?
Steve: Today’s lunch is going to be all based on foods that we have right now. My sous chef will pick the lunch menu. We have a dinner menu in play although tonight’s the firecracker buffet which is a party of six hundred with a double buffet so those menus I’m all responsible for.
TST: Do you also get the opportunity to watch the fireworks?
Steve: Absolutely! At nine o’clock I’ll be on the roof with a cigar and my wife is joining me, not with a cigar, but for the fireworks from 9-9:30 and we will have a wonderful evening.
TST: Thanks for doing this interview, Steve. Enjoy the fireworks!
Introduction and interview completed by Stacy Solomon and published by Everardo Keeme.