Some of the world’s best chefs have cooked at the lavish, $500-a-plate dinners held from time to time at the Tulsa Botanic Garden. A Michelin two star chef flew in from France, as did a nationally known rising star from Boston. One lovely evening last April, a sold-out crowd assembled under the stars to enjoy a dinner cooked by Chad Horvath. Months later, people still talk about it.
Horvath has come a long way since the time when, as an inquisitive ten-year-old in Pleasant Grove, Utah, he proudly presented his new recipe to his parents: pancakes with spaghetti sauce. After that, he didn’t plan to be a chef.
“I was good at calculus and computers,” Horvath recalls. He even got a Fulbright Scholarship to study computer programming in college. He still had to find a way to pay for his room and board, however.
“They had me cook food samples at Costco,” he says. “One day, a chef was walking by, casually grabbed a sample of salmon I’d prepared, then suddenly stopped mid-walk and asked, ‘What the hell are you doing in here?’ He told me I should be a chef at a great restaurant. I quit the next day and found work in the kitchen of a fine hotel. I’ve been working in hotels for over twenty years now.”
In 2005, he put himself through a Cordon Bleu school in Scottsdale and then got a job as sous-chef at the century-old Arizona Biltmore, a celebrated luxury hotel set on almost 40 acres of well-tended gardens. He later worked at other hotels, landing jobs as executive chef. The last one was the Tulsa Renaissance Hotel, and he came to love it in Oklahoma.
But, he explains, “my life is not just about food, it’s about leading people, mentoring the next generation.”
He sought out jobs in management, ending up as general manager of the Tulsa Club Hotel downtown, supervising the restoration and operation of the hotel, set in an iconic Art Deco building designed by Bruce Goff in 1927. For the past five years, though, he’s been the Corporate Culinary Director of Servegroup. That means, basically, he does everything relating to Servegroup’s kitchens – he organizes the spaces, plans every menu served, works on logistics and, perhaps most importantly, he makes sure the food is perfect.
Servegroup, a Tulsa-based umbrella organization, covers three divisions: division one prepares all the food at Expo Square; division two is a catering outfit, Partyserve; and division three provides food for events at LaFortune Park and the Tulsa Aquarium.
“I foster a learning environment in my kitchens,” Horvath says. In the largest division, the catering kitchen, he has about half a dozen culinary students, most in their twenties, and several former culinary teachers. They use the classic, centuries-old French brigade system, and the students are rotated around each of the stations to learn every aspect of the profession.
For Horvath, mentoring students is one of the most important parts of his life. For the past thirteen years, he’s volunteered his time at OSUIT’s culinary program, and quite a few OSUIT students have interned at Servegroup. Horvath hires many of them.
Oaxacan Negro Mole from Chef Horvath
Ingredients:
• 11 medium dried Mulato chiles
• 6 medium ancho chiles
• 6 medium pasilla chiles
• 1 dried chipotle chile
• 1 corn tortilla, torn into pieces
• 2 ¼ inch think slices of white onion
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 2 cups lard (for frying the chiles)
• ½ cup- sesame seeds
• ¼ cup- pecan halves
• ¼ cup- peanuts
• ¼ cup- unskinned almonds
• 10 cups- chicken broth
• 1 green tomato – rough chop
• 4 oz (2 to 3 medium) tomatillos, husked, rinsed and roughly chopped
• 2 slices of stale bread, toasted until very dark
• ¼ tsp. cloves
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. oregano
• ½ tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 ripe banana
• ½ cup (3oz) Mexican chocolate
• Salt to taste
• ¼ cup sugar to taste
Directions:
1. Pull out stems and attached seed pods from dried chiles, tear them open and shake or scrape out the seeds, collecting as you go.
2. Scoop seeds into ungreased saute pan, along with torn up corn tortilla. Saute until charcoal black, about 15 minutes. This step is very important for the flavor of mole. Rinse in mesh strainer for 30 seconds and transfer to blender.
3. Roast onions and garlic cloves (about 15 minutes for both).
4. Fry all dried chiles and let them release their aroma. Drain well and put in bowl. Cover with tap water, let rehydrate for 30 minutes, stirring regularly. Drain and reserve the soaking liquid.
5. While chiles are soaking, toast the seed and nuts. Spread the sesame seeds on to a sheet pan. Spread the pecans, peanuts and almonds onto another sheet pan. Put both in over at 350 degrees. Roasted about 12 minutes, the sesame seeds will have toasted to a dark brown; the nuts may take slightly longer. Add all of them to the blender, along with 1 ½ cup of the chicken broth and blend to a smooth puree.
6. Without rinsing the blender, combine tomatoes and tomatillos with another ½ cup of broth and puree.
7. Without rinsing the blender, combine roasted onion, garlic, toasted bread, cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, oregano, thyme, banana and ¾ cup broth. Blend until smooth.
8. Without rinsing blender, blend hydrated chiles with chicken stock.
9. At this point, you should have a seed puree, seed and nut puree, tomato puree, banana and spice puree, and chile puree.
10. Add lard or oil to pot. Once smoking hot, add in the tomato puree first. Reduce for 15-20 minutes – it should be as thick as tomato paste, and very dark.
11. Next add in the banana and spice puree, stir for another 7 to 8 minutes. It should simmer down to a similar dark color as before.
12. Next add in the chile puree, stir well and let reduce over medium-low heat for about 30 minutes. Mole should be very dark. Stir in remaining chicken broth once reduced.
13. Add in Mexican chocolate.
14. Simmer for about an hour, then season with salt and sugar as sugar helps balance the dark toasty flavors.
Add chicken pieces to pot and simmer in mole. Serve chicken, or can be shredded and make enchiladas with and use mole sauce with Oaxaca cheese, diced onions, and cilantro.
