Chef Blythe Beck, whose colorful personality is equally matched by the boldness in flavor combinations of her food, is quite the busy lady.
She has unveiled her new menu of contemporary regional American cuisine at Central 214 and taping for her NBC Universal-owned Oxygen show, "The Naughty Kitchen with Chef Blythe Beck," starts in May.
Her foray into the culinary world began after the former "take-out queen" called up one of her favorite restaurants to place an order and was offered a job. Her distinct voice and personality appealed to the restaurant’s owner.
"At first, I didn’t want to start out as a ‘door whore,’ but then they pointed out it was good for beer money so… Honestly, I could have told my parents I was pregnant with a blue Smurf before telling them I wanted to go into the restaurant business," Beck said.
Long before Beck's first stint at the restaurant, she worked at her father’s law office, where she realized she never wanted to wear pantyhose or sit in traffic ever again.
That doesn’t mean Beck isn't a hard worker -- she simply wants to do things her way. And who can blame her? The male-dominated culinary world has chewed and spit out many talented women who don’t listen to boy bands and wear pink monogrammed chef’s uniforms like Beck does.
"I still see myself as the sweaty line cook working for Dean Fearing at The Mansion. You have to work hard every day, whether you’re on TV or not, otherwise you lose what got you there," Beck said.
Her current gig as executive chef at the posh Hotel Palomar is a far cry from her former days earning her culinary degree from the "school of hard knocks." The Texas native said coming to Central 214 "feels like a hand that has found its glove."
Central 214’s three-to-five-course tasting menu offers a sample of Beck’s favorite menu selections such as: shrimp and cayenne deviled eggs, herb-stuffed pork chops with apple sweet potato hash mustard sauce and chicken fried Kobe steak with buttered whipped potatoes and slow braised mustard greens and red eye gravy.
Don't feel alarmed if you hear Beck talking to her ingredients as she cooks. It’s all a part of her "naughty" process of paying it forward by serving really good food.
