Admittedly, it’s a total cliché that so many chefs have larger-than-life personalities, but it’s certainly true with Shawn Doyle of the Savory Grille. When he’s in the room, it’s impossible to miss him. With his easy laugh that rises above the din of a dining room and his gregarious nature, Doyle wants to engage you. It’s no surprise to learn that he initially thought his culinary trajectory would position him in the front of the house. Guess what? Not the case. Food grabbed ahold of him, and early.
“I made the mistake of walking into a restaurant when I was 12 years old. And I never left,” says Doyle.
His uncle opened a restaurant in Bethlehem called 2nd Avenue. “It was basically a bar, with theme nights,” he says. One night, his brother couldn’t work, so he went in, washing dishes until 10 o’clock at night. His mother was okay with this new venture (provided it didn’t interfere with his schoolwork). So many culinary people become hooked that way—it’s yet another cliché of the business. Is it the energy? Definitely. “But it’s also the self-gratification,” he says.
Doyle would ride his bike to work as a teenager and most of his family was supportive; many had been employed by restaurants, on the service end. But the warning from his grandmother, who spent time at the Americus Hotel in Allentown as a server in the 1960s, was perhaps the most humorous: “You’re going to lose your hair!” she told him. Her prediction has not borne out. At 51, Doyle possesses the look of someone much younger—the boyish face is courtesy of his dad, who is 100 percent Irish—and that’s also a little unusual for a chef. The typically high-stress, late-night nature of the work, plus the constant heat of the line, tends to age chefs prematurely. “I looked young—until I bought a restaurant,” he laughs.
From the moment Doyle conceives a dish to the instant he steps behind the line with his sous chef, Nate Weida, his goal is to engage you through his cooking. “At the end of the day, I want my customers to be happy,” he says. But no, Doyle really wants to engage you. “The door to my kitchen is glass for a reason,” he says. The Savory Grille is housed in the carriage house to the historic Seisholtzville Hotel, so it’s not quite as open a kitchen as you see in more modern-looking restaurants. However, Doyle worked at Brookside Country Club for years and became very accustomed to members walking into his kitchen at all hours, including during service, just to talk to him. Such interruptions might derail or rankle other chefs, who perceive it as their sacred domain not to be trifled with, but Doyle’s a little different in that regard, too. It may be a business he’s running, but it’s one with an intimate, cozy dining room that’s just footsteps away, through that glass door. He’s affable, for sure, and doesn’t immediately present as a stereotypically explosive chef, but passion is passion. He freely admits to being a bit of an—expletive I won’t print here—in the kitchen. (“I give my cooks hugs at the end of the night,” he says, undoubtedly.)
“The energy in the kitchen gets a little intense sometimes. We might feel like it’s the worst night ever, but I go out into the dining room and everyone is smiling and happy,” Doyle says. (Savory’s default two-hour reservation time is conducive to such leisurely enjoyment, too.)
He continues (and who wants to stop such a raconteur?),“If I had a magic hat, and could see through that wall and what’s going on in the dining room... Sometimes, I’ll tell Nate, ‘Go out and talk to Table 3,’” he says.
Interacting with customers provides a bit of a reset button, but Doyle craves, no, requires that level of interaction. Suggesting that his cooks do the same is one way to help them cultivate perspective, too. It’s one of the many reasons that people have been driving to this location in the countryside since 1997. “We’re at the crossroads of everything but you have to get off the crossroads to get here,” he jokes. Doyle opened the restaurant with his wife, Dorothy, because he didn’t want a place where he had to be open 365 days a year. Other reasons? See the bread made from scratch, (“I’m a carbohydrate junkie,” he says) or the house-made hot sauce, made from local peppers in the summertime. And the mint chocolate chip ice cream he makes from “a pile of mint this high” he says, gesticulating a distance of about three feet tall.
Doyle is driven, too, by the desire for innovation. The menu is tweaked constantly throughout the week, driven, seemingly, in equal parts by seasonal changes in availability, and his own whims. “I get bored. I like change,” he says. It’s easy to execute small changes; Savory’s fairly bucolic locale is well positioned to buy from nearby farms. Often, those goods taste the best because they’re still fresh and flavorful, because they’re seasonal and/or have traveled a short distance. Doyle’s not buying and cooking this way because it’s trendy; you’ll never hear him call it “farm to table” cuisine, for reasons that would substantially derail the conversation here. (His reasons are principled and idiosyncratic.) He waxes rhapsodic about the offerings at Echo Hill Country Store, the wonderful mushroom farmers (Oley Valley and Primordia), the upstart cheese-maker Stefanie Angstadt of Valley Milkhouse and “the old-world sausage makers we still have around here.” Suffice it to say, he wants to know where his food comes from; the provenance is about relationships and quality. For years, he’s been purchasing his duck from well-regarded Joe Jurgielewicz and Son, a.k.a. “Dr. Joe.” “I want things to be grown properly. It’s either going to be good from the beginning or it’s not,” he says.
Although the elements that go into making good food haven’t changed, in the nearly 20 years he’s been running Savory Grille, the dining scene has changed substantially. “I love the competition. I’m not ready to die yet,” he says. Tomorrow is another day, with more dishes to fire, plate and serve, and more people to engage with.
Watch Chef Shawn Doyle in Action
Tune into The Chef’s Kitchen on RCN-TV Channel 4 or, for Service Electric subscribers, Comcast Network’s Channel 27, every Thurs. at 5 p.m. during the month of January to see his tips and techniques to create this recipe.
Crispy Fried Duck Tenderloin
Pea Tendril Salad, Spicy Candied Pecans, Butternut Puree
Serves: 4
Crispy Duck Tenderloins
12 duck tenderloins, elastin removed
Salt to taste
2 egg whites
1/4 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup coarse panko bread crumbs
2 qt. vegetable oil
In a 4-quart saucepan heat the oil to 350°F. Lightly salt the raw duck tenderloins. Mix the water into the egg whites. Lightly roll the duck tenderloins through the flour. Place into the egg white mixture and then into the panko bread crumbs. Fry duck tenderloins in hot oil for 2 minutes.
Pea Tendril Salad
4 oz. pea tendrils
2 oz. sherry vinegar
1 oz. extra virgin olive oil
1 small shallot, minced
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
In a mixing bowl, incorporate thoroughly the shallot, vinegar, Dijon mustard and olive oil. Adjust the salt and pepper to your liking. Lightly toss the pea tendrils through the dressing.
Butternut Squash Puree
1/2 lb. butternut squash, peeled and largely diced
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp. butter
Salt to taste
In a 2-quart saucepan, add the butternut squash and just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a light percolation. Cook until fork tender. Strain the butternut squash from liquid (save liquid for thinning the puree if needed). Place the butternut squash, cinnamon and butter in a blender and puree until smooth. Use the reserved liquid to modify the viscosity of the puree if so desired.
Candied Pecans
1/2 lb. pecan halves
2 egg whites
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Whisk the egg whites, sugar, cayenne pepper, black pepper and ground cinnamon until light and frothy. Fold the pecans into this mixture and pour onto a sheet tray. Bake in a 350°F oven until the nuts are light brown. Remove and allow to cool before serving.
Panned Australian Barramundi Fillet
Quinoa Salad, Red Beet Foam
Serves: 4
Panned Barramundi Fillet
4 portions (6 to 8 oz. each) of Australian Barramundi fillet or sea bass
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Salt and pepper the flesh side of the rockfish fillet. Salt the skin side of the fillet. In a hot sauté pan pour the oil and place the skin side into the pan. Reduce the heat and cook until skin is amber in color. Turn barramundi fillet onto the flesh side and cook until desired doneness.
Quinoa Salad
1 bunch parsley, coarsely chopped, stems discarded
2 Tbsp. fresh mint, chopped
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 carrot, minced
1 cup quinoa, cooked
6 tsp. fresh lemon juice
6 tsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all the ingredients and adjust the salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature.
Red Beet Foam
4 oz. red beet juice
1 Tbsp. honey
Salt to taste
1 tsp. soy lecithin
Place all ingredients in a bain-marie and beat with an immersion blender until light and fluffy.
Beef Striploin Filet
Pave Potato, Local Mushrooms, Black Garlic Gremolata
Serves: 4
Striploin filet
4 8-oz. striploin filets
2 oz. vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat a cast iron pan. Salt and pepper the steak and tightly roll around the vegetable oil. Sear the steak in the cast iron pan. If needed to cook the striploin filet more, place in a 350°F oven until desired temperature is achieved.
Pave Potato
10 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
2 cups heavy cream
1 egg
4 sprigs fresh thyme (remove leaves from stem)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup Grana Padano, grated
1 oz. vegetable oil
Mix the egg into the heavy cream. Lightly oil a half line pan. Shingle a thin layer of potatoes on the bottom of the line pan. Add a thin layer of the heavy cream mixture, salt and pepper, thyme and Grana Padano. Repeat this process until you have used all of the ingredients. Place in 350°F oven and bake for 90 minutes. Remove from the oven and chill. When chilled, turn the pave out onto a cutting board and cut into twelve equal-sized triangles. Reheat in a 350°F oven.
Sautéed Mushrooms
1 lb. local mushrooms, mixed
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 sprigs parsley, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, julienned
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. Madeira wine
In a hot sauté pan add the olive oil and then the mushrooms. Cook for approximately 2 minutes. While continuously stirring, add the garlic and shallots. Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add the salt, pepper, Madeira wine and the parsley. Reduce heat and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
Black Garlic Gremolata
1/2 lb. black garlic (remove cloves from skins)
3 oz. sherry vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Spanish onion, largely diced
1/2 cup almonds, toasted
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley
Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until a coarse relish is created.
