Name: Jeff Landers
City: Ventura
Specialty: Cooking from scratch
Secret: Enjoyment
Creative freedom: Jeff Landers began his culinary education as a young child, learning at the elbow of his mother, a gifted cook. Soon after entering middle school, he was enlisted to prepare family dinners, since both of his parents worked.
He took to the task enthusiastically, and he soon discovered that he enjoyed the creative freedom meal preparation offered.
He set about mastering some of the family’s Boston favorites, such as chicken Parmesan, baked ziti, pork chops, breaded chicken and pasta with sauce, served with cheese on the side “so it wasn’t a gooey mess.”
Line cooking: After high school, Landers attended college at Montana State University at Bozeman, and like many students, he worked to help pay for his studies. He landed a job as a line cook, first at a breakfast-oriented establishment and later at higher-end eatery called The Bistro. It was an awakening.
To this day, his wife Meg and children Stella and Kai look back fondly on those years, recalling how much they eagerly anticipated the sourdough pancakes Landers made at work.
“I had to prepare a day or two in advance for the yeast portion,” he recalls, “but they were really good.”
Valentine's Day cake: Landers and his family have spent the past five years in California, where he operates his own home-inspection business.
Cooking is now a personal escape. He enjoys it best when he is left alone to immerse himself in the craft. Though he operates primarily as the resident short-order cook, it is never dull.
His wife, a registered nurse, favors healthy fare, which sometimes can be a challenge. But it is a challenge he gladly accepts, and he enjoys preparing artistic stir-fries, quesadillas and tortilla soup, and a particular family favorite, “morning glory muffins,” featuring carrots, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, coconut and wheat germ, with a bran muffin base.
He will soon begin work on his wife’s “anything chocolate” Valentine’s Day request. He envisions making one of her all-time favorites, a chocolate flourless cake.
Keeping with the spirit of the holiday, he also will procure a babysitter for the children, allowing the couple to celebrate what has become their annual date night.
The Star welcomes recipes from local cooks. To suggest a home chef, please email writer Eva Smythe at esmythe@mac.com.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Cake ingredients:
- 6 eggs
- 18 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, sliced
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze ingredients:
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- 24 pecans, halved and toasted
Cake directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Butter a 9-inch baking pan and line with foil.
- Set the eggs in a bowl and cover with hot water.
- Over simmering water, melt the chocolate with the butter in the top of a double-boiler, stirring until smooth.
- Stir in the vanilla.
- Transfer the mixture to a bowl and allow it to cool on a rack.
- Place the eggs in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until it triples in volume, about 5 minutes.
- Fold half of the beaten eggs into the chocolate mixture to lighten it.
- Gently fold in remaining eggs.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Set the pan of batter into a larger baking pan.
- Pour hot water into the larger pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the smaller pan.
- Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 10 minutes.
- Turn off the oven and let the cake stand in the oven for four minutes.
- Remove the cake from the water-bath to a wire rack and let stand.
Glaze directions:
- In a small bowl covered with plastic wrap, heat the cream with the chocolate in a microwave oven on high for 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until smooth.
- Pour the glaze evenly over the surface.
- Spread with a rubber spatula until smooth and allow to cool completely.
- When cool, cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about four hours or overnight.
- Top with pecans.
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