About Henry Gordon
My first dinner party came at 17. My parents went on a trip and so neighbors and relatives had me to dinner. To repay the kindness I asked each family over, but didn’t mention they were all coming on the same night. I don’t remember what I served but do remember the thrill of setting a table for 13 and pulling off what everyone deemed an amazing feat.
A decade and a half and two kids later I was still cooking for friends. I had had big time restaurant tenures at Ella Merrill’s Pizza and Hot Oven Grinders in West Danville, Vermont (seven weeks) and then at Mario’s Greek and Italian Restaurant in Missoula, Montana (seven months) but it was a lark that started Balabuste Catering. I had intended to teach a class on Basic Cooking for Men and though I did nothing to make the class a reality, I did talk about it incessantly. The premise of the class was that simple foods are best and that even the most seemingly complex dishes are nothing more than the combination of a series of simple steps. By teaching people how to cut vegetables, I reasoned, by just standing there and showing there is nothing in the world quite so nice as being in a kitchen and fixing a meal, I had hoped to bring about a cultural transformation the likes of which has not happened since Thoreau contemplated the waterfowl on Walden Pond. But, alas, the class never happened.
Then, one day, someone who had liked the class’s premise asked if I would make chili for a company picnic. Everyone loved it. Then a political group wanted a dinner. Then a charity held a conference. The phone just kept ringing. It was amazing to call it work as not only did people love the food and the service, it made it possible to watch my kids grow and, later on, even work with them.
