Chef Cara Stadler opened Tao Restaurant at 22 Pleasant St., the former location of Provisions Market, in May 2012. Formally trained in France, Stadler has an impressive resume with cooking experience in California, Beijing, and now Maine.
A Massachusetts native, Stadler came to Brunswick with her mother Cecile to open Tao, their first culinary joint venture. The restaurant is an upscale Asian fusion restaurant that focuses on small plates to create the “perfect bite.” I have the honor of trying to soak up as much of Stadler’s expertise as possible as an intern at Tao for the next eight months.
This summer, with senior year on the horizon, I began piecing together my abilities, interests, and most importantly, my passions in order to figure out where I want to head after graduation. Having dined at Tao once before, I had met Stadler as she came out to greet guests at the end of service that night. From this brief encounter, I could sense Stadler’s pride in her food and her desire to share that passion with others. I reached out to Stadler in the hopes that she would sit down with me to share her experiences of life in the culinary industry.
I arrived at my meeting with Stadler nervous and anxious with my list of premeditated conversation topics scrolling through my brain. I left with a Tao t-shirt and an instruction to return two days later to begin my hands-on, formal kitchen experience—apron, towels, and tools included. I would start out working two days a week, from 2 p.m. to around 11 p.m. Before 5 p.m., all work in the kitchen is in preparation for dinner service which runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
On my first day, I was sent to find the elusive ‘1/6 Cambro,’ which I searched the kitchen for until I realized that it is just a special type of plastic container. However, it was clear from the first hour that Stadler was a natural teacher; she and her team thoroughly enjoyed sharing their art and passion. I was encouraged to ask any and all questions that I had. Whenever there was a lull in service, Stadler called me so that I could observe her at work. She had, after all, warned me that she would throw a thousand pieces of information my way, and if I only remembered half of them, I should consider it a success.
After I’d observed the kitchen flow, I began to make myself useful. During preparation, I helped chop, grate, blanch, and boil whatever items the staff gave me. After a few days on the job I had already learned the proper way to make a dumpling and how to clean and blanch pigs’ feet. During service, I helped plate both the cold dishes and desserts. As Stadler and her crew strive for perfection, my first few dishes made a few trips back and forth between Stadler and myself until they were worthy of leaving the kitchen.
Every dish at Tao is an attempt at perfection, with each morsel placed meticulously on the proper shaped plate with tweezers or chopsticks, so that the first bite of your dish feels like vandalism. The chefs at Tao take pride in their creations. As the newbie in the back of the house, I was honored with small, perfectly crafted bites of my new teachers’ creations. They were just as excited to see my reactions as I was to taste their food. Of all the perfect bites I have had in the past few weeks, dropping a doughnut-battered apple cube into the deep fryer before rolling it around in a Chinese-style caramel sauce ranks at the top. “It is like a candy apple on crack,” said Jordan Martin, one of the three other brilliant chefs at Tao.
Working in the culinary industry takes heart. These chefs work long days on their feet with few breaks, and their weekends fall unconventionally on Sunday and Monday when the restaurant is closed. During service hours, the kitchen can get intense, but it is a system of organized chaos.
“When we yell, it’s not personal. Just move,” said Martin.
Every order comes out in a timely fashion, and nothing is served without Stadler’s nod of approval. The only way to succeed in this line of work is to be obsessed with what you are doing.
Working at Tao has not only allowed me to gain experience in a non-academic industry but also to get away from the monotonous school routine. I have had the chance to connect with a group of interesting and exceptional individuals whose passion for food is palpable and contagious, and within only a few weeks this incredible staff has affirmed my desire to enter the industry.