nothin New Haven Independent | At HOME, “Taste As You Go”

At HOME, Taste As You Go”

Mike DiVincenzo sprinkled green onions, sautéed mushrooms, and roasted piquillo peppers into the waiting saucepan. The added ingredients joined the already sizzling corn stock. 

Divincenzo, the executive chef at HOME restaurant in Branford, stepped back from the stovetop. One thing you’ve got to do, especially at restaurants, is just taste as you go … make sure everything has enough salt and pepper.”

So far, it passed his test.

The vegetable mixture serves as an accompaniment to the dish Faroe Island Salmon,” an entrée featured on the popular restaurant’s new summer menu. The menu has rotated seasonally since HOME opened two years ago at 1114 Main St., across from the Branford Green. The restaurant fare is best categorized as classic comfort food with a twist,” according to owner and operator Jared Schulefand.

Emma Zehner Photo

Schulefand (pictured) said that the flexible and inclusive menu is one of the restaurant’s unique and most important attributes. While the menu offers fancy courses, such as the salmon, there are also numerous options for more casual dining experiences. Friends at the same table may be eating our steak and our burger,” Schulefand explained.
 
In Schulefand’s words, true to its name, HOME strives to be overly accommodating,” adding, I like the availability of allowing customers to do whatever they want.” All dishes are made ready to order, so diets, allergies and preferences can be taken into consideration upon request.

This is one of the reasons the restaurant is able to attract so many regulars, Schulefand said. We give them an option to come a lot by offering a variety of food and a variety of fanciness.”

Inside Home

Emma Zehner Photo

The restaurant is divided into two main spaces — the living room” and the dining room.” The living room has cushioned chairs, coffee tables, high tables and a bar. It offers a more relaxed atmosphere, while the dining room is a more classic setting. In a lull between lunch and dinner, two diners sat on bar stools talking with a member of the staff.

Schulefand also emphasized HOME’s close partnerships with local businesses.

Emma Zehner Photo

These relationships extend to the careful consideration of the sources of the food offered on the menu. Schulefand explained that all of the sandwich breads come from Whole‑G in New Haven while the olive oil originates from the recently opened Old Quarry Olive Oil Company in Branford.

In the kitchen, Divincenzo offered an example of the restaurant’s emphasis on environmentally conscious practices. He explained that, although not local, the salmon used in the dish he was preparing is sustainable and contains no antibiotics.

He then returned his attention to the fish at hand. 

Once you see a sear around the edges, this just goes in the oven.”

While making the dish, he alternated the salmon between the stovetop and the oven, flipping it to ensure both sides grew crispy on the outside. 

Although the restaurant has only been open for two years, Divincenzo and Schulefand have been working together for far longer. Both men are Hamden natives, but didn’t cross paths until they ended up working at the Chatham Bars Inn in Massachusetts.

After several years at the Inn, Schulefand proposed the idea for HOME to Divincenzo, who agreed to serve as the first executive chef. 

The trio is completed by Director of Operations Kate Lewantowicz, who is also Schulefand’s fiancée. The couple met when Lewantowicz was also working at the Massachusetts resort, but in a different restaurant. 

Divincenzo checked on the progress of the corn mix again. This is starting to come together a little bit,” he observed. He explained that the goal is to get the sauce to stick to itself, so when the salmon goes on top, it still stays together. This happens as the corn flavored broth gets cooked down and the mixture tightens up.

In Past Lives

Divincenzo first got involved in the restaurant business when he was 16. If he hadn’t chosen his current path, he would have pursued a career as a musician. 

A few towns over and a few years earlier, Schulefand started work as a bus boy at age 14 at Modern Apizza in New Haven. Similar to his business partner, Schulefand also considered playing music for a living. His passion for the restaurant business, on the other hand, started out as a knack for simply working hard.”

Emma Zehner Photo

According to Schulefand, HOME was always the ultimate goal.” Since arriving, he has been happy to be a part of the Branford shoreline restaurants, a cuisine community he holds in high regard. 

After arranging the salmon on top of the corn-based mixture, Divincenzo squirted cherry vinaigrette on a hot pan of slow roasted tomatoes. He removed them to decorate the top of the salmon. To complete the dish, he added blanched green beans, which had soaked in the same vinaigrette during the other preparations. 

Emma Zehner Photo

… and that’s it!” Divincenzo said, stepping back from his creation with a smile.

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