Spring Break
Campus Cooks: Ralph Biddle
Michal Elseth
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Arts
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Biddle learned to cook by watching the chefs at his father's French cafe when he was a little boy. His father, the elder Ralph Biddle, said the younger Biddle would run around the restaurant waiting on tables, working the cash register, and watching the chefs work.
"When I was little, I'd be a little sous chef," Biddle said.
His father owned the cafe from the time Biddle was eight until he was 10, but Biddle Sr. said in that short time his son picked up the chef's recipes and tricks even better than he did. The young Biddle garnered many French-inspired techniques and recipes from growing up in that cafe kitchen - things like crepes, rabbit compote, and plum-stuffed quail.
Biddle also learned to improvise well by watching the cafe chefs. One day he and his father wanted to make bouillabaisse, a spicy fish stew, but didn't want to buy lobster, so young Biddle picked out a half dozen different kinds of fish and shellfish and made up his own recipe instead, Ralph Sr. said. The invention was such a success that they still often make it Ralph's way instead of the traditional way.
Biddle said he never cooks from a recipe, but he picked up southern-inspired recipes from family friends as well as the French recipes from the restaurant chefs.
One of his favorite recipes, a fried chicken recipe, he got from "Miss Lucy," an old housekeeper "with a face like an old baseball mitt" and a real talent for southern cooking.
"I had no shortage of good food with that background," Biddle said.
Biddle Sr. said he and his son love food, not only for its possibilities, but also because merely shopping for their food reminds them of God's provision and generosity. The two of them, he said, are overwhelmed when they walk into a large grocery store and see how much they have available to them.
"He loves to go to the store and look at God's bounty," he said.
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