6 Reasons to Travel with Chef Mary Attea
What does travel mean to you?
It’s something that I’ve always loved because it’s so eye-opening. The world is immense, filled with countless people, diverse cultures, and a variety of rich cuisines. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to get to travel a lot in the past 10 years.
And how has travel impacted your life and your work?
I’ve been able to gather a lot of inspiration from places I visited, meeting people, and learning about different foods and techniques. Given the industry that I’m in, especially as Executive Chef at The Musket Room, menus are derived from my inspirations, travels, and heritage. For me, it’s important to see what’s outside of the small little world we live in and feed our curiosity with everything else out there.
What inspires you in the kitchen?
When I go out to other restaurants, I’m inspired by either discovering a new ingredient or being reminded of an ingredient that I love. I love building menus around what I love to eat and then trying to present in a way that feels smart and thoughtful. At the end of the day, making sure I want to eat a dish. Then I lean on my cooks and my team because having them feel like they’re contributing to our menu creates this vibe of excitement and we all learn something from each other.
How do you think about hospitality?
I grew up in a family where we were always hosting people. When anyone stepped into our home my mom would immediately open the fridge and be like, “What can I feed you?”. From a young age it was ingrained in me that if someone was in our home, we are the stewards of showing them a good time, truly engaging, and listening. I think people genuinely feel the most engaged when we’re all discovering something together. It’s like the moment where you get to see a chef’s mind start reeling or working with what’s going on.
What kind of story would you like to explore through your culinary tour of Italy?
I was fortunate to take a trip to Sicily, Italy a year and a half ago and had such an incredible time. I’m very food-focused and food-centric so the trip was really about getting to experience the Italian cuisine and learn. At that time, we were in the planning stages of Raf’s, which was originally an old Sicilian bakery built by Sicilian immigrants. So we were there to bring ideas back to the restaurant. I didn’t know a ton about Sicily before then and learned what a melting pot of an island it was. I have Lebanese heritage so I liked seeing all these Arab influences in the food through ingredients like saffron, pistachios, orange, and other citrus. All the cuisines, my favorite things of Italy, and my favorite things of the Middle East came together in that one small island and everything was just so gorgeous.
What did you love most while you were in Sicily?
The scenery was incredible. Driving up Mount Etna at night and seeing a little bit of lava spewing out or swimming in the Ionian waters. Food-wise, a lot of the nice and low street foods such as the long sandwich and the freshness of everything. We found this little tiny fish shop in Ortigia which was amazing, filled with all these different fried seafoods.