Everyone has that dish. That one meal they can cook that’s kinda fancy, pretty delicious, and makes a good impression. It’s a date dish, an in-law dish, a show-off dish. What? You don’t have one? Well, read on, dish-less folk; Lindey’s Chef Brett Fife is sharing a fan favorite from his personal recipe stash that is destined to leave your guests licking their plates. It’s the time for entertaining, and this dish harnesses all the rich flavors of the season – root veggies, delicate oyster mushrooms and a smoky spice rub made sweet by a blush of blueberry sauce.

At his home in Lewis Center, Chef works his Wüsthof knife through a small pile of veggies – green Brussels sprouts, white parsnips, fluorescent orange carrots.

“When I was a kid, I ate five vegetables: peas, corn, green beans, carrots and potatos,” he said. “You couldn’t pay me $100 to eat a Brussels sprout. I didn’t eat a salad until I was 22 years old.”

As he continues chopping, a silver bracelet winks in the light – it’s inscribed ‘ORL’, the initials of his three daughters: Olivia, Rachel, and Lauren.

“I’m grateful I do what I do because my kids are exposed to different foods,” he continued. “They’ll walk up and eat a Brussels sprout right out of the pan.”

Eating is as much a feast for the eyes as for the stomach, and Chef works to present a dish that’s as colorful as it is flavorful. The Brussels sprouts add a zip of green to the plate. The way to keep the color fresh and vibrant, coaches Chef, is to blanche the little nuggets in salted water before adding them to their veggie brethren to roast.

Choosing pork tenderloin for the dish accomplishes two things: it cooks fast and is extra tender. Fife noted that home chefs will want to cut off the “silver skin,” a thin layer fat that adds nothing to the flavor of the meat, but has an unpleasant mouth feel. “Pierce the skin with the tip of the knife,” he instructed, “and slide the knife underneath and ride it along the skin. Try not to tear the meat.”

The finished meal, spice-roasted pork tenderloin with roasted vegetables, squash puree and dried blueberry gastrique, is an oft-requested item at the Fife household. It’s also the dish the Chef cooks and packs up to take to new parents or friends feeling under the weather.

Add this dish to your arsenal and join the ranks of top home chef.

Spice-roasted pork tenderloin with roasted vegetables, squash puree and dried blueberry gastrique

Pork
1 pork tenderloin, trimmed and cleaned
1 tsp. garam masala (Indian spice blend)
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt and pepper mix
1 tbs. vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rub spices all over pork. In sauté pan, add oil, and sear pork on all sides over med-high heat for three minutes each. Place in oven for eight minutes, turn over and let roast for another six minutes. Let rest; internal temperature should be 155-160 degrees.

Roasted vegetables
1 cup of parsnips, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, sliced on bias 1/4 inches thick
1 cup butternut squash, cubed
1 cup Brussels sprouts, halved
1 cup oyster mushrooms (or other mushrooms of choice)
1 tbs. sage, chopped
1 tsp. rosemary, chopped
1 tsp. salt and pepper mix
3 tbs. olive oil

In boiling salted water, blanch Brussels sprouts until tender, set aside and keep warm. Toss all vegetables, except Brussels sprouts, with herbs, oil, salt and pepper. Roast in oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes until tender and brown.

Squash Puree
2 cups butternut squash
1/2 cup half and half
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Water to cover

Simmer all ingredients, except cinnamon, until tender. Add cinnamon and puree until smooth. Set aside.

Sauce
2 tbs. shallots, minced
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup dried blueberries (available at most grocery stores)
1 cup veal stock or low-sodium beef stock
1/4 cup red wine
1 tbs. butter

After removing pork from pan, add shallots, syrup, blueberries, veal stock and wine. Reduce until slightly thickened. Stir in butter. Plate puree first, then vegetables and sliced pork. Spoon sauce over and around the dish.

About the Chef

During his high school years, Chef Brett Fife spent much of his summer vacation hanging out with law enforcement – going on ride-alongs and helping out the county sheriff. The Indiana native was planning on a future in the field. A hearing impairment, which left Fife undergoing the first of eight major surgeries at age five, prevented him from following that particular path. Going from carrying a gun to wielding a chef’s knife makes sense, right?

It did to Fife, who grew up in a house full of brothers and a mother who cooked from scratch each night. “Our family revolved around the table,” he said. “My mom was the kind of cook that always had a coffee cup full of bacon grease on the counter.” His mom excelled at home-style cooking, rocking dishes like chicken and noodles and homemade hot rolls.

A jock with good grades in high school, Fife admits to taking a few easy-A classes, including Home Ec. When it came time to cook, he was always in a group with one of his brothers and a couple of other jock buddies. “We always had the best dish, even in cake decorating,” he laughed. “We beat all the girls.”

This dalliance in food prep led the young Fife, while studying at Hanover College, to take a job in the student union, lording over the flat top grill, making sandwiches for the hungry student masses. Fife met his wife-to-be while in college, a young woman from Worthington. After they moved here together, Fife enrolled in the culinary program at Columbus State.

Since graduating, Fife has made the grand tour of local kitchens – from Cap City Diner to Oscar’s of Dublin to Brio. Each gig has been a learning experience, culminating in his current perch as the executive chef at the beloved Lindey’s. “Cap City in Grandview was my first job at a full-scale restaurant,” he said. “For the first two weeks, it was everything I could do to keep my head above water. I had my rear handed to me and finally one of the sous chefs pulled me aside and told me if I didn’t get it together, I would be outta there.”

Presiding over the kitchen at Lindey’s since June 2010, the father of three loves the fast-paced world of restaurants. “I’m a perpetual motion guy,” he explained. “And a kitchen is always going, going, going. There’s a lot of camaraderie in there – all the jostling, joking, grab assin’ that goes on in a kitchen is fun.”

These days, the only line of fire Fife finds himself in is the one underneath his sauté pan.