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Jim Stump is the kind of chef that aspiring cooks should know. He has no trouble sharing an opinion. He's spent a lot of years over a stove forming them. Sure, he's temperamental, but that's only when he's trying to please his guests. He believes in teamwork in the kitchen, and he can't abide people who won't ask for help when they need it. But mostly, he views as "weird" the notion that "good enough" is acceptable.
"I hate 'good enough,' " Stump says. He believes anyone accepting mediocre work in the kitchen doesn't belong there. "The restaurant business is full of derelicts—people who don't always have their priorities straight," he opines. "They can cook, but they don't necessarily know how."
Stump, 41, is co-owner and executive chef of both the Los Gatos Brewing Company and A.P. Stump's in San Jose. He didn't get to those positions easily. He started cooking when he was 16, moving through a multitude of well-known restaurants, steak houses and hotels where he cooked for a while, then moved on. He was getting a paycheck and lots of experience, "But I wasn't getting training," he says. That, he knew, would cost money. With San Francisco's California Culinary Academy in his sights, he left the restaurant business for the more lucrative trade of hot mopping for a local roofer. "It took me three years to get the money, be on my own and still have fun," he recalls with a grin. While he graduated at the top of his class, it wasn't easy for him. "I hated it in school," he reflects. "I resented that it was a money-making environment." But 10 years later, he appreciated what he had, because the Academy diploma was a door opener. His after-graduation credits include time in the venerable kitchens of the Blue Fox, Fleur de lys and Le Mouton Noir.
"In the end, it's who you work with," Stump notes, reflecting on where his real culinary education began. "A chef once gave me some very good advice: 'Choose who you work with.'"
On April 1, Stump became an equal partner with longtime Los Gatan Andy Pavicich in the Los Gatos Brewing Company. While he has been the restaurant's executive chef since its opening in 1991, his experiments with the menu during intervening years never were as successful as the original "comfort food" he designed for the opening. Today, Stump is bringing back what was tried and true, cooking most of the food on his new menu himself.
Among the "old classics" are a pork chop marinated overnight in pineapple juice, soy sauce, honey, cumin and coriander and served with apple ginger chutney for $16.95. Another favorite is fusilli pasta with chicken, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, sweet cream and a secret ingredient.
"It's marjoram," Stump reveals. "I never told anyone that before, but it doesn't matter. I can still make it better than anyone else," he says. An entree reminiscent of Sunday dinner with grandma is a chicken roasted on a spit, served with mashed potatoes and green beans that have been soaked in a brine of salt, sugar and spices. "All our entrees are under $20," Stump adds.
Aspiring chefs can work with Stump through some classes he's conducting at Sur La Table, the cooking-supplies store in Los Gatos. On June 9 and again on July 21, Stump will cook some of his restaurants' favorites, revealing to the class along the way some of his cooking secrets. "They are, after all, a captive audience, plus they're paying $65," he says.
The Los Gatos Brewing Company, 130 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos, is open Sunday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to midnight. Sunday brunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 408.395.9929. For class reservations, call 408.395.6946.
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Photograph by George Sakkestad