Delectable Delights — From San Francisco to Washington, DC and Places In-Between

You’re here, on our blog, and you’re probably wondering — who is the Chef Shawn Millard? As you can gather from the title, Shawn Millard is an up-and-coming chef in Northern Virginia. His most recent position before returning to the East Coast was Executive Sous Chef of Acme Chophouse. Prior to Acme, Shawn was cheffing in restaurants from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, to Maryland, and to San Francisco. He’s seen a lot of food, has worked with some great chefs, and has learned a lot along the way.

Philosophy on Food:

I’m going to put this quite simply by saying food should taste good. No matter what the process you go through to achieve it food should sit well on the palette and bring forth the greatest attributes of any given ingredient. Another thing I want to clear up is the fact that you have to be some master chef to create master dishes. Not true, I feel as though yes in order to know all of these recipes by heart, or what the five mother sauces are, are all important things to becoming a professional chef. However, all this is not necessary for the home culinarian. Simple ability to adhere to recipes and methods is all that’s needed and you too can make anything you want to. I believe that if you get the best ingredients possible, then you already have an advantage. Sustainable Seafood and Organic Produce are a great way to start, do some investigation, find out about farming practices, how the fish are caught, even ask about where your meat comes from, if you don’t get the answer your looking for…go somewhere else. Another wonderful thing is if your lucky enough to have a local farmer’s market. Not only will you get the freshest seasonal ingredients, you can talk to the farmers (or representatives of the farm) to find out more about the seasons, what grows the best when, and what the best is right now, and more importantly what is their favorite way to cook with the ingredients. With all of this in mind, I don’t think it should be hard for you to begin creating gourmet meals for you and your friends!