Ezra Malmuth’s future is going up in smoke. And that’s just the way he planned it.
The Jewish Community High School senior is hoping to cook perhaps the most lucrative meal of all-time: one dinner, 80,000 bucks (and that’s not including tip).
Among a pool of more than 700 entrants nationwide, Malmuth was shocked to be selected as one of 21 finalists in this weekend’s National High School Culinary Challenge in Providence, R.I. And, make no mistake, there’s a lot of money on the table — first prize would net him the four-year, $80,000 scholarship at the prestigious Johnson & Wales University in Providence.
“Oh, it’s a lot of pressure,” says the 18-year-old Berkeley resident with a laugh.
And, in order to wow the four-judge panel, Malmuth has trained and trained and trained some more. Imagine, if you will, the pre-fight sequences in the movie “Rocky” — except instead of sprinting through the streets of Philadelphia, the high schooler has been slamming away in the kitchen, day after day, cranking out his signature dinner dish: polleto alla diavola (literally, “the devil’s little chicken”).
It’s a spicy little recipe he created featuring a Cornish game hen topped with roasted red pepper polenta and a ragout crafted from three varieties of mushroom atop a bed of rainbow chard with shallots and roasted pine nuts. The judges will give him three hours to prepare and then present it.
“I’ve given it to my neighbors. I try to expand on who eats it when,” he says when asked on how he disposes of his daily batch of polleto alla diavola.
Malmuth learned to cook from “The Master,” his grandmother. While many a Jewish lad has a grandmother who can whip up old world delights, not everyone’s grandmother is Maria Avanzini Calciolari.
Malmuth’s mother, Daniela Calciolari, hails from Padua, Italy, and her mother — known as “Nonna Nini” to the grandkids — has the culinary skills befitting a traditional Italian matriarch.
When it came to a life in the kitchen, for the young Malmuth it was, quite literally, love at first bite. The youngster soon discovered he had a knack for crafting mouth-watering fare; like any skilled chef he could combine flavors in his imagination and know what a dish would taste like without even dipping a finger in the sauce.
By the time he was into his mid-teens, he’d already taken over special occasion cooking duties from his mother, and his weekly Shabbat dinners do not much resemble kiddie food. A couple of Fridays ago, for example, he prepared red snapper with blood oranges and fennel alongside salmon marinated in lemon and orange juices. He barbecued the fish on an oiled cedar plank atop a backyard grill, which smoked the dinner while cooking it.
Malmuth’s bread-and-butter is neither bread nor butter. It’s shallots. The smaller, more flavorful cousin of the onion finds its way back into his dishes again and again.
This isn’t the first time Malmuth has cooked for money. He is the founder (and, some would say, spiritual leader) of the San Francisco JCHS barbecue club, grilling veggie burgers, poultry and meat at lunch, with much of the money raised recycled back into the school’s scholarship fund.
The JCHS barbecue club decided to take its show on the road a few years back, entering into the Fillmore Barbecue and Jazz Cookoff in the City. Up against a field of 15 professional caterers and chefs, the kids took second place and $250.
Of course, $80,000 is a whole other world. Malmuth has been accepted to Johnson & Wales, and dreams of one day operating a chain of restaurants, perhaps even a few kosher ones. The full scholarship would be an unbelievable prize.
He’s even gotten some sound advice from “The Master,” aka Grandma.
“She just says, as she always says, to cook with your heart. It’s all about cooking and loving to cook, and if you don’t love it, you shouldn’t be doing it.”