Over his seven years as a chef at Atria Senior Living Residences in Glen Cove and the Village of Great Neck Plaza, James Parrillo said he has found the key ingredient to creating award-winning cuisine for the facilities’ elderly residents.
“To run a successful restaurant, a successful kitchen, you need to put the time in,” Parrillo said. “You can’t work 30 hours a week and have a successful kitchen.”
Parrillo, who has served for the past four years as the executive chef at Atria Cutter Mill in Great Neck Plaza, was awarded last week for the nearly 70 hours of cooking he said he undertakes each week.
For the second time, Parrillo won the first-place prize for “Best Dish” in a competition pitting the chefs of Atria Senior Living Residences’ four North Shore locations against each other to judge – as the cook-off’s tag line decreed – “Whose Cuisine Will Reign Supreme?”
The competition was held last Wednesday in Atria Cutter Mill’s courtyard.
“Our chefs have such high standards of culinary excellence that it allows them the opportunity to showcase their talents and their imagination,” said Atria Senior Living Residence Regional Vice President for Long Island Kathleen Johannsen of the competition. “There’s no rules. They can create whatever they want.”
In addition to the competition’s champion and host, Atria senior residence locations from Great Neck, Roslyn Harbor and Glen Cove took part in the event.
Along with Atria Cutter Mill’s “Best Dish” award, Atria on Roslyn Harbor won the prize for “Best Presentation.”
“I think we had a great time,” Johannsen said. “We had a beautiful evening. The food was amazing.”
Johannsen said more than 100 people attended the event, sampling the dishes from each of the four chefs. She said the event’s participants were representatives of local hospital and rehabilitations facilities, along with local village governmental officials.
The competition’s prizes were awarded after each of the guests placed votes in the best dish and presentation categories, Johannsen said.
“We gave each person one best dish, one best table (ballot). Everybody voted,” she said. “I counted the votes.”
Parrillo’s winning dish was pan-seared sea scallop with grilled watermelon and sauteed baby spinach in garlic oil, which was topped with teriyaki-cranberry reduction and noodles.
Atria Cutter Mill Sous Chef Cesar Videla assisted Parrillo in creating the dish.
“We went up against (three) fierce other buildings,” Videla said. “Everyone’s dish was unique in its own way. I just thought that ours was more unique.”
It was the type of dish, which Atria Cutter Mills’ residents receive on a daily basis, Parrillo said.
“Just because these residents can have low-sodium based, or no sugar (foods), doesn’t mean that we have lack on the quality in the type of food that we put out,” Videla said. “We still meet the criteria that they have and put out the best dish that we can.”
With a staff of three chefs in Atria Cutter Mill’s kitchen, Parrillo said he oversees the creation of daily meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner for each of the senior living residence’s residents.
“It’s an independent building,” Parrillo said. “I fly off the hip with my menus and create all the time.”
Parrillo won the first ever “Best Dish” prize in the Atria Senior Residence cooking competition in 2010.
After a hiatus last year, Parrillo said he was proud to win the award again last week.
“We do restaurant-style food,” he said.
Atria Cutter Mill Engage Life Director Nina Gordon said the cooking competition serves to purposes.
“It is a competition to see who is the best chef, but it’s also kind of a marketing event,” she said. “We want to increase awareness of the community.”
To that end, the competition served as an effective avenue for each of the senior living residences’ chefs to show off their culinary talents, Johannsen said.
“Atria really is known for its cuisine,” she said. “We continually train our chefs and we have a very extensive culinary services (program).”
Videla has worked in Atria Senior Living Residence kitchens for the past six years, but has only served as Atria Cutter Mill’s sous chef for the past six months.
“Coming to a place like this it just felt like home,” Videla said. “This is the style of food that I’m used to. It’s nice fast-paced, clean, crisp, creativity everything. It’s what I’m used to. For me, it was just coming here and then hit the floor running.”
The feeling is mutual for Parrillo, who said he has enjoyed the past four years he has worked as Atria Cutter Mill’s executive chef.
“Most of these places you have to follow a certain menu,” Parrillo said. “I do whatever I want, which is great, which gives me the freedom at this point to do what we do.”
