Leicester - Western North Carolina will soon house the region’s first French-inspired diner serving Northern-American cuisine, according to young chef Dan Silo.
“The part [of opening this restaurant] that really appeals to me is that there’s that sort of country tradition with the classic French influence. It creates some really cool synergy in terms of dishes and flavors,” says Silo, who has been cooking professionally for at least a decade, starting in his hometown of Albany, New York.
“I really developed the inkling that I wanted to cook and be around food pretty young,” Silo confessed. “I worked at a grocery store back home in Albany, and that’s the thing that started it.” Silo is no stranger to having talented home cooks in his family. Read more...
“There was very good cooking in my family; my mom, my grandma, my grandmothers on both sides were very good cooks,” Silo said. “There was always really good food at family events and always [food] that I loved.”
His love of food and of cooking “happened pretty organically like that,” said the chef. “I love food, for one thing,” he said, referring to how his love of cookery began. “I love the way food makes people feel. I love the way it makes me feel.
“I love the creative element to it. I love the process of food and the way it connects to … ecosystems, farms and life in general,” Silo explained. “It’s such an all-encompassing thing. We [chefs] think about where food comes from and how it impacts people’s lives.”
Silo credits the rise of ethical, humane cooking to the Food Network. “… the general interest in food has created a demand for locally sourced – sustainably and humanely sourced – food.” Not every restaurant applies such high standards to their fare,” Silo said.
“There are high-volume places that it’s cost prohibitive to do it [serve humane, locally-sourced ingredients].” For the most part, however, Silo said respectable chefs follow the modern concept of responsible cooking.
“In terms of local chefs on that [professional] level, I really think everybody is well on board with [the] sustainable, humane, farm-to-table driven kind of thing,” Silo said. Before attaining the skills, confidence and professional network required to helm a brand-new restaurant, Silo worked at several restaurants in the Midwest and Northeast.
“Once I was cooking in serious restaurants, my first fine-dining restaurant was in Baltimore after I graduated [from Syracuse University],” he said. “I worked at [the concession stand] at a baseball stadium in college.” Before that, Silo worked behind the fish counter at a grocery store near his home in Albany.
“I definitely count myself lucky, absolutely, to have found that [cooking] and have it be meaningful, to have the ambition and make a living off of it and have that sort of meaning attached to my life and development as a person.”
Fortune has smiled upon Silo’s career several times, by his own admission. First was an opportunity to move away from his hometown and set up in a new city, Baltimore.
“Eventually, my wife moved down to Baltimore and we lived together a couple of years.” From Baltimore, Silo made at least one significant stop before coming to rest in Leicester, North Carolina.
“My wife is originally from Chicago. Her family is all there and we had a good network there. I wanted to move to a big city like that and Chicago is absolutely great. It’s incredible,” Silo exclaimed.
Silo wanted to “work with really professional-minded chefs and cooks… to learn as much as I could.” Another stroke of luck, combined with Silo’s ability to put himself in the right place at the right time, led to his working at Lula Café, a restaurant featured on NPR’s “This American Life” and “Bon Appetit,” according to its website.
“I worked in a place called Lula Café, which was awesome. [It’s] this neighborhood spot that was an underground chef’s hangout,” Silo said. “It was open all day long, breakfast, lunch and dinner, so breakfast was pretty standard neighborhood stuff.
Silo’s professional focus now rests entirely upon his restaurant, Sawhorse, and its success. The eatery is named after a focal point from his childhood, according to Silo.
“Our family’s cabin in the Adirondack Mountains [had] a sawhorse,” something described by Silo as “a really simple structure to support boards for cutting”.
“Growing up around sawhorses as a boy has a lot to do with why Sawhorse is an important name for the restaurant,” Silo revealed.
The place came to symbolize his family and the history there, according to Silo. He relates this boyhood memory to his restaurant because they’re both “working class and utilitarian. No frills, absolutely essential and necessary,” Silo said. “We’re sticking with the country-mountain diner vibe.”
Silo said that Northern food and Southern food are rather similar, save for the ingredients used. Whereas Southerners might be used to grits or collard greens, a Yankee restaurant would instead serve cabbage and porridge. Silo traces the roots of his preferred method of cooking to the Acadians, descendants of French colonists who settled in what is now Nova Scotia and Quebec.
“I spent a lot of time in Quebec and spent a lot of time traveling through that part of Canada. Montreal is absolutely my favorite food city that I’ve ever been to.”
Western North Carolinians can’t sample Chef Silo’s creations until November of this year, at the very earliest. Some restoration and other construction must take place before Sawhorse can swing open its doors to the public.
Silo expects Sawhorse to be open for business in no more than nine months. Until then, we must wait patiently. When it finally opens, expect chef Dan Silo to serve you food with love in every morsel.
In his words, “I love people. That’s one of the reasons I cook.”
