Name: Kristen V. Carbone
Restaurant: Carbone’s Kitchen
Town: Haverhill
Background:
I have been cooking my entire life. I started watching cooking shows before the food network was conceived… I remember the show ‘Great Chefs, Great Cities’ ‘The Frugal Gourmet’ & my favorite ‘Yan Can Cook’. My Mom has taught me since I was little, my family really encouraged & supported me- either by having me work side by side with them in the kitchen or by providing ingredients for me to refine techniques at a young age.
I have been in the professional hospitality industry for about 20 years, starting as a server & progressing into a prep cook, line cook, pastry Chef, catering Chef & now restaurant owner.
I graduated Le Cordon Bleu Boston 10 years ago & have worked in a variety of concepts from Boston to Florida.
Q1. What is your first or best memory of cooking and who was it with?
Cooking with my family for the holidays. Making the pasta & ravioli with my mom & grandmother for Christmas… being tasked for the 1st time to make the anti pasto… trimming & stuffing garlic slivers into the lamb for Easter.
The best memory is sitting on my grandfather’s lap & learning how to make the sausages. We used the same funnel that his father used in his Italian grocery store.
Q2. What is your most popular dish?
My signature is becoming the Italian Pulled Pork – either on macaroni & cheese or ciabatta with provolone.
Q3. What is your favorite dish to make?
I really enjoy creating the sausages. Either coming up with new flavors, reworking a particular technique to get the desired result, as well as cooking & using them in recipes. Seeing my vision come to life is always very exciting.
Q4. What do you eat when you are not working/ favorite thing to eat?
Definitely dumplings. I prefer xiao long bao ( soup dumplings ) or Sun La Chow show, spicy pork dumpling on a bed of bean sprouts & fermented chili garlic paste, but local Peking Ravioli is always a treat.
I really love learning about & trying authentic ethnic foods… regional Chinese, differing Hispanic cultures, Indian, Regional American, it’s all fascinating to me, even if I don’t particularly like it.
Totally unrelated & not even close – I live for Italian subs. All of them. I could eat them everyday. So cliche, but I don’t care.
Benedetti’s Marc Anthony is the Holy Grail. Perfect in every way.
Q5. Person you would most like to cook for?
My great grandfather, Guido. His approval would honestly validate my career. He was a restaurant owner & had quite the following for a very long time. I’d like to see how my food & style stacks up.
Q6. If you weren’t cooking, what would you do for a living?
I would be in food sales or serving. I really enjoy sales in general & the whole process of getting people what they need.
I actually left the professional kitchen for 2 years to pursue food sales & ended up back.
Or I would be a Culinary Educator.
Q7. Not your own spot, what is your favorite restaurant?
I’ve had the same favorite restaurant since I was a kid. Mary Chung’s, in Cambridge’s Central Sqaure. Authentic Szechuan Chinese, family owned & operated. It’s not fancy, but has been consistently delicious for as long as I can remember.
A few additional MUST TRY items according to Taste of Massachusetts:
