C-CAP Alum Brown Nabs Daniel Boulud Scholarship

Chef Swainson Brown, executive sous chef at famed New York restaurant Artisinal, sat down for an exclusive interview with Appetite for Good to chat about recently beating out the top contenders in an elite culinary competition. Chef Brown was named winner of the 2011 Daniel Boulud Competition in New York City, where Brown was awarded the Daniel Boulud Scholarship fund which allows the recipient to continue his or her culinary education by studying at the Instiut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France.

Brown wowed judges with his winning dish, osso buco two ways with butter beans, winter vegetables, rice and peas, his history with C-CAP (Careers through Culinary Arts Program) and his plans for the future.

The dish was originally intended to be braised oxtails but after realizing oxtails weren’t going to be made available to him, Brown quickly adjusted and switched to osso buco, a dish his grandmother taught him to make. He prepared the meat two ways in an attempt to showcase the meat’s true flavors and paired the dish with winter vegetables including turnips and scallions served with Jamaican-style rice and peas.

Terrance Brennan, owner of Artisinal, was always confident in Brown’s culinary skills. “He’s passionate and really loves to cook, and he’s always working,” he remarked.

Brown was first introduced to C-CAP in high school after a teacher in home economics urged him to take a look at the program. “My mother traveled a lot and I had to cook for my sister and grandmother,” recalled Brown.

As for C-CAP, Brown expresses a great appreciation for C-CAP’s connections and interactions that founder Richard Grausman provides to students and alumni. “To have a mentor like Richard to be able to call him when I have a question..it’s the relationships that I’ve gotten out of it,” he noted.

Brown detailed his time in Lyon as one where he was able to really get a taste for what he believes to be “rustic” cooking. “Their produce, their meats and even their foie gras—they only use the best of the best,” he said, “who added that the school in Lyon had its own garden that the students were able to mine from, creating fresh dishes.”

When asked what’s next for Brown, he becomes pensive. “I will look to take a chef de cuisine position because I’d like to welcome the challenge. But I want to be comfortable when I’m there. I want to learn more before I make that move,” he noted thoughtfully, also adding that ultimately he’d like to own and operate his own restaurant.

The Daniel Boulud Scholarship was announced at a C-CAP’s New York annual breakfast awards on Friday, April 29, 2011.

To make contributions to the scholarship fund, contact Richard Grausman and make checks payable to the Daniel Boulud Scholarship Fund. For more information, go to
http://www.ccapinc.org/

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