World-class kitchen

By Casey Gillis

Published: October 13, 2008

Mena Hughes has never met a matching chef hat and coat she didn’t like.

“That’s all that retail background. I always have to match,” says Hughes, who used to work in J. Crew’s human resources department and is now executive chef at Oakwood Country Club.

During a recent cooking class at Oakwood, her black and white checkered pants were an exact match to the band around her chef’s hat. She usually wears a pink hat and jacket combo in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and also has a green ensemble for St. Patrick’s Day.

“I’m always looking for something different,” she says.

Hughes cooks the same way, finding inspiration everywhere.

Some of her recipes are old family favorites, like her crab cakes. The recipe has been in her family for more than 100 years.

Others come from building a meal around one key element.

“I’ll take a great vegetable or herb and think, ‘Hmm, what can I do with that?’ One ingredient can get you to the whole dinner.”

Most of all, though, Hughes is influenced by her travels.

“Anytime I travel … part of that is looking at recipes, seeing if there’s something I can bring back to the club,” says Hughes, who has been all over Europe and beyond. The only continents she hasn’t hit yet are Antarctica and South America.

Being overseas is what inspired Hughes to become a chef in the first place.

The Lynchburg College grad, who earned a degree in business and a master’s in administration, worked at J. Crew for seven years before moving to the Netherlands with her husband in 1994.

She says it ignited her culinary passion “because there was such good food everywhere. We went to France a lot. I just kind of got the bug (from) being over there.”

She went on to study at Le Cordon Bleu, the famed Paris-based culinary school.

By the time she moved back to Lynchburg in 1996, Hughes was ready to put her skills to use and took a job in her brother’s restaurant, Shad’s (where Vines Café is now located).

She started as Oakwood’s executive sous chef in May 2007 and was named executive chef a year later.

Working at the club brings back memories for Hughes, who often visited it growing up when her grandparents lived nearby on VES Road.

“The first time I walked into my office, I thought, ‘Wow, I work here now,’” she says, remembering her time there as a child. “Here I was, going to the snack bar, asking for a hot dog. Now I’m cooking (here).”

Hughes runs Oakwood’s restaurant, which is open only to members. They occasionally host events for the public, like an upcoming Blue Newt Band performance on Oct. 17.

She also creates the menus for any function held at Oakwood — everything from weddings to parties to her own theme nights.

“I love doing theme food,” says Hughes, who whips up special menus for St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and other holidays. “That keeps it interesting.”

Not long after she started at Oakwood, Hughes also began holding cooking classes for members. She thought it would be a fun way for people to get to know each other while enjoying food and wine pairings.

They, too, have themes. She held one last month called “Flavors of France,” which was inspired by a recent trip to Normandy and Paris.

For the class, she made escargot, served in a garlic butter sauce with a puff pastry; a spinach salad with grilled duck and a sesame ginger dressing; veal sausage with grilled apples, artichoke gratin and Potatoes Dauphinoise; and, for dessert, a rhubarb-strawberry crisp with crème fraiche.

She wanted to do a dessert with crème fraiche because the woman they stayed with in Normandy had her own cow and made it fresh every day.

French food is her favorite thing to cook, Hughes says.

“The French love food. They savor it. That’s why they take a nice, two-hour lunch,” she says.

“It’s funny, whatever meal they’re eating, they’re (usually) talking about the next one. It’s just the way they react to food.”

Cooking with Mena Hughes

Artichoke Gratin
Ingredients:
1 9-oz. package frozen artichoke hearts
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fine dry bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon margarine or butter, softened
1 tablespoon margarine or butter
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
1/8 teaspoon dried marjoram or thyme, crushed
2/3 cup milk

Instructions: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook artichokes according to package directions and drain. Combine Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and paprika. Stir in the 1 teaspoon softened margarine or butter and set aside.
For sauce, in a medium saucepan, cook mushrooms in the 1 tablespoon of margarine over medium-high heat for about three minutes or until tender. Stir in flour, mustard, marjoram, 1/8 teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir until bubbly. Cook and stir one minute or more. Stir in artichoke hearts and transfer to a 1-ounce quart casserole dish. Sprinkle crumb mixture over vegetables and bake for about 20 minutes, or until bubbly.
Makes three servings.

Sesame Ginger Dressing
Ingredients:
1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
1 shallot clove, quartered
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
½ cup sesame oil
1 teaspoon ginger

Instructions: Add one at a time through the feed tube of a running blender: vinegar, shallots, salt, pep-per, ginger and sesame seeds. Leaving the blender running, add the oil in a slow, thin stream.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp
Ingredients (fruit):
1½ pounds rhubarb, with leaves trimmed, stalks only, cut into ¾-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest, freshly grated
For topping:
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
½ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
2/3 cups chopped walnuts

Instructions: In a medium bowl, combine rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and lemon zest. Transfer to a but-tered 8-inch baking dish.
For topping, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and walnuts, pour in melted butter and toss to combine. Tumble over fruit mixture. Bake until fruit is bubbling and topping is browned.