Sitting Down With Michelin Star Chef, Andy Clark

This week we are honored to sit down with Andy Clark, a Michelin Star chef and chef instructor for the Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute. In our chat, Andy told us all about cooking for famous politicians and athletes, life with his dog, Gibson, who has a huge appetite, and why he loves teaching people to be professional chefs these days.

We heard that you are now an instructor at the Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute. Can you tell us more about that?

Andy (above with his dog Gibson) tells TOC, “Gibson is a big love bug. He loves people and belly rubs. I think he loves attention from random strangers more than he loves food, which he loves a lot.”

Yes, I've kind of transitioned from working in kitchens to now teaching mainly at Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute, which is the professional program that they run. And then there's Cookology, which is the more casual date nights and camps for kids and stuff like that. So it's a great little setup for the professional program. The ages span a large range, anywhere from 18 to I think we had somebody that was 63 a couple classes ago. So it really ranges from anybody, from people just looking to have a good time and learn how to actually cook professionally to people that want to go and do this for a living. And that's really what we focus on, is people who want to do this for a living. So that's a really cool part of what we do there. It's a great course. I love teaching the Cookology classes, the team building events, and we do mystery baskets. So I do a little bit of both, which I thoroughly enjoy.

What’s the best part of teaching other chefs?

Really what I loved doing as an executive chef is teaching my line cooks, my sous chefs, how to cook [and] how I want things. And it was so rewarding watching them grow and learn and even teaching me things and me growing and learning. I learned from everybody, from the dishwasher to a server, to front house manager to the sous chefs, the cooks, whatever. But being focused on just cooking or just working with people who really want to do this for a living is pretty spectacular. You can see their eyes light up when they finally figure something out. So that's probably the best part about teaching other cooks and other chefs is them being there for the sole purpose of learning and being dedicated to it. 

As a Michelin star chef in the DC area, we imagine that you’ve cooked for some very interesting people. Can you tell us about any famous guests you’ve cooked for?

I've been very lucky. I started out at the Four Seasons when I first moved to DC and that was Obama's inauguration -  the first one. So everybody stayed at the Four Seasons. I cooked for Tom Hanks, Larry David, Oprah, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and numerous basketball players. So that was a really great place to kind of get my feet wet and really understand the luxury side of things. And Tom Hanks basically told me to cook him a pasta, whatever I wanted. So I was 19 years old and I was cooking Tom Hanks a pasta dish … I cooked for some athletes, Yao Ming, and like I said, a lot of basketball players, a lot of football players. I've cooked for Michelle and Barack Obama. I've cooked for their daughters. I've cooked for the current chief of staff for Joe Biden, and some senators and congressmen. I've really done it all in the gamut of DC and I feel really privileged that I've been able to actually do that and experience all those people and meeting them and taking pictures with some of them. So it's been very awesome.

Do you have any kitchen horror stories?

I’m not going to go into detail, but I've worked for some really rough chefs and I worked for them because they were the best and I learned a ton from them. But at the same time, it was basically a mild form of torture to severe form of torture. I've had to cut eight quarts of some really hot peppers because I did something wrong the day before. So after my 13 hour shift, I had to stay an extra two hours to cut these really hot peppers. My eyes were burning, my face was burning, the gloves were not working. I've had plates thrown at me, pans thrown at me. I've been told that I wasn't worth anything and I should never cook again and all these things. And I really just kind of took it and let it kind of roll off my back because I knew they never meant any of these things they said, but it kind of made me the chef I am today. And I for one, would never treat anyone like that just because I've been treated like that. So I always try to do the you catch more flies with honey, then vinegar kind of thing. Having the respect of everybody and not just fear is a much more effective way to run a kitchen these days versus 20 years ago.

Taking care of Gibson and working restaurant hours has definitely been a balancing act for Andy and his partner, Christina. He tells TOC, “When Gibson was a puppy, we set up his schedule so that I took care of his morning routine and Christina handled the evening routine. This means that Gibson sleeps in until about 9am every day, which means that we all get to enjoy sleeping in a little bit on the weekends..”

Tell us about your dog, Gibson.

Gibson is a big love bug. He loves people and belly rubs. I think he loves attention from random strangers more than he loves food, which he loves a lot.

When Gibson was a puppy, we introduced him to communication buttons. He currently has 25 buttons. A button story: We taught Gibson the phrase "all done" when he was a puppy at the suggestion of a dog trainer. Her recommendation was that when we finish training, we say "all done" and then put away the treats. We continued to apply this concept to other things. When we introduced the "all done" button to the board, Gibson started using it to tell the Humans that he had enough of whatever we were doing. It is not uncommon for Gibson to tell [Andy’s partner] Christina "all done" at 4 pm on Friday to communicate that he thinks she should be done working from home because he wants belly rubs or a big walk. 

Last year, we enrolled Gibson in agility training classes and have continued to take classes with him. Christina thought it would be a fun thing to try out since we often joke that Gibson is a dog version of a billy goat. Being a billy goat seems to also mean that he is pretty good at agility too. He loves the dog walk, the teeter, and the jumps. We are working at getting better with the weaves. 

Do you ever cook special things for Gibson? What does he like to eat?

Gibson LOVES food. There is no such thing as a bad snack, unless you count zucchini. He hates zucchini. He actually pretends to like it, he will take it from you and then walk over to his dog bed, chew on it for a minute, and then spit it out before finally coming back over to find or ask for a better treat. 

Gibson's love for food means that special snacks are things like fresh fruit and vegetables. His favorite vegetable is romaine lettuce. Every once in a while we will make him scrambled eggs. If we are feeling really adventurous, Gibson will get "special ice cubes," which is essentially a dog friendly smoothie made with whatever we have in the kitchen and frozen into an ice cube tray.  Some examples of things that we have added to the "special ice cubes" are peanut butter, water, yogurt, watermelon, blueberries, carrots, apples, chicken broth, strawberries. 

How did you balance having a dog and having to work at a restaurant at night?

Teamwork. One benefit of working restaurant hours is that my day started much later than Christina's work day. This means that we can usually do without a dog walker during the day because I would leave for work around 11am and Christina would get home around 6pm. When Christina has to work late or my schedule changes for a special event, we tend to rely on a dog walker for help. 

When Gibson was a puppy, we set up his schedule so that I took care of his morning routine and Christina handled the evening routine. This means that Gibson sleeps in until about 9am every day, which means that we all get to enjoy sleeping in a little bit on the weekends.

If someone in our community wants to learn to be a better cook do you have any resources you can recommend?

And then if somebody wants to learn about cooking, feel free to contact me here. I do private lessons. Read, read, read, read, read as much as you can. I collect cookbooks, just read them. And then just really practice. Cook at home, watch YouTube, watch Jacques Pepin and … Julia Child. They really taught you how to cook and give you [a] good solid foundation. If not, come see us at Cookology and we'll guarantee you that you will learn how to cook at least one meal and you can kind of just build from there. But really just practice, [and] cook at home. Don't be afraid to mess up and really just try to explore cooking methods and cooking styles. A lot of people don't cook because they're afraid. And when I was a kid, luckily I started cooking when I was a very young age. I've made some inedible meals when I was 13 or 14, but I learned and you get better every day. And that's really the main focus on how to get better with cooking- you have to actually do it. It's one of the muscle memories. And I'd say when all the young chefs, I say young as in new to the industry, come through Cookology and Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute, I always say you need to train your tongue. Your tongue is a muscle. So I'm teaching you how to taste. Does it need salt? Does it need acid? Does it need fat? And all these things. And as you work and work and work, you'll get better at it.

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