Cooking is all I’ve ever known,” said Dave Rook, executive chef at Copia Urban Winery & Market. During Rook’s youth, his father owned a catering company and also ran the kitchen at Sunset Hills Country Club in Edwardsville. After cheffing aboard cruise ships and riverboats, Rook docked at area restaurants such as Fitz’s, Crazy Fish and Aqua Vin, then helmed Copia’s kitchen when the upscale restaurant on Washington Avenue opened in 2005. A fire destroyed the downtown space in late 2007, but the restaurant reopened this summer with Rook once again at the stove, offering diners “some good, old-fashioned American food and some things you just don’t see everywhere.”
What prompted you to make the kitchen of a ship your starting point for a culinary career?
I was a wild man out of high school; it was either that or the Marines. I borrowed my dad’s suit and went over and interviewed at Clipper Cruise Line in Clayton. I probably would have failed the interview process if they didn’t need people so badly.
You were working as an executive chef for Schnucks before returning to Copia. What brought you back?
I would have loved to have stayed in that industry because it was great for my family, but I couldn’t wet my whistle when it came to the culinary side.
How would you describe the food at Copia?
Traditional American food, but do it as best as you possibly can, with fresh ingredients, maybe put a twist on things. I take pride in serving good prime rib. I start it every day by noon and we slow-roast it until 7 o’clock at night. I take pride in smoking my own food; we smoke all of our own fish. I’ve worked on a rib recipe for years … even down to the baked beans – it’s a traditional family recipe. But I’m working on changing the menu already.
What dishes are you considering for that menu?
I’m working on a new dish that’s going to be a sweet potato and andouille hash and a grilled salmon with a pineapple and roasted corn relish. Batter-fried lobster tail, it was always an off-the-menu special at Copia. We’re getting ready to do that again.
You have described Copia’s menu as featuring “big, bold flavors.” What dishes best fit that description?
Of course, a gumbo. It’s going to be spicy. It is not a traditional New Orleans-style gumbo, because I don’t put shells in my gumbo and I took the okra out. The people I learned from are down-home people. Their gumbo was whatever they had to make it with. I kind of designed mine for the Midwest. Bob’s Seafood sold it for years. It’s been very successful.
What else is bold?
Our 8-ounce fillet has green peppercorn-cognac butter. It’s a take off a steak au poivre, but I do all the flavors into the butter. You let those flavors melt into the steak. Our tuna is a Szechuan ginger glaze with wasabi mashed potatoes – that’s pretty bold. If I make horseradish cream, I try to get the hottest horseradish I can find.
Physically, Copia is a great space – a huge retractable-roofed patio, stately private dining rooms, glass wine cellars.
I had no idea that I was going to come back here and work. I was just going to write menus, but I fell in love with the space. It’s beautiful. I don’t think there’s really any other place like this in St. Louis.
What’s the relationship between the space and your menu?
We try to do a melting pot of food that pleases everybody. I would really like to see the wine garden be known as a place where, any time of the day, you can have a bottle of wine and a cheese plate, or sit at the bar and have a good calamari appetizer or cheeseburger. You don’t just have to come down here for a special occasion. It’s a good place just to hang out.
Your father and your brother, Lou Rook III, are also in the restaurant business. What’s a Rook family meal like and who does the cooking?
We trade off. What’s funny is the last few times, my brother Mike – he’s an insurance guy – he’s been doing the cooking because I’ve been tired, Lou’s tired, my dad’s tired. There’s always been way too much food. Now there’s still too much food, but a lot of kids.
Copia Urban Winery and Market
1122 Washington Ave., St. Louis, 314.241.9463
This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2010.