Chef Marc Orfaly Brings Global Skills to Armenian Food

The James Beard-winning Barbara Lynch went on to a culinary empire herself, with Menton, Sportello, B&G Oysters, Butcher Shop and No. 9 Park. Just this month she closed all her restaurants after several accusations were publicly lobbed against her for fostering a toxic workplace. Paul O’Connell, for many years, led the French-Cuban standout Chez Henri in Cambridge.

Orfaly graduated from Johnson & Wales University in 1990. After Olives, he headed to Los Angeles for three years, where he worked under master chef Joachim Splical at Patina and later Campanile, working under Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton. After a stint in New York, he returned to Boston in 1999, to work with Lynch at No. 9 Park.

Orfaly opened his first restaurant, Pigalle, in Boston’s Theater District in 2000. He then opened the Italian-leaning Marco in the North End, followed by Peking Tom’s, an Asian-influenced restaurant in Downtown Crossing, before opening the music venue The Beehive.

Home Cook vs Chef

Many people can be decent home cooks, but they cannot be chefs.

“In many ways a chef has to be an excellent home cook, but a home cook doesn’t have to worry about the other 80 percent of things a chef has to worry about,” Orfaly explained, “Sure there is great food involved, but it’s about managing a staff and all the business that goes into it. I always say cooking is the fun part and the rest of it is work.”

Orfaly added that his best dishes are influenced by his home cooking. And the key for good home-cooked meals is to “simplify and buy the best ingredients.”

He noted that he appreciates the difficulties of home cooks. “It’s hard cooking at home. I am spoiled in a commercial kitchen. I order things and they come to me. Typically it is not the case at home,” he said.

Asked what the most important piece of equipment for a home cook is, he said, it is the hood, “so you can exhaust [out] anything you are cooking.”

The rest, he said, is simple. “My kitchen at home is a gas stove and a toaster oven. That’s what I cook with.” He added, however, that when the weather is nice, he prefers to grill his food.

As for ingredients, “I would recommend people to get out of their comfort zones and shop in places that aren’t Star Market and Stop and Shop,” he advised. “Go to the stores in Watertown or to the Asian markets, where you can find really exciting produce, dry goods and spices, to get acclimated and kind of break out of the mold and experiment with things you find in these stores.”

Cooking Style

Orfaly said that his cooking style has evolved since he founded Pigalle in 2000. “When I had my first restaurant, Pigalle, I was more focused on French \cuisine, and not that all French cuisine is heavy, but that’s the way I was cooking at that time. I’ve definitely expanded my palette or global outreach to many other cuisines. Now I lean more toward being a pescatarian, heavy on vegetables and grains. As you get older you want to eat better, feel better. That’s definitely been a focus of my cooking as of late.”

With his most recent restaurant, ReelHouse, in East Boston, he has mixed in “Armenian flavors” “Frankensteined with Asian techniques.”

“My cooking ability today is kind of a story line of all the experiences I have had up to this point. Cooking at [the ReelHouse] was more global, Yes we were more fish-centric , but I interwove in the menu a little bit Middle Eastern and Cantonese,” he said, influenced by his travels and upbringing.

He said it is not “a fusion,” but rather a mélange of flavors.

One example he cited was the quinoa pilaf he did at ReelHouse. “I did it like a stir fry. I use Middle Eastern flavors but almost a Chinese technique.”

He added, “You don’t want to deter people because the food is too esoteric,” but “sneak different flavor you don’t normally seen.”

Another example is the “Tuna Tataki” salad. “My version of it was crusting the tuna in black pepper and zaatar,” he added.

Orfaly just stepped down from the day-to-day operations of ReelHouse in June but is still an equitable partner.

ReelHouse operates under the Navy Yard Hospitality Group. In addition to ReelHouse, other restaurants in the group include ReelHouse Marina Bay, Pier6, the Tall Ship and Mija Cantina.

Armenian Nights

Now, he has decided to try an experiment with Armenian food, offering a two-night pop up in Melrose.

“As of late, I’ve been revisiting a bunch of my grandmother’s recipes with my mom. We’ve been cooking every weekend. Inspired me to put it in a commercial dinner type setting. It’s kind of a prototype to see how it goes. If it is received well, we will move it to a brick and mortar…”

This celebration of his childhood foods will take place at the Kitchen, a cooking studio/classroom in Melrose, on October 25 and 26.

Tickets are available online, for $150 per person for four courses, mostly family style. There will be a mezze course, with among other items, roasted olives and a honey feta dip, cold grape leaves, octopus shawarma, manti, lamb bulgur dumplings. Dinner will include a stuffed lamb saddle, lentil rice and braised swiss chard.

Dessert will include whole walnuts, baklava and more.

“Many of these foods are on par or better than other ethnic foods,” he said.

For tickets and more information, visit https://www.thekitchenmelrose.com/service-page/armenian-dinner-party-night-1 or https://www.thekitchenmelrose.com/service-page/armenian-dinner-party-night-2?referral=service_list_widget