Writing Services-Laurie Bazemore Birdsong :: LaurieBazemore.com  
Cooking With Style
BY LAURIE BAZEMORE: SPECIAL TO THE PILOT
  Aberdeen chef Philippe Brainos throws fried green tomatoes in the cake batter at his same-veggie-named eatery to keep dessert a little quirky for customers. That last, sweet course for him, however, is pure nostalgia -- Brainos misses the meringue-topped, custardy iles flottantes ("floating islands") from his French, old-world upbringing.
Brainos enjoys taking old recipes and reinventing them, making subtle changes that present new tastes for traditional dishes. He has mastered several variations of southern dishes and hopes to incorporate more French cuisine into his menu. In September, Brainos will begin offering a French meal on the first Saturday of the month.
Photo byHannah Sharpe/The Pilot
  Being raised on old recipes, or what Brainos calls "good, healthy cooking," makes sense to those who appreciate the kitchen labors invested in their slow-simmer dumplings. But at this N.C. 211 East country cookin' outpost, who would've guessed that a master French chef was the guy behind the dumplings?
  "You have to take the color of the place where you are planted," says Brainos, who opened Fried Green Tomatoes this past February.
  To understand Brainos' stateside, small-town culinary arrival, one needs a better idea of what he's seen of the world.
  Born in Marseille, he grew up accompanying his Parisian father and his mother, from the French Riviera, on business travel as they hopped from Cameroon to Colombia. By the time he was out of the service in the late 1960s, Brainos took his father's advice -- learning the "business" of running restaurants.
  Many a Frenchman aspiring to run a top kitchen enters a traditional maitre d' apprenticeship at this point. Brainos, however, had just begun to see the world -- he opted to enroll in a marketing/management program at Chicago's Northwestern University.
  "At Northwestern, I learned how a restaurant works to attract customers through marketing, show and precision," says Brainos. "In France, parents are paying a restaurant to apprentice their son to become master of the dining establishment. When I came to the U.S., I had to adapt to a new way of thinking."
  Chicago...Los Angeles...a wife...two children...Brainos saw the U.S. through a big city lens into the mid-1970s as his personal life advanced.
  Back in France from 1975 to 1987, Brainos' thoughts of rushing off to open a stateside French fine eatery were tempered by business school terms like "bottom line."
French chef Phillippe Brainos owns and operates Fried Green Tomatoes, a small cafe featuring southern cuisine with a French twist on Highway 211 in Aberdeen.
Photo byHannah Sharpe/The Pilot
  He landed the safe bet in running his first kitchen as maitre d' in 1987 at Durham's Washington Duke Inn. It didn't take long for Sam Longiotti, then-owner of the upscale Chapel Hill Siena Hotel, to notice Brainos' skill at running the Washington Duke's four-star Vista Restaurant.
  The Siena's restaurant, Il Palio, had lost one of its AAA Four Diamonds in its 1988 rating. Longiotti approached Brainos requesting that he reintroduce an element of impeccable service there to help them get their lost gem back.
  "Give me six months," he recalls telling Longiotti.
  It took him just four and a half. Il Palio's Four-Diamond patrons, Brainos speculated, would take to another French dining tradition that was lost on many American diners -- tableside service. For many young restaurant managers, tableside was simply not in the primer. Under Brainos' tutelage, Il Palio's wait staff incorporated it into their plate-to-table ritual, serving patrons flambéed steaks and deboned fish in broth from parked cooking trolleys.
  "When two people are served their meal tableside, a dining room's public area becomes a personalized experience," says Brainos. "With tableside, chefs know clients are either drawing on a prior memory of it or are discovering it."
  In the subsequent AAA report detailing how Il Palio had resecured its Four Diamond rating, "perfect service" was one observance all too telling of Brainos' contributions.
  Brainos' investment of self and talent in Il Palio, albeit a good one, made him think of his own chef proprietary ambitions on the drive home from The Siena in his 1952 Mercury Monterrey one night. His love of food and service drove him toward tapping the energies of an altogether different type of aspiring chef namely, children.
  For kids ages eight to 16, Brainos developed a sort of mini-maitre d' school to teach them basic cooking skills, table service and table manners. At the end of a weeklong course, Brainos' young apprentices displayed the tableside etiquette they had learned and cooked for their parents.
Brainos offers no false advertisement at his restaurant, always serving authentic fried green tomatoes. The tomatoes are complimentary on several of his dishes as a signature mark.
Photo byHannah Sharpe/The Pilot
  What started in North Carolina's Triangle area soon became a nationwide success as beaming parents told their friends. From 1988 to 1993, Brainos' reputation for teaching children culinary excellence filled his courses in places as notable as Washington's Watergate Hotel and New York's Helmsley Hotel.
  Brainos brought his mini-maitre d' courses to the Mid Pines Golf Resort when he accepted Don Farr's offer to become food and beverage director there in 2005.
  A smaller area suited Brainos at this life stage, and his penchant for all things haute cuisine made him think a city-like French café might catch on in the Sandhills. But Brainos had a knack for introducing culinary concepts. He challenged himself to sell the locals on his version of home-style cooking.
  "I've always wanted to do things differently, outside of the box," says Brainos.
  At a recent Fried Green Tomatoes Sunday brunch, Brainos chatted up the idea of a weekly French dinner with several tables and unofficially filled the first one slated for September. He talks of reviving his mini maitre d' school there. Whatever direction he chooses to develop his business, Brainos is a seasoned chef proprietor.
  "There are people who open a restaurant with more bravery than others," says Brainos, "but they are also more cautious because they know the restaurant business."
Laurie Birdsong is a local freelance writer.