Fine fare from 'Crappy Little Kitchens'

The words 'gourmet' and 'apartment' may not usually appear in the same sentence, but Jennifer Schaertl thinks they can.

The alumna has worked as a chef for eight years in several Dallas-area restaurants such as Suze, The Grape and Taste. She just finished writing a cookbook called "Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens."

Schaertl graduated from UTD in 2002 with a bachelor's in management information systems. She then moved to Brooklyn, New York, seeking work as a businesswoman, but layoffs in the technology industry at that time made job prospects slim, she said.

Adding to the difficulty of finding gainful employment were the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which occurred just two months after Schaertl moved to the area. Although unharmed on the day of the attacks, she closely felt the effects of a city in crisis, she said.

"I was actually incredibly safe. I slept through the whole thing," she said.

She had been working as an event planner, but festivities ceased for six months, even though some companies still had funds to host them. Schaertl and her husband had to sell many of their belongings to make ends meet, she said.

Alongside financial burdens, Schaertl found herself in a tiny 300-square-foot apartment with virtually no real kitchen, just a sink, stove and small refrigerator. This pushed her to learn to cook in new and different ways, she said.

The experience of cooking in a sub-par kitchen led her to go back to school for an associate's degree in culinary arts at El Centro College in Dallas and eventually to write her book on unconventional cooking.

"I thought I wanted to work in computers, and working in an office was not for me," she said. "I thought if I was going to be poor, I would do what I wanted to be doing."

While attending culinary school, Schaertl worked her way up from dishwasher to line cook in a now-defunct Dallas restaurant called Savory. Her big break came when Savory's owner wanted to open a new restaurant.

"My business degree kicked in, and I said, 'Oh, you're going to need a chef,'" she said.

Most line cooks work for several years before moving up, but she had her opportunity after only a year, Schaertl said. After that, she continued to work at various restaurants in Dallas, including a stint as a pastry chef like her mentor at El Centro. She attributes part of her success in the industry to her ability to work well under pressure.

"With a culinary degree, what you had on paper wasn't as important as your performance," she said.

In culinary school, Schaertl took a no-nonsense, minimalist approach, especially with cookware. She used pots and pans for tenderizing meat and a hammer for breaking open coconuts. When her instructor asked her where her juicer was, she simply held up her hand.

Schaertl conveys these simple techniques to aspiring chefs in her cookbook.

"Anyone can cook. All you have to do is read. Read a few recipes and find one that doesn't intimidate you," she said. "Every week, find a new recipe."

She said building confidence with a few good recipes and thinking positively are important steps to becoming a successful cook.

Schaertl currently works as a chef at the Milestone Culinary Arts Center in Dallas in the catering department. She said she prefers working in the kitchen rather than selling to customers.

"Food is such an interesting industry. People think they know what they want, but they don't cook at home, so they don't know what to say," she said. "It's a difficult dialogue to have with somebody."

Schaertl describes occasions when customers wanted to almost literally have their cake and eat it too, such as an Italian banquet for someone who is allergic to pasta, or a Greek spread without olives.

However, she said the hardest part of working in the restaurant industry is the hours, which include weekends and holidays. The upside for her is going shopping on Mondays, when no one else is at the grocery store, she said.

Schaertl said that, despite working in a variety of locations, her home kitchen remains rather underwhelming.

"It is exactly like a college kitchen still," she said. "The whole kitchen slants." She also makes due without a dishwasher or garbage disposal.

Once her cookbook is published, Schaertl plans to make a television show but isn't in a rush to leave her current position.

"I'm lucky. I'm happy to be where I am," she said.

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