|
 Volker
Frick, Executive Chef,
Kettle Cuisine
When Volker Frick discusses his craft, one
single philosophy ties all of his ideas together: real cooking.
At Kettle Cuisine, where Volker has served as Executive Chef
since 1997, his classical, back-to-basics cooking techniques are
the backbone of the fresh soup company, and all of Kettle
Cuisine’s fresh, savory soups are the result of this approach to
cooking. Volker’s team of cooks simmer fresh, made-from-scratch
stocks for hours, braise meats, sauté vegetables, and use only
the highest quality ingredients.
Born and raised ten miles from the Hungarian
border near the Danube River, Volker was first introduced to
traditional cooking during childhood. He would often watch and
help his mother prepare homemade meals for the family with
ingredients raised and prepared at home. They raised rabbits and
chickens, rendered pork fat, and grew their own vegetables.
 At age
seventeen, Volker left home to begin his culinary career with a
cooking apprenticeship in Germany. Volker continued his career
at Humpelmeier’s restaurant in Munich and worked for many years
in a succession of European hotels and restaurants, as well as
the Holland-America Cruise Line, before coming to New England in
1969. Here Volker worked one year at Boracchies (now known as
J.C. Hillary’s) in Boston and at Dunfey’s hotels in Maine and
Cape Cod. He settled in Newport, RI and served as Executive Chef
for two years at the Clark Cook House and the White Horse
Tavern.
In 1978, Volker opened his own restaurant
called "Frick’s" on Thames Street in Newport, RI and later
opened a second restaurant of the same name in Jamestown. He
specialized in European and Continental cooking and was best
known for cooking every entrée to order.
For 3 years, while simultaneously running
his own restaurants, Volker
 served as
a professor of International and Classical cooking at Johnson
and Wales University’s College of Culinary Arts.
Volker met Jerry Shafir, the founder of
Kettle Cuisine, while working at the New York Yacht Club in
Newport in 1992. Soon after, he accepted a position as a
culinary consultant at Kettle Cuisine and began improving the
methods then used for creating Kettle Cuisine’s fresh soup
stocks and developing an extensive line of vegetarian/vegan
soups.
Volker started working full time for Kettle
Cuisine in 1997 as Executive Chef and has since improved upon
and created some of Kettle Cuisine’s over 60 varieties of fresh
soup. Today Volker’s European influence is apparent in many of
Kettle Cuisine’s recipes.
Volker currently lives in Newport, RI where
he enjoys sailing, cooking and entertaining as well as other
hobbies such as gardening, skiing, and traveling. |
