Chef is living his dream on Longboat Key

The Silver Palate and Dean & DeLuca were riding high on the fine-food-by-weight carryout wave when Harry Christensen got the idea to take takeout a step up.

As a day chef at Café L'Europe on St. Armands Circle, he had been preparing the meals that the line chefs would heat up for the evening's dinner service. His idea was to do the same thing for customers and package the meals, complete with appetizer and dessert, to be heated at home, "making my customers the line chefs," he explains on his Web site.

In the late 1970s, the Christensens leased a building to house their Continental Kitchen at 5440 Gulf of Mexico Drive on Longboat Key. As the takeout business grew and expanded to include catering, the Christensens moved to the current location on St. Judes Drive.

It was not until 1985 that the fine dining restaurant opened, fulfilling a third part of their dream, that Harry Christensen would actually see people enjoying the food he prepared.

What is your most vivid memory about the day (or week) you opened? What was that date?

It was such a flash. I took a lease on Nov. 1, 1978, and started to renovate the takeout during the day while evenings, I was night chef at Café L'Europe. My son Hal was 3 years old and Eric was 1. My wife, Lynn, and I opened the Monday after Christmas. We worked day and night that winter.

Was there a menu item you expected would be your signature preparation? Is it still on your menu?

Roast duck bigarade, $6.95. Boneless half duckling with pungent orange sauce, salad, wild rice blend and buttermilk biscuits. Duckling is still on my menu today for $32 and it is always "the best they ever had." Every restaurant that I have worked at in my career, I have prepared duck for the menu. It is a real signature for me.

Are any of the original employees still working with you? Who?

Lynn and I are still here ... and married 35 years! Our son, Hal, has been with us eight years as general manager, and we have employees who have been with us for 18 years. We depend a lot on our main staff.

Who inspired you to go into the restaurant business and how did you decide on Sarasota? Among the restaurateurs in business now, whom did you mentor?

Vince Lombardi. I worked for the Packers at their training camp in the early '60s and the chefs made an impression on me with beautiful centerpieces for the World Championship buffets. I was 14 years old then. I wanted to be a chef. I was chef at an American Plan Hotel at the Alpine Resort in Door County, Wis., in 1973. When the season was over, most of the staff went to Naples to work, and that's what we planned on doing also. But we stopped in Sarasota to visit a high school friend and we drove out to the island and found a cottage in the Longboat Key village to rent. The next day I got a job at the Sarasota Yacht Club as sous chef. They are all gone now, but for the old-timers it was Jack Kahn Sr., owner of the Far Horizon. He always demanded the highest quality of products and productivity. He was always helping and caring for his employees as family.

What is the biggest change you have seen in the dining industry since you opened?

I think the biggest change is the celebrity chef. In the '60s, '70s and '80s, before Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet, the local chef was pinned as an alcoholic and womanizer. They worked in dingy kitchens with poor ventilation and lighting. The maître d's and waiters fluffed everything up to look good and were the stars in the industry, and now it is the opposite. Everyone wants to know who the chef is and if he gives cooking classes. As far as food goes, I was trained in classical cooking with European chefs at hotels, country clubs and restaurants, but my favorite food to make at home was the old hippie food from Mollie Katzen, which is Mediterranean vegetarian cooking today. The trend today is to eat healthy. Today, most creative chefs use old classical cooking but make it healthier without the fats and proteins. On our menu today, we specialize in fresh seafood and produce and specialty products.

If you had it to do over, would you do anything differently? Any plans for the future?

I have no regrets about my life in the industry. Lynn and I have worked very hard at the business. We were 25 years old when we started. We have two sons that we are very proud of.

Our next project is to open a gourmet market convenience store. I have been space- and product- planning, and it is exciting because we have so many high-quality items to offer. ... So, we will sail on to our next business, a c-store to go with our other three businesses, restaurant, deli and catering. Like Julia always said, "bon appétit."