Salads
by Diana Cercone
When the first summer breeze whiffes through my kitchen window, thoughts of comfort food fade like morning dew. Stews, chilies and pot roasts are banished words from my summer culinary lexicon. I want light, sprightly fare. Now I’m not talking about trading taste for tasteless. I still want the zing—something with a little summer sass to set it apart from its cold weather cousins.
Salads seem the perfect fit. Apropos to any season, they’re especially so in summer when our local fruits and vegetables are at their finest. And I want salads that draw from the countries that do salads best: Italy and the Mediterranean. Fearing that my own repertoire of recipes on the subject was a tad on the stale side, I turned to Chef Genevieve DiFilippo, known for her bravado and expertise of both cuisines—and for her imaginative and delectable salads.
A favorite figure in Doylestown, Genevieve is the chef/owner of Genevieve’s Kitchen restaurant on East State Street and, a half block away, of Genevieve’s Panini Shop. When I called for an interview, she was more than game to give “Bucks County Magazine” a peek at the salads she’ll be serving this summer.
Long before she became a chef, her love and appreciation of good food began in her mother’s kitchen. At family Italian gatherings they were further nurtured as she eagerly helped her mother and great aunt cook. Spilling into these memories are ones cooking with her two older sisters, something they still enjoy doing today. Perhaps one of her earliest memories is of helping her sisters prepare Chicken Cordon Bleu to surprise her parents. She was nine at the time. By age 12 she was washing dishes and scrubbing pots at the Burlington Country Club (Her mother permitted her to work only four hours on weekends). “I loved every minute of it,” says Genevieve. “I was hooked on being in a professional kitchen.” Even peeling 50 pounds of potatoes for home fries didn’t deter her. Nor did working her way up the line during high school to sauté and pasta chef at Amici restaurant in the Chambersburg section of Trenton during summers in college. Each experience only fueled her passion more. Years later, when she left Sodexo as head of a team of chefs and marketing managers, it was only natural she be in a restaurant of her own. She began with Genevieve’s Panini in 2011 and, last winter, opened Genevieve’s Kitchen.
To finish reading about summer salads, turn to page 72 in the Summer 2014 issue of Bucks County Magazine.