Tucker Yoder’s culinary career grew not out of a childhood spent around a simmering pot in his grandmother’s kitchen, but of necessity. When he was in high school in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, his mother became ill, and he was forced to step up to the plate and cook for them both. He had been washing dishes at a local restaurant, and between what he picked up watching and learning there, reading cookbooks, and tuning in to “Great Chefs, Great Cities” on the Discovery Channel, he found himself a new hobby. The hobby blossomed into a career when, after high school, Tucker made his way to the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho. After a few years learning the ropes there, he traded the mountains of Idaho for the mountains of Vermont, and headed off to the New England Culinary Institute.
He then relocated to the Charlottesville area, and the Virginia countryside became his home. Working in several hotel and restaurant properties in the area, he finally found his mentor at OXO. Chef John Haywood’s own classical training opened Tucker’s eyes to the difference between the way he’d been cooking at big hotel and banquet kitchens, with a ‘get it done’ mentality, and the loving care that goes in to creating a quality dish in the classical manner. This elevating experience was reinforced by several stages at restaurants like The Ryland Inn and Clio. In 2005, he moved on to the Clifton Inn as sous-chef, and helped the property achieve its designation as a Relais & Châteaux property.
Tucker’s life in Virginia has connected him deeply to the beauty of the area and the amazing bounty of meat and produce that comes out of the region. “Chefs and the media have made the 'farm-to-table' idea a huge trend in the food world,” he says. “In this part of the country, though, it is a way of life for so many people.” Inspired by the work of area farmers, Tucker helped to design, build, develop, and run all aspects of the Red Hen, an innovative fine dining restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, where 95% of the restaurant’s ingredients were from within a 50-mile radius.
“I love farmers,” says Tucker, by way of explanation. “They work as hard as we do, and I respect that tremendously.” He regularly visits Stonehouse Farm in Goshen, Virginia and helps farmers Brendan and Susan Perry pull weeds, dig carrots and turnips…and whatever else needs doing. Recently, he helped build a hoop house for the mesclun and arugula. The further he progresses as a chef, the deeper and more important that relationship becomes.
In late October 2010, Tucker Yoder returned to The Clifton Inn as Executive Chef. For him, everything about the property speaks to what is best about the Charlottesville area. “Clifton is exactly the type of place for me, and I’m incredibly excited to see it grow.” Before he was even back in the kitchen, Tucker began his passionate review of the menus, starting with the kitchen gardens right out front. The menu set-up, with its small course options that allow each diner to custom-build a meal, remains the same. It’s a format that gives Tucker great freedom in creating his dishes -- guests love it, as well, because they can taste a wide variety of what is in season at any given moment.
And of course, he’ll still be sourcing just about everything locally. Buffalo Creek Beef, the very best grass-fed beef, in his opinion, finished with a touch of brewer’s grain, is a new addition to Clifton’s menu. Under his creative leadership, the menu at Clifton is feeling a bit more southern, too. Tucker serves his Honey-lacquered Duck Breast on a fluffy bed of Byrd Mill Grits (out of Richmond,) a stone-ground variety that cooks up looking like scrambled eggs. Then there are the Sweet Potato and Maple Syrup Ravioli, served with a Serrano ham broth; and the Roasted Quail with Foie Gras and Madeira Jus, served with sage pudding.
Tucker sometimes likes to apply certain progressive techniques to his cuisine, when a dish he’s creating calls for it. He has recently acquired a vacuum-sealer (but has yet to find space for it in the kitchen) for sous-vide cooking. He has a soup on the menu that is presented with ribbons of heat-stable beer-orange-coriander jelly in the bottom of a bowl, together with roasted sun chokes from his friends’ farm out in Goshen, butter-poached shrimp, and pickled onions. When a hot sun choke purée is poured into the bowl, the jelly doesn’t melt! He works the same magic with a heat-stable ‘veil’ of red wine, star anise, and chicken stock, draped like a fondant over a portion of melt-in-your-mouth beef short ribs.
Having a hand in the growing of his ingredients, and thanks to his strong working relationships with his purveyors, Tucker is also conscious of honoring and using every bit of a product, which involves more complexity than initially meets the eye. His scallops on the menu now are served with salsify prepared three ways: sautéed with bacon and balsamic vinegar; sliced thin and deep fried into chips; and ‘noodles,’ which are not pasta, but salsify peeled thin, then blanched. Speaking of salsify (or ‘oyster root,’ as Thomas Jefferson called it,) the local root vegetable is featured in Tucker’s current Jefferson Menu in a dish of Poached Oysters with Salsify and Black Truffle. The popular Jefferson menus at The Clifton Inn change seasonally -- and are a favorite challenge for the chef.
When he’s not on the farm or in the kitchen, Tucker enjoys riding his bicycle, updating his blog, and spending time with his wife and children, who are quickly becoming a great set of farm hands.