Making DI Delicious: Island Chef Insider

Writer’s note: With Daniel Island mirroring more and more each year the culinary charisma of its City sibling, the downtown peninsula, we figured it was high time to highlight the talented chefs who are making that happen. And so we launch our newest column, Making DI Delicious: Island Chef Insider, where we will regularly dig into the bio and brilliance of each such captain of the kitchen. Our aim is to eventually feature every island chef, and hope our readers enjoy learning about them as much as they love eating their food.

Monica Farrell might be full of surprises. Or she might just be giving us her best few. The first one? The fact that, for a seasoned executive chef with the face of a rookie but the swagger of a veteran, she came into her passion well beyond her “formative” years.

“I spent very little, if any, time in the kitchen growing up,” she reveals. “My interest in cooking came a little later in life, and we weren't a very food-centric family.”

Farrell joined Ristorante LIDI in December 2014, when the Italian eatery was just ten months old, and has served as executive chef of “Little Italy Daniel Island” since late summer 2015. She had come over from the James Island and Mount Pleasant restaurants of J. Paul’z, where her third executive chef position had delivered both a blessing and a curse.

“With few exceptions, I was given free reign over the kitchen,” recalls Farrell. “The challenge was doing that in two locations twenty miles apart.”

Prior to that, the chef had been invited to help launch Hall’s Chophouse. “I had been in Charleston for four years and had never worked downtown,” she relates. “That was an experience I wanted to have. As for being there in the early stages, it is always interesting to watch a new restaurant grow from the ground up.”

It proved a vastly different tenure than that she’d had with the storied Kiawah Island Club, where she’d kicked off her Lowcountry culinary career years before.

But before she arrived in Charleston, Farrell was a hobbyist cook and part-time caterer co-ed. Surprisingly, it was not until after graduating from college that she realized she wanted to parlay her skillful sideline into a career. Farrell credits the first two chefs for whom she worked with having the most influence on how she approaches her craft today: “The first taught me an appreciation for detail and consistency; the other emphasized simplicity without compromising quality.”

Farrell went on to attend a small pilot program of renowned culinary school Johnson & Wales in Vail, Colorado. Though she marked a distinguished finish, she surprises us again by modestly conceding that she was in good company. “All of the students were required to have at least a bachelors degree,” Farrell explains. “Almost my entire class of forty graduated with honors. I suppose we were a little more mature and focused than students heading straight from high school.”

Farrell continues to bring a focused and purposeful style to her management collaborations. Since she took the wheel at LIDI, lunch is now offered five days a week and dinner is served every evening. The menu has retained its Italian classics and Italian-American favorites, from picattas to marsalas and panini to spaghetti. But Farrell has added a category for more surprising, innovative food (such as buffalo short rib with gnocchi and gremolata) with a Mediterranean influence, and says these items will be updated seasonally.

Another fun concept (surprise?) instituted since Farrell’s arrival at LIDI is “Teacher Thursdays.” The weekly event is celebrated in the beloved corner bar, with happy hour kicking off at 3 p.m. to toast local educators with discount libations and snacks. LIDI is also hosting a wine dinner with live jazz on March 28. “We did one back in November and it was a great time,” Farrell states, adding, “The band may even work in some swing music this time.”

Under Farrell’s thoughtful leadership, a coveted – yet somewhat elusive – culinary culture has been fostered. “What I find unique about us is the level of support and encouragement given across the board, from the owners to the wait staff,” Farrell reveals. “It is refreshing to be in a restaurant without any animosity among the ranks. No silly front of the house versus back of the house. Everyone supports one another.”

We concluded our interview with Chef Monica by asking what diners might be surprised to find goes on in the LIDI kitchen. And her parting shot was, in itself, a spot-on witty surprise: “No one is wearing pants back there…Just kidding.”

Ristorante LIDI is located at 901 Island Park Drive in Daniel Island. Check out their menu, see special events, and make a reservation at www.ristorantelidi.com.

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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