It's Thanksgiving, and Michael Schlow just can't give enough gratitude to the shoulder injury over 20 years ago that ruined his once-promising baseball career.
After all, it paved the way for his current gig as a celebrity chef, author, and co-owner of two hugely successful Boston restaurants.
In the mid-1980s, the New York-born and bred Schlow was an up-and-coming right-hander with a fastball that touched the low 90s. He played for a small college in Connecticut and had the time of his life.
"The only reason I went to college was to play baseball," says Schlow, who helped start Boston hotspots Radius and Via Matta with Christopher Meyers and was named one of Food and Wine magazine's "Best New Chefs" in 1996, the esteemed annual ranking of the top 10 new chefs in America.
"My teammates and I weren't too committed to our classes, to tell you the truth. It was all about playing."
But the fun ended for Schlow at the age of 20 when he blew out the shoulder and lost the zip on his fastball that had scouts noticing him.
"My story was just one of the same stories you hear about 100,000 other kids," Schlow says. "You get hurt and that's that for your baseball career. It's unfortunate, but it's life and you have to find something else to do."
Schlow found it at the Academy of Culinary Arts in southern New Jersey, where he learned the ins and outs of what it takes to be a world-class chef and managed to play a little baseball, too.
"There was a community college connected to the Academy and we were allowed to participate in sports if we wanted to," Schlow says. "I'd lost a solid 10 mph off my fastball, but I could still hit, and I figured I could play first base or left field.
Schlow's friends framed his image in a faux baseball card for fun. (Courtesy Michael Schlow)
"I know the other kids were mocking me behind my back, because I was the first culinary school student to try out. But I ended up batting fourth and hitting around .400."
Schlow has been batting a lot better than that in the restaurant business.
After cutting his teeth in the industry in New York under famed restaurateur Pino Luongo and moving on to chic Manhattan eateries such as Coco Pazzo and Le Madri and Sapore di Mare and 75 Main on Long Island, Schlow scored in Boston by reopening Caf Louis and then starting Radius and Via Matta.
Chef Schlow on the scoreboard. (Courtesy Michale Schlow)
"There's a definite similarity between what I went through in cooking and what baseball players have to go through," Schlow says. "My training was becoming as good as I could be with no money, sleeping on floors and working for the best chefs.
"The funny thing now is that I'm old enough that even if I had made it to the Major Leagues, the reality is my baseball career would be long over by now. But my life as as a chef and restaurateur is just starting to bloom."
Part of his success came with his 2005 cookbook "It's About Time: Great Recipes for Everyday Life," which spawned a cross-country book tour that allowed Schlow to pursue his favorite hobby.
"I tried to go to as many ballparks as I could," Schlow says. "And it's a great way to see America. "I'd never been to Wrigley Field or the old County Stadium in Milwaukee, I went to Camden Yards for the first time, and in Los Angeles, I noticed they were serving high-end Japanese food at Dodger Stadium, which I thought was so fantastic."
And a few years later, after doing a favor for some high-rolling friends in Boston, Schlow was repaid with a surprise gift: throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park.
"Even though I'd grown up loving the Yankees and watching them duke it out with the Red Sox, I'm a baseball fan above all that," Schlow says. "So to throw out the first pitch and have my name on the scoreboard and not throw it in the dirt and actually throw a strike was a huge thrill."
Schlow says he's never far from baseball, even when he's "in the weeds" at Radius, scrambling with his dedicated staff to make things perfect for the customers.
"There's the competition, first of all," Schlow says. "In baseball and in restaurants, you're always trying to perform at your highest level. And there's so many symbiotic lines between sports and cooking, too. In my kitchen, we all wear the same uniform and if one guy goes down, we just don't do as well.
"Just like in baseball, we all sweat together as a team."
THANKSGIVING RECIPES Here's a little baseball-inspired Thanksgiving menu I put together for MLB.com. It's for diehard baseball fans not willing to give up the game, even during the offseason.
Since Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays, what I wanted to do was take the classic American ballpark dining experience and somehow gently meld it with Thanksgiving. Of course, it'll still taste good.
So sit down with your baseball-loving family and friends and try some of these recipes out. And once you're done you can start thinking about Spring Training.
BEER-BASTED TURKEY
You really don't need to change much here, but put 24 ounces of your favorite beer in the bottom of the roasting pan along with a handful of chopped carrots, onion, celery, and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Cook the bird at 250 degrees for the first 2 hours, basting with the beer mixture every 10-15 minutes or so. Depending on the size of the bird, continue to cook on 250 until the juices run clear when you insert a thin, long meat tester. Keep basting, but for the final minute or so, blast the oven to high or broil to crisp the skin.
HOT DOG BUN STUFFING "CHICAGO STYLE"
A really easy and fun stuffing for those who just can't let baseball rest for a few months.
12 (day-old) hot dog buns (cut into 2-inch pieces)
1 cup of cooked bratwurst, medium diced
1 large cooked onion, medium diced
2 cooked red peppers, medium diced
1 1/2 cups of milk with 2 egg yolks beaten in
Salt, pepper, pinch of fresh thyme
1 tablespoon butter
Place the buns in a large bowl, add the milk and eggs and soak for 10 minutes. Add the cooked bratwurst, onions, and peppers. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Butter a casserole dish, add stuffing to dish and place in 375-degree oven until cooked (about 45 minutes to 1 hour) and crispy brown on top. If stuffing is not golden brown, turn oven to broil for a few minutes, but watch carefully as not to burn.
STRING BEANS WITH CRUSHED BALLPARK PEANUTS
Take your favorite string beans almondine and substitute it with this.
2 pounds of blanched string beans
3 tablespoons of butter
2 shallots, finely diced
Salt, black pepper
1/2 cup of shelled roasted peanuts crushed up in a Cuisinart or by knife. Don't make it into powder.
In a large saute pan, place the butter and shallots and place pan over medium high heat. Allow the butter to melt, add salt and pepper, then toss in the blanched string beans and toss until they are hot.
Remove from pan onto a serving dish, spoon any remaining butter over, then sprinkle with crushed peanuts.
PUMPKIN PIE WITH CRACKER JACK CRUMBLE
First, make the pie shell.
2 cups flour
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vinegar
teaspoon salt
cup cold water
Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl with a fork. Roll into a circle and fit into a 9-inch glass pie plate.
And here's the filling.
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 cup heavy cream
cup whole milk
2 large eggs
cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground cloves
teaspoon salt
teaspoon nutmeg
1 box Cracker Jack
Whisk the mixture of pumpkin, milk, eggs, cream, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg and salt, then pour into your shell. Bake in a preheated oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees, bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the pie looks done. Crush the Cracker Jack and sprinkle on top as desired. Transfer to a rack and cool.
And have a Happy Thanksgiving!
--Chef Michael Schlow
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