By LAURA GROSS-HIGGINS
It’s summer. The Cape has a lot to offer in so many ways: the beaches, the casual way of living, the food. If you have never been here before, you might assume the average Cape fare includes clam chowder, fried clams or oysters, and fish—plenty of that. But the Cape culinary scene boasts not just your typical New England menus. That’s the result of the cooking of some of the people to be mentioned here.
Le Bon Jour in East Falmouth. Owner Mamadon Diagne at right, and employee Sean Simons.
Chef Mark Cilfone and his wife, Cynthia, have owned La Cusina sul Mare for more than 20 years. Mark is the chef and Cynthia runs the bar. Their restaurant is on Main Street in Falmouth. And in the past three years, they opened another La Cusina in Easton. Their menus focus on seafood and Northern Italian fare.
Mark said he came up through the ranks, learning his cooking skills from two men in particular, at a restaurant in Florida. One of the men was from Capri and the other from Sorrento.
Mark also said he came from a big Italian family, whose holidays centered on food. So you might say he was born to the importance of food. He started working in restaurants at 19, in Florida. He has been in the business about 30 years.
The Cilfones treat their staff like family and most of them have been with them for the 20 years. Mark said in addition to learning cooking from those chefs in Florida, he learned what to do in working with staff.
His philosophy of cooking is to get the best ingredients. And when asked if he was planning any new dishes for this summer, he said they are researching some new items. He also said that issues with the supply chain of ingredients will play a factor in what is served.
In addition to the business part of being a chef, he said he appreciates the customers he has gotten to know and the friendships that have developed through the business.
Another person who has come up through the ranks—rather than through cooking school—is Mamadou Ly, the owner of Le Bon Jour in East Falmouth. Mamadou started as a sous chef and worked his way up. He has not owned his restaurant as long as the Cilfones, but had worked for the Water Street Kitchen in Woods Hole prior to opening his own restaurant.
Le Bon Jour has an eclectic menu. Mexican, Thai, African, Italian. Mamadou is from Senegal, West Africa. He has been here for about six years. He came to the Cape because he had friends here.
His philosophy of cooking stresses using fresh vegetables and making healthy, tasty meals. Le Bon Jour has a Mediterranean Bowl that is Mamadou’s favorite, with house hummus and felafel. There’s gumbo and a Thai Buddha bowl, too. The menu is primarily takeout now, but they are hoping for that to change. And he features African specials every so often. What unites all of the eclectic dishes are the spices.
Essentially all of the bowls are vegetarian; just add the protein of your choice. They don’t do tofu. But they are receptive to their patrons’ wishes.
Pleasing his customers is also the philosophy of Boris Villatte, who is the third chef in this international profile. Maison Villatte is the bakery that he owns in Falmouth. He started baking at the age of 16 and fell in love with it. His older brother is a baker, too. Unlike Mr. Cilfone and Mr. Ly, he did have four years of formal training in both baking and making pastries. He worked for Eric Kayser in France, even opening a bakery that Mr. Kayser opened in Paris with Alain Ducasse.
Baking opened up the world to Boris Villatte; he travelled to Japan, to Washington in the period between 2003 to 2005, before coming to America in 2005 to work at Wynn Las Vegas and head a team of 50 who made artisanal bread for 20 restaurants.
Boris Villatte owner of Maison Vilatte on Main Street in Falmouth.
He came to the Cape in 2005, first to Wellfleet for a venture that did not work out, then to Falmouth in 2012, and opened Maison Villatte.
His philosophy about baking is similar to the other chefs here. He uses the best quality products. In fact, for his croissants and chocolate items, he only uses butter imported from France; it has an 82 percent butter fat content.
Boris says that he wants to create a great product. And that he is a hands-on owner who still loves to make his baked goods, seeing them from start to finish. But he also said that he could not run his business without his staff. Off-season he has 20 workers, but in the peak of tourist season, he might employ 35 to 40 people.
When asked if he had a favorite of what he makes, he said it had to be by type. He loves the country-style bread, the bacon fougasse, and the plain croissant and other items that would take too much space to name.
So don’t think that the Cape has only rustic, Yankee food to offer. The Cape has an eclectic cuisine that will appeal to everyone.