Laurence Faber on Inspiration and Memory
EHC: Tell me a little about how your background and how it continues to influence your approach to food?
LF: I began cooking and taking food seriously at a young age, around 14, but never worked in a professional kitchen until halfway through college. I was a French and Business major in college, so I spent a lot of time learning about France and using every excuse to talk about French food when having to do school projects or papers. My final thesis was even about the legacy of the great French Female Chefs. I worked in a French restaurant for about 8 months before I studied abroad and lived in Bordeaux. There I really gained an affection for food and wine. When I came home I decided to start taking cooking professionally seriously and applied at Blackberry Farm. It was eight years of continuous learning and creative output that I could not imagine spending anywhere else. I was able to cook with some of the best chefs in the entire world and show them all our unique products to East Tennessee. Blackberry taught me to tell a story through food and when I left, I wondered what my story was. I decided to dive deeper into my own personal story and learn more about my Jewish heritage. As we build our second restaurant, which will take a deeper dive into Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine than Potchke, it's easy to see that the story we want to tell is just beginning.
EHC: Where does inspiration find you?
LF: My main sources of inspiration are cookbooks and traveling. For cookbooks, I love researching old Jewish cookbooks and recently found an interesting book in French from 1920. In the book, the author describes walking through the Pletzl, or Jewish Quarter, in Paris and the menus of various restaurants he is eating at. Nowadays, Emily and I also find ourselves strolling through the Pletzl tasting all the Ashkenazi Jewish specialties that we can find. What I love most about Paris is how you can have similar experiences 100 years apart, but also taste the most cutting-edge cooking that exists.
EHC: What does Autumn taste like to you?
LF: If I'm eating, Autumn is roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, oeuf mayonnaise, crusty bread, and a bottle of white Burgundy. If I'm cooking, Autumn is making a bowl of potato vareniki with smetana and dill on the first really cold day there is with a slightly oxidized Jura wine. Something about comforting food with crisp white wine makes me really excited.
Two Autumns ago, Emily and I visited Ukraine and spent a month in Odesa in October. In Autumn you can still dine outside and in Odessa, most restaurants provide you with a blanket. So yes, I have a very fond memory of Emily and I toasting shots of chilled horseradish vodka, eating caviar, gefilte fish, and potato vareniki at Restaurant Dacha in Odessa while each getting to snuggle in a thick wool blanket. We sat there for hours and really cherished the moment.
EHC: We are so thrilled to welcome you home for our next dinner series event - is there a particular dish you’re excited about putting on the table?
LF: My menu for the Etowah Dinner Series is a compilation of all of my favorite things to cook. We will be cooking some truly authentic Ukrainian food, some French-influenced Jewish dishes, and one dish inspired by my time at Blackberry Farm. Since I have never had the privilege of cooking for my friends and family in Memphis, I really wanted to show them everything I've learned. Our first course will be a play on Tartare without using meat because in Judaism eating raw meat is strictly prohibited. So we will be using a vegetable in place of the beef, but it will be just as satisfying as beef (if not more) because of a really cool technique we are using.
About Laurence Faber:
Born in Memphis, Laurence Faber is the chef and owner of Potchke Deli in Knoxville, TN. Laurence began his cooking career at Dancing Bear Lodge and then at Blackberry Farm, where he worked as a savory Sous Chef and then as the Executive Pastry Chef of The Barn at Blackberry Farm. With his fiancé Emily Williams, the two currently run one of the few Jewish Delis in the state of Tennessee
After eight years with the Blackberry family, Laurence joined Emily with her home bakery business, Lesser Babka, which gained a cult following in Knoxville. Following a series of popups, Laurence and Emily traveled to Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia in 2021 on a research trip to understand the culinary traditions of the region and connect with the Jewish heritage of his family. After returning stateside, Laurence and Emily began working on their forthcoming project to be announced this year. Meanwhile, Potchke, which opened as a 1-year culinary residency in the historic Regas Building of Knoxville has experienced growth from a residency to a permanent fixture in downtown Knoxville’s culinary scene.
Currently, Laurence and Emily are finalizing their dinner concept and plan to begin construction soon.