Summer Dishin’
Photos by Richard L Marks
Shown is Seafood Fra Diavlo featured at Montauk Seafood Grill located in Lionshead.
In the spirit of fine summer dining, out on the deck or on the patio, we asked five top local chefs to share ideas, and recipes, for menu items that are simple to make at home with easy-to-find ingredients.
To make sure their suggestions are within the realm of possibility for us mere cooking mortals — i.e., they don’t require an industrial kitchen or a diploma from some international cooking school — we closely watched our chosen quintet in the back galleys of their respective establishments. 
The resulting, irresistible aromas, rich textures and delectable flavors — all relatively simple to recreate at home — truly do exude the freshness and healthiness of a Colorado summer.
MONTAUK SEAFOOD GRILL
Seafood Fra Diavlo
Chef Dimitri Souvorin, co-owner and kitchen manager at Lionshead’s Montauk Seafood Grill, Vail Valley’s venerable go-to place for seafood. As such, he’s well aware of what works in summer.
His favorite summer style is diabolical: fra Diavlo and, in this case “Seafood fra Diavlo.” “Fra Diavlo, which means ‘from the Devil,’ is exciting, refreshing, light and invigorating.
There are no dairy products or fat, except for the olive oil and other naturally occurring oils in the seafood itself, which are good for you, anyway,” explains Souvorin, a lifelong cook who, with his partner, Tom Ludwig, bought Montauk from their boss and then-owner, Gary Boris, five years ago.
“The technique is a variation of a dish common to just about every country in the Mediterranean,” he explains. “The Italians, of course, do it better than anyone else.”
The “backbone” of fra Diavlo is the oil blend, in which the seafood is sautéed. Souvorin discovered the technique working alongside Lebanese kitchen workers cooking Greek food. Oil blends are paramount to preparing great seafood in this classic Italian style, he notes.
While Souvorin’s “Shellfish fra Diavlo” is devilishly easy, Souvorin suggests preparing the oil blend at least two days ahead of time. “It gives the flavors a chance to marry,” he explains. “Once the oil absorbs all the flavors, it really adds to the well-roundedness of the fra Diavlo.”
Whipped up altogether in a big frying pan, the shellfish is spooned over your favorite pasta and served on a large plate.
Wine? Souvorin suggests a juicy red, like the 2007 Francis Coppola Diamond Collection Monterey County pinot noir. More comfortable with white? Try the 2007 Tangent Edna Valley sauvignon blanc.
SAPPHIRE RESTAURANT & OYSTER BAR
Shrimp Salad with Avocado Sauce and Oranges
Summer and fresh light foods are meant for each other. Chef Peter Millette at Vail Village's Sapphire Restaurant and Oyster Bar plans his summer menus with this in mind and has created an inviting new dish just for this article.
“Shrimp Salad with Avocado Sauce and Oranges,” can be served as a scrumptious appetizer or a main course. At its heart is a tempting avocado sauce, easily prepared in a food processor.
When ready, the sauce is spread on a plate and topped with a bed of your favorite mixed greens, such as fresh spinach or mache, a nutty French salad green.
A Middle Eastern classic, couscous is easily prepared as directed on the package. After chilling, add diced red onion, red pepper and cucumber, lemon juice and lemon zest, some olive oil and a smidge of salt — and mix together.
Place the couscous with pine nuts on top of the greens with a mold.
A small cup can be used for the mold.
The shrimp should be precooked and is most easily served without the tails. Don't forget the explosively flavorful garnishes of cherry tomatoes and mandarin oranges.
For texture and presentation, top the salad with a sprinkle of pine nuts and a few long, thin, wavy drips of olive oil.
“It’s vibrant, colorful and fresh,” says Millette. “It's healthy. There's very little fat other than the olive oil and crème fraiche.”
This dish also offers many options. Plain yogurt or sour cream can be substituted for the crème fraiche; other grains, quinoa or bulgar wheat or even steamed rice can take the place of the couscous; and fresh scallops or lobster work well in the absence of shrimp.
Wine? The chef suggests the 2005 Treana Viognier/Marsanne, a blend of grapes from the Central California Coast. Or why not a Champagne, like a Billecart Salmon Brut?
Millette's culinary qualifications are impressive. His formal training at Western Culinary Institute focused on continental and classic French cuisine.
The featured chef at the 1999 Taste of Vail festival, his experiences also include previous positions at the Riverplace Alexis Hotel in Portland, Denver's Oxford Hotel, and Vail Village's Sweet Basil.
Millette, who has been part of Sapphire for 14 years, believes maintaining a balance between tradition and innovation, mingling classical technique with ethnic and culinary diversity. As a result, Sapphire Restaurant's food is simple, fresh and elegant.
RISTORANTE TIAMO
Piccata di Salmone
Chef Fernando Ocampo of Eagle-Vail’s Ristorante TiAmo is an advocate for in-season summer seafood as integral components of his creations.
Among these culinary delights is the inspired “Piccata di Salmone,” a breaded salmon cooked in the namesake Italian style that teams the flavors of lemon, capers and white wine. 
Picatta is mainly a method for cooking other fish typically found in Italy, such as sea bass and swordfish, or fine meats, such as veal.
The picatta technique with salmon, however, is unique to TiAmo, Ocampo says, and something to behold.
Exquisite and simple, perhaps most time-consuming is preparing the egg and chopped parsley mixture.
Total time in the pan is less than five minutes. The fish should be served with plenty of the hot piccata mixture over your favorite pasta.
“Just don’t overcook the fish,” says the chef. For some “extra love,” he insists on using not just any piece of salmon, but fresh, copper-colored filets of fish from Alaska’s Copper River.
“This is the best salmon in the world,” Ocampo asserts. While TiAmo gets theirs flown in daily, it’s typically available at farmers markets or upon request at fish counters in major local supermarkets.
“The filets are huge, the flavor is amazing,” says Ocampo. “When I taste this, I can just imagine being outside in the summer, in the mountains, catching these impressive fish.”
Wine? Owner Steve Negler and Ocampo suggest a tasty Italian pinot grigio, such as the 2007 vintage by Marco Felluga.
Ocampo came to the United States 12 years ago from his home in Buena Vista de Cuellar, in the coastal mountains of Guerrero between Acapulco and Mexico City.
After briefs stints in Chicago and California, where he worked for two months in a Mexican restaurant, Ocampo came to Colorado in 1996 seeking work.
He applied for a job at TiAmo as a line cook and worked his way up to chef, learning how to cook Italian food along the way.
“I know Mexican food, too, but my life, my love, is making Italian food,” he says.
Negler, who later bought TiAmo from its original owner, Vicenco Perucchini, praises his Mexican chef. “My goal is to keep Fernando happy,” Negler says.
VIN 48
Mushroom Moussaka
Vin48 Restaurant and Wine Bar’s Chef Charles Hays has devised a new twist on lasagna for vegetarians.
Instead of using heavy pasta for his “Mushroom Moussaka,” Hays lathers his savory ragu between layers of thinly sliced eggplant and potatoes.
“It’s definitely not complicated at all — a great summer dish for the patio,” says the chef.
“The addition of cumin, paprika and turmeric gives it a classic Mediterranean flavor, and it’s very healthy.”
To take away the bitterness in eggplant, make sure to peel the skin before slicing and salt it lightly. And take care in cooking down the mushroom mixture.
“You don’t want it too watery,” says Hays.
Unlike the other summer dishes featured elsewhere in this article, Mushroom Moussaka requires some oven time.
It should be baked covered at 350 degrees for approximately 50 minutes or until the potatoes offer no resistance to a knife.
For easy serving, make sure to let it cool — perhaps even putting it in the refrigerator overnight — before reheating.
For extra pizzazz, Hays plates his creation on a thin pour of spicy tomato sauce, topping it all with a creamy béchamel (“one of cooking’s five basic sauces”), a sprinkle of oregano and a generous drip of olive oil.
This moussaka truly is vegetarian; without the béchamel, even vegans will find it delightful.
Wine? Hays suggests something “rustic and red” from Italy’s Trentino region, like Foradori’s 2006 Teraldego Rotaliano.
Chef Hays has lived the Vail version of the American Dream. He began his career “peeling garlic” at The Lodge at Vail, working his way up the ladder at the hotel’s Wildflower and Cucina Rustica restaurants, with brief forays to Italy, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Following a stint at Toscanini’s in Beaver Creek, he took over the chef’s duties at VIN48.
8100 MOUNTAINSIDE BAR & GRILL
Marinated Elk Loin with Sage, Blackberry and Roasted Shallot Compote
Summer is not complete without firing up the grill, and Chef Reese Hay, at 8100 Mountainside Bar & Grill in the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa, has gotten grilling down to a science.
In fact, he cooks just about everything on the restaurant’s dinner menu — including a “Marinated Elk Loin with Sage, Blackberry and Roasted Shallot Compote” — on the enormous wood-fired grill in full view of everyone who visits.
“It’s quick and easy,” says Hay, whose career blossomed with the Hyatt Corporation after he finished his Le Cordon Bleu studies in Arizona at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and apprenticeship at Alchemy Restaurant at the nearby Copper Wynd Resort & Club.
Though this meal does come together quickly — the explosively flavorful compote takes a mere five minutes in a sauté pan — great care should be taken with the ingredients to make sure they are as fresh as possible.
For example, the Lombardi Brothers elk loin he prefers comes from Colorado elk farms; berries, shallots and other fresh foods come from local farmers markets “where you can walk down and find farmers selling it out of the back of their truck.”
And the herbs are homegrown, some “right outside the hotel.”
“This is a true Rocky Mountains dish,” according to Hay. “The elk already live here, and they like to eat the berries that grow here,”
The chef suggests marinating the loin in red wine, thyme and garlic for two days, then applying a spice rub on top of a little oil just before putting it on the grill. His spice rub is a custom blend — the Tarra-Cardamon Organic Blend — that he buys at the Edwards Farmers Market from Colorado spice blender Smith & Truslow.
After the spice rub, sear the elk loin to seal in the moisture, and then move it off the hottest part of the grill.
Because it has very little fat, elk grills differently than other meats, so be careful with it. “You don’t want to overcook it or it will be tough and chewy,” Hays advises. “And don’t undercook it either. That makes people nervous.”
Wine? This dish just cries out for something big like the 2004 Heitz Cellar Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon.
Simple enough? Here’s to an easy, flavor-filled summer. Cheers.
Stephen Lloyd Wood, a Vail Valley-based freelance writer, editor and media consultant, is a regular contributor to Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine. He typically can be found roaming the local mountains on one of his many bicycles, or pairs of skis, trying to burn off the calories he consumes researching stories like this one.
