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Chef/Owner—Bruce Tillinghast
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THE CHEFChef and owner Bruce Tillinghast, brings together a diverse range of culinary and life experience that results in his inventive, multicultural cuisine. His menu draws not only on his art history background and training in provincial French and regional Italian cooking, but also on a lifelong fascination with the tastes and flavors of the world. The result, along with the support of fresh local and organic ingredients, and some fine international wines, makes for a dining experience that is both exciting and satisfying, lively and unusual. |
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The History of NEW RIVERSWhen Bruce Tillinghast and his wife, Pat, first decided to open a restaurant, they envisioned themselves as owners, not at the front lines of the kitchen. Quite simply, they wanted just enough training as cooks so that they would know what to do when the chef walked out the back door. “We knew this was a treacherous business,” recalls Bruce, “and we needed to learn everything we could about it.” In pursuit of damage control skills, they landed in the kitchen of renowned French chef Madeleine Kamman, who was completing her final year at her Newton–based culinary school. Bruce’s graphic design background at RISD, and as an art teacher in the Providence public schools, proved the perfect training ground for launching a cooking career. “We had to read literature and philosophy and listen to music, all from a specific time period. The food piece just sort of fit in,” he says. He credits his art background for the ease with which he can imagine how flavors blend. “I tend to treat tastes the same way I treat color. It’s easy for me to put colors together mentally, and it was an easy transition to flavor. It’s a terrible pun, but it’s just a change of palettes.” 
At the urging of close friends George Germon and Johanne Killeen, owners of Al Forno restaurant, Bruce and Pat opened their Steeple Street location at the site of the old Al Forno in 1990. “Feet first,” is how Bruce describes the experience. But though the restaurant was embraced eagerly, the Providence eating public approached the unusual international menu with some caution. “At first we were the only Providence restaurateurs who were promoting multicultural cuisine,” says Bruce. “Thirteen years ago eating habits were very different. People couldn’t deal with the fact that they could come in and sit down and get something off the same menu that was Asian and also Italian. It was happening in other larger cities, but it was new for Providence. When people called to find out what kind of food we served, we couldn’t say French or Italian. Eclectic said nothing. Multicultural became our catch word.” These days customers not only welcome, but also expect, the exciting range of ethnic flavors that appear regularly on New Rivers’ seasonally changing menu. “I like to look at food globally,” says Bruce. “I haven’t had the opportunity to travel to a lot of these places. But I do have a sense of their cultures, just from having observed what the art is like, and that translates into the food. For instance, in Southeast Asia, they’ll take sweet and sour, salty, hot and put them all together and make it work, just like those elaborate, multi-tiered gold headdresses encrusted with precious stones and jewels.” Whether it’s Prince Edward mussels from Boston, fish from New Bedford, or “the best mâche outside of France,” (from Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton, Rhode Island, just one of their local purveyors), the emphasis on fresh, local and organic ingredients brought together in imaginative ways is what entices diners back to New Rivers again and again. Bruce notes how frequently customers comment on how clean tasting the food is. “We don’t use a lot of butter and cream in our cooking,” he explains. “There’s excitement in terms of flavor which comes from herbs and other ingredients. But guests don’t feel as though they’ve rolled out of here. We save the butter and cream for the dessert. Not that there aren’t dishes that are heart stoppers.” It’s not only the food—and the extensive and adventurous wine list—that entices customers and has won the regard of critics nationwide. As doyenne of the “front of the house,” Bruce’s late wife, Pat, established a standard of warmth, grace and beauty that Bruce has worked hard to maintain since her death in December 1999. While he has grown to enjoy the more social “front of the house” demands, they do take him away from the stove. In order to maintain both control of the kitchen, and his own creative edge, he goes to unusual lengths to train a dedicated kitchen staff to meet his meticulous standards. Educating his wait staff about the wine they are serving is just as important to Bruce as teaching them about the food. “I encourage my staff to interact with the customer if they have questions, to be knowledgeable about what they’re serving. They have their personal likes and dislikes, and can make recommendations based on that.” For Bruce, wine is not so much a stand-alone art, as a vital part of a very personal dining experience. “I’m all for people drinking what they’re comfortable drinking. If they’re having a piece of fish and they like big red wines, then there’s no reason not to have a big red wine with their fish if that makes them happy.” As for the future, Bruce realizes that expansion is probably inevitable, but he’s committed to doing what he can to stay at the Steeple Street location, which his customers love. For a man who goes his own way in the kitchen, his commitment to a loyal public is important. “When Pat died, I wasn’t sure what the future held. But we built this business together, and I realized that we had a really solid footing in the restaurant community in the city of Providence. People come here for specific things, and it gives me a really good feeling to hold on to that.” |
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copyright © 2002 Bruce Tillinghast |