Touch of Gray - August 2005

"A Touch of Grey" Bailey, new Chef de Cuisine at Carolina Meadows

A Touch of Grey" Bailey, new Chef de Cuisine at Carolina Meadows
   Standing behind the carving station in Carolina Meadows’ dining room, Grey Bailey, 40, 6’4” in his white chef’s jacket with red and green trimmed collar, commands attention as the new Chef de Cuisine. Mark Maxwell, Dining Services Director, defines this title as, “The chef responsible for all Club Center kitchen operations including ordering, supervision of all stations and development of menu items. Bailey is part of our team challenged by a well-traveled, educated, sophisticated audience of seniors, from both North and South. Residents consider their dining room the most important venue at Carolina Meadows.”

   After years of experience abroad, and in culinary centers in the US, Bailey has returned to his native Chapel Hill. Born while his parents were students at Carolina, his first home was in the then new, Glen Lennox apartments. His mother, Elizabeth Bailey, received her doctorate in English, his father a B.S. in economics. They both served on the Daily Tar Heel as professional staff.

   “When I was 8, I discovered my mother’s cookbooks on the shelf right at my eye level. I’ve been interested in food ever since. My mother was Advertising Manager of the Chapel Hill News in the 70’s. If I criticized her quick macaroni and cheese, she would tell me to fix it myself.” He did. Later he learned that in Victorian times, macaroni and cheese was discovered from its Italian immigrant origin and considered quite the rage on fashionable New York tables.

   At age 12, Bailey’s parents moved back to Tarboro where they completely restored their original 250-year-old family homestead. His grandfather and great grandfather were mayors of Tarboro. He chose to live with his grandmother who also lived in Tarboro. His favorite dish there was cheese soufflé’ which he kept changing and suggesting ways to refine.

   His grandmother talked him into going to college. At UNC Greensboro, Bailey helped pay his way by working at the popular Liberty Oak restaurant, starting as a sandwich maker and ending up a chef two years later. He changed his major from Broadcast Cinema to Nutrition. “I was particularly interested in culinary sociology, history, regional influences and why people eat what they do.” Although accepted for graduated studies at the Culinary Institute, Hyde Park, NY and Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island, he chose New England Culinary Institute in Montpellier. “It stressed hands-on originality, imagination, smaller classes, harder grading and targeting a restaurant audience rather than a chain motel operation,” said Bailey.

   Jump starting his culinary career, Bailey did restaurant internships as far a field as the isle of Bali to Biba’s in Boston under celebrity chef Lydia Shire. There he won a Best of Boston Award in the bar food category. He recalled the time, “A newly hired woman accidentally upset a tank of full live baby glass eels in the walk-in freezer. The whole staff scurried to recover the slippery, wriggly mass before cooking it in hot garlic oil. Events like that could end a career before it started,” laughed Bailey.

   Torn between European and Asian cooking, from 1991-93, he learned southwestern cuisine at the Santa Fe Coyote Café under star chef Mark Miller. Then, while at the Calypso Grill, Boulder, Colorado, Bailey won a grand prize in Sheer Chocolate Artistry for his copy of the Taos Pueblo at the largest chocolate festival in the Rockies.

   For his international cuisine experience, he served as sous chef at London’s La Patisserie de St. Quentin where he received write-ups and awards for his specialty cakes and croissants. From 1994-96, along with the explosive popularity of oriental cooking, Grey moved to Maui, Hawaii, where he was the executive sous chef at David Paul’s Lahaina Grill. He appeared several times on Japanese TV and once on the “Great Chefs of Hawaii” TV show. Returning to the US, he fine-tuned his expertise as sous chef at an authentic Szechwan Chinese restaurant in Vermont and a gourmet sushi bar in Chicago.

   Married two years ago, Grey and his wife, Carli Webb, decided the time had come to return to North Carolina to start raising a family. She works in administration at UNC’s Playmaker Theater. When asked, “who does the cooking at home?” Bailey replied, “we take turns depending on who’s day off it is.” His personal favorites are roast chicken and asparagus. “I like to experiment with seasonings and to prepare ahead.” Their apartment reflects his interest in and attraction to oriental cuisine.

   Bailey’s favorite TV show is Hell’s Kitchen. “The program is very funny, emphasizing the arrogance of a celebrity chef and the unrealistic attitudes of new culinary graduates. In real life you have to market yourself, but you first have to prove your ability through experience. I want to be a hands-on chef catering to a restaurant size clientele who appreciate the exotic in a familiar vehicle. Variety, imagination, and even experimentation are important,” said Bailey.

   Regarding his desire to enhance basic dishes, Bailey referred to a familiar quote of his father’s, “Run it up the flag pole and see if anyone salutes.” Amidst applause from residents, Bailey has already found his niche at Carolina Meadows. -- Dick Ballard, Resident

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