Local Flavor

It is 8 a.m. on a cool summer Monday. Executive chef Stacey DiPlacido-Guokas is in the quiet kitchen of Caribou Caf�. She makes herself a cup of tea, carefully checks the contents of the walk-in box and arranges her mis-en-place table. The long, gleaming stainless-steel table is fitted with numerous compartments that she fills with ingredients.

DiPlacido-Goukas notices a case of fresh, spicy arugula and creamy brie sitting in the cool walk-in box. Within minutes, she comes up with the day’s salad special: arugula with warm brie topped with crisp grated Yukon gold potatoes. The pi�ce de r�sistance? A vinaigrette made with port wine.

"I love to use port in recipes," said the 28-year-old chef, a South Philadelphia native. "I especially like to pair it with foie gras."

DiPlacido-Guokas and I recently met for an early lunch at Caribou Caf�, 1126 Walnut St. I awarded her delicious cuisine three toques when I reviewed the restaurant more than four years ago. She also received three toques when she was executive chef at Pigalle, a now-shuttered restaurant in Northern Liberties. Much has taken place in her life, both personally and professionally, since I savored that al fresco dinner at Caribou Caf�.

Last September, DiPlacido-Guokas married Matty Guokas, son of former Sixers coach Matt Guokas. Although her husband is 6-foot-8, he opted for the mortgage business, not basketball. They look forward to moving into their Girard Estate home in October.

DiPlacido-Guokas and I settled into a comfortable booth. Caribou Caf� is owned by Olivier de Saint Martin, a charming and very talented French chef I met more than 10 years ago. He hired DiPlacido-Guokas to be the restaurant’s luncheon chef, which was right up her culinary alley. She was a newlywed and did not want to work nights.

"It feels so weird actually sitting here and eating lunch," said DiPlacido-Guokas. "I am so used to cooking in the kitchen."

I wanted to try the onion soup. We shared the salad special, the macaroni gratin and a classic croque monsieur, the French version of a grilled-cheese sandwich.

DiPlacido-Guokas was born and raised in South Philadelphia. She graduated from St. Maria Goretti High School in 1993 and went on to study liberal arts at Community College of Philadelphia. While attending classes, she worked as a receptionist in a doctor’s office on South Broad Street.

"I hated it," she recalled. "One day I said to myself, ‘I’m going to apply to The Restaurant School.’ My family was in the restaurant business. My father owned Mr. Panz, a panzarotti place at 21st and Snyder. Everyone worked in the store and they didn’t want me to go to culinary school. One day I just said, ‘I’m going.’"

Although she honed her skills at school, DiPlacido-Guokas truly learned the art of cucina at her grandmother’s knee.

"My grandmom Rose Marie, my father’s mother, is now 73 and is still a great cook," she said.

DiPlacido-Guokas also learned to cook from her mother, who died when she was only 13.

"My mother, Anna Marie, made the best chicken cutlets on the planet," the chef said. "I still watch my grandmom make gravy. I go home and make my own. I taste it and it is never like hers. I keep saying, ‘What did she do to it? She’s holding something back.’"

DiPlacido-Guokas graduated from The Restaurant School in 1996. A trip to France was part of the curriculum. It changed her life forever.

"We traveled by bus all through France, through the countrysides," she recalled. "Then we arrived in Paris. I adored it. I cried on the plane all the way home."

The onion soup arrives and I dig in. It is a brilliant concoction of homemade stock brimming with rich caramelized onions, with a slice of Metropolitan baguette that was topped with Gruy�re and popped into the oven. I had fun with the cheese, which I pulled like strands of spaghetti.

"There’s no dainty way to eat onion soup," DiPlacido-Guokas said with a smile.

The chef worked in some fine restaurants before really finding her niche as Caribou Caf�’s luncheon chef. She worked at Philadelphia Fish & Co.; Frangellica’s, which is now the delightful Sal’s on 12th Street; with Tony Clarke when he headed up the Rittenhouse Sheraton; Striped Bass and then on to Caribou Caf� in 2000. She stayed a year, went to Pigalle and then came back. She also gives cooking classes at the Williams-Sonoma cookware shop in the Hyatt at the Bellevue at Broad and Walnut.

Although she cooks French fare, which she admits is her favorite, DiPlacido-Guokas is 100-percent Italian. She loves to make chicken cutlets and meatballs.

"I like to eat meatballs with a salad, not on top of spaghetti," she said as she sipped from her water pitcher. "The secret is to use lots and lots and lots of freshly grated Locatelli. It gives the meatballs a terrific flavor. Parmigiano-Reggiano is too expensive to use in meatballs. I cook my meatballs in gravy."

The salad special arrives and although DiPlacido-Guokas admits she’s not a big fan of arugula, I am. The spicy greens were enhanced by the creamy, slightly runny brie. A grated potato latke sat on top of the greens. The port vinaigrette was uncommonly good.

The croque monsieur took me straight back to Paris. It is more than just a grilled ham and cheese sandwich served on two slices of brioche.

"Olivier showed me how to make it," said DiPlacido-Guokas. "His secret is to place some Gruy�re with cream in a blender and puree it. He then spreads this mixture on the outside of the brioche. The sandwich is ready and goes into the oven, the mixture melts and is nice and creamy." The French fries that came with the sandwich were crisp and piping hot.

Next up was the gratin of the day. "We only use Italian macaroni for the gratin," she said. The French-style macaroni and cheese was prepared with Gruy�re, saut�ed mushrooms, bits of tomato and truffle oil. More than half was toted home for dinner. It was outrageously delicious.

DiPlacido-Guokas has her lunch regulars, many of whom hold subscription tickets for the Thursday matinees at the Walnut Street Theatre.

"They love quiche," she said. "They always ask if it is fluffy. On matinee Thursday, I know to roll out enough dough for at least four big quiches. We serve a salad with quiche."

I looked around the packed restaurant and noticed patrons tucking into big burgers with salad or fries, mussels with fries and the famous French grilled ham and cheese. Ironically, no one was lunching on quiche Lorraine.

"Although I love breakfast, I never cook it at home," said DiPlacido-Guokas. "Matty scrambles eggs, cooks the bacon or sausages.

"I think the reason I don’t like to cook breakfast is because there’s too many pans, pots and utensils to wash," she added with a smile.

Not only has DiPlacido-Guokas come full circle to Caribou Caf�, she has come full circle to South Philadelphia. She and Guokas are renting an apartment in Northern Liberties until they move to their new place in Girard Estate.

"I love the house," she said. "I always wanted to own a home in South Philadelphia."