Kodiak -- Martine and Joel Chenet scoff at the idea of living in France again. Why, they argue while sitting at a wooden table in their Kodiak Island coffeehouse, would they want to live anywhere else?
"We have traveled and lived in different countries and different cities," said Martine, her romantic Parisan accent lilting in all the right places. "We cannot see ourselves going somewhere else. Here, you don't have to lock your car. You don't have to worry."
The Chenets, he born in Tours, France, she in Paris, have been running Kodiak's popular Mill Bay Coffee for three years. He's the creator of fine pastries and inventive meals. She is the organizer and overall planner of special events. A third partner and close friend, Michael Duxbury, is the coffee specialist and roastmaster.
Now, Joel Chenet is not just any French guy wandering the wilds in search of adventure. He is known. He has been described in various national food publications as "illustrious," "renowned" and "incredible."
Born into a family of restaurateurs, Chenet graduated first in his class at the three-star Hotel Metropole, and was named best young chef of France in 1967. He has worked at four-star hotels in France, Switzerland, Madagascar and England. He came to the United States in 1975, when the president of France selected him to run all parties at the French consulate in New York City. (Incidentally, it was in New York that Joel and Martine met. They fell in love immediately. "I joke that if I had stayed in France, I would have married an American," Martine said with a sly grin.) Chenet later worked in Vermont and Buffalo, N.Y., before finally heading to Alaska.
Why Kodiak?
Let's be honest, this is Kodiak. People spend more time in their Xtra Tuffs than in black ties and gowns. It's not exactly the center of culture to which Joel was accustomed. Here is a guy who once fashioned a life-sized replica of Elvis Presley's guitar, all in cake and frosting and marzipan, for a pleasantly stunned customer. Another time, he created a perfect cake-replica of a woman's shoe. And then there was the giant stallion, crafted with 70 pounds of Belgium's finest chocolate, to honor a wedding-day bride who was an expert at dressage. Or the wedding cake he once designed, using finely spun sugar, to re-create an exact lace pattern to match the bride's dress.
The guy's been honored dozens of times. He has at least 24 gold medals from culinary competitions, most of them in his specialty of confections. He has an overflowing scrapbook with photos of his work, interspersed with sincere-sounding thank-you notes from dignitaries, customers and brides, all gushing over his work.
"When I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist," Joel said. "But my parents said, 'No, you're going to get a job first.' "
So he did. Through his work in the culinary field he created edible art -- wedding cakes, sculptures made of foodstuffs, hand-blown sugar flowers made with perfectly blended and heated sugar. He's been known to create 1,000 flowers for just one project.
Eye-catching desserts and pastries
Which brings us back to Mill Bay Coffee, where Joel stays busy inventing desserts and pastries as tasty as they are eye-catching. The glass display case holds golden chocolate eclairs, a salmonberry mousse cake stacked three layers high and dotted with berries. A brick-sized chunky-looking cranberry-marionberry coffee cake. And an apple pie that really doesn't look like a pie at all. It is a huge mound of sliced fruit stacked about 8 inches high in a round pan then covered in a lumpy buttery-browned crust that gives the pie an old-style heartiness.
"He likes to work with the berries," Martine says, obvious pride in her voice even after nearly 30 years together. "It gives a local flavor to some of the things he likes to make."
Coffee known around the world
The coffee, deliciously rich, creamy smooth, light or aromatic, is just as impressive. Duxbury, who apprenticed under Joel some 25 years ago while working in Vermont, purchases the coffee from such places as Colombia, Mexico, Hawaii and Ethiopia. It is shipped to the store, where it is then air-roasted and blended into more than 25 varieties, some organic, some not. Islanders love it, and it sells quickly. Mill Bay goes through about a ton of it every three months, if you include the amount that gets shipped to locations worldwide via the shop's online store (www.millbaycoffee.com). Each batch is roasted in 12-pound increments so it is always fresh.
Experimenting with breakfast
The Chenets recently began serving breakfast and lunch at the coffeehouse, featuring local seafood, eggs from free-range hens and fresh vegetables. The demand is there, and Joel likes to experiment. A few weeks ago, he was watching "The Iron Chef" on cable television. The challenge for the chefs had something to do with chocolate and seafood, which got Joel to thinking.
"Next thing you know, he's making chocolate sauce and putting it with salmon," Martine said.
"But it was really good," Joel said, defending himself.
"It was," Martine agreed. "That's what Joel likes to do. He makes everything taste good."
A permanent home
Mill Bay also caters special events, fund-raisers and auctions off its services to raise money for local charity organizations. Joel and Martine are currently trying to come up with new ways to market salmon and held a "Celebrate Kodiak Salmon" food tasting this month. Joel developed five salmon dishes that he hopes will spur the seafood marketing industry to increase its efforts at showcasing Kodiak salmon.
To him, it is not only an artistic challenge but a way to give back to the community that he has grown to love, the place he and Martine intend to call home for the rest of their lives.
Review IF YOU GO: Mill Bay Coffee, 1-907-486-4411, 3833 Rezanof Drive in Kodiak, is open 6:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed holidays.
NEXT WEEK IN OFF THE MENU: Sackett's Kenai Grill in Cooper Landing
If you have a restaurant tip, a new menu or want to know more about an establishment, call or fax Melissa DeVaughn at 694-8912, send e-mails to hall@alaska.net -- be sure to put OFF THE MENU in the header field -- or send a note to Off the Menu, Anchorage Daily News, P.O. Box 149001, Anchorage 99514.
