For Leesburg Chef, Food Keeps Alive Familiar Traditions

Executive chef Patrick Dinh, right, oversees Tuscarora Mill's kitchen as Anthony Munoz, left, cooks. (Courtesy Of Sydney Wilmer)

It is part of what keeps us rooted to who we are. This is a facet that doesn't exist as much in American culture. In Europe, there is the family table. It is something that is really important.

What does food mean to you and your family today?

My wife is an Anglo. She didn't grow up in the food culture I did. When I cook, I try to convey who I am through my food. It thrills me to no end when my children can enjoy that food in that way.

One dish, pho -- it is one of my daughter's most favorite foods in the world. I would like to see her cook that in the traditional manner one day. Not anytime soon, but when she is like 24. It would be something she could fall back on, a way to feed yourself well and cheaply that reminds you of where you come from.

Some dishes, flavors, tastes and scents are big memory stimulators. If I smell a spaghetti sauce that has fennel sausage stewing in it, I see my dad and it is stone cold outside. Steam is dripping down the window. I remember the scene completely. These are little memory snaps that stay with you.

What is your favorite dish to prepare and why?

My favorite things right now -- I love big braises. It is a transformation of a lowly meat that can become wonderful after several hours of cooking. It is very rewarding.

I also love making ice cream. I probably don't do it enough. You take this sweet creamy liquid, then you freeze it through this process, and it is better than anything you can get in a store.

Cooking is all about mood. What are you in the mood for? What are you having a hankering for?

If you could name your biggest culinary influences -- people, places or things -- what would they be?

Here, I work for Kevin Malone. He has taught me to cook for the audience here. He has a much more classical sense of food and the cooking technique. I learned most of my technique from Jeremiah Tower 19 years ago.

I love what I see on TV, too. Mario Batali -- his food is almost exactly the kind of food I'd like to cook on a regular basis. It is simple. It emphasizes certain flavors. It is well thought-out food without being particularly fussy.