Oystercatcher owner runs ‘best kep secret’

By CHRISTINA HARPER

Herald Writer

Sometimes between chopping and slicing, baking and basting, chef Susan Vanderbeek can take a quick peek over the rim of her glasses and catch a glimpse of the farm where she lives.

Her Coupeville restaurant window frames a velvety green hill sprinkled with cows and farmhouses across a bay.

But before long, Vanderbeek is checking the oven and four burners in the kitchen of the Oystercatcher, which Whidbey Islanders call one of its best kept secrets.

"I waited a long time to open a restaurant here," Vanderbeek, 59, said. "I’ve been wonderfully surprised."

The small kitchen where Vanderbeek concocts her dishes is tucked next to the dining area that holds no more than two dozen patrons.

Vanderbeek finds it easier to control a small place. She can see all the tables from the kitchen.

Regulars customers at the Oystercatcher are a lucky few who get the menu mailed to them when it changes every three weeks.

"Often people know each other and talk between tables," she said.

Others don’t even know the two-year-old restaurant exists.

Vanderbeek’s roots are deep-seated in the Puget Sound area. Her mother’s grandfather was an early Snohomish County sheriff and her grandfather bought the land she lives on in 1910.

Vanderbeek grew up outside Portland, Ore., and lived there while she raised two boys.

She moved back to Whidbey Island about 10 years ago.

Her mother and grandmother taught her to create a color-balanced plate. Other relatives hunted and picked berries to use in the kitchen.

"I still remember the best meal I ever had in my life," Vanderbeek said with a smile.

She was 5 years old and travelling with her father along Lake Michigan. They stopped to get something to eat and it turned out to be a feast she would never forget: fresh Bing cherries, freshwater shrimp and Hi Ho crackers.

Vanderbeek started out on a science track when she was in college, then began her career in cooking making pastries in a French restaurant.

"It’s pretty solitary work," Vanderbeek said.

At the Oystercatcher, the staff includes another cook and great high school kids, Vanderbeek said.

"The most important thing about a restaurant is a good dishwasher," Vanderbeek said.

Ingredients are also key, and Vanderbeek likes to buy the best, such as fresh fish, and do the least to it.

During her off time, Vanderbeek hikes, sews or takes her mother on drives to the beach. She also likes to read.

"I was created for all those people who love to write," she said.

Although cooking allows creativity, she doesn’t think of herself as a creative person. She does, however, liken her profession as a chef to that of a friend who is a composer.

"I say we do exactly the same thing," she said. "Put things together."

Her restaurant: The Oystercatcher, 901 Grace St., Coupeville; 360-678-0683.

Favorite food: "Whatever I haven’t last eaten," Vanderbeek said.

Favorite kitchen tool: Heat resistant rubber spatulas.

Favorite cookbook or chef: Madeleine Kamman, as interesting to read as to cook from.

Chef’s tip: Learn to pan roast poultry in a nonstick pan: Start with the skin side down in a cold pan and bring up the heat. Renders fat, crisps skin, and you don’t need any oil.

Cookies from Old Country

Susan Vanderbeek shared this old family recipe.

Speculaasjes (Windmill Cookies)

11/2 cups unsifted flour

1/2teaspoon baking powder

1/2teaspoon nutmeg

2teaspoons cinnamon

1teaspoon cloves

1/8teaspoon salt

1/4cup almonds, blanched and ground

1/4cup almonds, sliced, for decoration

1cup brown sugar