For its 2012 Trailblazing Chef Awards, the editors of Cooking Light chose the winners in five categories: Culinary Preservation, Global Flavor, Small Town Chef, Healthy Cooking and Produce Innovation.
The winner of the sixth category, Neighborhood Chef, was chosen by Cooking Light readers across the country in two weeks of online voting last June.
PHOTO: Chef Greg Manning at the Serenity Cafe with his fiance and business partner, Jeannette Peschock. Photo courtesy Greg Manning.
Manning, 45, racked up more than 6,000 votes–25 percent of the total cast. More remarkable is that the Serenity Cafe, which opened just over a year ago, has built such a loyal and enthusiastic following in so short a time.
"This is all from my customers," he says. "That’s how great they are."
The winners were announced last Wednesday. Profiling Manning, Tim Cebula of Cooking Light wrote:
"His fans say what excites them the most about his food are the unlikely flavor combinations: duck with vanilla sauce, or Asian-flavored spring rolls with huckleberry-red wine reduction. “I love to experiment,” Manning says. “Crazy things go together, they just have to make sense in your mouth.”
Serenity regular and Toms River native Donny Sanders affirms the appeal: “He does things that are, for this area, really out in left field. He’s probably the most creative guy around.”
The Serenity saga sprouted last April when a customer nominated Manning for the award. At first he was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of national attention.
“I’m happiest within the four walls of my kitchen,” he says. But encouraged by his fiancé and business partner, Jeannette Peschock, 40, Manning threw his toque in the ring.
Crucial to the campaign was a customer email list of 3,500 names that Manning had compiled in various jobs over the years. At Serenity, he and Peschock reach out to fans once a week with menu and event news. They encouraged their supporters to vote.
“I didn’t think anything more about it," Manning says, "and then weeks later we received an email saying we were one of the top eight finalists."
On the last night of voting for the finalists, Manning and Peschock invited employees to a countdown party at their home. “Everybody had their phones out, watching the voting,” Manning says.
At one point they had 100 votes less than the leader, but when voting ended at midnight, their margin of victory was 500 votes.
“It was like election night!” Manning says.
After the winners were announced, Manning and Peschock threw a party at Serenity Cafe. More than 250 people came, about 90 of them Serenity customers.
"We went through about eight cases of wine," Manning says. "We had a cheese display and passed apps and wine and beer, and everything was on the house. It was a thank you for a great year."
Obviously high on the democratic process, the couple asked their guests to vote on the most memorable dishes of Serenity’s first year.
Top vote-getters included pan-seared duck with vanilla bean broth, parsnips and Swiss chard, and his grandmother’s bacon-wrapped meatloaf.
The runner-up, however, was…
Seafood Pot Pie: poached Maine lobster meat, shrimp and bay scallops with root vegetables in a cream-sherry-seafood broth sealed with puff pastry.
And the winner…
Veal Napolean: Two crisp potato pancakes layered with grilled veal, grilled tomatoes and brie topped with a Gorgonzola-dressed salad.
Manning calls his style “American Eclectic. I’m all over the map, all over the globe,” he says. He changes Serenity’s menu every three weeks to take advantage of the best fresh, local, seasonal ingredients.
Manning started his career at age 12, washing dishes at Romanelli’s restaurant in his hometown of Madison. Working after school and on weekends, he eventually moved on to more rewarding tasks.
After graduating from the French Culinary Institute in 1989, he worked at various restaurants in the Essex County area until 1998, when his friend and colleague Jeffrey Schneekloth hired him as chef d’cuisine of his Toms River restaurant, Jeffrey’s. When Jeffrey’s closed in 2003, Manning worked at country clubs and a deli before opening Serenity last year at the location once occupied by Jeffrey’s.
Owning his own restaurant "has been a dream since I first got into this business," Manning says, "and we got help from our family to do it."
Why did he name his dream restaurant Serenity?
"Jeanette and I were at the dining room table when I looked over at the serenity prayer on the hallway wall and said, ‘What about Serenity Cafe?’ And she said ‘Perfect!’"
The couple have been together four years. In an email, he told me, "We are getting married September 14, 2013, and, yes, we are catering our own wedding, LOL."
SUZANNE ZIMMER LOWERY is a food writer, pastry chef and culinary instructor at a number of New Jersey cooking schools. Find out more about her at suzannelowery.com.