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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2000)
Former Grateful Dead chef Ray Sewell uses his 20 years of cooking experience on the road to open a successful downtown Eugene resturaunt. By Rory Carroll Oregon Daily Emerald A step into Chez Ray’s restau rant in downtown Eugene is a step into the past. From the walls adorned with pictures of o wner and operator Ray Sewell arm-in-arm with the likes of Tim othy Leary and Carlos Santana, to television monitors that continu ously play kaleidoscopic psyche delic ipiages^ it is clear that this is a restaurant which has been influ enced by the ideas and ideals of the late 1960s. But what is most outstanding about Chez Ray’s is how it has be come the contemporary focal point of downtown Eugene. “Chez Ray’s has brou^it new life to downtown,” restaurant regular Stephanie Perceful said.. “And it is so brilliantly decorated.” Since moving into a larger space in December — complete with a bar and music stage — Chez Ray’s has broadened its appeal far be yond just the Saturday Market au dience. Any night of the week, the restaurant is packed with an array of hungry customers. “Conservative people in busi ness suits come here and get loose,” said Shine Sewell, Ray’s daughter and a restaurant hostess. “Dreads eat next to a judge or a fire marshal or a police man. This is a place where people can let go.” Patrons range from University exchange students seeking a slice of American life, to drop ins by Ken Kesey and touring musi cians. “Few people come here who don’t come back,” Shine Sewell said. Ray Sewell sees the broadening of his clientele as a positive — and somewhat surprising — change. “There is no one type who comes to eat here, this is a very neutral room,” he said. “I attrib ute that to the fact that we’ve be come mainstream. When I reflect upon the whole journey and the entire struggle to remain an inde pendent thinker, there was rarely a thought given to, ‘What if it works?’ And it has.” Sewell's journey began when his mother moved from Cleve land to a San Francisco apartment above City Lights Books between the Tenderloin and North Beach districts in the early 1930s. That’s where he got his exposure to counter-culture life, with the likes of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and William S. Burroughs frequenting the bookstore. “My mother was a great lover of books and stories. The path I chose was not to listen to too Catharine Kendall Emerald Chef Ray Sewell cooks up a tasty green salad for a customer. many stories but to make up my own,” Sewell said. Sewell never excelled academ ically in high school and was later diagnosed with dyslexia. His high school placed him into a food service program, which ignited his interest in cooking. Although he said he was bitter that at the time he wasn’t properly diag nosed as being dyslexic, Sewell now views his early exposure to food preparation as a blessing. Sewell went on to a three-year apprenticeship in San Francisco, learning classic French cooking from strict Swiss chefs. Sewell tempered 18-hour days in the kitchen with late nights taking in times at the Fillmore West Audi torium. “The music was an escape from the intense apprenticeship,” Sewell said. At this time, the cultural revo lution was coinciding with the culinary revolution. The culinary revolution — sometimes called “California cuisine” — involved not taking any ingredient as an absolute. Rather, it encouraged chefs to look locally for similar, if not better, ingredients. In 1972, Sewell decided to leave the Bay area for Eugene. “I saw the Saturday Market once when I was visiting and thought, I can do this,” Sewell said. The Oregon Country Fair was his fir st introduction into the community. Having a certified French chef cooking in the mid dle of the forest helped lend cred ibility to the County Fair, accord ing to Sewell. In the mid 1970s, Sewell start ed working for Bill Graham Pre sents. He began cooking for the Grateful Dead on tour and didn’t stop until 1994. He is the first and longest-running chef the Grateful Dead ever had. His success with them lead to offers from such leg endary acts as George Clinton, James Brown, Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan, just to name a few. Today, Chez Ray’s menu is an adventurous assortment of dishes Sewell learned while cooking on tours. From his “world-famous” salmon burger to his original cus tard french toast, Sewell's menu delivers the same flair that the man does. Sewell calls his style of food preparation “jazz cooking,” due to the arty and improvised angle he takes towards the prepa rations of his dishes. Sewell calls the mixture of art, music and dining “culinary the ater.” “Back when people ate around the fire pit, there was heat and light and food. While you wait, there is time so there is story telling and joking. After dinner there is the traditional dance and jam session,” Sewell said. “That has continued to manifest and I think that is the genesis of cele bration.” Sewell said that his goal has al ways been to provide an arena where he can offer entertainment and food in an environment that is comfortable. At Chez Ray’s, Sewell brings together the com ponents of the feast. While the future remains un written, Sewell is anything but short on ideas, including music every night of the week, a short film festival, vaudeville nights and poetry readings to live jazz. As for himself, Sewell is looking into making a cooking television show, finishing up a book he is writing with longtime friend Tripp Sommer about cooking on the road, and celebrating his 23rd wedding anniversary with his wife, Dawn. “One of the pluses of owning a business is that you can explore your own passion and surround yourself with it,” Sewell said. Chez Ray’s is open seven days a week and is located at 44 W. 10th Ave. SOMEONE you know down in the DUMPS? Send them some LOVING through a personal ad in the Emerald! Emerald Classifieds 346-4343 any one ita® this coupon 0ITmT good through *»/15/oo -gi 1 ^atC s\> 4:00 - 11:00 pm Wheeler Pavilion - Lane County Fairgrounds AdmiSSIOIl $5 includes Mug Over 21 only. Featuring a special“Collaboration” Brew 60 Microbrew Beers - many new smaller breweries Live Entertainment: Mare Wakefield, U-Gene Band, Don Lartarski Duo, Chip Cohen, and Cinqasept **Free Home Brewers seminar 1:00 pm Saturday, April 1 at the Wild Duck Brewery \j. | 344-2247for more information Creating solutions, changing Hues. A benefit for Easter Seals
