Coupeville Sports

Rick Dorsey

Rick Dorsey traveled across the country to find his niche.

The Florida native, who’s been hard at work in the kitchen at Christopher’s on Whidbey the past two years, is stepping up to take on a new challenge.

Dorsey is replacing Bruce Stevens as chef/owner Andreas Wurzrainer’s executive sous chef.

Stevens, who will continue to work at Christopher’s on a limited basis, needs to devote more time to Emily’s Sweets and Treats, the booming cupcake business he and wife Emily own and operate on Front Street.

The couple is also expecting their first child.

The transition allows the 26-year-old Dorsey, who has an extensive, varied culinary background, to bring his distinctive cooking style and quick wit to the forefront.

It’s not the first challenge for him — Dorsey helped to open several restaurants while working in Florida — but it will allow him new opportunities to fine-tune his already formidable skills.

“Andreas has always given me opportunities to spread my wings, and this is a great chance,” Dorsey said. “Bruce has been a great help in the transition. He’s backed me up 100% and been there for me every day.”

A fan of cooking shows (he favors wild-eyed mad man Gordon Ramsey) and a nice piece of meat (“I can eat a good steak any day of the week … if I’m the one who cooks it”), Dorsey got his start the old-fashioned way — cooking with mom.

Growing up in a military family, he benefited from having a mother who enjoyed making meals, and was quick to show her son a lot of valuable kitchen secrets.

“My mom, Stacy, was my biggest influence,” Dorsey said. “She made these great home-cooked meals, like really incredible fried chicken, that I took for granted at the time, and taught me a lot.

“That’s where I learned, peeling onions and potatoes for her, learning how to make gravy from scratch.”

He pinwheeled from the home kitchen to a culinary arts program at his high school, where his teacher, a grizzled Navy vet, opened up a whole new world to an impressionable chef in the making.

“It was like a great boot camp,” Dorsey said. “I did three years working in the cafe we had there at the school and learned timing and presentation.

“Mr. (Jeff) Rotz was a great teacher. He got me excited about cooking.”

After a stint in higher education (“the college thing was not for me”), Dorsey made the plunge, learning his trade in the best way possible. Work for different chefs and pick up knowledge from all of them.

He put in a year making sushi in Tallahassee under a New York-bred chef (“A really cool experience”), then went on to work in the fine dining world at a steak/seafood place where the chef took top honors in the region two years running.

It was there he got the chance to work on the creation of two new restaurants — an Irish pub and a sports bar — creating menus and melding his own cooking style with others.

Having realized cooking was “more of a career and less of a job,” Dorsey is proud of how far he has come, while keeping an eye firmly set on continuing up the mountain.

He’d like to keep ascending in the business (“that’s the goal of every chef, to dive all the way in and maybe own my own restaurant some day”), while paying homage to all those who have taught him along the way.

“I’m sort of a chameleon,” Dorsey said. “Taking all my influences, everything I’ve been lucky to learn, and mixing it with my own food.”

The move to Whidbey was a way to be closer to his parents, who were already living here, and he’s embraced Island living, whether playing in pick-up basketball games or producing top-quality food.

“I like this town (Coupeville), the atmosphere, the continuity, all the festivals,” Dorsey said. “It’s a tight-knit group and it’s been great to be so accepted. It’s a really nice place.”

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