WAUPACA COUNTY POST

April 10, 2003

 

PRIME TIME

By Angie Landsverk, Post Staff Writer

 

Caterer Says Cooking is in His Blood

 

            Dave Simonton started cooking when he was only 5 years old.

            His grandmother and mother taught him how.

            “We baked apple pies,” he said.  “I remember that very much.”

            It was the beginning of his love of cooking.

            Simonton, who owns 9 Pines Catering, started working in restaurants when he was 15.

            “I worked for King’s Table and The Oakwood, the Waupaca Country Club.  I was a dishwasher and bus person,” he said.

            After high school, he headed to Fox Valley Technical College and enrolled in the auto body program.

            “It wasn’t for me, but I got a nice set of tools out of it,” he said as he laughed.

            Next, he went to the University of Wisconsin-Stout where he studied hotel-restaurant management.

            He didn’t really like the management end and said the university only offered one or two cooking classes.

            When Simonton came home to bartend, he always was eager to help with the cooking during breaks.

            “After two years, I thought I’d rather be cooking. That’s when I went into culinary school,” he said.

            He studied culinary arts at Joliet Junior College, then worked in Chicago for about seven years.

            The first place he worked at in Chicago was a two-star restaurant called the Public Landing.  That was followed by working at Tallgrass, D’Masti Events & Catering, Kitty O’Shea’s and becoming the executive chef at the Oakbrooke Hilton Suites.

            “After working there 20 hours per day, I decided to come home, back to Waupaca, and to have a life,” he said.

            That was about 10 years ago.

            He became the head chef at Trim B’s Restaurant in Appleton and worked there for four years.  “That was the longest I had any job,” he said.

            It was while he was working there that Simonton started his catering business as a side job.

            “I didn’t like taking directions from anybody. I had my own way I wanted to do things,” he said.  “It was really hard to quit a job with a steady paycheck and get into something that no one in Waupaca did and go on your own, but we did very well.”

            Simonton’s original idea was to sell hot dogs, brats and subs from a boat on the Chain o’ Lakes.  But after talking to the state’s Health Department and learning that he would need to prepare the food in a kitchen, he decided that if he had to put in a huge kitchen to do so, it would be more worthwhile to do something that would involve more than four months during the summer.

            “So, I started doing the catering and never got back to the boat.  Someday,” he said.

            He still has the 20-foot pontoon boat, although with a business that continues to grow, the space once set aside for the boat has long been taken over by kitchen equipment.

            “When it comes to food, I’m picky,” Simonton said.  “I like different things.  Wedding people will call me and say, ‘How much for a wedding for 200?”  They always think about the traditional foods.  We started doing different things.  I think that is probably the reason we grew so fast.  We do so many different foods.”

            Simonton has been operating his catering business for about nine years.

            The kitchen is in a building where he and his wife, Joy, live, several mils outside of Waupaca.

            She also owns a business - Joy Marie Interiors.

            “That is back when I did it all by myself.  I did a lot of small jobs.  When I decided to do it, I started buying equipment and stored it all.  I bought it all, some of it used.  I went to auctions and different restaurant supply houses.  Once I had enough equipment, I put the kitchen together,” he said.

            And, of course, he had already purchased the boat.

            “I will maybe put it together this year for just a boat for us,” he said.

            While someone was doing a soil test so he could build the kitchen, Simonton was told, “Look at those ugly jack pines.”

            Simonton thought to himself that he kind of like the pines that stood in the background.

            “I was sitting outside one day and counted them. Nine pines,” he said.

            Today, Simonton has many major accounts, including all of the catering at the Baymont Inn and Suites and most of the catering for the boats at Clear Water Harbor.

            9 Pines Catering also does a lot of catering for the hospital.

            “We do corporate catering and social catering.  I started by myself.  Now, I have six full-time employees and about 10 part-time employees who are on call. The banquet servers are on call.  In the summer, I have 30.  We have had days when we have served over 1,200 people in one day in seven different places.  We have job sheets that we make up for each job. Lots of planning is involved,” he said.

            Simonton said he cannot even explain how he plans for and prepares food for that many people.

            And he does special things, such as using china instead of plastic.  He has enough place settings to serve about 500. 

            “A Saturday in the middle of summer, I start around 4 or 5 in the morning.  I don’t sleep in the summer.  I get by on four hours per day.  I do it for weeks on end, and then, I take time off,” he said.

            He describes the hours that he works as being odd and as being dependent on what he has to do on a particular day.

            “You live for your days off when you can get them.  In the summer, I would go 2-1/2 months without a day off and then take three days at a time. I don’t take my cell phone with me. That’s my time.  I need that.  I don’t get it very often,” he said.

            From mid-April through October, the catering business is pretty much nonstop for him.

            And he expects this year to be even more interesting with the expansion project at the Baymont.

            Because he leases the kitchen there, on days when they are serving more than 1,200 people, he ends up using both kitchens.

            “I bought two ovens this year,” Simonton said, “so I won’t have to use that other kitchen as much.”

            He now has six ovens and made a significant investment on equipment this past year so that he can be more independent and do bigger jobs.

            9 Pines Catering does a lot of graduation parties, serving everything from sandwiches to full dinners.  He is presently working on an a la carte menu whereby meats would be sold by the pound, as well as such things as potato and pasta salads.

            He explained that people have often asked if they can just get certain things form him, and this will be the answer to that request.

            And Simonton has even more goals, including building a deli with a catering kitchen.

            “I’m hoping to have that built by the end of the year.  Then I would move everything there,” he said.

            When it comes to cooking, his favorites are Italian and Cajun.  “I’ve been to New Orleans a couple times, and Italian has been my favorite forever.  I worked with a couple Italian guys in Chicago.  They were fabulous,” he said.

            Simonton loves what he is doing but does not think he can continue with the fast pace forever.

            He describes 9 Pines Catering as leaning more toward the healthier side, with many grilled and baked items.  And he’s always coming up with new ideas.

            Several years ago, he decided to come up with a weekly boxed lunch menu for businesses.

            He runs it Labor Day through Memorial Day, and people need only call in by 11 a.m.  Deliveries start soon after and run up until 1 p.m.

            Simonton originally gave out 250 boxed lunches for free with menus.  And that part of his business grew from there.

            He says there is nothing better than serving a meal for 200 and hearing people comment about how much they enjoyed the food.  That makes his day.

            “It’s definitely in my blood,” he said.  “Once you do it, it’s in your blood, and you will come back to it sometime in your life.  Restaurant life - it’s not the money.  It’s the people.”