An Englishman in Atlantic City

FOOD & DRINK

Chef Paul Drew brings outstanding reputation to Phillips at The Pier

By Frank Gabriel

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted May. 7, 2009

Chef Paul Drew (photo by nick valinote)

After nearly four decades spent working in the hospitality and restaurant industry, Executive Chef Paul Drew of Atlantic City's Phillips Seafood has pretty much seen it all.

The native Englishman, born north of London in Hartfordshire but raised in the southern county of Sussex, found his first job on a local chicken farm at the age of 14.

Scion of a prominent British real estate developer and businessman, Drew then began his advancement through the ranks at a hotel kitchen, starting as a dishwasher/pot scrubber. Commencing a formal culinary career at 16, he entered Quality Technical College in Crowley, close to the major British airport of Gatwick.

A two-year apprenticeship program -- that to this day remains the standard throughout Europe -- provided the young chef with a thorough, diverse background and knowledge.

After graduating, Drew accepted his initial posting in garde manger (cold food, butchering and prep) with a hotel chain called Trust Home Fortie. In short order, he moved through the ranks of the kitchen there and on to the prominent Hotel George and then the White Heart Hotel in Ramsey.

Commenting on the evolution of British food, Drew notes, "In those days, we were very much driven by French cuisine."

In a move that perhaps foreshadowed his American career, he then moved to another White Heart Hotel, this one in Brighton Beach. Drew describes the White Heart as a "small hotel, very quaint" and Brighton, an English Channel-bordering seashore community is perhaps the closest equivalent to a Brit version of the Jersey shore.

By this time, in just his mid-20s, Drew's reputation was already substantial enough to reach across the Big Pond and land him on American soil.

Although the first place he worked, Philadelphia's Dickens Inn, did have a decidedly British moniker. Arriving here in 1980, Drew calls the experience "more creative and challenging" than anything he'd previously encountered.

After two years, he moved to Philadelphia's Center City Holiday Inn at 4th and Arch as sous chef. Within a year, he was offered the big chair as executive chef. Making this accomplishment all the more notable, Drew still had yet to see a birthday that began with the number "three."

Offered the opportunity to open the new Hershey Hotel on Broad Street in 1983, Drew accepted a lateral position as their executive sous chef. He fondly recalls carrying a house-made ice sculpture through the streets of town during the parade for that year's NBA champion 76ers.

Then, Drew heard about a job in Atlantic City. Recruited en masse as part of a commando squad of more than a dozen respected culinary professionals, Drew became a member of the Sands Hotel's management team in 1994.

Under casino veteran Steve Hyde's management, the smaller Sands was positioning itself as a boutique hotel prior to the media invention of that term.

Phillips
Address: The Pier Shops at Caesars, A.C. Phone: 348-2273
Hours: Open Sun.-Thurs. 11:30am-10pm, Fri. & Sat. 11:30am-11pm

Part of that meant providing food service well above the established norm for the time. Drew, as assistant executive chef, worked his way through all the shifts in each and every restaurant on the property.

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