October 23-29, 2003

food

Live and Direct

ARE YOU ME?: No -- Max Hansen, of Max & Me Catering, teamed with Harry and Jon Spivak to offer Philly culinary hospitality to touring musicians. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Catering firm Max & Me won't dish and tell on their rock 'n' roll clients. Yet.

by A.D. Amorosi

What do Jane's Addiction, the Bush/Cheney team and guests of the National Constitution Center have in common? OK, that's too scary to ponder. Make it easy -- they have all eaten the meticulous, simple fare of Max & Me Catering under the direction of chef Max Hansen and the brothers Spivak.

The Spivak name stands as part of the Electric Factory legend, dating back to 1968 when the venue was founded by uncle Allen Spivak and Larry Magid. Now that Magid and Spivak are with Clear Channel, they have given the exclusive backstage catering rights to Spivak nephews Jon and Harry -- rights that include catering for the Linc, the Tower, the Wachovia Center and the Tweeter Center in Camden, where M&M has a full kitchen. Meanwhile, Hansen offers what Thomas Keller (of French Laundry fame) has called arguably the finest smoked salmon in America, and stands for stylized menus that are easy to prepare and heavenly to behold. As if to prove it, Hansen's most recently managed to combine these skills into a new cookbook, Smoked Salmon: Delicious Innovative Recipes (Chronicle), co-written by Suzanne Goldenson.

Before they became chefs and caterers to stars, Spivaks Jon and Harry, and Max, son of a pediatric doctor, went to liberal private schools in Bucks County. Not fancy prep schools, laughs Hansen, 43, who started his kitchen career at Mother's in New Hope. There, Hansen did everything from washing dishes to making hearty breakfasts. Cooking became a calling during his youthful days on Martha's Vineyard. Since I knew a little bit from Mother's, I wound up at the Ocean Club. The Vineyard's Ocean Club was known as much for the elegant simplicity of its fresh seafood as it was for its seascapes. That, Hansen says, was my first quantum leap.

In the Vineyard, he learned to make the most of 50-pound striped bass and tuna loins from the local waters. Here, salmon's utility as an ingredient -- and smoked salmon in particular -- became a revelation. Hansen's next leap was to the New England Culinary Institute, where he was classically trained; this was followed by gigs at Rakel and Memphis in Manhattan, the U.S. Embassy in Russia, stints in Paris. By the '90s, Hansen left Manhattan to open a gourmet-to-go shop in New Hope, named Max & Me.

Wasn't catering a comedown? When I first did it, I would mutter under my breath, "I'm catering," he laughs. Then I realized, no matter what, I had spent 12 years working for someone else. Now I was my own boss with my own business. By 1994, old pals Harry and Jon Spivak had set up Balla Rouge. (Their family was already busy in the restaurant business, with Spivak elders Jerry and Herbie owning the H.A. Winston chain and cousin Hope owning Hope's Cookies.) But Harry and Jon wanted to take their cooking in a different direction; teaming again with Hansen, they decided upon bringing good food to their birthright, the backstage area.

Our first gig was Tony Bennett at the Academy of Music, in 1995, Hansen remembers. He thought our food was great. Nice recommendation.

By 1998, Max & Me had become an exclusive backstage concern for the EFC/Clear Channel family; they also found time to open the company's own smokehouse for salmon, and moved into corporate catering. Want wild stories about feeding the Rendell inauguration crowd, Philly's Republican National Convention and its post-primary whistle stops? Want to know about the debauchery of Tweeter bands at Ozzfest and other festivals? How about touring with 'N Sync on their bus throughout winter 2002? Want to get an idea of what Richard Dreyfuss and Jon Stewart are like when you don't feed them foie gras fast enough at the National Constitution Center, where Max & Me have an exclusive contract? Nothing doing, punk. Jon Spivak, the booker, is saving that for a book. Hansen does say, though, that they do the best for the rock 'n' rollers. Those guys have way less money to spend than the government or corporate types. There's never an elaborate cocktail hour or hors d'oeuvres amongst rockers.

Catering -- for two or 2,000 -- is all about detail. Little batches. Quality products. Simplicity. I don't want to have 10 weird ingredients with which to shock people. I want our food to be recognizable. And fresh. And, I've never been egomaniacal, so cooking is always a learning process, Hansen explains. Where learning's concerned, there's the gorgeously appointed Smoked Salmon, a colorful and beautifully photographed book based on the innovations and presentations of his smoked salmon, which is recognized by its sweet, less fishy and smoky taste and texture, and has become de rigueur among fish heads. Hansen's goal of smoky sweetness is balance. The sugar makes the taste of the salt rounder. I don't want a jarring flavor. I want it to be smooth, sexy and silky. Our procedure makes salmon buttery. That's my trademark.

With all 129 recipes -- ranging from the simplest for the laymen to daring ones for pros -- Hansen says the essential to great salmon is ?

Always fresh. Never frozen. Freezing destroys texture. From the breakfast cook-nookishness of his salmon and challah bread pudding, and sandwiches with blue cheese and figs, to a sumptuous salmon croque-monsieur, Hansen wants his recipes and his foods to be approachable. I don't cook the hell out of salmon. I want to experience subtlety. Sometimes you're perfuming the other ingredients with the salmon. You should never abuse [the fish] with too much heat. I don't want my foods -- eating it or making it -- to be rocket science.

Max & Me Catering, 4723 Durham Rd., Doylestown, 215-766-3439.